Fiancée for Rent by Elizabeth Grey

Chapter 23

Liam

The few hours ticked away with me semi-passed out on the floor of the bedroom, my eyes shut to not only the California sunshine, which flooded my windows, but to the world at large. My body pulsed in various places, a rather manic experience, as I sobered up, thinking of Isabelle and Kylie. The thoughts played out like a bad movie over the past months. The only highlight reel that brought me any sense of pleasure, of something akin to happiness, was the days in Montana.

The door to the house opening startled me from this exhausting excursion. As I strained to listen, my heart put itself on pause to imagine another round with Isabelle. However, with the tiny sound of Kylie's heels on the floor, my heart had not only resumed beating, it went into some sort of spasm-like overdrive.

"Liam?" she called out as she entered the bedroom to put down her bag. Then, after a moment, she continued, "Well, this looks bad."

She stood in the doorway to the bedroom, our bedroom, took in the empty bottles, my body, half-dressed, on the floor. I'd have raised my head to greet her, but the small motion to do so had resulted in a beat akin to heavy metal music in my skull, causing a headache with each throb of the bass.

"What happened here?"

"Me, I guess," I managed as she sat down beside me. "What are you doing here?"

"I had to come home. Talk to you. Fix this. I mean, we have a wedding to plan. I mean... Yes, we've hit a bump in the road, I know, but I'm hoping I can find a way to make it up to you. I've been talking to Cynthia and Jake back on the plane to figure out how to approach this mess I put us in. They both think if you support me and make a statement about female empowerment, then maybe we can come out looking pretty good if that makes sense. So, we need to hash that out. Once you're up to it. Do you want to tell me what happened here?"

"Nothing special," I said, as my hand rubbed over my lip. "I needed to do some drunk thinking, I guess."

"Why are you lying to me? What are you leaving out?"

"Lying?"

"You have a tell, Liam. When you lie, you brush your fingers over your lips."

"So, I've been told," I groaned as I let said fingers drop to the floor.

"So, what part did you lie about?"

"I didn't lie about anything."

"Did you have some woman here already, Liam? I mean, one mistake, and you can't keep it in your pants?" she yelled, her face turning red in the process, her hands in tight fists at her side.

As I stood, stumbling, she turned from me and threw herself down on the bed.

"Fuck! I can still smell her! What the fuck did she bathe with? That smell is..."

"Isabelle," I finished her sentence.

"You hooked up with Isabelle?"

Not knowing what to say, I stared down at my feet and didn't answer. The silence stretched between us to the point of breaking.

"I could handle some random girl you picked up, but Isabelle?" Kylie said, her voice ringing with palpable pain. "Seriously, Liam? I guess our time in Montana meant nothing to you but another chance to bed a pretty girl. Thanks a fucking lot. If you went out of your way to hurt me, well done!"

"Kylie, that's not true. You know that isn't true. And I didn't sleep with Isabelle. We got close, but I stopped it."

When I got close to the bed, she jumped up off it, took a fighting stance that stopped me in my tracks, expecting a punch to the jaw. Not that I would blame her or didn't deserve it, but at the same time, I wanted to fight, too, only I couldn't come up with an insult.

"Anyone else, I could have found a way to continue with our plan. But you're clearly still in love with Isabelle, Liam."

"Is that true? If you had found me here with some nameless woman, after all that happened in Montana, you could have continued on with our plan, married me still?"

She looked up at me then. The tears that made her eyes glisten made it hard to breathe. I wanted to go to her, to hear her say all the things that would reassure me that whatever had happened between us could be saved. Yet, as her first tear spilled from her eyes, I grew unsure there were any words to fix what had just been started.

"Is that true, Kylie? Any woman? We could still be saved?"

"I guess not," she practically whispered as she swiped at her face. "I don't know what's happening between us, fake, true, passion, lust, love, pasts... I just don't know."

"Is your movie worth figuring it out?"

"It's not about my movie anymore. This is now about us. We can't deny that."

"It wouldn't be safe to. No. I guess not."

"Where does that leave us then?"

"I don't know."

I wanted to go to her, to pull her to me, but all we'd just referred to without actually defining it, working through it, settled like a wall between us.

"It's so complicated," she managed, breaking the silence.

"We both violated the contract. If you want to call it quits, we can just keep all comments from the press, let it play out on its own. Hideaway awhile," I offered. "If you taught me anything, it's not to care what others think."

"Sounds like that's for the best. Let the media hash it all out while we move on, lay low."

"I can still make your movie. I owe you that."

"You don't owe me anything, Liam. Have a nice life. Let me know when you're going to be away next. I'll come back for my things then."

She walked over to me then, her steps slow, torturous. With a shaky hand on my chest, right over where my heart thumped, she went up on her toes and placed a light kiss on my cheek that seemed to last forever, to burn my skin. I wouldn't be surprised to see an actual mark later.

"Goodbye, Liam. I'll always..." she left, thought a moment, her eyes moved back and forth with the effort and then turned, walked out of my life.

As I struggled for air, clutched at my chest, lowered for what felt like the hundredth time to the ground, I let her. While I committed what seemed the biggest mistake of my life yet, I laid, big rock star I was, in a fetal position on the floor, praying if I heaved, I'd choke on it. All the money in the world couldn't right the wrongs for me.

The earth tipped as I grabbed for the rug. Stars danced before my sobered eyes. Life had punched me in the gut one too many times, and I had yet to fight back adequately. I let my breathing calm to what felt like the brink of death until sleep took me away.