I’m still stuck on the spending-more-time-together bit.
“And we have your list to work on,” he adds.
“My list?”
“Yeah, I’m going to help you complete it.”
“You are?”
“I am.” He smiles.
“And what if I don’t want you to help me?” Shit, that came out sounding a little sharper than I intended. “I don’t mean, I don’t like fucking you because I do. I like it a lot…but beyond that, I can’t do any more.”
He stares at me for a long moment, his eyes darkening. “I don’t do more than fucking. But you’re alone in this country, and you seem like you could use a friend while you’re here. How long are you here for?”
“Two weeks.” Then, I go home to die.
He runs his fingertip over my lips. “So, we’ll keep fucking for the two weeks you’re here because, for some unknown reason, my cock likes you a lot. And when we’re not fucking, I’ll help you complete your list.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I’m a charitable kind of guy.” He lifts a shoulder, a teasing smile on his lips.
“Don’t you have work to do?”
“My PA is always telling me I need a holiday. This can be my holiday.”
“Helping me complete my list is a holiday to you?”
“We’ll be fucking in that time, too.”
“Of course, because the fucking is very important.”
“It is very important.” He slides a hand down my side, grabbing my thigh. Then, he hitches my leg over his hip and presses himself against me.
He’s hard.
“Again?” I question.
A smile lifts his lips. “I’ve only got two weeks’ worth of fucking you. So, yes, again.”
He’s right about that. We don’t have longer than two weeks.
Maybe I don’t even have that left.
We’re lying side by side after a very active second round of sex with me riding Liam, which contributed to us both coming hard and fast.
“Tell me about the list.”
I turn my head on the pillow to look at him. He turns his face toward me, meeting my eyes.
“Tell you what? You’ve already seen it.”
“But why the list? What’s the reason for writing it?”
He wants a reason. It’s not like I can go with the whole truth, so I go with a half-truth.
I stare up at the ceiling. “When I was sixteen, I had a brain tumor. It was…aggressive. There was a point when I wasn’t sure I was going to survive. So, I wrote the list with all the things I’d never done with the hope that I’d survive and be able to do them.”
And, now, all I want is to die. Ironic, huh?
“And here you are.” His hand touches mine.
I move my eyes back to him. “Yeah,” I exhale. But I shouldn’t be here. I should have died then. If I had, then they would still be here, living and breathing.
One life for four. I would trade mine in a heartbeat.
“Why wait so long to do the things on the list?”
I look away again. “Some things…happened. There was just never a right time.” I lift a shoulder to downplay my words.
But there’s nothing to downplay the fact that my family died because of me.
He brushes my hair off my face with his hand, bringing my eyes back to his. “Why is now the right time?”
Because the tumor is back, and I’m ready to die. I’m ready to join my family. I just want to do a few things before I go.
He’s staring at me, curious and tender, and I really need him to stop.
My eyes go back to the ceiling. “Because…it’s just time.”
I know his eyes are still on me. I feel exposed. And I don’t like it at all. Liam’s a smart man. He’ll know there’s more to it than what I’m saying. But, right now, I need him to be smart enough to realize that I don’t want to talk about me.
So, I fake a smile on my face and go to change the subject, hoping he goes along with it. The art of deflection—I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years. “So, Mr. Mega-Rich Businessman, tell me how you became so successful.” I slide a glance at him, that forced smile still on my face.
I know what’s in the public domain about Liam. I knew a little about him already—he’s a name people know—but I wanted to know more, so I Googled him earlier. Call me nosy, but I was curious about the man who was about to come and stick his dick in me for the second time.
Liam Hunter made his money in airplanes after setting up a small private chartered airplane company that flew rich business people all over the world.
Soon after, he expanded, investing in larger airplanes and moving into the travel industry—vacations, long-haul flights, that kind of thing. A few years later, he bought out a failing hotel chain, rebranded it, and turned it around, making it a big success. Those hotels of his are all over the world.
A few years after buying the hotel chain, he went in a different direction and set up Hunter Finance—credit cards, loans, mortgages—and from there, he built a financial empire.
Liam has the Midas touch in business—not my words. It was a quote from an article I read about him.
I really don’t know how the guy has time to sleep.
His expression doesn’t change. He just shrugs and says, “Because I’m awesome. And because I treat business like I treat fucking.”