thought, he wanted everything from her and he didn’t care if that had never happened to him before. It was happening now and it felt right. Liam had never ignored his gut instincts except that night he’d completely failed her. He hadn’t meant to hurt her back then but would she believe him and, more importantly, would she forgive him?
I thought you were going to apologise, his conscience reminded him. Show her you’re not a grade A asshole anymore. Show her that you’ve changed.
Yes, good point. Apologise first. ‘We need to talk.’ His voice sounded like it had been coated in gravel and now that he’d given free rein to his feelings he was so hard he wondered if he wouldn’t break the zipper on his jeans. He took her half-drunk glass and dumped it on the bar. ‘Come with me.’
Fortunately she didn’t argue as he grabbed her hand and all but dragged her towards the only room in the suite he could be guaranteed privacy.
Pushing open the door to his bedroom he nearly changed his mind when he saw the romantic setting that confronted him. Softly lit lamps beside the turned down bed. Champagne in a silver ice bucket with two flutes and a large bowl of chocolates beside it. And were those… his eyes narrowed. Shit, Noelle had left condoms on the bedside table. Liam grimaced. His PA wasn’t known for her subtlety and by the tension radiating off the woman beside him she didn’t appreciate it either.
‘Nice touch,’ she said in a voice that could have restored some of the ice caps in the Arctic Circle.
‘This isn’t what it looks like,’ he said, wincing at the lameness of that statement. This was exactly what it looked like and more.
***
Chloe wondered if this romantic scene was really set up with her in mind or whether, from Liam’s earlier comment about wondering if she was going to turn up, he had in fact picked up someone else at the party and intended to bring them in here. The thought was an immediate dampener to her overheated system. ‘Really? What does it look like?’ she asked archly.
He ran a hand through his hair and left it gorgeously rumpled. Chloe walked over to the chocolates and… condoms? ‘Nothing like being prepared,’ she said more determined than ever to go ahead with her original plan.
‘I told my PA that I might bring someone back after the party and she… well, she’s a frustrated event manager and she tends to run with an idea until she gets to the next city.’
Chloe stifled a surprised laugh. She was so not going to find him amusing. ‘I’m sure she’s done this before,’ she said, ‘and she has great taste in chocolates. You should think about giving her a raise.’ She had wanted her voice to sound light and mysterious – as if this whole seduction scene was exactly what she wanted from him – but somehow the words sounded choked and unsure as her nerves once again set in.
‘I’ve never asked her to do anything like this.’ His smile was a little self-mocking. ‘I’ve never thought that I might need champagne or chocolates as props before.’
Of course he wouldn’t need them and they both knew it.
Chloe pressed her feet more firmly into her stilettos and felt them sink further into the plush carpet and tried to imagine it was a certain part of his anatomy. She could hear the faint sounds of partying beyond the closed bedroom door and prayed that no-one would come in and find them together. Being humiliated by Liam Hunter for the second time was not on tonight’s agenda.
Which brought her mind back to what was on tonight’s agenda which had nothing to do with the hot sex that kept replaying inside her head. And maybe now would be the perfect time to reveal who she was and reject him. But somehow the words wouldn’t come and before she could take another breath Liam was directly in front of her.
She was nearly at eye level with him thanks to her heels but he was just so big and broad he still made her feel small. Feminine. She met his gaze at the same time as he took her face between his warm hands and brought his mouth to hers.
Shocked, her heart beating ten to the dozen, Chloe didn’t move, her whole body alive to nothing but Liam Hunter’s sweet, soft kiss.
Before she could lose herself in it he pulled back, his tongue gliding over his lower lip as if savouring the taste of her. Dazed, she let him take her hand and tug her forwards until he was sitting on the great bed with her stood between his spread thighs. They weren’t touching but the chemistry was like a buzzing force field between them and when she looked behind him she saw the line of his broad back in the full length mirror with her hovering before him. Her eyes fell to the back of his head and the broadness of his shoulders until the stroke of his fingers over her knuckles brought her attention back to his face.
‘I wasn’t going to bring any other woman back here. I wasn’t even sure I would bring you back here but I’ve wanted to kiss you since I saw you in the interview room and I couldn’t wait any longer.’
Chloe felt dizzy and wished she had the courage to plunge her fingers into his thick hair and test its weight, its springiness. This close she could smell him and when he inhaled deeply she realised he could scent her as well. The sexual attraction that had betrayed her when she was eighteen seemed to have doubled and her heart fluttered as she tried to block out the emotions urging her to once again throw caution to the wind. And she might have even succeeded if Liam hadn’t placed his large hands either side of her hips. ‘I know we should talk first, Specs, but I feel like I might die if I don’t touch you. If I don’t see you.’
Shockingly, Chloe felt the same way and her sense of self-preservation seemed to get further out of reach the closer she got to him. All she wanted to do was touch him and kiss him and have him do the same to her. Have him… suddenly his words – the name he had called her – permeated her fogged brain. ‘You called me Specs.’
‘Yeah.’ He smoothed his hands down her thighs as if he adored her shape. ‘Whatever happened to those cute glasses you used to wear? If I remember rightly you were legally blind without them.’
Not really hearing him above the roaring of blood in her ears Chloe stared at him completely dumbfounded. ‘You know who I am.’
His eyes narrowed as if he was trying to work out the answer to a complex puzzle. ‘Ah, yeah. Was I not supposed to?’
‘When? When did you figure it out?’ she demanded.
He cocked his head and his brow furrowed in that cute way that made him look like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. ‘The minute I saw you outside the hotel. What’s going on?’ His frown deepened. ‘Were you actually trying to pretend to be someone else?’
‘No,’ she snapped, smacking the palm of her hand against her forehead. How was it that she kept making such a colossal fool of herself in front of this man? ‘Your PA got it wrong not me.’
‘So why didn’t you correct her?’
‘I didn’t see the point. I wasn’t expecting to see you for more than five minutes.’
‘Ah,’ he looked at her with a combination of guilt and wariness. ‘And you weren’t going to tell me.’
‘Why bother?’
Liam’s mouth flattened into a straight line. ‘I have to say I’m struggling to get my head around this.’
His firm gaze swept over her, reminding
