Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“I was never really afraid of dying. When my cousin was forced to give up his shares, he lost it and stabbed me. It should have hurt, but I didn’t feel a thing,
“At that moment, all I could think about… was you.”
The parking garage was silent.
Under the dim glow of the headlights, Liam shrugged off his suit jacket and slowly unbuttoned his dress shirt.
One button at a time until the scar over his chest, dangerously close to his heart, was fully visible.
“The Hughes family is a mess. It was never going to be easy to take control. But after tonight, Linda and the last of the people who backed her will fall.
“And the entire Hughes family, including me, can be yours.
He leaned in, closer and closer, his gaze locked onto mine.
For years, his eyes had been clouded, unfocused.
Now, they burned, sharp and piercing, filled with the kind of brilliance that seemed to hold the entire universe.
I swallowed hard, my voice barely above a whisper.
“But you and Linda-”
“I never kissed her. Not once.”
His tone was firmer this time, as if carving the words into stone.
“I am clean, Chloe. You can check for yourself.”
With just that single sentence, something in me snapped.
Whatever logic and restraint I once had were completely gone.
I lunged forward, yanking open his collar, hands trembling as years of buried emotions surged back all at once.
His lowest point had been the most uncertain, chaotic years of my life too.
All that reckless, uncontained emotion that had nowhere to go got released.
In the end, it all melted into the inevitable pull between us.
On the reclined car seat, I tightened my grip on Liam’s tie, wrapped around his bare neck–just like I had so many times before, after every fight, every heated clash that always ended the same way, tangled together and breathless.
I tugged, just enough to tighten it.
It was a faint, intoxicating pressure.
Liam narrowed his eyes, a low, satisfied sigh slipping past his lips.
“I missed you.”
Holding me close, he buried his face against the curve of my neck, his palm searing hot as it traced along my waist.
7/2
Chapter 12
+25 BONUS
“They were fools. Did they really think a tame, obedient trophy could ever be you? No one could ever play your role.”
His voice, usually cold and sharp, was now thick with something else entirely.
By the time the storm had passed, it was the dead of night.
