“Or not. What was that?”
“The car stops at floor one hundred and shifts to the right slightly.”
“I don’t think I want to know why.”
“It’s part of the sway built into the top of the tower.” The elevator
stops. “And just that quick, we’re here.” The doors slide open and I’m more
than a little glad to get the heck off the car after that jump, planned or not.
We exit into a hallway and Liam indicates another elevator. “The last
two floors require another ride up, but I want to show you something first.”
“Aren’t we going to be late to dinner?”
“I told you 7:00 and them 7:30.”
We travel a narrow hallway with glass windows from floor to ceiling
and I feel a bit dizzy and unsteady. Liam opens a huge wooden door and
motions me inside. I step into an oval-shaped room that is nothing but
windows and random pairs of leather chairs split by small tables.
Liam takes my hand and I always have this sense he is worried I am
about to run away.
But I’m not running from him. It’s time he knows I’m running to him.
He leads me to the far side of the room and it is like I am standing on a
cloud staring down at buildings twinkling like stars.
“It’s beautiful.”
“So are you,” he murmurs, his body framing mine from behind.
“You know,” I say, turning in his arms, “Mike might have some merit
with the whole
‘tallest building’ idea. He knows you won’t make it just another tall
building.”
“He knows he wants the tallest building. Period. The end.”
He turns me and sets me down in a chair, going down on a knee in
front of me and sliding my skirt up my thighs. I look over my shoulder. “No
one is going to catch us,” he assures me. “I locked the door.”
He cups my sex and suddenly jerks on my panties, ripping them
away. I gasp. “Liam!”
He laughs and shoves them in his pant pocket. “Now I have
something to think about while ol’ Mike runs his mouth.” His hands stroke
back up my thighs. “It’s been too long since I’ve been inside you.”
My cheeks heat at his boldness, but I agree. “Yes.”
“Did you take a pregnancy test?”
I’m taken aback by the unexpected question. “I told them I might be
at the hospital.”
His lips curve. “I did, too.”
“You did?”
“Yes. Did they test you?”
“Yes. But they said it was too soon to be accurate.”
“When can you tell?”
“I think another week.”
“Call the doctor and ask.”
I nod. “I will.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Yes. Tomorrow.”
“I’m going to give us both something else to think about over
dinner.” He slips two
fingers into the V of my body.
“Yes. Here.” And before I can object again, his head is between my
thighs and his tongue laps at my clit. I mean to object. Really I do, but his
fingers slide inside me and he is licking me in that way he does that drives
me insane.
I grab the arms of the chair and Liam pushes the skirt of my dress
higher, lifting one of my legs to his shoulder. For a moment, I drink in the
image of me sitting in the chair with this gorgeous man between my legs
and me spread wide for him, and it is erotic and exciting, like everything
with Liam. Pleasure spikes, already building in some deep spot in my sex
and I swear I just keep on being the easiest orgasms this man has ever
given anyone. He touches me and I shudder. He licks and I moan. And that
is just what happens. He licks me again, I moan, and then my sex clenches
around his fingers. I shatter like glass thrown to the ground, instantly, and
in tiny little pieces, pleasure splintering through every nerve ending in my
body, until I am limp in the chair.
I blink the image of my leg over his shoulder into view and blush
furiously. I try to pull it down and he leans in and licks me one last time. I
shudder with the impact and he chuckles, then settles my leg on the
ground. I quickly try to shimmy my skirt down my legs, and can’t get it.
Liam pushes to his feet and pulls me with him, caressing my dress
back into place.
“I can’t believe we just did that here.”
He leans in and kisses me, pressing his tongue into my mouth, before
he whispers, “And now we can both have a taste of what the rest of the
night will hold. Mike be damned.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The restaurant is a circle that rotates and has a bar in the center with
spectacular views of the city. Liam and I join our group of what will be six,
including us, and Mike, Mr. A-Hole himself, greets me with a handshake.
Mike is as Liam has described: rather short for a man, no taller than my five
feet, four inches, forty-something, and otherwise quite decent looking. I say
a quick hello to the others attending the dinner and we all are seated. Mike
to my left. Liam to my right. Derek on the opposite side of Mike, and two
other investors on the far side of the table.
The first order of business is wine, which I refuse for fear I might be
pregnant. “Diet whatever you have,” I say, and Liam squeezes my leg,
pulling my gaze to his, and there is awareness and approval there. And
heat. Lots of heat. I think the idea of me being pregnant actually turns him
on. But I think all men get a macho rise out of the idea of creating a baby on
some level. That doesn’t mean they’re happy when the round belly and
dirty diapers come around.
“So tell me about yourself, Amy,” Mike encourages.
“I’m a boring secretary,” I reply, automatically slipping into deflection
mode. That’s who I am, deflection girl, and I am so ready to change that.
“I’d much rather hear about you,” I continue. “Were you an investor in this
spectacular building Liam designed?”
Derek laughs, drawing my gaze. “Glad you’re along for dinner, Amy.”
He nods to Liam.
“Good call.”
Liam squeezes my leg. “I couldn’t agree more.”
concedes, “but she makes my point. This building is spectacular. Let’s do it
again a little bigger.”
“But you’re creating a place that is more than a workspace this time,”
I argue. “You’re creating a small city, from what I understand.”
“This building is more than a workspace.”
“A pyramid—”
“Is Las Vegas fodder for tourists,” Mike finishes for me.
“Tell that to the Egyptians who spent years creating just one of the
structures. Tell that to the many scientists and experts who spend year
after year trying to figure out how it was even possible for an ancient
society to build the structures. And do you really think Liam would build
something that would be Vegas-like unless he was creating it for Vegas?”
Mike gives me a hard look, glances at Liam, and then back at me.
“Okay Amy,” he conceeds witha smile, “you have a point. Considering the
masterpiece of a building we are sitting inside at present, I cannot say I
think Liam would do anything that wasn’t spectacular.”
I grin my approval and watress appears. Once she takes our orders,
the conversation shifts to the stock market for what seems like forever.
Even if I understood any of it, Liam’s hand stroking my leg isn’t allowing my
brain to work, and no matter how many times I clamp down on his fingers,
he sets them in motion again, each time tugging my dress a little higher up
my thigh.
Dessert time finds Derek and Liam in deep conversation with the
opposite side of the table, and Mike and I restart our conversation about
buildings. Mike points out the many amazing buildings around the world
that are record-breaking heights, or were, when first built. I quickly remind
him that he is forgetting the many amazing structures that get attention for
uniqueness, rather than height.
When Mike is without any true knowledge of the miracle of
pyramids, I glance at Liam and Derek, confirming they are still distracted,
before I dare to dare to be a tad more liberal about my knowledge of the
subject. .
“I wonder,” I say, after we’ve talked a good hour in which Mike
appears genuinely enthralled by the mysteries and the creation of the
pyramids, “if you could incorporate a museum into the project your
building and get non-profit funding to offset the expense.”
I lean back in my seat and suddenly realize that Derek and Liam are
gone and I didn’t even know they left. “If you’re just a secretary,” Mike
announces, “you’re a wasted commodity.”
“I, ah, thank you.” I stare at the empty seats, feeling a frisson of
unease. “Excuse me if you will, Mike. I’m going to run to the ladies’ room.” I
push to my feet and waste no time rushing away, scanning for Liam and
Derek, and decide I’ll take a trip to the bathroom and use the privacy to call
Liam.
I’m about to head into the bathroom when I hear Liam’s voice
coming from a balcony just opposite where I’m standing. I move in that
direction and stop dead when I hear, “Did you get the data off her
computer?”
“All of it,” Derek says. “Including the camera.”
“So the camera feed is live?”
“Hot as a day in Texas. Are you sure you have her under control?”
“I can handle Amy. You just get me what I need.”
The word “Texas” rolls around in my head several times and hits me
like a hard punch in the gut. I bolt, my heart is in my throat, adrenaline
surging through me to the point where I’m shaking. I arrive at the elevator
and punch the button a good ten times until it opens, and I all but lunge
inside the car. I hold my breath, waiting for the doors to close, certain I will
be discovered.
When finally the car is moving, I inhale deeply, willing my pulse to
slow so I can think. This doesn’t mean Liam is the bad guy. It doesn’t.
Maybe he dug into my past. Maybe he’s trying to help me. But why would
he film me? Why? Why? Why? I was falling in love with him. I am in love
with him. The idea that he and I were nothing but a facade cuts me deeply.
I want to believe in him and us, but I do not dare risk trusting him. I have to
survive first, and I need a plan.
Think, Amy. Think. You have to get out of here. Leave the state. Leave
tonight. The elevator opens on the bottom floor and I know there are
cameras everywhere, easily tracking my departure. I run through the empty
lobby and ignore the security guard behind the desk, exiting the building
and immediately cutting to my right. I pause momentarily to remove my
shoes before running several blocks until I spot a cab and hail it.
I climb inside. “Where to, lady?”
Where to? Where to? My cell phone rings and I am smart enough to
know that not only can the GPS chip be used to follow me, Liam has the
money to make it happen. With my heart in my throat, I roll down the
window and toss the phone outside, my thoughts bouncing all over the
place with my emotions. I need a fake ID I can’t get until tomorrow. And I
need to be close to Evernight so I can try to reach my handler one last time.
I lean forward to talk to the driver. “There’s a hotel called Cherry
Creek Inn, in Cherry Creek North. Take me there.” I hesitate, then add, “But
stop by a twenty-four-hour Walmart first.” I need supplies and a cash
machine.
Forty-five minutes later, I step into the hotel room I’ve paid for in
cash with Liam’s words playing in my head. Run to me, Amy, not from me.
Angrily, I swipe at the tears that slip down my cheeks. I’m not going to cry
over him. I’m not. I’m not going to cry at all.
I dump the contents of my shopping bag on the bed. A cheap pair of
tennis shoes, a couple of tank tops and pairs of shorts, a few toiletries. I
remove the wad of cash from my purse that I pulled from Liam’s credit card
and toss it down as well. Tomorrow I’ll clean out my New York accounts,
get a fake ID to travel with so that Amy Bensen will never be traceable as
leaving town, and then I’m gone.
“I’m not running at all, Liam,” I whisper. I’m going back to Texas.
The End....
Look for the exciting conclusion of The Secret Life of Amy Bensen in
Infinite Possibilities coming very soon!