Their Forever - Chloe Kent Page 0,43

Lydia in with a tray of food.

Olivia smiled brightly at Lydia as the older woman gave her a once-over. She knew she looked a wreck. Wearing clothes she hadn't worn since coming to live in Liam's castle-like mansion, her hair tangled, her face tear blotched. Her lip still bruised and her jaw still tender from where Liam held his hand against her mouth to stop her useless pleas that he gave her something they both knew she didn't deserve.

She couldn't really tell for sure, but it seemed while Lydia understood the dynamics of her relationship with Liam, she had seen Olivia wince when she sat down, or the delicate bruising on her throat in the shape of Liam's hand that she wore more proudly than any necklace worth millions, Lydia had always secretly smiled at her.

But the housekeeper’s concern increased and Olivia knew she had given away her distress in her eyes. And since she had worked for Liam since he was a man barely out of his twenties, she undoubtedly saw the tension he carried ever so subtly on his shoulders.

She may not know the details, but it was obvious from Lydia’s expression, she knew Liam enough to know that Olivia had done something that had gravely dissatisfied him, and now she was going to face the consequences.

As if Liam knew she was hungry but wouldn't be able to eat, Lydia brought in a grilled cheese sandwich, fries, and a lime milkshake. In between overseeing her eat and feeding her as well, Liam waited patiently until she was done. He then carried her upstairs, stripped off her clothes, and placed her in the tub, which Lydia had prepared already. The temperature of the water was perfect, and she closed her eyes as Liam proceeded to cleanse her. But she was torn between pent-up sexual frustration and just allowing herself to enjoy his tender attention.

After she was dried with a thick fluffy towel, Liam put her to bed, pulling the covers over her.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, although nothing was going to stop her from receiving her real punishment. Her stunt, no matter her intentions, would require his most stringent hand. She had never done anything remotely similar to compare with what might happen to her.

The warm coziness Liam had created for her became tinged with apprehension.

“Who is he, Liam? How do you know him?” It seemed a silly question to ask, because clearly Kade Tremayne belonged in Liam's world, but she wanted to know what had sealed that visible clear bond between them.

“An old… well, young friend who tried to kill me once.”

She sat up in shock, but Liam laid himself down next to her and pulled her beside him.

“He surprised me. A green eighteen-year-old, fresh out of some secret government training, working undercover to infiltrate a mob, and I was his initiation. He bypassed all my security, which was ingenious and impressive, to say the least. Came right into my study and put a knife to my throat. Make no mistake, he could have sliced that knife across my throat before my next breath.”

Shivering at the thought of what might have happened to Liam, she snuggled closer and laid her hand on his heartbeat to assure herself he was okay.

“But what he had in cleverness, he lacked in experience. And when I didn't react the way he intended, which was beg for my life, he seemed curious.” Liam smiled, and she wondered how he could possibly do that. His life had literally hung on the sharp side of a blade.

*~~*~~*

Subconsciously, Liam assured himself she was okay. Her warm, perfect body laid in his bed, and she was whole. No other man besides himself could have ensured that.

Liam had sensed something in Kade that he himself harbored inside. He didn't know what it was, what to call it, but it was there from day one, the first minute.

Kade had intrigued him from the moment he had stepped into his house, into his study unseen. He had thought it a pity that he would have to kill the young man, not that he was very much older at twenty-eight himself. But in his line of business, that he had been involved in for ten years already, it was enough to make any man feel like a hundred years old.

He still remembered the question he’d asked Kade and the one which saved his life.

“Am I your first?”

Kade had been arrogant enough to answer, going against the number-one rule never to engage verbally