Page 56 of Torched

“Kane,” he huffs against my neck.

Kane. Of course, Kane. It’s always Kane. I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes I outplayed him.

“What about Kane?” I lock my eyes with Liam’s worn-out expression, feigning a little confusion because I already know where this is going. It’s so goddamn predictable.

“We had a fight about you. Again. I can’t keep doing this.” He shakes his head, and I suppress the urge to panic, seeing how he’s slipping from my grasp.

“Look, whatever it is, we will figure it out.”

“No, baby. We won’t! He hates you.”

“No,” I rebuke, “he hates the Reyes family. He doesn’t hate me because he doesn’t know me.” I know it’s a bullshit reason, but it seems to make sense for Liam because I got his attention. “I can win him over; I know I can. I should’ve put in more effort from the beginning. We will think of something, okay? I will take him to dinner. Lock me up in a room with him. I can convince him that I’m not part of my family’s wicked ways.” Fuck, I’m such a good liar. I inwardly pat myself on the back while forming some tears in the corners of my eyes. “Just don’t give up on us.”

Our foreheads connect again, his breath fanning my face. “I don’t want to.”

“Then don’t!” Kane really pushed him to the edge this time, because I can see the sparkle of doubt in his eyes, telling me to step it up. Whatever I’m going to do, it needs to happen fast. I can’t keep Liam’s attention for much longer if his shithead of a brother keeps corrupting his mind with stuff I don’t want him to think about. Or figure out.

“Look, you need a break,” I suggest. “You’re tired. You work too much, and you need to reset. Let’s get away for a long weekend. Just you and me. We haven’t seen each other in a while, not really, so we can be together for the weekend and just relax.” Hope flickers in his eyes, probably because I’ve been keeping our interactions to a minimum over the last few weeks.

“Really?”

“Yeah! I need a weekend off anyway, and my mom still has a house in Spain. It’s a house in the mountains with a jacuzzi and everything. She isn’t using it right now. Let’s just go there and really disconnect for a few days.”

He’s still hesitant, so I press a kiss to his lips to push him over the line. This could be the perfect opportunity to finally execute the last part of the plan, something I’ve been dying to do for weeks now. This was supposed to be a relationship of three, maybe four, months. We’re getting to six months, and I’m fed up. I need to get fucked properly, and it’s really hard to pick up good dick when Liam Carrillo wants to claim every free minute I have to offer.

“Kane won’t like it.”

“Kane is already pissed. We can use this weekend to find a way to win him over.” When he stays quiet, I decide to bring out the big guns. “And maybe we can even see if we can start thinking about living together.” I glance at his chest, trying to act coy as I let my finger trace the line of his neck.

“Are you serious?” He stretches his neck back, as if he’s snapping out of his dazed state, and I nod. “You want to move in with me?”

Hell fucking no. “I think we could see if it could work. It would be just the two of us out there.”

As he holds my gaze, the blood rushes through my head because I can’t read his mind. I don’t know where his head his, making it difficult to not squirm on his lap just to get some kind of reaction out of him. But I know I should keep my cool right now, not lay it on too thick, otherwise, he’ll grow suspicious.

“Just think about it,” I add, a little disappointed while moving my legs to get off his lap. “The house is ours whenever we want.”

“No, wait!” He grabs my wrist, and I keep in the wicked grin that wants to spring free, knowing he’s taking the bait. He looks up at me through his lashes, exhaustion etched on his stumbled jaw. “Let’s do it.”

I wait patiently until he’s sound asleep, checking his breathing more than once before I slip out of the bed with my phone in hand. Walking into the living room, I quickly make myself a glass of Blue Label, then close the door behind me as I step onto the balcony.

I scroll through my phone until I find Junior’s number under the fake name I gave him. My eyes stay fixed on the hallway that leads to the bedroom as I peer through the floor-to-ceiling window, just to make sure Liam doesn’t come looking for me unexpectedly.

“Ola, primitaaa.” Junior’s voice echoes in my ear, and I roll my eyes at his theatrics. “¿Que tal?Isn’t it a bit late for you?”

I glance at the clock in the living room that says it’s a little after three in the morning, making me frown. “It is, which only makes me curious. Why are you still up?”

Junior lives at night, which means at 9 am, I would’ve expected him to be anything but chipper if I woke him up an hour after he went to bed.

“I had a little thing keeping me up.” I can almost hear the smirk through the phone and purse my lips in annoyance.

“Please tell me you didn’t fuck the merchandise.”

“Who else is gonna do it?”

“Whoever is buying them,” I snap back in a flat tone.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t break her.” His chuckle is devious, but I still feel the corners of my mouth curl a bit while I hear him bark out orders to whoever is with him. “Get her out of here and don’t wake me before it’s time for dinner. So, what’s up,Crissy?”

---