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Chapter Eight
Liam
“She hates me,” I said. As shocking as it sounded, it was time I faced the facts. Our competitive games of the past had caught up with me. The damage was clearly done.
My friend looked over his beer at me with little sympathy. “She doesn’t hate you,” Kit said. “Didn’t you say Silver dated like a guy? More likely, she’s in love with you. And she’s angry at herself for that.”
Kit’s logic was convoluted as usual. “No, I'm pretty sure all her anger is directed at me,” I said glumly. “But she is fighting the attraction. Like a damn bull, she is so stubborn, digging her heels in even when she can see the inevitable writing on the wall. She is the most impossible woman I’ve ever known in my life,” I muttered.
I took a sip of my beer, wishing I had something harder to drown my frustration. Ever since I’d danced with Silver, I’d had an ache in my soul and a woody in my pants that would not go away. She was killing me slowly with her impossible stubbornness.
“That is exactly why you are so enamored by her. She stands up to you, rather than falling at your feet. Men love the chase,” Kit said. “But you weren’t supposed to fall for her. Love is not a splendid thing, despite what the pop songs say. It will bring you down and make a mouse out of a man. Don’t do it, man.”
Kit was a good friend. He loved women, but he’d never lovedawoman. He was one of these guys who had never been in love. Listening to him try to give advice about my love life, or lack thereof, was like listening to a monk teach Sex Ed. It was unnatural and shouldn’t happen in any place on the entire planet.
“Why do I bother to talk to you about Silver? You know nothing about love. But let me tell you something, buddy. One of these days, you are going to fall. And you will fall harder than any guy in the last twenty centuries. And I want to be there when it happens, just to say I told you so.”
Kit rested his hand on my shoulder. “You’re a good friend, Liam. But I hate to break it to you. It’s never going to happen. I am going to stay footloose and free until I have two feet in the grave. Women want to get married. I don’t. Women want babies. I like to sleep and dislike poopy diapers. So, I keep it light and breezy. You feeling me?”
I looked over at my friend. He was over six feet tall, with dark hair and vivid blue eyes that drove women wild. He was also the perpetual play boy. Love them and leave them wanting more was his motto. He knew just when to stop seeing a girl before dating her turned into a relationship. He wasn’t cruel or a dick. He adored women. All of them. He went through more women than Casa Nova on a good day. It was a wonder there was anyone left in Nevada he hadn’t dated yet.
Yep, he was going to fall hard. And I couldn’t wait to see it.
I cracked a sympathetic smile at my friend, knowing what heartache lay in his future. “I’m feeling it all right,” I said. I pushed away from the bar and laid down some dollar bills. “We have another wedding tomorrow, so I’ve got to turn in early.”
“Later,” Kit said. “Go slay some dragons for her. Women love that.”
I shook my head as I walked away. The truth is, if I could have found a dragon, I would have slayed it a thousand times over to get Silver back. Just to see her look at me with something other than angry disdain. Maybe there would be a dragon at the next wedding. With these socialite weddings, you never knew what would show up at the reception.
~
Silver
Tonight was our last wedding crash, our last-ditch effort to set up a meeting to pitch for Magnum Hotels. My mind should have been all on business, but my body had other ideas. Traitorous thing she was, my body. She was still reeling from that dance with Liam a few weeks ago. And every time I was within even the vicinity of his faded aftershave, she began to misbehave in the worst of ways. Bad girl, I scolded her. But the heat in her veins just laughed.
For tonight, I’d chosen a fire engine red dress and matching red heels to match my fiery mood. Why not just go with the flow? Besides, red was Liam’s favorite color on me, and I was feeling a bit devilish. I wanted to pay him back for those erotic dreams I’d starting having since I began working with him, for all those cold showers I’d had to take, and most of all for the sheer frustration I was feeling every night I went to bed in solitude.
Let’s just hope it didn’t backfire. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could cling to my celibacy contract with myself. I wanted to burn it and throw caution to the wind. But I knew better. And I didn’t want to live with the regret that would inevitably follow. Liam had already shown me he couldn’t be trusted. If he wasn’t loyal to me back then, when he stole my hard won (almost) account from me, why would I believe he would be loyal to me in a relationship?
Ugh. Just hearing that word roll off my tongue was jolting. The knock on my door saved me from further contemplating such foolish thoughts. “Resist, resist,” I whispered under my breath. “Remember who the enemy is.”
I grabbed my purse and opened the door to find Liam leaning against the door frame with a mischievous expression on his face. He looked me over slowly, taking in every inch of me, from my perfectly blown out locks to my shiny patten-leather red heels. Suddenly, my dress was too tight, too revealing, too sexy... just too much.
“That dress should be illegal,” he said with a disarming grin.
Uh oh. Shields up.
“And those heels are criminal.” he said, gawking at my legs as strode toward him.
I brushed past Liam with a haughty chin up. “Let’s not be late,” I said, as if anyone was waiting to see us wedding crashers.
“You’re killing me, Silver,” Liam said. I could feel his steps behind me like an obedient puppy. Except he wasn’t obedient at all. He was more like a devious, seductive devil.
“Good, then I’ll get a hundred percent of the Magnum profits,” I said lightly.
“Did anyone ever tell you that you were a cold, calculating woman?” Liam asked.
I could sense the joke in his tone, but it still hit a nerve. “Why is it when a man is all about business, he is savvy and smart? But when a woman is, she is cold and calculating? That’s incredibly sexist.”
