She kept her silence as they danced, not wanting to hear him actually say he didn’t want her.
“It looks like you and your dad made up,” he said.
“Yeah, you know how we are. He gets pushy. I get ticked off. Then we talk it through and everything’s okay. We’re getting it down to a science.”
He chuckled. She liked the sound.
She rested her head against his shoulder, enjoying being in his arms.
“Are you enjoying the party?” he asked.
“I am now.” Oh, God, why had she said that?
He laughed again and his arm tightened around her.
“I’m glad.” He swirled her around a few more times. “We got interrupted at a most inopportune time earlier.”
Here it comes.
“Yes. But it’s okay. You don’t have to let me down easy. I get it that—”
“No, Abi.” His gaze caught hers. “What I wanted to say was … that I want to be more than friends, too. For so long I held myself back. First because I’d promised Kurt I’d look out for you, and that meant protecting you from me, too. Then because you needed a friend after you lost the baby and your marriage went into meltdown.”
She realized that their dancing had slowed to a stop.
“Now I think it’s time I stop worrying about what I need to do to satisfy other people, and worry about what I want.” He tipped up her chin, his warm, green eyes shining. “And what you want. And I think that’s the same thing.”
She felt herself nodding, totally mesmerized by his eyes. Feeling herself drawn to his lips. She started to lean toward him. He seemed to be caught in the same spell.
She wanted to feel his lips on hers. To kiss him with all her heart. For him to possess her mouth, then make her his in every sense of the word.
A new song started, with a faster beat, breaking them out of the spell, their lips a whisper’s breadth from touching.
“Let’s go somewhere we can talk,” he said. But the heat in his eyes told her he wanted to do more than talk.
She nodded and took his hand, then led him off the floor toward the door.
“Let’s go to your room,” he said as they left the ballroom. “It’s on a different floor so people won’t see us.”
She hesitated at the thought that Liam was in the room right next door, but before she could answer, a ding sounded and the doors on one of the elevators opened. Del swept her inside and as the doors closed behind them, he drew her close.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
At the glow in his eyes, heat simmered through her in anticipation of what was to come.
She smiled. “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.” She stroked his cheek. He’d been clean shaven for the wedding, but his cheek was a little raspy now. “You know how I felt about you in college. I’ve longed for this day.”
He smiled and drew her into his arms. When his lips met hers, tingles danced through her body. Every part of her lit up with joy.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her closer to his body. She slid her hands around his neck. His tongue glided between her lips and she stroked it, then suckled. He groaned into her mouth.
His hand moved to the small of her back and she could feel a bulge swelling under the fine wool of his tuxedo pants.
The thought that she was turning him on sent heat flooding through her. She wanted him. And he wanted her. What could be more perfect?
The elevator doors opened and she practically dragged him from the elevator and down the hall heading to her room.
* * *
Liam raced up the stairs, knowing he had to do something to stop what he knew was about to happen. As soon as he’d seen Abi leading Del from the ballroom, her hand a vise grip around his, he knew she was going to take him up to her room and give herself to him.
And he couldn’t allow that.
His gut clenched at the thought of another man touching her.
As he raced out the door from the stairs and headed to his room, he heard the ding of the elevator arriving.
He heard their footsteps, then they turned the corner and came into view.
As soon as Abi saw him, she slowed. He could see her fingers tightening around Del’s hand.
“Liam.”
They kept walking toward her door as Liam leaned against his, only a few yards away.
“Are you calling it an evening?” she asked as they arrived at her door.
“Yes, I am. And you?”
She frowned. She opened her purse and pulled out the keycard. “You know, this isn’t really any of your business.”
“Really? My wife is about to take a man into her hotel room and that’s not my business?”
“I’m not your wife. Not really.”
“I have papers that prove otherwise.”
“Hold up,” Del interrupted. “Look, this is awkward. We can all agree on that. But, Liam, you have no real claim on Abi at this point.”
“Really? And you have no problem with her jumping right from my bed into yours?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
“Liam…” Abi’s pleading tone did nothing to diminish Liam’s anger.
“Liam, you two have been separated for two years now,” Del said.
“True, but we have connecting rooms and she climbed into my bed last night to wait for me.”
Del’s gaze snapped to Abi’s.
“Is that true, Abi?”
“No. I mean … yes, it is, but—”
“Fuck!” Del spat out, then turned on his heel and strode down the hall.
The look Abi sent Liam would have disintegrated a lesser man, but Liam was satisfied that he’d blocked the only real competition he had for Abi’s heart.
At least for now.
Abi opened her door, then slammed it behind her.
* * *
Abi tossed and turned in her bed that night. She had come so close to having Del in this bed with her. To finally taking their relationship to an intimate, romantic level.
To possibly find her happily-ever-after.
Then Liam had ruined it!
She
