When they finally arrived, Liam was out of the car like a shot and ran up the front path to the door. He banged on the door, not caring if he was waking the entire neighborhood, he just needed to see Mia and explain everything and beg her to forgive him. It seemed like he was doing it a lot and he really hoped he would finally get it right. The door opened and an older version of Mia stood looking up at him with a squinty-eyed glare. “Who are you?” “I’m Liam, Mia’s ah…um, is Mia here? I really need to see her.” “It’s okay, Ma,” Mia said from behind her mother. “Mia,” Liam started, but she held up her hand to shush him. “Come into the kitchen, we can talk there.” Liam breathed a sigh of relief that she was willing to speak to him. He nodded to her mother and followed Mia down the hall and into the large combined kitchen and dining room. “Have a seat,” Mia said. “Would you like anything to drink?” “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I want to explain…”
Mia blinked her eyes open, not recognizing where she was at first, and then the memories from the night before came flooding into her brain. She smiled. She couldn’t help it. Trying to move slowly so she wouldn’t wake herself up if it was just a dream, she turned her head to the side and found Liam gazing at her. He was lying on his side, his head on his elbow as he watched her. His lips quirked up in a small smile and she smiled in return. “Good morning,” he said, his voice scratchy from sleep. “Good morning,” she replied, her own voice husky. “I didn’t know if you were still going to be here when I woke,” he said, and she saw the fragility in his eyes. “I was really glad you were. I thought last night might have been some dream that I’d concocted.” Her smile widened. “I thought the same,” she said, rolling onto her side so she was facing him. He reached out and tucked some hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering on her cheek. She closed her eyes and
Dianna snorted and Jack raised an eyebrow. “You have a problem with that?” “No, but you might,” she said, an evil smile tilting her lips. “It just so happens that I’m in charge of the launch and I don’t remember seeing your name on the list.” Jack’s arms fell from his chest and he took a step toward her but Dianna didn’t flinch. “You would blackball me from the launch?” he growled. Dianna shrugged, the smile firmly in place. “I don’t know you,” she said as she buffed her nails on her shirt. “You could be some miscreant trying to steal our secrets.” “That’s just bullshit,” he spat. “Oh? How is it any different from what you just accused me of?” They’d somehow managed to close the distance between them until they were practically nose to nose. Liam put his hand over his mouth to cover his smile. “Come on, Mia,” he said. “We need to go or we’re going to be late.” I tugged her back into the elevator and hit the button for the garage. “What
Mia clutched Liam’s hand as they walked into the restaurant where Liam’s mother waited. Except, as they drew closer to the table, Mia realized it wasn’t just Liam’s mum but his brother Jonathon and Jonathon’s girlfriend, Emma. She’d been nervous before, but sitting at a table with THE Jonathon Ashby was a little—okay, a lot—intimidating. “Are you okay?” Liam asked, looking down at her. She tried to smile and nod. “I’m fine.” “Okay well, your words are saying one thing but the way you’re squeezing my hand is saying something different.” Mia let out a breath and released the death grip she had on his hand. “I’m just nervous,” she said. “I didn’t realize your brother would be here too.” Liam put his arm around her and pulled her into his chest, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “You have nothing to worry about,” he whispered into her hair. “They will love you because you are an amazing, talented, beautiful, wonderful woman.” He tipped her face up to his and
“Nervous?” Mia asked, turning her big, dark eyes up to him. “A little,” he admitted. “Do any of your brothers own a firearm?” he asked, only half joking. Mia laughed and wrapped her arms around his waist. “No,” she replied, squeezing him tight. “Besides, it’s not my brothers you need to worry about, it’s Ma and you already won her over.” The very brief interaction he’d had with Mia’s mum had seemed to go well, although she’d had time to think things over and maybe she had changed her mind. “Come on,” Mia said, taking his hand and dragging him up the path to the front door. She didn’t knock, just opened the door and pulled him through into the small foyer. He could hear the sound of a sports program on the television in another room and smell something mouth-watering coming from the kitchen. “We’re here,” Mia called, dragging him toward the living room. Frankie and three other men stood arrayed in the arched doorway of the living room. Their legs
"C .O.B. give me a damage report." Dianna took a breath and scanned her body. Her feet seemed okay and her knees as well. Her hips were stiff and her lower back was twinge. She tried to roll over and her shoulder screamed bloody murder. She sucked in a breath and forced her body to relax, breathing through the pain. When the blinding flash subsided to a thundering rumble, she pushed herself up to sit on the side of the bed. "Looks like we will make it into work today, Captain," she murmured to herself. "C.O.B. has the con." C.O.B., chief of the boat, or in this instance, chief of the body. No, she wasn't even the fucking captain of her own body. That honor alternated between whichever ache was barking the loudest. Although, these days, her shoulder had wrenched control of the better part of her life. Was it weird that the captain’s voice in her head sounded suspiciously like Sean Connery? And shouldn’t each individual captain, or ache, have their own voice? Because
Dianna had enough trouble regulating her body temperature as it was without adding the complication of clothes to the mix. Sweat was not sexy, and with the humidity index predicting high seventies she couldn’t risk drowning in sweat while surrounded by her work colleagues. Thank god for t-shirt dresses. And cotton. Lovely, lovely cotton that was soft to the touch and breathed and was light enough not to aggravate her already aggravated body. The height of fashion? No, but it was comfortable. It skimmed the line of too casual, but the plain beige, knee-length dress was good enough for work, especially when she knew some of the programmers would come to work in sweatpants and tank tops. As for shoes, no way was she squeezing her feet into heels. Fuck that shit. She had a cute pair of slip-ons that would do the job. She loved a good stiletto as much as the next woman, and yes, her arse looked amazing when she wore them, but not today. Today was for comfort and convenience and f
Damn, she needed to get laid if the grumpy DILF next door was giving her the tingles. Sure, a woman liked her fictional love interests to be the dark broody type, but not so much in real life. Dark and broody became cruel bastard IRL. She should know, she’d fallen for that particular type before and still had the metaphorical scars to prove it. The elevator doors opened and Jack and Riley stepped in. No, he didn’t do the chivalrous thing and let her go first. That would have meant actually acknowledging her as a person, and as far as Jack Daniels was concerned, Dianna was little more than an annoying gnat he had to deal with daily. Dianna got on the elevator and leaned against the back corner. She’d only been out of bed for a little over an hour and a half, and already it felt like too much. Maybe she should have worked from home today, and not just for her own sanity. It was a heavy, silent, brooding trip to the garage and then Jack and Riley were crossing the concrete
6 months later“Are you ready for this?” Anthony asked as they stood outside the courtroom. Talia nodded and gripped Parker’s hand. The judge had called them back in for the verdict on Mark’s trial and she couldn’t deny she was nervous. The weeks spent preparing for the trial and then sitting through the witness statements and being cross-examined by an aggressive defense attorney who made her out to be some sort of diva and ungrateful bitch who was somehow ripping off the father who had done everything for her had taken its toll. And the media beat-up was just as bad. However, not all the media had been on her father’s side. Talia had discovered she had far more supporters than she’d thought. Her fans—the true fans—had gathered in force to support her and she loved them for it. Not enough for her to consider going back into acting, but enough that going through the trial had been bearable. But if not for the constant and unwavering support of Parker, Talia didn’t think she woul
Parker rolled his eyes as he took her hand and stood. “Seal the deal?” “Isn’t that what you said earlier?” He shook his head, his grin still in place. “No, I said celebrate.” “Okay, good. Let’s do that then.” Parker grabbed her and lifted her up, making Talia squeal. He kissed her and she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders. Stumbling, he carried her to the bedroom and tossed her on the bed with a flourish, making her squeal again. “I feel like we need champagne and strawberries or something,” Parker said, standing with his hands on his hips as he looked around the room. “You mean like pouring champagne in my belly button and licking it out?” Talia asked, lifting her shirt to reveal her navel. Parker cocked an eyebrow. “Hmm…that’s something to think about for a later celebration,” he said. Talia pouted. Parker held up his hands. “I don’t have any champagne on hand,” he protested. “Then I’ll just have to
“You called Isaac,” Parker said when he walked into the apartment. Talia looked up at him and bit her lip. “I did,” she said. “But before you get mad, I didn’t say anything about what happened. And I did it because I knew you wouldn’t say anything to defend yourself.” Parker sighed. “I’m not mad,” he said, walking over to where she was seated, working on her miniature diorama. He leaned down and kissed her. “I’m grateful. Thank you. What you said to Isaac helped.” Talia grinned up at him. “So, they’re going to let you do the article?” Parker nodded. “They are.” “That’s so great,” Talia replied. “So it all worked out.” Parker pulled out a chair and sat down beside her. “Things have worked out for me, but what about you? What are your plans now? Without Mark controlling your every move, you can do anything you want.” Talia dropped her head and fidgeted with her fingers in her lap. “I don’t know what I want to do,” she said quietly. “I don’t think I wan
Talia pulled back from the kiss. “Don’t you think it was pretty selfish of me not to sacrifice myself for you?” she asked. “No,” he said, reaching up to tuck some hair behind her ear. “What you did wasn’t selfish, it was survival. There’s a difference. Me expecting you to sacrifice yourself for my job would have been selfish. Are you doing what you need to in order to survive? Not selfish. Not in the slightest.” “It feels selfish,” she mumbled, leaning her forehead against his. “I feel like I need to do something to make it up to you.” Parker cupped her face. “Talia,” he whispered. “This is not some quid pro quo thing. There will be times when you will save me. I have no doubt about it. That’s how relationships work. It’s swings and roundabouts. There is no big tally sheet in the sky and nobody is keeping score.” “I just don’t want you to feel resentful—” Parker cut off the rest of her sentence with a kiss. “How could I be resentful of the fact that I get to have you in my l
“She’s asleep,” Parker said, coming into the living room from his bedroom where Talia had finally succumbed to sleep. He slumped onto the couch beside Stephen and laid his head on his father’s shoulder. Anthony looked over at him from where he was sitting, going through some paperwork on his laptop, and Carter paced, not able to sit still. “I take it the article came out,” Parker said. “Yeah,” Carter replied with a sigh as he raked his hand through his hair. “It’s going to do us some damage,” Parker said. “Maybe,” Carter said with a shrug. “Maybe not.” Parker frowned at him. “What does that mean?” “It gets your name out there,” he replied. “It will drive people to your blog.” “Fucking hell, Carter,” Parker exploded, jumping to his feet. “Seriously? You think this is a good thing?” “I didn’t say that,” Carter replied. “I just said it wasn’t necessarily damaging to us.” “And what about Parker asked. “The article would have tanked that de
Anthony had filed a police report as soon as he arrived in the city. “Their hands are tied,” Anthony said with a sigh. “There is no evidence of force and as she recently hid from the public because of a scandal, we have nothing to say she isn’t doing it again because of the latest issue.” “But can’t they force her to at least speak with them? To check that she’s okay?” Parker asked. “As far as they’re concerned, she has just gone into hiding again,” Anthony reiterated. “Until we have something to say otherwise, they can’t do anything. This has the potential to be a high-profile case because of who she is, so if they make a big deal about it and it turns out to be something innocent, it might blow up in their faces.” “That’s bullshit,” Parker growled, pushing up from his seat to pace around the room. He hated that he was sitting there doing nothing while Talia was trapped in her father’s house. It was torture to know where she was and yet not be able to get to
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Talia said. After Mark’s big reveal the night before, Talia had been left to sleep off the effects of the sedative he’d given her. The fucking bastard. He’d locked her door so she couldn’t get out and the window was too far from the ground for her to escape that way. Not without breaking something, anyway. Which Talia wouldn’t have minded, except with the way she’d been feeling, the thing that got broken might very well be her head, and she was kind of attached to it being in one piece and remaining on her shoulders. So Mark had stalked her and Parker and then kidnapped her and drugged her and imprisoned her and he was under the impression that he was perfectly within his rights to do so. “I’m doing this for you,” Mark said. “Your mental health is at stake here.” “The only threat to my mental health is your arsehole behavior,” Talia snapped. They were sitting in the sunny kitchen at the table and Mark was trying to pretend that it
Carter clicked his fingers. “The original photos, the ones that were taken when you took her out to look at the miniature street art.” Carter turned to Parker. “You were in some of those photos. Your face was blurred, but that could have been done after the fact.” “So he’s been following me?” Parker asked. “You and Carter. Both would be my guess,” Jack said. “So he’s been following us, but how did he know I was sending a car to pick her up?” Parker asked. “Have you noticed anyone following you?” Carter asked. Parker shook his head and then paused. “What?” Carter asked. “What’s that look?” “It’s probably nothing,” Parker said. “Just say it,” Carter said. “I was speaking to Talia just before I went into the meeting he said. “When I hung up from the call, I bumped into a guy…you don’t think…nah. It can’t be. This isn’t some espionage movie.” “Could he have overheard your conversation?” Jack asked, leaning back in his chair and looking up
Parker was on a high. By all accounts, Atticus was on board with his proposal. Isaac just wanted to check in with the rest of the band before giving him a definitive answer. That was fine with Parker. Things would go much more smoothly if everyone was in agreement. The last thing he wanted was a hostile environment and if any of the members had misgivings about the proposal, then he would walk away. It would hurt, but he would do it. For this to work—for everyone involved—there had to be open communication and a willingness to participate. Without that, Parker may as well give up now. He climbed into his car, cursing the parking ticket and flapping on his windscreen. Getting out again, he grabbed it from under the windscreen wiper and shoved it into his glove compartment. The Playbook could pay for that. It was the price of doing business, after all. He turned the music up loud as he navigated through the heavy traffic toward his apartment building. He couldn’t wait to tell Ta