Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 576(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Liam leans our embrace to the side so he can reach for the front curtain and peek out. The reporters are all still there.
“Are you going to go out there and talk to them?” I ask.
He turns back to me. “Probably.”
“What are you going to say?”
“That it’s true I created the software and modified it at my father’s instruction, but I wasn’t behind the surveillance activity. That I hope the family company can move on from this and I know that we’ll be doing everything we can to handle it in a way that feels transparent. That we plan to immediately hire a consulting firm to conduct an internal culture assessment.”
“ ‘We,’ huh?”
“My grandfather founded this company because he loved his family,” he says. “I’d like to think we can make something good of it.”
“I hope that includes finding a way to disconnect love from money,” I tell him. “Your grandfather tied the two together with good intentions, and your father with terrible intentions, but in the end it doesn’t matter what the intentions were: It has made everyone in your family devalue love. It has made loyalty and servitude the bargaining chips that keep the money flowing.”
Liam cups my face and bends to kiss me. I leave my eyes open for just a beat and catch the way his fall closed and the utter devotion on his face when our lips meet. “I want to deserve you,” he says when he pulls away.
“You already do.”
“I want all of you. I want to give you everything I have.” His lips linger on mine one more time. “There are no strings attached to what I’m offering,” he tells me. “I just want you. I just want to love you.”
“Unconditionally.” I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him into a hug. Liam holds me for several minutes while the reporters mill around outside, the TV drones in the background, and our hearts slow to a steady, tandem beat. I pull back and stroke his jaw with my thumbs. “I’m sorry for what I said in the hotel. Even if I was right, it was harsh.”
“You had to stand up for yourself and that’s what you did. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about the paintings. You were right. It was controlling.”
“Someone wise taught me that intent matters.”
“Someone?”
“David Green. Mechanic and therapist, apparently. Also, your father-in-law.” I stretch to kiss his smile, and when I pull back, his eyes do a careful circuit of my face. It’s the same way he took me in that morning, so many days ago now, in my apartment, like he’s slowly scanning, taking me in one feature at a time. I know I look like a mess again, but this time, his expression isn’t trying to mask panic. This time, he’s looking at me like he’s seeing everything he wants all wrapped up in a pink, harebrained package.
“Is it weird seeing me in scrubby clothes again?” I ask, gesturing to my plain blue tank top, Cookie Monster pajama pants, and sneakers.
“Not even a little. I prefer this version of you.”
“The real version.”
“The real Anna,” he says. “The real Liam.”
He gets another smooch for that. “Okay, go take your victory lap and I’ll be here for when you come back inside and want some celebratory horny boner banging.”
He laughs. “Holy fuck, I’m so happy you came.”
“Same.”
Liam gazes at me with what looks a lot like the L-word. “When do you have to fly home?” he asks.
“I bought a one-way ticket. So, technically never.”
He smiles. “So you can stay tonight?”
“I may have to call my dad,” I say with a wink. “But I can, I want to, and I shall.”
“And then every night after that?”
“Let’s start with the one,” I say, kissing his chin. “And see where it takes us.”
Epilogue
LIAM
Where it takes us, immediately, is our first night in my bed.
The chaos up and down my street continues long after I make a statement to the press, but even with the flash of cameras and a swarm of incessant questions being shouted my way, it’s easy enough to leave the stress of it all outside knowing that Anna is waiting on the other side of the door for me.
I could probably do anything with Anna waiting for me.
Our time on the island together was sexually adventurous, but there’s a new wildness, a raw openness to our lovemaking this first night home. As I push into her again and again, her limbs loose from exertion, skin damp with sweat and flushed from yet another orgasm, I let myself forget about the decisions that still have to be made, the complicated conversations that lie ahead, and give myself over to the realization that there’s nothing left for me to hide. Anna knows every secret I’ve tried to keep buried, every insecurity and shameful moment from my past; she knows the mess that is my family, and she accepts it anyway—accepts me. It’s a mental freedom I’ve never experienced before. I give myself over to her completely.