Wicked Heart (32 page)

Angel and Liam push through the crowd with as much composure as they can, but I notice they’re both finding it more difficult to keep up the charade these days. Especially Liam.

“You guys okay?” I ask as I usher them inside the foyer and lock the glass doors behind them.

“Just great,” Liam says through gritted teeth. He smiles and flips the bird to the photographers, who are now pressing their lenses against the glass. “Haven’t punched
anyone out yet, which I’m claiming as a win.”

Angel grabs his arm and pulls him up the stairs. “Yeah, but you’re getting that look that means you’re close to it. Just chill, dude. is can’t go on for much longer. When
the buzzards fly away, we’ll magically fall out of love with each other, go our separate ways, and start macking on people we actually want to bang.”

I notice her eyeball Josh at the end of the hall when we reach the top of the stairs.

“Do you have anyone in particular in mind when you say that?” I ask.

“No,” she says with a flick of her hair. “Just general people. No one you guys know.”

Josh glances over and gives her a tilt of his chin. The smile that spreads across Angel’s face is brighter than the sun. Josh frowns at her. For all his bluster and bravado, I don’t
think he ever truly expected Angel to think twice about him, and he probably believes she’s only paying attention to him now as a practical joke. I’m tempted to let him know that Angel
finds him hot, but it’s much more fun to watch him squirm.

“See you guys in the production meeting,” Angel says, not sparing me and Liam a backward glance as she heads over to talk to my bestie.

Once she’s gone, Liam surprises me by grabbing my arm and pulling me down the hallway to my office. When we’re safely inside, he locks the door and shoves me against the wall in a
crushing kiss. For a couple of minutes, we’re a mess of urgent, needy hands and mouths, and when he finally pulls back, we’re both panting way too loud considering there are other
people in the building.

“Not seeing you every night is killing me,” he says as he cups my face. “Didn’t Anthony get the memo that I’m owed six years of Elissa time? Why the hell is he
torturing me?”

All week, Liam and Angel have been putting in overtime for their PR appearances. It’s meant we’ve barely seen each other outside rehearsal, and neither of us is coping with that.

“Let me ask you this,” he asks, assessing my skinny jeans and combat boots. “How feasible would it be for me to fuck you right now? I know we have the production meeting in
five minutes, but I promise, I could be done in two. Maybe less.”

I fist his T-shirt. “I’m sorry, but the standard procedure is
seven
minutes in heaven.”

“Not sure I can last that long. I fantasized about you all last night.”

“Wasn’t that awkward, considering you and Angel were having a very public romantic dinner? Right in the front window of one of New York’s trendiest restaurants.”

“Saw the pics, did you?”

“Of course. How convenient the paps knew you’d be there. I assume Anthony tipped them off? That kiss was very believable, by the way. And seemed to go on forever.”

“The funny thing is, our mouths weren’t even touching. I put my head in front of hers and then pretended to kiss her while we had a conversation about how to get you into my
apartment without anyone seeing you. Eventually we decided you’re small enough to fit in a suitcase. We can load you into the car here, then get you to my penthouse through the service lift
in the garage. We also planned a citywide chase scene in which paps on motorbikes swarm us before dying in horrible ways. On a related topic, don’t ever piss off Angel, or she’ll invent
a grisly end for you, which will include having to sit through a Broadway musical composed entirely for banjos and bagpipes. I mean, no one deserves that sort of torture. Not even paps.”

“You spoke about all that while you were pretending to kiss?”

“We’re multitaskers.”

“Prove it.”

He kisses me again, and what he’s doing with his hands at the same time makes me seriously consider taking him up on his offer of two minutes in heaven. He’s undoing the top of my
jeans when there’s a sharp knock at the door.

“Elissa? You in there? It’s Anthony.” We jump away from each other at the sound of Anthony’s voice. The door rattles. “Hello?”

I straighten myself up as Liam looks around for somewhere to hide. I shove him behind the door, then unlock it and open it a crack.

“Anthony, hey. What can I do for you?”

Anthony looks over my head and frowns. “You okay? Why is your door locked?”

“Uh . . . I’m on the phone. With my . . . gynecologist.” I inwardly cringe, but what else can I say that won’t invite further questions? “Did you need
something?”

He hands me a piece of paper. “Just wondering if you could photocopy this agenda for our meeting.”

“Sure. No problem.”

“And have you seen Liam? I thought I heard him arrive a few minutes ago, but now I can’t find him.”

A warm, giant hand closes over my left boob, which is thankfully hidden by the door. My eyelids flutter as Liam gently kneads my nipple. “Uh . . . um . . . no. I haven’t. Seen him, I
mean. He’s here. I saw him arrive. But I don’t know where he is now.” Liam’s other hand cups my ass. A breath gushes out of me.

Anthony looks at me with concern. “Elissa, is everything all right? I hope the phone call isn’t bad news.”

Liam slides the hand that was on my boob down between my legs and massages me in the most arousing way possible.

“No,” I say, and my voice breaks. “Everything’s great. Down there. Uh . . .” I wave the piece of paper he gave me. “So, I’ll photocopy this for you and
see you in the meeting in a couple of minutes, okay? K, bye.”

I close the door, then lean back against it as Liam continues to work his magic.

“At least not everything you said was a lie,” he whispers, and his lips brush the shell of my ear. “Everything
is
great down there. So fucking great I want to rip
these jeans off you and bend you over your desk.”

“You’ve evil,” I moan.

He presses harder, and I stop breathing. “Then it seems you have a thing for evil.”

“I do. Oh, God. I really, really do.”

I’m squeezing my eyes closed and waiting for my orgasm to hit when suddenly Liam takes his hands off me and steps back. I open my eyes and stare at him in shock.

“But here’s what
true
evil looks like: You need to do your photocopies and then we need to go. Anthony will be pissed if we’re late.”

I take a moment to realize he’s serious about depriving me of my orgasm, then I shove him in the chest. “You’re mean!”

He chuckles as I turn away and run off copies of Anthony’s meeting agenda.

“God, you’re hot when you’re angry,” he murmurs as he lays soft kisses along my neck. “Remind me to piss you off more often.”

A few minutes later, Mary and Anthony call everyone into the conference room. The meeting begins with Mary giving an update on how everything’s tracking with the Angeliam
“crisis.” As she predicted, presales for the show have gone through the roof thanks to the massive amount of publicity.

“With numbers like these,” she says with a smile, “we could extend the run by weeks. Even months. Imagine, we might run so long, we could hold the wedding on the stage. How
beautiful would that be?”

Liam’s face darkens. “No.”

Mary frowns. “I beg your pardon?”

I shoot Liam a look, and he drops his scowl to give Mary a dazzling smile. “Sorry, Mary. That was rude. I meant ‘Fuck no.’ Thank you.”

Angel puts her hand over Liam’s. “What my beloved is trying to say is that we already know what we’d like to happen over the next few months, Mary, and getting married in a
theater isn’t really part of the plan.”

“Of course,” Mary says, chastised. “I understand. I’m sure you have it all worked out.”

Liam glances at me. “Not quite. But we’re very close to getting exactly what we want.”

When we get into the rehearsal room, I do my best to not look at Liam. Since our reconciliation, this is how I have to play it. I’m not an actor, so I don’t know how to stop every
emotion he brings out in me from showing on my face. Thank God I have Josh on my side. Whenever he finds me staring for an obvious amount of time, he gives me a gentle nudge. Hopefully the rest of
the cast can’t tell how often I end up in fantasy land.

At the end of rehearsal, Angel comes over to the production desk as Josh and I are packing up.

“Hey,” she says quietly. “I have an idea. If you want to spend time with Liam without ending up in a suitcase, follow my lead.”

“What?”

She looks around before saying in a loud voice, “Hey, Josh and Elissa. I can’t believe you guys finally gave in and started dating. That’s awesome! Why don’t you come
over to our place tonight and party with me and Liam? We’ve always wanted another couple to double-date with.”

Liam looks at us in shock for a few seconds before catching Angel’s drift. “Oh . . . uh, yeah. Come over. Both of you. We’d love to . . . hang out. With both of you.”

Josh is more than happy to play along. He puts his arm around me. “Aw, thanks, guys. That’d be great. Since Elissa gave in to her overwhelming attraction to me, she’s been very
demanding. Sexually. It’ll be nice to leave the bedroom for once.”

The rest of the cast seems perplexed. Marco couldn’t look more confused if he tried. “I have no idea why you’re all acting like you’re in a Victorian melodrama, but
please stop. It’s off-putting and wrong.”

Wrong or not, Angel has just given me and Josh a perfect excuse to be seen entering and leaving their apartment building whenever we like. No suitcase or paparazzi chase required.

Thank God.

“See you in a couple of hours,” Josh says as he and Angel exit the elevator at her floor.

“Have fun!” I say, hoping against hope that tonight is the night Josh mans up and kisses Angel for the first time. Thanks to Angel’s smoke screen, we’ve spent the last
few nights coming here after rehearsals. It’s clear Angel and Josh have the hots for each other, and yet they both seem incapable of making the first move. They’ve been dancing
awkwardly around each other like freshman at a prom, and the sexual tension has reached such epic levels, I don’t know how they stand it. Probably the same way Liam and I coped with being in
close proximity before we started seeing each other naked. Which is to say, not at all.

I look over at Liam. He’s staring at the floor with a deep frown on his face.

I put my hand on his arm as the elevator moves again.

For the past few days, our nightly routine has been blissful. Liam’s assistant is still in England caring for his sick dad, so I help Liam with his e-mails and correspondence, in addition
to running lines when necessary. I also help him with orgasms. Many, many orgasms in lots of different positions.

Most nights, after we get our filthy lust out of the way, we order in food and eat it naked. We watch movies, or talk, or I read to him. It’s the best time of my life. I never realized I
could be so happy. I’m so crazy in love with this man, it makes me giddy.

But tonight is different. Because of the punishing schedule of the upcoming tech week, this is the last time we’ll see each other for six days, and the thought of going back to not seeing
him every day makes me want to punch things.

“It’s only a week,” I say, trying to convince myself as much as him.

He lets out a short laugh. “You say that like it’s possible. Six years? No problem. Six days? No fucking way. Tell me again why this has to happen?”

“You know what tech weeks are like. Josh and I are going to be locked in the theater all day and night. We have to oversee sets, costumes, props, lighting, sound. Basically, we’re
going to work our asses off so that when you and Angel swan in like the Hollywood brats you are, everything goes off without a hitch.”

He slips his hands in my hair and grips it hard enough to make me moan. “I’d rather a whole damn set fall on my head than be without you.”

“Yeah, but Marco doesn’t see it like that. He’d like a complete lack of sets falling on his stars’ heads. He’s old-fashioned that way.”

The elevator doors open, and Liam grabs my hand before striding down the hallway.

“Hey, short legs here,” I say, scrambling to keep up. “Slow down.”

“Can’t. Need to get you inside. And get inside you. Immediately. Sooner if possible.”

He doesn’t slow down, and his dark determination makes my thighs tingle.

When he reaches the door, he presses me up against it as he fumbles with his keys.

“Fine,” he says, irritated. “A week. I’ll deal with it. But as soon as Anthony gets back from L.A., we’re sorting out when to burn that damn contract. As soon as
the show opens, it’s done.” He cups my face with both hands and kisses me deeply. As usual, the feel and taste of him leaves me breathless and high.

“Great. Now, open the damn door. And your pants.”

He shoves the door open so hard, it slams into the wall. Neither of us cares. He walks me backward and kisses me again. His leather jacket is warm in my hands as I grip him. I think my body has
already started missing him, because now it blazes to life with fresh intensity.

As soon as we’re inside, he kicks the door closed and presses me back against it. I’m dizzy and breathless, turned around by his desperation, as well as my own. I want to fold time
around us and live in these long moments of him pulling at my clothes. I love how feral he becomes when he roughly unbuttons and unzips until his fingers are able to push into places that make me
gasp.

“Oh, Liam . . .” By now he knows every single secret my body has been hiding. Each sweet spot and erogenous zone. He makes all of them scream for his touch.

The spinning tension inside me makes me moan. I tug at his jacket, his shirt, his pants. He joins me, desperate to get everything but naked flesh the hell out of the road.

“I love you,” he says in a tight voice with short breaths. “I can’t wait until everyone knows that. Until I can take you out in public and show you off.” He yanks
down my panties, then his jeans and boxers. “I need to show everyone you’re mine. And I’m yours. Finally.”