Wrong (10 page)

Chapter Fourteen

There were butterflies in my stomach as my cab pulled up to the unmarked, doors on West Broadway. The lounge I chose was a place I’d fantasized about going to after seeing it in a magazine a couple years ago. It was dim and sultry with satin walls and leather couches surrounding indoor fire pits. I’d been too intimidated to ever walk in before, but now, I couldn’t wait.

Mostly because I was going in to meet Liam for our first date. Ever.

“Hi.” I was nervous as I approached the hostess, who was wearing the hell out of a nearly transparent maxi-dress. Once upon a time, I looked at girls like that and wondered how they ever found the guts to wear something that basically screamed sex. Now, I was just about in the same boat. “I’m here to meet someone – he said he’s waiting in the room farthest to the back?”

“Of course. Follow me,” she said, flicking her eyes all over my ensemble as we spoke. A pang of heat hit my cheeks and I promptly second-guessed myself, as I knew I would. Walking through the main room and candlelit tables of beautiful people, I glanced down at my outfit. It was a little risqué and I hadn’t been sure about pulling it off, but after texting Aria photos of various angles, she implored me to buy it instead of the simple black dress I’d kept as my safety – rather, what she called, the “basic good-girl’s-idea-of-a-sexy-dress.”

So I nixed the safety and went for the new. It was a tight black piece with slivers of cutouts just above and below my breasts. There was a third cutout at my waist, as well as thin, black straps that crisscrossed over the two inches of exposed torso. They somehow made me look all the more scandalous.

Of course, it was nothing compared to the lacey filth I had on underneath.

“Do you see who you’re here to meet?” the hostess asked when we reached the furthest room. It was lit with an amber glow by gothic iron chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling. I took in the décor for a second before realizing that I felt the heat of someone’s stare on my skin.

Liam.

I turned to find him in the corner booth, those green eyes on me already.
Holy God
. The breath hitched in my throat when I saw him wearing the hell out of a crisp white shirt and black jeans. I rarely got to see him dressed up, looking like a proper gentleman instead of some warrior king panting from a workout, muscles out and all glistening in sweat. I loved that look on him but this one flat-out weakened my knees. Standing there, I took a moment to revel and remind myself that the most beautiful man in the room was actually mine.

In his chair, Liam’s long frame was relaxed, his demeanor laid-back as usual. But his eyes were a stark contrast to his body. They were lit in a wildfire as he stared at me, devouring me. I felt as if the entire room could feel it too – like they were watching Liam take me in as if I were the most magnificent thing he’d ever seen.

“Is… that him?”

I blinked, forgetting the hostess was even there. When I tore my eyes from Liam to nod at her, she was biting back a crooked grin.

“Guess that makes you the luckiest girl in the world,” she murmured before smiling broadly and resuming her professional tone. “Enjoy.”

As her heels clicked away, I returned my eyes to Liam. He was standing up now, shaking his head a little, his gaze still locked tight on me as I made my way over. The second I was close enough, he pulled me into his chest. “Sasha.” He exhaled my name in a way that sent chills up my bare arms. “You must be trying to fucking kill me with this dress.”

“Of course not,” I laughed, my gaze dropping with content as he leaned in to kiss my lips. I couldn’t believe how foreign this felt. I saw Liam all the time at my bar, or at our usual hangout spots, and sometimes, the gym. But we never went to places like this together. These were the places he took his dates – the places I heard A.J laugh about a few days later, because the waitresses and hostesses had tripped over themselves to serve Liam, and his date had gotten so possessive she’d practically straddled him and performed a lap dance.

There wouldn’t be any of that tonight. For one, I wasn’t that type of girl but also, Liam’s eyes were fixed on me as if they’d never look away.

“Sitting across from me?” He lifted an eyebrow when I took the seat across instead of squeezing beside him. “So you
are
trying to torture me.”

“Not at all. I’m just trying to make it seem more like a proper – ” I cut off suddenly.

“A proper date?” Liam finished.

I paused. “Yes.”

“Why were you embarrassed to say that just now?”

My face went hot. I ran my finger along the menu, decidedly avoiding Liam’s intense gaze. “Jalapeno margarita sounds good,” I murmured, hoping I’d run the clock out on his question. I wasn’t surprised that he wouldn’t have any of it.

“Hey.”

I sucked my bottom lip in.

“Sash.” Liam reached for my hand. I lifted my eyes, melting straight into his serious gaze. I watched as he wet his sculpted lips while finding his words. “Look. I know you feel weird about this. About us.” He gave that sexy laugh. “And, technically, we
are
somewhat of a unique situation. But I’m still me, Sasha. I want you to feel at home with me like you always did. You and I, from day one, we clicked just like that. We were always good and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss how comfortable you always were with me. Before all this happened.”

I let his words soak in for a moment then gave a half-smile. “Before ‘all this happened,’” I repeated softly, squeezing his hand to temper what I was about to say. “That’s the thing, Liam. That’s all we can call ourselves. ‘This thing’ or ‘this situation.’ I know it’s silly but I guess during certain moods, I get down on myself about what… what we are. There are no words to describe us, so we’re just a ‘situation,’ and I don’t want to be characterized as a ‘situation.’ It doesn’t feel very good.”

A frown creased between Liam’s handsome brows. “Sash. Are you serious right now?” He removed his hand from mine, and suddenly, my heart dropped. My pulse spiked as I watched Liam sit away from me now. His eyes looked dark as they narrowed incredulously at me, making me regret every fragile, insecure word that I’d blurted from my stupid mouth. “Baby…” Liam laughed, something of a smirk on his lips. “The only reason you can’t describe us as anything more than a situation is because you won’t allow it. I told you from the start that I was happy to come out with this. In fact, I still am. I’m not ashamed of us, Sash.”

I let out my breath, both relieved and embarrassed that he had a hell of a solid point. “That’s… true, I guess.”

“You’ve always been the girl I wished I was spending my time with. I’ve always loved making you laugh and I’ve always loved listening to your voice. I couldn’t be prouder to be the man who’s with you, Sasha. Look at you.” Liam leaned back and ran his hand along his jaw, hiding the sexy grin that spread wider and wider as he took me in. The air between us grew quickly hot and thick as Liam tilted his head just so, undressing me with his eyes so clearly that I hugged my arms to my chest.

“Liam,” I scolded playfully.

“Stand up.”

The husky command of his voice made me swallow. “Right now?”

“Yes. Stand up. Let me see you.”

Biting my lip, I obliged and stood up. Pushing my hair behind my ear, I reveled in the sudden heat that traveled through me as Liam’s greedy eyes treated themselves to every inch of my body. There was something so erotic about it. It felt as if I were on display just for him. I knew there had to be eyes on us but in that moment, I couldn’t be bothered to think about it.

“Come here.”

Standing next to his seat now, I gazed down at Liam, my breaths shallow as his eyes stared forward at my breasts. A solemn look cast over his face, his lips forming a line the way they did whenever he went serious.

“You’re a lot more important to me than you realize, Sasha,” Liam said. “Do you remember who I was when you first met me?”

I wet my lips, suddenly aware of the intimate moment we were sharing in a full room. Thinking about his question, I collected my memories. There was, of course, that first memory I had of Liam – walking in on him with a girl in the bathroom of our parents’ home. She loved every bit of how rough he was with her and neither of them noticed me as he finished inside her. So yes, from the jump, I knew he was a player. A bad boy.

But then we were officially introduced and that night, at dinner, he jumped to my defense over every dicey topic my mom just
had
to bring up. When I got quiet and nervous, he mercifully changed the subject.

Growing up with Riley, I was used to being interrupted while speaking, but every time someone did it that night, Liam stopped them. He looked me in the eye when I spoke and for the first time in my life, he made me feel like I mattered. He didn’t know yet about the issues that plagued my teenaged years, but I had a feeling that he wouldn’t judge me for them. I had known him for all of an hour but I felt immediately comforted by his presence.

Meanwhile, his dad called him
“walking chaos.” “Wasted potential.”
He said that Liam’s arrest for fighting that year had been the most humiliating day of his life. But I saw something else. The Liam I knew, despite the first thing I saw him doing, was warm and caring and everything my family wasn’t to me.

“I know what I’m supposed to answer,” I started, finding myself suddenly seated next to him in the booth, my knees somehow up in my short skirt and resting on his lap. “I’m supposed to say you were trouble back then, or a bad guy or someone with a scary temper. But the first day I met you, you were already the best guy I’d ever known and that hasn’t changed at all in the past eight years.”

I felt our fingers entwine. Liam let out a short breath, the corners of his lips twisting up in a faint smile. “I was a bad guy,” he murmured, gazing down at my hand in his. His thumb stroked my ring finger. “And then I met you and I felt what you saw in me. From day one, you had this faith in me that I’d never had for myself. And I hadn’t known you for long at all but I already knew I had to do better for you.”

My throat tightened because what he described was something I’d distinctly felt on the day that we met. I had felt a different kind of connection, but I never tried to acknowledge it. I figured it had to be silly, too hopeful. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t completely made up the spark out of pure desperation to feel loved. But now I had my confirmation. Whatever I felt with Liam did exist. It was there and it always had been.

I wasn’t just some novelty fuck.

As I played with the edge of his shirt, I felt him watching me, a charmed smile in his voice as he asked if I felt better. I nodded. “But I want to know more,” I murmured. “I want you to tell me your side of it.”

“Of what?”

All the years we loved each other without saying a word.

All the shit you helped me through without ever taking credit.

I didn’t think about it as much anymore, but I’d been a completely different person before Liam.

Before my mother married his dad, she dated a man named Owen. He was the love of her life. The “one who got away.” A year after rekindling, my mother got engaged to Owen, and I’d never seen her more happy in my life.

But I couldn’t let her marry him.

And after the Owen debacle, everything in my family changed. We were back to three, but I felt alone. Mom refused to look at me, Riley hated playing middleman, and I spent two years wondering if my tarnished identity was worth living for.

I didn’t find myself again till Liam came along, and to this day, I wasn’t sure if he knew how much he’d truly dug me out of my depression. We never spoke about the mountain I overcame because we never wanted to bring up Owen again. But a part of me felt like it was a disservice to never acknowledge the magnitude of what Liam had helped me through – the pitch black darkness that he had singlehandedly pulled me out of. There was never a great time to talk about it, but I figured now was as good as any.

Of course, once my lips parted to speak, I was interrupted.

“Hello there – can I get you some drinks?”

And just like that, my window for that conversation closed.

“Absolutely,” Liam replied to the bubbly waitress who came seemingly out of nowhere. She was perfectly polite and sweet as she took my order but I couldn’t help but notice how blatantly she flirted with Liam, leaning against the table and biting her lip as he spoke. Liam’s arms were around my waist as he ordered, his thumb stroking my skin. But the sound of his laugh mixed with hers brought Jenna’s words back to my mind.

“
You’re way too nice, Sasha, and that’s not a compliment. You don’t know how to fight, or manipulate or scare off the way hotter girls who are going to go after your man
.”

I chewed the inside of my lip. Maybe a girl like Jenna would bark at a mostly harmless cocktail server, but I wasn’t comfortable with that and I was sure I never would be.
Does that make me weak? Or does that make me an adult?

“Anything else?” Our server’s voice chimed through my thoughts. I blinked up to see her batting her lashes. Not at me.

“That should be it,” Liam said. Palming my bare knee, he sent a murmur of chills up my thigh. “Do you want anything else, baby?” he asked.