“I don’t have to prove anything.” Delancy turned away from him, turned toward the crowd collecting around the grandstand.
Liam’s old need for revenge reared its ugly head.
The temptation was there-a microphone, an audience, the media. All he had to do was walk over to the mike and make the announcement that could shatter Delancy’s career. He could spill Finn Delancy’s secret all over Boston and finally have his revenge.
But he didn’t reach for the microphone. Didn’t make the public announcement he’d spent years fantasizing about. He couldn’t bring himself to hurt the innocent people involved-Sutton Delancy, his half brothers. But most of all, he couldn’t put the scrutiny of the spotlight on his mother. She’d suffered enough because of this thoughtless, vain, self-centered man.
He’d done what he’d come here to do. Delancy knew who he was. That’s all that mattered.
As Liam turned and walked down the steps of the grandstand, an immediate lightness filled him. A smile tilted his lips and his heart was flooded with the knowledge that he’d just let himself out of a prison of his own making. Delancy no longer had any hold over him. He was free.
Free to love Katie, wholly, completely without any reservation.
Until now, his identity had been caught up in doing and achieving, trying to prove himself worthy of a man who did not deserve his love. But by facing his demons and confronting Delancy, he was finally able to see the truth of it.
Blue blood or commoner. Rich or poor. Bastard son, recognized or not. He was ten times the man Delancy would ever be.
And he owed it all to Katie for helping him to see who he really was deep down inside. Knowing her, being with her, had changed him forever. Changed him in profound and positive ways.
She’d shown him how to embrace his inner child, to have fun and live in the moment. Strange that he’d accused her of deception because until Katie, there had been no hope of true honesty and genuineness in his life.
Before Katie, he’d been quick and competent and capable. He still was, of course, but making a buck was no longer so important. He no longer had anything to prove. What was important now was being true to what had real value to him.
Katie.
He craved her with a longing beyond reason. He had to have her and he was going to do everything in his power to win her back.
THE MORNING AFTER she returned from Fiji, Katie trudged into Sharper Designs. The final art design for Liam’s campaign was due. It had taken every ounce of courage she possessed to show up at the office today. All she’d wanted to do was call in to work, hide under the covers and huddle there for the rest of her life.
She had the misfortune of falling in love with Liam James. She loved so many things about him-his sense of honor, his work ethic, the way he could see past the boisterous front she put up to hide her fears.
But his emotional stumbling blocks kept tripping them up. He was a loyal and complicated man. His feelings ran deep, but he had buried them under his stiff upper lip so that she didn’t believe he was capable of expressing those feelings. And dammit, Katie deserved a man who could tell her what was in his heart.
A few minutes after Katie had slumped in her chair with a mocha latte, Tanisha came bounding through the door, her face all aglow.
“Good morning!” She greeted Katie with a gigantic smile.
“Well-” Katie blinked, feeling a tad bit disappointed by Tanisha’s enthusiasm. She had visions of them washing away their man woes together over shots of peppermint schnapps during happy hour at the closest bar. “You look as if you’ve rebounded nicely from your breakup with Dwayne. Did you have an exciting hookup this weekend?”
“I did.” Tanisha grinned slyly, her hands clasped behind her back. “With Dwayne.”
“You guys made up? That’s so wonderful,” she said struggling to control her heartache.
“We didn’t just make up.” Tanisha’s eyes danced.
“No?”
“We’re getting married!” Tanisha let out a squeal and thrust her left hand under Katie’s nose so she could see the big two-carat marquis diamond engagement ring on her finger.
“That’s wonderful!” Katie jumped up to give her friend a hug. Truly, she was happy for Tanisha, but there was a pity party going on inside Katie’s stomach. She felt so left out.
“He took me to a Red Sox game and there it was up on the scoreboard during the seventh-inning stretch for the whole world to see. Tanisha, will you marry me?”
“Ah,” Katie said, “the grand gesture.”
“Girlfriend, let me tell you, it was a dream come true.”
“I thought you told me once that you weren’t the marrying kind.”
Tanisha waved it off. “That was before I met Dwayne. The right man can change your mind about anything.”
“Tell me,” Katie muttered. She thought she’d found the right man and she’d changed, but then he’d turned out to be the wrong man and she felt like a total fool for following her heart.
“We’re getting married next June,” Tanisha chattered. “And, of course, I want you to be my maid of honor.”
“Sure, sure.” The smile froze to her face.
“I tell you, Katie-” Tanisha grasped both her hands in hers “-I’ve never been so happy.”
“That’s wonderful.”
Tanisha canted her head. “Are you all right?”
“Fine.” Katie forced herself to look perky.
“How was your weekend in Fiji with Liam?”
Katie shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
“Not good?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. This is your day. Tell me all about Dwayne.”
Tanisha shook a finger at her. “Nuh-uh. You’re not getting off that easy. Something is bothering you. You’re not your usual self. Sure, I’m happy, but I want you to know I’m here for you, no matter what. So spill it. What happened in Fiji?”
Katie shrugged, trying to act nonchalant in the hopes that it wouldn’t hurt so much. Quickly, she told her about the Martini dares and how she’d used Liam to complete them. And how upset he’d been when she confessed what she’d been up to. “Was I so wrong?” she finished, lacing her fingers together nervously.
“Not to my way of thinking, but some guys have issues about being completely honest.”
“Liam is definitely in that camp,” Katie said gloomily.
Tanisha shook her head. “I’ve never seen you this torn up over a man.”
“I’ve never felt like this over a man before.”
“Seriously, Katie, you’re not going to let this misunderstanding come between you two.”
If anyone but Tanisha had told her this, Katie would have been inclined to make light of her feelings for Liam. But this was Tanisha, who’d started at Sharper Designs on the same day she had. Who’d let her sleep on her couch when Katie’s condo was being fumigated. Who brought over Chinese food when she was down in the dumps and doled out sharp-witted advice.
She owed Tanisha the truth. Had to open herself up to someone. Tanisha had proven she was her friend.
“It’s too late. I mean, even if he did forgive me for deceiving him, I don’t know if I can forgive him for walking out on me. The least he could have done was stay and fight.”
“Don’t judge him too quickly. Some people withdraw when they’re upset. That’s what happened with Dwayne and me.”
“The one time I finally break down and have sex in a bed, I go and fall in love,” her voice cracked.
“What?” Tanisha’s eyes rounded. “Did you say the L word?”
Miserably, Katie nodded.
“Oh, sweetie,” Tanisha said with such a look of pity on her face that Katie wanted to crawl into a hole and pull dirt over her.
All the years she’d spent playing the field and having fun, keeping her heart safely out of the fray, had come to a crashing end. She was no longer immune to the slings and arrows of love.