I’m breathless, so forget words. All I can do is shake my head, transfixed and totally pulled into his web of charm and red-hot lusty haze.
“Because you gave me you that first night, I fucked you, Little Minx,” he whispers in my ear. Then he steps back, giving me a look so possessive, so hot, I swear, I want to jump his bones right now. “You’ll love me, Little Minx. Even if it kills us.”
And with that, he’s gone.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Mia
The next few days are as dramatic as they are nightmarish as you’d expect from a scandal of this magnitude.
I thought I wouldn’t be able to stop crying since the last time Julian held me in his arms, since he last kissed me like he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing so, but I did.
It felt like I wouldn’t be able to stop breaking since he left, leaving an ominous threat that made my heart pound harder than it’s ever done before, but I think I’m doing a good job holding it all in.
I’m still not sure how to feel about what Julian said, but by all accounts—and my own messy self-preservation—I should run, right?
When you hear something as alpha—borderline toxic—like that, you should tuck tail and run, right? So why were parts of me still tingling as if those words electrocuted parts of me back to life?
Nope, don’t you dare! That chapter is closed. If Julian thinks he can get his way, he’s going to get a rude awakening.
Anyway, while I was blissfully unaware of the happenings beyond my room, life has apparently been moving forward.
Nicky—I mean, my Mom—is the one who informs me about the press and gossip tabloids reps loitering around the hospital, with their cameras on the ready, trying to get snap a picture of me.
Apparently, I’m linked to an ongoing investigation into the shady lives of Sean and Shane Matthews. When I asked her for more information on what the investigation was about, she just shrugged with a hard glint in her eye and said, “They’re getting what they deserve.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you need to let it go, and let what’s supposed to happen, happen, that’s what.”
That non-conversation left me puzzled. I’ve tried asking for my phone so I can go online and check for myself, after all, I’m pretty sure I’m still a trending hashtag, but apparently, my phone was lost somewhere. And now, I’m just full of questions.
I wanted to ask Julian everything, but I just got so lost in… well, us.
I wanted to know how he was doing, what happened between us.
You can say I was selfish with my time with Julian, which is stupid because I should’ve been asking about everything else since I’m faking amnesia right now and the only two people who know about it at the moment are my mom and Julian.
The irony of it all isn’t lost on me.
At one point, I gave one of them a new chance and the other used up all her chances with me, but now it’s flipped the other way round. I feel like I might get whiplash from all this shit.
Either way, there’s a lot to uncover as I leave this place. Things like, do people know exactly what happened to me in that warehouse? And if so, are the police still seeing Julian as a suspect?
I can’t exactly ask a nurse. I mean, I have an acting career to maintain with as much integrity as I can manage.
I’m going to do my best to make sure Nathan burns in hell for every shitty thing he’s ever done.
But now, I need to get out of here.
I’m packing the few belongings Nicky bought for me into a bag, ready to leave this hellhole. Instead of leaving the next day after I woke, I had to stay a few days for observation.
Apparently, my scandalous rendezvous with Julian had my stitches coming out and unbeknownst to either me or Julian, I started bleeding all over again.
Not only that, but the crying gave me a new headache that the doctors decided to check out. In other words, I had to stay tucked in this room smelling like drugs for a few more days.
Yay me!
“Knock, knock,” a new, uncertain deep voice says from the door. At first, I think it’s Julian, but when I swivel around with my heart in my throat, I come face to face with Liam and my heart starts beating for a completely different reason. “May I come in?”
I stare at him, taking his pretty boy face that I thought I’d never see again. No after he told me I sit on a throne of lies.
“Uh…”
“I know you don’t remember me,” Liam says, but the glint in his eyes says otherwise. He knows I know him. He knows I’m faking it. “Or do you?”
Shit!
“Oh God, you know, don’t you?” I mutter, feeling annoyed.
“Know what?” he asks, his face looking comical.
“Don’t play dumb with me. You know what.”
He chuckles, stepping into the room. “I mean, I saw the state the big guy was in when he came back to the room and started packing his shit, barking orders to the doctors because he wanted to leave with immediate effect.” He eyes me suspiciously. I can’t hold his gaze, so I look away. “There’s only one person I know that can get him that worked up and seeing as it would be pretty difficult to work him into a fitful rage if you actually have amnesia, there was only one conclusion.”
“And that is?”
“That you have all your wits and memories about you to effectively fuck him up pretty good like you did.”
Urgh. I hate intelligent people. Especially when they know me this well.
“Do you want an applause for that summation?” I mock.
“I mean, if you feel so inclined to show your awe at my amazing prowess, sure, but otherwise it’s entirely unnecessary,” the jerk says with a twinkle in his eyes.
“You mean your glorified prowess?” God, these Fitz brothers are something else entirely. I can see why Roxy is such a bitch because of him. “What are you doing here, Liam?”
I stuff my toiletry bag into my small luggage case. I’m showered and changed, just waiting for Nicky who’s signing me out and sorting out some variables she hasn’t told me yet.
So long as Nathan is still in police custody because of whatever John Fitzgerald is doing, I honestly don’t mind.
But the contract I signed that was given to the Matthews… it’s still haunting me. Especially with the knowledge that Kristine is missing, and Shane is out there somewhere.
Haunted but not scared. I’m tired of fear. It’s just made me do stupid things that have cost me a lot.
“Well, I figured you and I have this awkward and pretty fucked up tradition with hospitals and it was my turn to ambush you, unexpectedly,” he says, a small smile on his gorgeous face.
Yeah, I remember the time I just up and left school to visit him when he was in hospital after his near miss with death.
“You ditched school?”
“Fuck yeah,” he says nonchalantly. “Besides, a little birdy whispered in my ear that you wanted to flee with no one the wiser. You know, just slipping under the radar as you always do.”
I stare at him, only now seeing that his bravado is all masking his tentative, almost uncertain shifty vibes. That’s so unlike him.
Liam Fitzgerald is nothing but a sexy, chiseled god with a blazing inferno of confidence and magnetic charm. But right now, he just looks… strange.