Escaping Reality

money chasers.
    “Are you on a date?”
    “My boss brought me. And he’s certainly a hot property himself.
    What about you?”
    “Yes. A date. Who I should get back to.”
    She grabs her purse and pulls out her phone. “Let me grab your
    number before we forget.”
    I can’t get out of this. Dang it. I remove my phone from my purse and
    glance at the numbers on the screen and my throat goes dry. One is from
    Liam. The other is unknown.

Chapter Twelve

    I stare at the unknown number and my mind races. It could be a
    wrong number. It has to be. No one has this number but Liam and my
    handler has never called me. That’s not true , I remind myself and my mind
    flashes back.
    The phone is ringing and I jerk to a sitting position. There is no one
    left to call me. No one I love. It has to be one of them. Someone is alive. This
    is all a mistake. I grab the headset and my hand shakes so hard I all but
    drop the receiver. “Dad?”
    “Listen and listen quickly, Amy,” a stranger says. “They are coming for
    you. Get up and get dressed and get the hell to the back door of the
    hospital. I’ll be in a cab waiting for you.”
    “What? Who are you?”
    “There isn’t time. Get the hell out of the fucking bed. Now!”
    “Okay, ready,” Meg announces. “What’s the number?”
    I blink through spots, and damn it, my eyes are prickling and my
    forehead pinching. Meg waves her phone in front of me. “I’ll type it in my
    phone so I can’t lose it.”
    “Right,” I croak and try to smile, though I imagine I look like I just
    swallowed a rock the lump in my throat is so big. Somehow, I lift my phone
    and punch in the screen to see my number, then read it to her.
    “Perfect,” she declares, and if she notices I’m rattled, she doesn’t
    show it. “I’ll call you tomorrow and we’ll make a date.”
    “Great. Yes.”
    She heads towards the door and I follow her into the hallway, where
    she has halted, a stunned look on her face. And I know why. Liam is leaning
    on the wall, looking to her, I am sure, like some sort of magazine model or
    romance hero who has miraculously popped off the pages of a novel. His
    eyes meet mine and I feel the connection inside and out, radiating. To me,
    Liam is what he has seemed since our plane ride. Salve on an open, aching
    wound.
    He pushes off the wall the instant he sees me and pulls me to him. “I
    was worried about you.”
    “He’s with you?” Meg asks from behind me, and there is no missing
    the shock etched in her voice. I refuse to read into it.
    Liam answers for me. “Yes. I’m with her.”
    Meg whistles and I turn in Liam’s arms, comforted by the way his
    hand settles on my stomach and pulls my back to his chest. “Amy, honey,”
    Meg declares, “I need to know where you shop. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She
    darts down the hallway and I stare after her, fighting the urge to follow her
    to ask her boss about my new boss, unsure I am steady enough to even try.
    “She’ll call you tomorrow?” Liam asks, and I turn to him.
    “She’s the secretary at the leasing office. She wants to do coffee or
    drinks.” My hand settles on the hard wall of his chest and warmth travels
    up my arms and over my chest and shoulders.
    “Then why do you look like you saw a ghost?”
    I laugh but it sounds choked. “I guess ghosts are like lies. They swim
    like sharks all around me.” What was intended as a joke holds so much
    truth that I am shocked I have allowed such a telling statement to fall from
    my lips. I am even more shocked that I cannot seem to regret it.
    He studies me, his eyes probing, and I sense he wants to ask
    questions, but he doesn’t.
    Damn it, he doesn’t and I want him to ask, just as I want to answer.
    “Sharks only have the power you give them, baby. Own them. Don’t ever
    let them own you. And they’ll have to fight me to get to you anyway.”
    Suddenly, I am swimming in one part fantasy, one part wicked, hot
    desire. His declaration checks every box on my fairy tale desire list and
    strokes my need for him to a full on fire. And while his words might be pure
    seduction, I choose to grant them the possibility. I choose the fantasy. The
    escape he has proven he can be for me in a way no one else ever has been.
    He leans in and pressed his mouth to my ear. “I’m going to take you
    to my room now, and fuck you until neither of us can walk anymore.” He
    eases back, searching my face for a reaction, his blue eyes blazing hot
    through the