Played by the Billionaire Read online

  Her eyes flew to his, yet he stood impassive, waiting for her.

  Heat flooded her face. She’d never been so brazen. Liam seemed content to let her set the pace. It took several tries, and his hands steadying hers, before she got the belt undone. Glancing again at his face, he gave her a lopsided grin, the dimple in his cheek winking at her. After releasing the button on his fly, she slowly slid the zipper down, his erection straining against the metal. With his pants loosened she suddenly lost her nerve and dropped her hands to her side.

  “Come now, sweetheart. You’re doing such a wonderful job, you can’t give up now. Let’s continue your education on the dark side.”

  “I…”

  He put his hands on her face and kissed her until her desires overcame her inhibitions. When he released her lips, his voice was husky. “You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever kissed. Now take my clothes off and let me show you how much I want you.”

  “I’m not the sexiest woman you’ve kissed.”

  “You are. Sexy and beautiful and kind and funny. I could go on but my lips would rather be exploring you than talking at the moment. ”

  It was probably a line, but she’d rather have his lips on her as well. Finally, he stood before her, stark naked, and she could honestly say he was magnificent—broad shoulders, just the right amount of well-defined muscles, leading down to a trim waist and lower. Forget firemen or Chippendales; there should be a sexy IT guy calendar.

  When he kissed her again, she could feel the restraint. He was holding back.

  “Now it’s your turn,” he said as he lay back on the bed.

  “What?”

  “Take your clothes off.” The sensual gleam in his eyes as they roved over her sent sparks skidding along her skin.

  Lorelei put her hands on her hips. The seduction routine had been her idea, but she thought he’d run with it once she started. He’d obviously had a drink; she could taste the whiskey whenever they kissed. Yet he wasn’t drunk. “Why do I have to do all the work?”

  “Because this is your idea. Trust me, I think it’s a fabulous idea. But the way my company works, if you make a suggestion you’d better back it up with action.” He put his hands behind his head and smiled at her.

  Was he just going to lie there, naked, and expect her to strip for him? She glanced down at her clothes. Well, there wasn’t a lot to remove, even with her shoes still on. This had better be worth it.

  Leaning forward, she unhooked one of the clips on her stockings. Passion flared in Liam’s eyes, emboldening her. She slid a strap off one shoulder then turned her back, releasing the other clip on her stocking. Putting her foot up on his bedside table, she rolled the stocking down her leg, inch by inch. Without glancing at him she could hear his breathing increase. She slipped the stocking off her foot, then put her shoe back on. With a sway of her hips, she removed the other stocking. She folded them carefully and laid them on the chair by the bed.

  She peeked at Liam. He lay there, as though he was watching a mildly interesting baseball game. However, she could see the muscle throb in his jaw and the rest of his body ready for action. Lorelei swallowed. Reaching behind her, she undid one of the hooks holding her bodice together. She sauntered over to the window while releasing another hook. She slid one curtain closed and released another hook. With an exaggerated swing of her hips she glided over to the other curtain. She hid behind it while she removed her panties, unable to think of a sexy way to do that. Peeking around the curtain, she threw them at Liam, who caught them, examined the delicate lace, and then tossed them toward her stockings.

  With the curtains closed, she advanced on Liam, undoing hooks as she went. With only one hook left she knelt on the bed. His whole body was taut, his gaze riveted on her chest, and she waited until he stared into her eyes. When their gazes locked she undid the last hook, slid the straps off her arms, and threw the bodice toward the fireplace. She was as naked as him now, except for her shoes.

  “Bad enough for you?” She barely recognized her own voice it was so thick with desire.

  “Oh, yeah.” He reached a hand out and she put hers into it. “Thank you,” he said, his voice husky. Tugging gently, she landed against him, skin on skin. The roughness of his hairy chest on her sensitized breasts made her gasp. This could be over very quickly. She took a deep breath as he rolled over and loomed above her.

  “For what?”

  “For making my fantasy come true.”

  She smiled up at him. Here she was lying naked under the sexiest man she’d ever met. The man she was pretty sure she was in love with, and she’d just performed her first striptease and he hadn’t fallen asleep. She reached up a hand and put it onto his cheek.

  “That was it? That was the sum of your fantasies? I think we need to work on your imagination a little more.”

  He laughed and then kissed her until she couldn’t remember her own name.

  …

  Liam rolled over onto something pointy. He reached around and pulled a high-heeled shoe from his back. Lorelei’s footwear had lasted for half an hour before finally falling off. It had been the best night of his life, bar none. Adding emotion did amazing things for the physical aspects of the relationship. Making love was way better than having sex. It would never be the same again.

  On that cheery thought, he eased his arm out from under Lorelei’s head. She groaned at the loss of contact but snuggled into the pillow. Kissing her on the cheek, he tucked the blankets around her. He planned on being back beside her before she woke fully. Three times wasn’t enough.

  After putting on his robe, he padded barefoot out of the room. On autopilot, he headed for the computer room. When he wiggled the mouse, the screen lit up with his brother’s manuscript still open. The blinking bar that had last night taunted him with his unhappiness now lured him to write the happy ever after for his fictional couple. The sense of triumph he experienced when he typed “The End” was similar to being told an external hacker hadn’t been able to penetrate a client’s newly secured system. No wonder Marcus had enjoyed writing so much.

  His cell phone rang in the front room and he hurried to answer it so the noise didn’t wake Lorelei. Dawn was breaking and the rosy, early-morning light began to flood the apartment. His spirits rose with the approach of a new day—a day starting with Lorelei naked in his bed.

  David’s voice on the phone broke through the fog of happiness, bringing him back to reality. After dealing with a couple of issues, he left a message for his secretary saying he would be out of contact until late afternoon. Shutting off his phone, he put it on the mantel before returning to the bedroom.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Lorelei woke with a heavy weight across her legs, and her eyes flew open, taking in the unfamiliar room. Her heart thudded in her chest and slowly she turned her head. Liam’s gorgeous face shared her pillow, his long lashes fanned against his cheeks, morning stubble darkened his jaw. Relaxing, she stretched, extricating her limbs from his. He mumbled something but rolled over, still asleep.

  He must have gotten up sometime during the night because his clothes, which had been abandoned on the floor by the bed, had been picked up. Sliding out of the bed, she headed for the bathroom. She was going to have a few aches in places she wasn’t used to aching. Liam was a skilled and gentle lover and had taught her a few things about her own body—like how much pleasure she could take. And from his responses to her touch, she hadn’t disappointed either.

  All in all, it was an excellent start to the day.

  She washed the smudged makeup off her face and, using her finger and Liam’s toothpaste, scrubbed at her teeth. She stood naked in front of the mirror and saw the big problem with her plan. Wearing only a sexy teddy, stockings, and stilettos under a trench coat hadn’t left her with many wardrobe options for the next day.

  Right now she needed something to wear to cook breakfast. She wanted to make up for the burned enchilada dinner and prove she knew her way around the kitchen. Lorelei didn’
t have a lot of talents, but she could cook. Unless, of course, she was distracted by a gorgeous man.

  Stepping into Liam’s closet, she found his discarded shirt from the previous night. She slipped it on and rolled up the sleeves until they came to her elbows. The shirt reached down to her knees, providing adequate coverage for cooking bacon.

  When she reentered the bedroom, her gaze flew to the bed. Liam lay on his stomach, stretched across almost the whole bed. She was tempted to crawl back in with him, but she had a mission. They said the way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. She doubted Liam could be bought so cheaply. At this stage, though, it was worth a try. It was also something few of his other girlfriends had probably done.

  With that mission in mind, she headed toward the kitchen. Thankfully, it was laid out exactly as she would have done it, and she found everything she needed quickly. Tiptoeing back to the bedroom, she checked on her man. He was still fast asleep, so she figured she had at least half an hour before she needed to start cooking.

  In the meantime, she should call her mother. She hadn’t spoken to her yesterday in her rush to go out with Liam, and she certainly hadn’t called her last night. They’d never gone more than two days without talking, and her panic-prone parent had probably called the FBI by now to report her missing. Her handbag was still beside the front door and after a few minutes’ rummaging she found her cell. She pressed the on button to no avail. Damn, she’d forgotten to charge it.

  Tossing her phone back in her bag she searched for Liam’s home phone. There was no handset in either the living room or kitchen, and thinking back she hadn’t seen one in the bedroom either. Then again, she hadn’t been concentrating on the decor. After a fruitless ten-minute search she came to the conclusion Liam didn’t have a landline. She found his cell phone, but it was turned off. When she powered it up, the screen was locked and she didn’t want to wake Liam to ask him the password.

  She could always wait for Liam to wake up to call her mother, but she figured she’d have a lot of better things to be doing with him around than speaking with her mom. Email. She’d send her mother an email, then she wouldn’t have to actually speak with her in person. No FBI, no interrogation on where she was—double win.

  Although she hadn’t seen Liam’s office or computer room, she had a fair idea of its location as both he and David had disappeared down the other corridor often enough when she was here last. She hoped the equipment wasn’t too complicated and she could open a browser and access her email account without destroying half of California’s Internet service.

  First, she needed caffeine, so she made herself a cup of coffee in the kitchen with Liam’s high-tech coffeemaker. If she had it at her place it would be on the table like a prized sculpture. She hadn’t even been aware they made coffeemakers so beautiful. Liam lived in a different world. Could she fit in? He’d made her no promises about the future but she couldn’t help feeling they had one—together.

  With the heavenly aroma of fresh coffee in hand, she wandered back along the mysterious hallway. A distinct hum was coming from one room. She cracked the door a fraction and was instantly hit with a blast of cold air. The hum increased to a low roar and she stuck her head around to see a server room that would rival a giant corporation’s. Three air conditioners were working full-blast and the oversize computers were set up on metal shelves. Wires flowed in a tangle of what were to her knots, but to Liam were probably a well-organized pathway. If she needed any further evidence he was a consummate professional, then that was it.

  She shut the door and wandered down to the next one. It opened onto a large room with a huge oak desk, piled with papers. A corkboard at least twelve feet long took up one wall. Pinned to it were schematics and articles ripped from magazines. Barely a square inch of cork was left uncovered. At the far end of the room was a pool table. It looked as though a game had been interrupted mid-play as the stick things sat on the edges and the balls were scattered on the table. Another coffeemaker sat on a counter at the end of the room, next to a bar sink with a mini-fridge underneath.

  Whereas for most people the kitchen was the heart of the home, this was definitely where Liam did his living. The curtains were closed and she resisted the urge to open them and flood the room with natural light. This was his space, and if it wasn’t for her mission to stop her mother from sending out the troops, she had no right to be there.

  She sat on the comfortable leather chair and pulled out the sliding drawer at the front of the desk to find the keyboard. She wiggled the mouse, hoping at least one of the six monitors on the top of the desk would come to life.

  Three of the monitors lit up and she scanned the screens. The first was a black screen with lines of what she figured was computer code because none of it seemed to be in English. The second monitor displayed a spreadsheet with Liam’s company’s quarterly financial report, according to the header. The third screen displayed a document in what appeared to be a word processing program. A column on the left had chapter headings, the central space had lines of text, and over to the right was a series of boxes with various details about the chapter and scene. Below the document she recognized the symbols to access the Internet. Now if only she could figure out how to open one of those programs on that screen.

  As she wiggled the mouse, the cursor moved over the text so at least she was on the right monitor. Before she could click on the Internet button, her name on the screen caught her eye. Curiosity and respect for his privacy battled within her. While it was Liam’s work and she had no right to read it, it seemed to be about her. What could he be writing about her? She read the paragraph that contained her name. Then she read the next one and the one after that.

  Liam seemed to be writing about her interaction with someone named Todd. It made no sense. She clicked on the folder that said “Chapter Twelve” and read from the beginning. The name Lorelei disappeared but a character named Lisa burned a dish of enchiladas. The hero, Todd, still tasted the ruined meal.

  A chill swept through her and she took a sip of her coffee. It fell through her stomach and burned into her abdomen. Still she read on. The couple took a trip to Russian River, but instead of a picnic lunch they ate at a small winery and discussed some type of mystery they were involved in. Why was Liam writing a book? Maybe it was the last book Marcus wrote and he was proofreading it? But how could Marcus have known about the burned meal she had prepared?

  She clicked back to an earlier chapter and started reading from there, hoping it would make sense. The two characters, Lisa and Todd, seemed to be involved in some kind of amateur sleuthing while falling in love. Some of their dates bore a striking resemblance to things she and Liam had done. When the couple had an argument in the car on the way back from Russian River, Lorelei’s blood ran cold. The hero didn’t want children and the heroine did. It seemed the relationship was over just as they’d solved the mystery.

  Her coffee was now lukewarm, and rather than get a new cup from the coffeemaker at the other end of the room, she read on. The heroine, Lisa, although her name switched intermittently with Lorelei, had shown up at the hero’s apartment wearing a teddy and a trench coat. She then announced to the hero she’d rather have him than a hundred children before doing a striptease for him.

  The words began to blur and Lorelei blinked rapidly. She felt violated, like someone had taken her private diary and opened it for everyone to read. Even their lovemaking was immortalized in the written word. Her stomach rolled and she reached for her coffee, hoping to melt the lump that seemed lodged in her throat. Why would Liam do this? She thought his brother had been the writer. Was it yet another of his disguises?

  The cup, which she had set down on a wobbly pile of paper, overturned, spilling the last of the brown liquid over the desk. She moved some of the files before the advancing coffee tsunami could reach them, while she searched frantically for something to mop up the liquid.

  Lorelei raced across the room, where a roll of paper towels sat on the
counter. Grabbing a handful, she hurried back to the desk. Desperate to mop up the coffee before it spread, she knocked over the precarious stack of papers, scattering the contents across the floor. After she’d cleaned the spilled coffee, she bent to retrieve the papers. She froze, her hand hovering over a photo of herself. The picture her mother had uploaded to the dating site. Her hand shook as she picked up the remaining pages. Her profile, as well as a transcript of the chat she’d had with Richard the architect, had been printed out. A few of her personal details were highlighted with a yellow marker.

  A black haze clouded her mind and she struggled to drag in each breath. Was she having another anaphylactic reaction? Her EpiPen was in her bag near the front door, but she couldn’t make her legs understand the need to walk. They were glued to the floor as she stared at her face in the photo, which began to blur.

  Splashes fell on the picture. It wasn’t until strong hands pulled the paper out of her grasp that she became aware of Liam standing before her. Guilt was written all over his face.

  “You self-centered, lying bastard.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized she’d repeated his mother’s vindictive summation of his character.

  …

  Liam swallowed at Lorelei’s words. He couldn’t deny them. How to make her understand? He glanced over at the monitors. Marcus’s book was clearly displayed, and not at the point where he’d left it. And judging by the horrified expression on Lorelei’s face, she’d read that, as well as finding his file on her. Why the hell hadn’t he destroyed it? He’d printed it out on a whim and had been unwilling to lose her photo. Now that sentimentality had come back to bite him in the ass. Except it was his heart taking the punishment. His chest ached and it was difficult to breathe.

  “Lorelei, let me explain��”

  “Explain what? Explain how you hacked into the dating website, read my profile, decided I was the perfect candidate to play the role in your little book here.” She gestured wildly at the computer monitor. “And then dated me to provide fodder for your limited imagination? I see it all worked out for you very well. Glad I was able to live up to your expectations. Or, what was it you wrote, ‘made him realize how shallow his previous sexual encounters had been’? Well, lucky for you. I’m glad you’ve written ‘The End’ because it saves me from having to say it!”