Pure Hell (Seventh Level Book 1) (20 page)

Tearing her mouth away, she fought for control as he kissed the side of her neck. “You can’t be here,” she reminded him wondering whom she was really trying to convince. “Kieran will use me to hurt you,” she added a bit more firmly, but no matter what the truth was, she couldn’t force herself move out of his arms. “Please, Liam,” she begged him to make the choice she could not. Throwing his head back, he sucked in a deep breath and groaned.

Setting her away from him, he pointed at the couch. “I need you to go sit over there if you expect me to behave.”

She really didn’t want him to be good. Every step she took in the opposite direction felt as if she was slogging through quicksand but it was for the best. Liam scooped up the alligator and journal before kicking the door closed behind him. Taking his time, he carefully set her gifts with the others on the table. When they were lined up to his liking, he finally turned to face her only to turn away again and begin walking a circled path around the living room.

Poised on the edge of the couch, Kylie watched Liam pace the floor restlessly. She wondered if it was nervous energy keeping his feet on the move or if this was his way of working out where to begin in his head. Finally, he stopped and faced her again. “With my father, I’ve learned to pay attention to every word he says because there is a purpose behind everything he does. His greatest strength is strategy. He deals in deception and the key to deceiving someone is to add just enough truth to make it plausible. It’s why he would never show his entire hand and risk exposing a weakness. After all, the devil really is in the details. That night in his office, I felt I was missing something important, but my emotions blinded me to it, then I talked to Justice and he said I was too late save you.”

“When did you talk to Justice?”

Liam continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “But in the same breath, Justice said there is always a loophole. Which got me to thinking, why would it be too late to save you if there is always a way out? Oh by the way, we are going to have a long talk later about how it is Justice knows what your walls look llike,” he added gesturing around the room.

“The loophole,” she reminded him in hopes of distracting him from the road his mind was about to travel down.

He gave her a short nod. “Yes. A loophole. I can’t save you because you’re stuck here, but you’re not stuck here because of my dad,” he finished with a flourish.

He was talking in riddles. “What?”

At her question, a wicked smile touched his lips. “My father called you one of a kind but then said he’d only met one other human resembling you. In other words, you’re one of a kind but not unique to him.”

Kylie shrugged. “I’m still not following.”

Liam moved to sit beside her on the couch and took her hands between his, as if trying to will her to understand. “You were able to see this world while you were still alive because I have the ability to live in either world. You’re not here because you sold your soul to Kieran because you didn’t.”

“But I did,” Kylie argued immediately.

“When? Did you sign it away in blood as he wrapped his fingers around your throat?”

His question gave her pause. Kylie went over that night in her mind. He was right. She hadn’t signed anything. There was only a vague agreement on her part. “But then, how did I end up here?”

“As he said, you’re one of a kind. There is only one of you in the world for me. You’re here because I am. You, Kylie Trace, are my soul mate.”

She opened her mouth thinking to say soul mates didn’t exist but the words wouldn’t come. Liam gently cupped her face between his hands. “I thought I might be going a little crazy when you first appeared at my side,” he admitted saving her from attempting to speak. “That’s why I ignored you. This enormous sense of possessiveness roared to life inside me the instant I saw you. Every insult against you is an insult against me. I was so damn scared the day had finally come where I could no longer pretend I wasn’t my father’s son.” He dropped his hands and clasped them in his lap. She wanted to beg him to give them back.

“You’re nothing like your father,” she said finding her voice and causing Liam’s mouth turn up in one corner in a self-deprecating smile.

“Yes I am.” His confession sounded sad to Kylie’s ears. “I don’t resemble him in any of the ways I feared I would but when it comes to you, I am exactly the same.”

“How so?”

At her question, Liam made a sound akin to a growl. “You were in a cage.”

Kylie felt her lips twist into a wry smile. “I recall.”

“A fucking cage, Kylie!”

“Yep. I was there,” she reminded him.

In a flash, Liam went from sitting at her side to kneeling between her knees. His arms cradled her hips as his eyes begged for her understanding. “I wanted to build you a cabin in the swamp and keep you to myself. I wanted to own you the way my father owns my mother. The only difference is I wanted to live there with you.”

Kylie’s mouth went dry at his confession. He said the words as if they were a bad thing. Maybe for some people they were but if Liam was comparable to his father for feeling as he did, then she was a mirror image of his mother. She wanted the dream he painted.

“And now?” she asked because she had to know.

“I still want those things but I realized when I saw you in that cage, I want you to choose to be in that cabin with me. You deserve to be able to choose.”

She wanted to demand he take her there now but while her life would be improved, his would not. He could still walk both worlds and she would be stealing from him by keeping him tied to her side.

“What about your house or job? What will happen to all those things?”

Something flashed over his face but it was gone as quickly as it appeared. Tightening his hold on her hips, he slowly inched her closer to his body until she slipped from the couch and straddled his hips. A satisfied smile touched his lips when he had her where he wanted her. “I never belonged there and I couldn’t go back now even if I wanted to. I have plans, Kylie.”

She loved the sound of that last part. Wiggling even closer, she did her best to tease him. Judging by the erection pressed between them she was succeeding. “I hope these plans involve the two of us spending lots of time together.”

Liam’s eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment before he squeezed her hips to keep her still in spite of how turned on he obviously was. The serious expression on his face gave her pause and she waited for the other shoe drop. “I want to help people, Kylie. I want to help the people who my father, Septem and the other rulers out there trick into giving up their souls. Everything has a loophole. I—”

“Yes,” she said cutting him off in her excitement. Liam could right so many wrongs. “You need to do this. You’re the only one who can.”

He searched her face with his eyes as if unsure if she was only humoring him or not. “If I do this, I need you there at my side. You make me better.”

“You couldn’t pry me away.”

“It will be dangerous. My father—”

“I don’t care,” she said cutting off his words again.

A bright smile lit his face. “I love you. You know that right?”

Tapping her chin, she pretended to think it over. “I think I remember reading it somewhere.” Liam buried his face in the crook of her neck and groaned the way a doomed man would.

“You’re going to make my life such hell.”

Kylie’s heart swelled to the point she thought it would burst in her chest as she ran her hands down the planes of his muscular back enjoying the feel of every indention. “I’m damned well going to try,” she promised.

The End

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

CHARITY PARKERSON-
Charity Parkerson is an award winning and multi-published author with several companies. Born with no filter from her brain to her mouth, she decided to take this odd quirk and insert it in her characters. 
*2015 Readers' Favorite Award Winner
*Winner of 2, 2014 Readers' Favorite Awards
*2015 Passionate Plume Award Finalist 
*2013 Readers' Favorite Award Winner
*2013 Reviewers' Choice Award Winner
*2012 ARRA Finalist for Favorite Paranormal Romance
*Five-time winner of The Mistress of the Darkpath
Connect with her online:
--Website: charityparkerson.com
--Facebook: facebook.com/authorCharityParkerson
facebook.com/TheMenofSin
--Twitter: twitter.com/CharityParkerso

REGINA PUCKETT-
Regina Puckett is a 2014 Readers’ Favorite Award winning author for her sweet romance, Concealed in My Heart. Her steampunk book, I Will Breathe, and her children’s picture book, Borrowed Wings, both received the Children’s Literary Classic Seal of Approval.

Memories, won first place in the 1st WSBR International Poetry Contest, and her collection of poetry, Fireflies, won the 2013 Turning Pages Poetry Book of the Year.

Regina Puckett has been writing for over forty-eight years, and lives in Tennessee with her husband of over forty years. She has two grown daughters and four grandchildren.

She writes sweet romances, horror, inspirational, steampunk, picture books and poetry. There are always several projects in various stages of completion and characters and stories waiting in the wings for their chance to finally get out of her head and onto paper.

Please come and visit me at facebook.com/regina.puckett1
http://reginapuckettsbooks.weebly.com/index.html
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