Aria

A couple of hours later, after strolling along the Third Street Promenade, where people flock to the open-air shopping district of Santa Monica to spend their money and enjoy a day of sun and sand, Liam stops at a souvenir shop. A high-pitched scream has me glancing at the bright yellow roller coaster off in the distance. In fact, though, I can’t be sure the screaming isn’t coming from the Ferris wheel.

When I look back at Liam, I find him staring at something on top of the showcase. I move in next to him as he takes a red and yellow abstract ceramic heart ornament off the golden hook. “This right here,” he says to the girl behind the counter. “I’ll take this one for the lady.” She accepts the ornament from him and he grabs his wallet, handing her a fifty. He accepts his change before spinning around to me with the ornament hanging off his finger. “A gift to remember this weekend.”

I stare at the ornament, completely taken aback by his gesture.

Something Liam clearly takes notice of. “You don’t like it?” he asks, a frown marring his gorgeous face.

“On the contrary,” I say, a little breathless. “It’s perfect, and completely unexpected.”

He smiles, warming the richness of his eyes. “Well, I’m glad then.” He wraps an arm around the small of my back, bringing me in close against the strength of his body. “Though you’ve also made me curious. Why is this gift so unexpected?”

I glance down at the ornament, running my hand over the smooth shiny ceramic. “I guess I would have expected you to…”

“Spend thousands on you?”

I cringe. “God that sounds so awful, doesn’t it?”

“No, it doesn’t sound awful. I’m sure that’s what I would have expected if I was you.” He leans in and grins. “Let me also remind, I already have spent thousands on you.” I blush and glance away but his finger on my chin demands my gaze. “I know you, Aria, and I know this ornament is something that would mean more to you.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you love Christmas.”

I stop breathing, staring at him. It’s a little detail about me that’s true and personal. Some women go crazy for purses or shoes even. For me, it’s Christmas. “Did Mallory tell you I love Christmas?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t talk to Mallory about you.”

“Ever?”

“Never.” He gently guides me forward. We continue walking by the shops with his arm around my waist. “It would cross a boundary, and truthfully, I like unearthing all your secrets myself.”

“How did you unearth this secret then?” I need to understand, and I’m not even really sure why.

He gives a soft smile. “Because you light up around Christmastime.”

“I do?”

He nods and chuckles. “There’s a brightness about you, and I’ve never heard anyone else talk about Christmas right after Halloween. I’ve heard you say to Mallory after meetings that you were going home to watch Christmas Vacation, and it was in November.”

I laugh softly. I can’t recall that conversation but it’s totally something I would do.

He glances down at me, a strand of hair falling out of place. “Besides, I’ve heard Mallory mention a gift she’s bought for you now and again in the office, and it’s always Christmas related.”

I gape at him. Honestly, gape at him.

He watches me, his eyes twinkling when he spins me into him, wrapping both arms around my back. “It appears I’ve dumbfounded you.”

“To be perfectly honest with you, Liam”—I stare into the warmth of his eyes, seeing things I never saw before—“it’s so incredibly sweet of you to notice something like that about me.” Maybe even the most touching thing anyone has ever noticed. It has nothing to do with my looks, my brains, or anything. He noticed something that warms my heart. No guy has ever paid that much attention to me before.

“See, and that’s why I like to win.” He smiles. “That look right there on your face. That’s what I like.” I smile back, and lean into him as we continue walking again. A few steps later, Liam breaks the silence. “I am interested, though, why is Christmas so important to you? Any meaning behind that?”

“My parents are divorced,” I tell him, not feeling like I need to hide this part of myself. I hook my arm through his and set to explaining. “They were two of the most miserable people when they were together. But no matter what, they always put their feelings aside and got together on Christmas Day for me.”

“Even after their divorce?”

I nod. “Even after.” We pass by a man painted silver and pretending to be a statue. Believable enough that even a pigeon is perched on his head. I smile at them both before addressing Liam again. “Of course, it took me a long time to figure out that’s why I loved Christmas so much.”

“It’s a nice thing to love,” he says, taking my hand. “For a very good reason.”

“It is,” I agree.

We stroll along passing by break-dancers and then further down is a crowd gathered around a magician. With each step I take, I become more curious about the man who seems to understand the way I tick. “What is your Christmas?”

“This.” He gestures with his chin. “Santa Monica is my Christmas.”

“Is there any special meaning behind why you love it here so much?”

He draws in a deep breath glancing out in front of him. “I feel right when I’m here.” The side of his mouth arches, and he looks at me. “Does that make sense?”

I nod and smile. “It does to me.” I realize though there is a lot I don’t know about him. Considering he knows a very personal thing about me, I feel like a bag of shit for that. “What of your family?” I ask to correct my error.

“My family is small,” he explains, moving to a bench facing the water and gesturing for me to sit. After I do, he sits next to me. “My father passed away six years ago. My mother lives in a retirement community in Florida.”

I like how it feels when he possessively drags an arm across my shoulder. Like it a little too much, in fact. “She went that route, huh?”

He nods. “All of her friends ended up moving to Florida so she jumped on that train.”

“How often do you see her?”

“Not often enough, really.” The tension in his eyes tells me he’s close to his mother. “I travel there to see her every couple of months, and of course over the holidays. But she has a good life out there. A busy life with a new husband.”

“She sounds happy.”

He gives another firm nod. “She’s a ball of sunshine and bourbon, my mother.”

“She sounds like a woman I’d like.” I chuckle then admit, “Though, honestly, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to leave this behind for Florida.”

“Neither can I.” He drags his fingers along my shoulder, glancing out at the beach ahead of us.

Silence settles in, and it’s a comfortable silence, I come to realize. I’m highly aware of the way I lean into him, how that single touch of his rises my body temperature, and how I pay attention to his every move. Though my mind is on hyperdrive, and I need answers. I glance at Liam next to me. His gaze seems to have never moved away. “What about friends? What do you do for fun?”

“I mingle,” he says.

“With people you do business with, you mean?”

He inclines his head. “Business takes up a lot of my free time.”

“No close friends other than that?”

“I have a few college buddies. We get together when we can. Somehow, though, life seems to get busy, and not just for me.”

I consider that, thinking men are so different than women. Or maybe just businessmen are different. Their professional life and personal life are so intertwined. I can’t imagine that. Sure, Jackson and I catch a game at the pub sometimes. But I consider Jackson a close friend, family even.

Liam suddenly chuckles, dragging me from my thoughts. “You think there’s something wrong with my not having close friends?” he asks.

“Not wrong, exactly,” I clarify with a shrug. “I just can’t imagine that. I have Mallory. And before Mallory, I had other close friends. I still talk to those friends, but life has taken on new directions and stuff.”

Something crosses his face then. It’s like I’ve touched on a sore spot. I begin to wonder if maybe he once did have a close friend.

He glances at the Ferris wheel. “You and I live in two very different worlds, Aria. You see brightness in the darkness. You see good where there isn’t good. And that’s one thing about you that is undeniably beautiful.”

My heart squeezes at the way he speaks about me. It’s sincere and honest, and it feels like it comes from such an honest place. “You seem to see brightness in people as well,” I point out.

He turns and gives a small smile. “In you, I see brightness.” My breath catches at the emotion in his eyes when he adds, “Only in you.”

Unexpected tears rise in my eyes that shock me as much as they overwhelm me when I reach for his hand, holding it in my lap. Liam is power, sex, and control. Yet there’s a sweetness about him. A sweetness that he has toward me that I am only seeing now. Maybe because I’m finally letting myself see it.

With heavy emotions clawing at my throat, I look out at the water, hoping he doesn’t notice he’s affecting me. If he does, he doesn’t say anything. He’s silent beside me, taking in Santa Monica moving by us in a blur. I’m lost in the way I feel in this exact moment.

Here, there’s no feud. There’s no confusion. There is only us. And us feels pretty damn great.

Aria

By the time we return to the house, my belly is full from the seafood dinner we had on the pier. Darkness has settled over the skies, and I leave Liam in the living room, quickly scurrying off to the bathroom, pretending I have to pee. My emotions feel put through the wringer. I’m questioning everything I think I know when I enter the sleek bathroom and shut the door, locking it behind me. I move to the closed toilet lid and take a seat, my cellphone a heavy weight in my hand.

First things first, the information that I learned from Liam over breakfast about the Bakker deal is circling in my mind. What Liam doesn’t know, and what Jackson didn’t want Liam to know to gain leverage over him, is that Jackson is secretly representing one of the clients fighting for the merger, the Pioneer Group. Our clients recently fired their lawyers, hiring Keller LLC instead. It’s something the public doesn’t know yet, and clearly Liam doesn’t know it either because he’s told me something he shouldn’t have. I don’t know if it’s because his guards are down, or if he simply trusts me more now, but I feel like I’m being torn in two directions.

Jackson could use this information to seal his deal. I know what Liam is planning to offer Bakker now. Jackson could easily win this by offering something better. Because there’s something I know that Bakker’s employees also don’t have. And that’s a pension. But can I sell Liam out like that?

Before today, yes, in a second. I’m loyal to Jackson.

After today?

I don’t know anymore. My heart feels different than it did yesterday. “You’ve gone and made this fucking complicated,” I chastise myself, knowing I can only do one thing now. I click the button on the side of my cell, awakening the screen, and call Mallory.

She answers on the third ring. “Shouldn’t you be having the best sex of your life right now instead of calling me?”

“I am having the best sex of my life,” I reply.

“If that’s true, then why are we talking?”

I pause, trying to put into words how I’m feeling. My heart is tied up in knots. I didn’t know it would be like this with Liam. I thought he’d flaunt his money all over me. Isn’t that what rich, powerful men do? But he’s not about money at all. His beach house belonged to his father. That was meaningful. He likely paid a lot for our breakfast, not to wow me, but for privacy. Just the two of us. The ornament was so damn thoughtful, I still can’t wrap my head around any guy doing stuff like that for me. Mallory does, of course. But men usually don’t get me that way.

“Aria?” Mallory asks gently.

“I like him,” I blurt out.

“You. Like. Him?”

I drop my head into my free hand. “Yes, he’s practically perfect in every goddamn way.”

“Okay,” Mallory says slowly. “You’re going to have to catch me up on this because I’m confused as shit over here. Is liking him a good or a bad thing?”

“I don’t know,” I answer honestly, staring down at my pink painted toenails. “I mean, he’s everything I knew he would be. Hot. Intense. Incredible lover. But then he’s so much more.”

“I’m still not catching the bad part in all this.”

I curl my toes underneath themselves, wanting to curl into myself. “Okay, so today, we had this amazing, and sexy, I might add, breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the day at the Santa Monica Pier, shopping, having the most romantic sunset dinner, and honestly just having fun. It was a perfect day, Mallory. Totally and mind-bogglingly perfect.”

“Wow.” Mallory snorts a laugh. “You’re right, that all sounds terrible.”

I snort. “I’m not supposed to like him, remember? I didn’t come here to fall for Liam. I came here to get him out of my system.”

Mallory pauses then gently says, “I don’t think this should really come as any big surprise. You guys have had this crazy thing going on for a long time.”

“My point exactly,” I retort. “We can’t have this crazy thing on. I told myself that I couldn’t. I swore to myself that I wouldn’t. I can’t do that to Jackson.”

“I think all of this is just so stupid,” Mallory says, anger edging her voice. “Why can’t you two be together? I know Liam. I care for him. He’s a good guy. He’d make you happy. You’d make him happy. You guys would be so great together—which I have told you a thousand times before now. Why is Jackson stopping that from happening?”

“Because he hates him.”

“For what, though?”

“I don’t know.” And that was the problem. “Whatever it is, Mallory, it must be serious. They loathe each other, and right now I can’t see who is really at fault. Because as much as Jackson has told me that Liam is going to play me like fiddle, I don’t see it. Everything he does, it’s with me in mind.”

“Well, yeah, that’s because Liam is in love with you, which I’ve also told you.”

“I know you have, and I’m starting to believe you,” I finally admit to both her and myself for the very first time.

She pauses again, obviously shocked by my admission. Hell, even I’m shocked by my admission. Okay, yes, I knew there was something special between us but maybe I’d convinced myself that I had some way of controlling it.

I was dead wrong.

When Mallory speaks again, her voice is softer now. “Did he say those three little words to you?”

“He doesn’t need to, I feel them right in my bones, Mallory.”

Another pause. Then, “I guess the only thing left to ask is how do you feel about him?”

I draw in a long deep breath, allowing myself to absorb the meaning behind the words before I let them free. “You already know how I feel about him.”

“Yeah, I do know.”

I don’t need to say those three little words as much as Liam doesn’t need to tell them to me. It’s strange falling for someone you have a business relationship with, but Liam’s right, in our world professional and personal mix often. I think keeping things professional kept a boundary up, but now we’ve crossed that line and there is no going back.

When the heart knows, it knows. But what in the fuck do I do now?

The thought of hurting Jackson devastates me. Liam has hurt him, that much I know. He might not have told me what stands between him and Liam but his pain has always been clear to me.

Though can I say goodbye to Liam tomorrow?

“I should get going,” I say, lifting my head, knowing I’m never going to have that answer tonight. “I’m sure Liam’s wondering what I’m doing in here. And I really don’t want him thinking I’m sick or something.”

Mallory barks a laugh. “Total sexy killer.”

I laugh with her, glad for the break in the tension. “Before I go, how about you? Any news on your front about your date?”

“The only news at all was a message from the event coordinator telling me that a driver would be picking me up Tuesday morning.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

For Mallory’s sake, I’m hoping this date happens. Unlike me, she actually dates, but she’s been unable to hold down a steady boyfriend. I don’t really know why. She’s beautiful, sassy, and smart but she’s picky. Very picky. Though I’m also starting to wonder if someone bet on her at the auction to donate the money to the charity but doesn’t want the date to happen. “Keep me updated on that, all right?”

“Will do,” she says then hesitates. “And, Aria?”

“Yeah.”

“I know you and Liam both very well. I can’t say why Jackson hates him. Maybe Liam burned him somehow. But that had to have happened a long time ago. Everyone deserves a second chance, and Liam never hurt you. In fact, I’d say the only person possibly hurting you right now is Jackson if he’s holding you back from being incredibly happy with Liam.”

“Saying it like that makes it sound all very simple.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

I rise and stare at myself in the mirror, seeing a sparkle there behind the tension. It’s that feeling when someone understands you, truly, and appreciates you. It’s infectious and warm, and the fact that I’m feeling it with Liam is incredible. “It would be, if I could trust what I’m feeling around him. If I could trust the words that come from his mouth.”

“Trust is a prickly bitch,” she says in total agreement. “Well, then, all I can say as your bestie is trust your gut. It’s never led you wrong.”

“I love you, Malls.”

“Love you, too.”

The phone line goes dead before I can say anything more. I turn off my cell, shutting out the world for a little bit longer, and exit the bathroom. Silence surrounds me when I journey down the thin hallway of white painted bare walls. I expect to find Liam in the living room but he’s nowhere in sight, though I notice the sliding door in the living room is wide open. I leave my cellphone on the counter then pad my way across the white ceramic floors and step outside.

That’s when he appears.

Beneath the full moon, Liam stands at the edge of the water, power and calmness all in one. There’s a lot on my mind, that much I do know. A lot I need to figure out. But what this man does to me, the control he has over my body is not one of them.