I don't need him to come inside and see Liv here. “But not here. I'll meet you at the bar downstairs.”
His eyes narrow, but he gives me a single nod and strides away. I close the door with a sigh and go back to the room to find Liv waiting for me.
“Room service?” she asks, sounding just as hopeful and hungry as I was.
I shake my head. “Your brother,” I reply.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” I sit beside her. “He's probably here to rub his win in my face but fuck him. I'm going to fight the contract in court, I won't give up my company without a fight.”
She smiles and takes my hand, leaning against me. It's impossible to fight the urge to turn my head and kiss her, so I don't. She smells fantastic; she smells like me, and I press my nose to her hair as she rests her cheek on my shoulder, inhaling greedily. She bites her lower lip, playing our fingers against each other.
“I told my mom and Jake about what happened,” she confesses. “About David, back in high school.” Her fingers lace with mine, flex, and untangle again as she pets down the veins in the back of my hand. “I told them the whole truth… so they know you weren't involved.”
I pause and make a curious sound. Honestly, I’m shocked she told them, but I’m glad she did. There was no way they were going to accept me into their family, given our history.
“I’m also going to speak to someone. See if there’s anything I can do, or if too much time has passed…”
“Telling them must’ve taken a lot of courage,” I say. She nods, and I cup her face, making her meet my eyes. I smile. “I'm proud of you, Liv.”
She smiles, bright and engaging, which makes my heart swell. God, she's beautiful. I kiss her again and she deepens it immediately, eager and warm, sliding our joined hands in invitation between her thighs. I shiver, growling against her mouth. It would be so easy to throw her on her back down on the bed, push her thighs apart and do dirty and unspeakable things to her, but… I can’t.
If he knows the truth about what happened in high school, maybe he's changed his tune about not wanting me to be with his sister. Or maybe he wants to talk about it. Either way, he certainly didn't seem in the mood to gloat.
“I should go see what your brother wants,” I say, pulling back.
“You always know the right words to seduce me,” she teases, making a face. I laugh, and pull my hand away, giving her one last peck on the lips.
I throw on my clothes from yesterday, wishing I hadn’t been so rash in ripping my shirt off, because half the buttons are missing. I make my way down to the bar and find Jake sitting there, glowering into his drink. A second glass sits in front of the empty stool beside him, so I slide into place and cradle the drink, then take a sip.
“Thanks for the drink.”
He looks up, surprised, and then he laughs. “I didn’t order that.”
Well, shit.
I make a face, pushing it away and wave the barmaid over.
“Whiskey. Straight.”
Jake lifts his glass. “He’ll have one of these.”
“Macallan’s?”
“No. Blanton’s.”
I nod. “Nice.” If there was one thing Jake and I always shared, it was a love for fine whiskey. “So,” I begin, “are you here to gloat or talk whiskey?”
“Neither,” Jake replies, his voice glum. He looks at me briefly and sighs. “Actually, I'm here to apologize.”
“Apologize?”
I echo the word, blinking in shock as the barmaid places a glass in front of me.
Frowning down at my drink, I’m not sure what to say. I can't trust anything that comes out of his mouth. He’s probably trying to soften me up so I rethink fighting him in court over my company. If that is the case, he doesn't know me very well at all.
“What are you sorry for?” I eventually ask.
“Everything?”
Jake takes another long draw from his drink, hissing a breath through his teeth after the fact. He puts the glass on its edge, peering into his ice like it holds the answer to all of life's questions.
“Could you be a little more specific?” I’m not ready to let him off the hook just yet. “Because you’ve done a lot of shitty things these last few weeks, and not just to me.”
“I voided the contract,” he says. “I'm not going to try and take