Pride and Papercuts (The Austens #5) - Staci Hart Page 0,91
not here, and you shouldn’t be either.”
Catherine de Bourgh’s imperious voice commanded on tone alone. And she glared at me with unbridled hatred I hadn’t seen since my last encounter with Evelyn Bower.
“I suppose you won’t tell me when he’ll be back, will you?”
She seethed. “What have you done to him?”
“Me? What have I done to him?”
“Liam left in a hurry yesterday, taking Georgie with him under the lie that they needed to visit the cities the bookstores will launch in. But I heard a rumor from Caroline I didn’t believe was true, not until I saw the two of you after the meeting Monday.” She straightened up, puffed up her chest. “Are you seeing him?”
Hot rage caught fire in my ribs. “Excuse me?”
“I’m sure it was a spectacular rumor designed by Caroline to better her own chances with him, but I would never insult him as to assume it’s true.”
“If you’re so sure of yourself, why bother to ask me?”
Her eyes glittered like diamonds in her skull. “Are you seeing my nephew?”
“Sadly, I’m not as forthcoming as you are. Ask whatever you want—I probably won’t answer.”
A furious flush climbed up Catherine’s face. “Are you and Liam together?”
“You’ve claimed it’s impossible.”
“Graceless Bennets,” she spat. “You’re a thieving jezebel just like your mother, stealing men who don’t belong to you. You might have lured him in.”
“If I did, why would I tell you?”
“Do you know who I am?” she asked with quiet menace. “I am the closest thing to a mother he has in this world, and I am entitled to know all business where his safety is a concern.”
“But you aren’t entitled to mine, and this”—I motioned to her—“isn’t going to convince me otherwise.”
“Obstinate, headstrong girl!” she snapped. “I will ask you once more before things end badly—are you with my nephew?”
I realized she wasn’t going to let me go until I answered, and at the knowledge, exhaustion swept over me. There was no reason to fight, nothing to lose that wasn’t already gone.
So I answered with a weary voice, “I’m not.”
The sigh she released must have weighed twenty pounds. “And will you promise to never see him?”
Just like that, I caught fire again. She couldn’t take what I’d given her—she needed more. The vision of him rose in my mind like a giant. He wore the expression on his face when I’d walked away from him the last time, and I lost myself in the pain and longing in his eyes as he’d traced my face with his gaze as if to commit it to memory. And the answer was clear.
She would get no comfort from me. “I will not.”
Her nostrils flared. “He is not yours to have, and he never will be. Try all you’d like, but it will never happen, if for no other reason than me. Because if you think that I’m going to let this go, you’re mistaken.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m due to be anywhere but here.”
I turned on my heel, marching toward the elevators as I fought the squeeze in my throat with a swallow. She had insulted me in every conceivable way, even down to calling me—and my mother, for that matter—a whore. Thoughts of coming clean with Liam crumbled away, not only for the distance between us, but for the matter of his aunt.
For the first time, I understood why Georgie couldn’t choose Jett.
And I hated every single reason.
29
Wrong + Wrong = Wrong
LIAM
When our plane touched down in New York, I could say with certainty that distance did not help me forget Laney.
Chicago was cold. Seattle was rainy, Houston was crowded. San Diego was sunny, and Atlanta was hot.
And my heart ached relentlessly no matter where I went.
The pain had become a fact, as sure as cloudy skies in Seattle. I pretended I was fine, and so did Georgie—we’d talked it out, and there was nothing left to say. We wanted to leave our problems in Manhattan in search of escape, but there was no escaping ourselves. And so we came home as broken as we’d left, with nothing to do but get back to our well-worn routine in the hopes that time and repetition would make things easier.
Neither of us believed that was true.
I’d tried to convince Georgie to see Jett in secret—after Laney, I couldn’t deny her that, not anymore. But she’d told me of his insistence to end things, not willing to be the reason her life was upended.