Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 84700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84700 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 424(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
“Marry me. Again.” Liam’s hands cupped my face and forced my gaze on his, commanding me to give the answer he wanted. “I’ve lived without you. I know how fucking unbearable that is. I want to be here, every day, until we’re both dead in the ground. Give me another chance. I won’t fuck this up again.”
My fingers wrapped around his wrists, and my answer came out as a whisper. “Okay…”
He rested his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. A loud, happy sigh filled the kitchen around us. “I can’t believe you said yes…”
Neither could I.
31
Damien
My assistant spoke into my intercom. “Sir, Liam De Luca is here to see you.”
The last thing I wanted to do was deal with that asshole. Fucking worthless. I slammed my finger onto the button. “Send him to Hades. He’s not my client.”
She responded immediately. “He asked for you.”
I closed my eyes and breathed through the annoyance before I hit the button again. “Fine. Send him in.” Why did that fucker want to work with me anyway? We’d buried the hatchet, but we weren’t friends.
A moment later, he stepped inside, dressed in a sports coat with a gray sweater underneath. His hair was shorter than the last time I saw him, which had been a couple of months now. He blocked the doorway with his size and approached my desk. “Damien.” He extended his hand to shake mine.
I took it. “Liam, what can I do for you?”
When Liam stepped aside, I realized he wasn’t alone.
Liam sat in one of the two chairs facing my desk. “You remember Anna.”
She emerged once he stepped out of the way, wearing a deep-blue button-up blouse with her beautiful hair pinned back in a shiny updo. Bold diamonds were in her earlobes, and her makeup was dark around her eyes, making her ready for the runway rather than a boring bank meeting.
I was fucking speechless.
She held my gaze for a nanosecond, but she quickly averted her eyes because she didn’t want to look at me. Without extending a hand to shake mine or giving some kind of greeting, she sat in the chair beside Liam and continued to ignore me.
“Yes…nice to see you again.” I recovered, but my voice was weak and clearly different than usual. She floored me, not just with her stunning appearance, but with her company. What the fuck was she doing with him? Did he talk her into taking his money? Did she need help? Because I could help her.
I returned to my desk, my eyes glancing at her expression over and over, disappointed that she was more interested in her heels than my face. “Where should we start, Liam?” All I wanted to do was stare at her, to get her to look at me, but she wouldn’t. I turned to her ex-husband.
He didn’t seem to notice the burning tension in the room. He never would have come here peacefully if he knew I was the man who used to bed his ex-wife. She’d obviously never told him. “Anna needs to be returned to all my accounts.”
I looked at her, waiting for an objection. “Is that what you want?”
Even when she spoke, she still didn’t look at me. “Yes.” Was it embarrassment from the last night we saw each other? Or was it hatred? Did she hate me for what I did for her?
Liam reached for her hand and held it on the armrest. “We’re getting married.”
That was when I noticed the enormous diamond on her left hand, the claim that Liam had put on her. And my heart sank…so deep, it hit my feet. I looked at her again because I wanted her to say it wasn’t true—that she wasn’t taking this cheater back.
Liam rubbed his thumb over her diamond ring, looking at her like she was the bigger jewel than the one he’d bought for her. He was elated, clearly in love.
But what was she?
Liam turned back to me. “I want her on everything. And put it under De Luca—because that will be her name in a few weeks.”
Annabella ignored me through the entire meeting, and when they left, she didn’t say goodbye before she walked out. There had been no eye contact from the moment she’d initially looked at me, like she needed to make sure it was really me.
Then I was dead to her.
Now I sat in my office, letting the light disappear from the windows. I didn’t have any more appointments or meetings for the day, so I could have gone home hours ago…but I was stuck in place. I hadn’t moved from my chair since she’d walked out, and everyone else at the office had already packed up and gone home.
She was marrying him?
Why?
I broke up with her two months ago, and when she couldn’t get me back, she went to him?