“I’m done out here.” Her friend put an arm around her shoulder and led her back inside.
Her father called out as the door was shut. “They’ll hurt me, Katie! It’ll be on your head!”
Kate let Rod handle the rest of the meeting while she sat by the refreshments table and held the same cup of coffee for an hour.
As she listened to the droning sounds of the meeting around her, she feared she was finally plummeting toward rock bottom.
And it scared the crap out of her.
Chapter Five
Rod took her back to her apartment that evening. She normally would have taken the bus, but tonight she didn’t want to set out on her own. She didn’t put it past her dad to try again.
Rod stopped in front of her white stucco building on West Flamingo. “You sure you don’t want to talk about your visitor? You keep telling us we shouldn’t keep things bottled inside.”
She looked around. There was no one in sight. “No, I’m okay. Thanks. You go. I know your shift at the hospital already started.” With a hug, she got out of the car and waved as he drove off.
Her unit was a cozy walk-up on the second floor and she couldn’t wait to get inside and have a long bath. When she reached her landing, she looked around, feeling a prickle of unease. She looked around but the street was quiet. In her cul-de-sac, one could almost forget the Vegas Strip was a short drive away. She fumbled for her keys, only to drop them. Cursing, she bent over to retrieve them, thinking that this was usually the point in a movie where the serial killer leaped out.
She stuck her key in the lock and breathed a sigh of relief, glad not to have had another confrontation with her father.
Once inside, she flicked on the living room light, illuminating the coral painted walls. Home.
Now she could lose her shit big time.
“No,” she told herself. “Hold it together. You’re better than this.”
She dropped her purse and picked up the TV remote, hoping she’d find a trashy program featuring characters more messed up than she was. After a few minutes of scrolling through the guide, she turned it off, disappointed. She put down the remote, remembered her father’s words, and tried not to cry.
Just as her hands began to shake, there was a loud knock on her door. She jumped, steadied herself and shuffled to the door. Pulling aside the little flap from the peephole, she looked outside.
Liam Doyle stood at her door.
“What the…?”
Her hands shook even harder now. She fumbled with the lock as if she’d forgotten how it worked before she managed to open it.
The pair stared at each other, neither one speaking. No sign of designer suits today. Instead, he wore faded jeans that hugged his lower half, a black T-shirt that emphasized his cut frame and scuffed cowboy boots.
She’d considered him devastating in a custom-made suit, but this outfit made him look like a bad boy gone country. She struggled to find her voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, hello to you, too, sugar. Can I come in?”
“Okay.” She stepped aside to let him in, noting how he seemed to fill the doorway as he passed. Still clinging to the door, she stared at his figure, entranced. He looked like another man altogether today, but still dead sexy. She blinked and tried to clear her head. “How did you find me?”
“Your number is listed, you know.”
She shut the door and leaned on it, hands behind her back so he wouldn’t see her tremble. “Why are you here, Liam?”
“I get questions instead of a ‘Hello, how are you?’”
“Hello, how are you? Why the fuck are you here?”
He stood very still, and his gaze rested on her strand of pearls. He moved his hand as if to reach out for her, but let it fall to his side. “I haven’t seen you at Vice. I was…concerned.”
“I thought you would be relieved.”
“Yeah, I know, but for some strange reason I was worried instead. So, um, why did you stop coming?”
“Does it matter?”
“Indulge my curiosity.”
Those three words, echoing in her brain, made her throat thicken. Indulge my curiosity. Somehow, the way he’d said the words, they’d sounded dirty. Surely her frazzled mind made her imagine the heat in his eyes.
She blinked and the heat disappeared like vapor. “I’m sure you have more important things to be curious about.”
He cracked a smile, the first since he’d shown up. “You know, I gotta tell you, Kate. You’re a shitty hostess.”
She couldn’t help but grin in return. “I’m sorry. I’m not really prepared. You see, I gave the butler the night off and I forgot to defrost the canapés.”
“You really do think I’m an evil, rich dickhead, don’t you? That I don’t have a soul?”
“Not evil. I think I glimpsed your soul when you talked about Michelle. The rich dickhead part is still true, though.”
“Is that why you didn’t come back? Because you felt sorry for me?
Kate said nothing.
“I don’t want your pity, Kate.”
“What do you want?”
The moments the words left her mouth, she regretted it. It was getting hard to rein in a desire that she didn’t even understand. Yes, she felt concern for him, but right now, all she knew was a near-feral need. His looks and deep voice and even his arrogance turned her crank in such a way she knew from now on she’d compare every other man to him.
Still, he drove her nuts.
Liam seemed to have trouble finding his words. “I’m still trying to understand what I want. You’re not making it easy for me.”
Okay, so clearly she drove him around the bend a bit too. “What does that mean?”
He drew closer until their feet just about touched. He reached for her hand and she almost leaned into him. Almost, but not quite.
“Goddamn, you ask a lot of questions,” he said. “It means I don’t know what to make of you.”
Liam’s gaze dropped and traveled a hot path from her head to her toes, and her body responded to the visual caress. Already her nipples pebbled under her light shirt. To her horror, she realized she was practically leaning in for a kiss. The thought of him claiming her mouth had her weak in the knees.
Just when she suspected he wanted the same thing, he took a step back, but did not release her hand. “Look, sometimes my job requires me to act like an asshole, but I shouldn’t have been one to you when you were being honest with me. I’m sorry.”
Kate had no explanation for the barrage of sensations Liam caused all over her. His sensual voice made her ears perk up. His touch made her skin feel luxurious, like a warm, soapy bath. He might be less put together tonight, but was still just as much a feast for her eyes. She wanted to run her fingers over his washboard abs and fondle each plane and hollow. His stubble seemed a little thicker, almost a beard, as if he hadn’t trimmed it in a couple of days, and served to make him look more like a rugged lumberjack rather than a captain of Vegas industry.
His masculine beauty affected her the way a newly-discovered Van Gogh might affect an art collector.
She removed her hand from his and ran a shaky hand over her face, trying to rein herself in. “You don’t owe me an apology. I butted in where I wasn’t wanted. And I’m the last person who should be giving anyone advice.” Oddly comforted in his presence, she let her shoulders droop and sighed.
Liam put a finger under her chin. “Hey, what’s wrong? Tell me.”
“You really don’t want to know.”
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t ask. I’m a rich dickhead, remember?” He grinned and slowly removed his hand from her face.
“Okay. Fine.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “I’m even worse. I’m a fraud. I lecture others about hitting rock bottom, and the truth is I’ve never done it myself.” She looked up, expecting to see him judge her, but saw only a new heat in his blue eyes. “My dad’s an addict, and I’ve been enabling him for years. I can’t seem to stop. I’m scared to let him go cold turkey. I’m scared to stop giving him money. I’m scared. I’m just scared.”