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Easy or not, Liam grinned giddily as he returned home. Only once he made it inside did he remember that he needed to respond to someone else, someone whom he’d kept waiting for the past ten minutes. Hastily swapping over to Anna’s texts, he added her to his contact list before finally replying.
Yeah, I think I can come. Is there a good time to meet you at the rink?
A few minutes later, while still experiencing the buoyant high set upon him due to obtaining Tess’s number, her reply lifted him from his couch.
Actually, I figured we might go together. If you would like, you can come to my apartment, and we can head there after that.
Sure, that’s okay with me,he replied, slightly surprised at the invitation.Where am I headed?
After obtaining the address and grabbing his keys, wallet, and a coat, Liam sent his first text to Tess as he walked to his car. It was completely unnecessary, and all it did was let her know that he was heading out to see Anna. Yet, once he settled into his car and buckled his seatbelt, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Scrambling to pull it out, he soon gazed upon two words—the first pair in a novel’s worth he hoped they would share.
Good luck!
Chapter Nine
Knight Takes Pawn
Turning off Ashgrove Road onto its smaller, unnamed sibling, Liam followed the latter’s gentle arc as it guided him toward a three-way intersection his phone informed him he should turn left at. On his right, he spotted the first huddle of expensive-looking apartments, which gathered around a plaza at their center. On his left, interrupting the field that separated Ashgrove Apartments from the next distant residential neighborhood, he noticed a small turnoff that led to a set of tennis courts, an unsurprisingly drained pool, and a clubhouse.
He hadn’t heard of this particular apartment complex before but could see the appeal. While it wasn’t quite as opulent or luxurious from the outside as he might have expected for someone like Annabelle Royce, perhaps that was intentional. It wasn’t far from the nearest major connecting road, but its tenants did get to avoid the noise of being in the city. Maybe the peace and quiet were worth the slight downgrade in extravagance.
Or maybe she just doesn’t care about that stuff, to begin with,Liam reminded himself.
At the intersection, he turned left, passing by a large fitness center, and started looking for 1135 Cypress, which he soon also found on his left. A few spots sat open in front of the six large apartments that comprised this grouping. Curiously, he didn’t spot Anna’s SUV among them, but he didn’t make too much of it. Claiming one of the available parking spots, he snapped a picture of the apartments in front of them and sent it to her for verification that he’d come to the right place.
Yes, you’re in the right spot. Come on in.
A slight frown slid onto Liam’s face as he read the newest text. Something about this felt… off. The original invitation had surprised him, but it hadn’t raised any proper alarm bells in his mind. Still, ever since she’d suggested he meet her here first, something had niggled at the back of his mind, hanging just out of reach.
Or maybe he was just being paranoid. Anna had contacted Tess to obtain his number—that much was already verified. So, this had to be her, at the very least. Ultimately, failing to experience an epiphany that might resolve his unease, he had no choice but to forge ahead. It wasn’t as if he could back out of the parking lot now that he was here and head home all because of a strange feeling.
Okay. I’ll be right there.
At the entryway to her apartment, he hit the unit’s buzzer. A few seconds later, idly staring at the security camera Anna could observe him through, he heard soft footsteps approaching behind the door. After that, he heard a lock shift and watched the door open.
A polite, poised, and staggeringly gorgeous woman with mint-green eyes, sleek hair as dark as the night sky, and lips as full as any he’d laid eyes on didnotopen the door.
In her stead, an equally striking beauty, one who radiated an entirely different energy, grinned at his flummoxed response.
“Hey, there,” the mystery woman said. “I’m Avril, Anna’s roommate.”
Oh, right,he thought. “Hi, it’s nice to meet you.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” she said, looking him up and down as she leaned against her doorframe. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
If she’d next informed him that she was a swimsuit model—of the skimpiest variety imaginable—he would have believed her without a moment’s hesitation. Juxtaposing Anna’s regal beauty, Avril manifested enough sheer, unbridled sexiness to dry out his mouth with just the playful heat emanating from her emerald eyes. She was a complete heartthrob. And he could tell she damn well knew it.
She was tall, voluptuous, and stunningly gorgeous, with fine auburn hair that framed her heart-shaped face and whose long ends tickled her collarbone—the rest of it, she kept in a ponytail. A smattering of mostly faded freckles survived over the bridge of her nose, which served as guides as his attention transfixed itself upon the playful amusement in her eyes. A maverick curl framed her lips, and he realized he must have been gawking.
“I, erm, hope only good things,” he stammered, similarly flustered by her as he’d ended up in his meeting with Victoria. Though, she was anything but like Victoria.
“So far,” Avril said, voice an amused hum. “Want to come in? The cold’s slipping by while I leave the door open.”
“Oh, y-yeah. Sorry.”
His gaze dropped. That was a mistake.
Avril was dressed in a tank top and hugging jeans, which explained her aversion to the cold seeping in around him. Creamy, unblemished skin stood on display in spades, and Liam yanked his eyes away. On his way back to her eyes, he noticed that the sole duty of keeping Avril’s full breasts from completely spilling out of the strained fabric relied solely on the flimsy prowess of spaghetti straps. It didn’t look like it should be enough.
