High Stakes by Cheryl Douglas Read Free Book Online Page B

picture him as a
doting father. Surprisingly, she found it easy to imagine. “She looks just like
you.”
    “Yes, she does.” He slipped the phone back
into his pocket. “Now, tell me about yourself.”
    “Um, well, there’s not much to tell. You
know that I modeled when I was teenager, but I decided to take my leave before
they forced me out for being too old.” She tried not to let bitterness creep
into her voice, but she sensed he was intuitive enough to hear it anyway. “I
enjoyed it while it lasted, but it was time for me to find something new to
focus my attention on.” She cleared her throat. “I was going through a
difficult time after my engagement ended, and I was doing some pretty
self-destructive things just to prove a point to my ex.”
    “Like what?”
    “Nothing serious, just drinking a bit too
much, partying too hard… dating a lot of different men.”
    He brought his wine glass to his lips. “You
must have loved him very much.”
    “I did.” She never thought she would get
over the pain of knowing he’d betrayed her, but each passing month made it a
little easier to accept. “I believed we were going to be together forever.” She
looked up to find him scrutinizing her and she drew a deep breath before she
admitted, “He wants me back.”
    “Don’t go back to him.”
    She tried to laugh off his quiet command,
expecting him to join in her amusement, but when she read the sincerity in his
eyes, she realized he wasn’t kidding. “Why should it matter to you whether I
take him back?”
    He stared at his wine glass a long time
before he said, “I don’t know. It just does.”
     
     
    Liam could barely control his temper when
he thought about the man who’d captured her heart. He could see it in her eyes
when she talked about him; she still had feelings for him, and that should have
served as a red flag. “You deserve a man who’ll appreciate you. Your ex
obviously didn’t or you would never have left him.”
    “He cheated on me,” she said quietly,
before downing the rest of her wine. “With his ex-girlfriend. He broke my
heart.”
    He wanted to comfort her, but he wouldn’t
allow her to cry on his shoulder over a man who didn’t deserve her tears. “That
says it all, doesn’t it?” He refilled her wine glass and watched her take
another deep swallow. He knew he should dissuade her from drowning her sorrows
in alcohol, but he wasn’t her keeper or her moral compass. He was just a man
who was falling deeper in lust with her with every passing moment.
    “I guess it does.”
    “Have you let him back into your bed since
he cheated on you?”
    She raised her head, a scowl marring her
beautiful face. “Of course not, but—”
    “But you’ve been tempted?” He should just
walk away now, before he got in too deep. He could see she still had a long way
to go before she was over her feelings for her ex, and he had never been, nor
did he ever want to be the rebound man.
    “I’d built my life around this man for two
years before he… betrayed me.”
    “You were too damn inexperienced to be
thinking about forever. I’m sure it was for the best.”
    Alisa remained quiet while the waiter placed
their appetizers in front of them and left the room. “Who are you to tell me
what’s best for me? You don’t even know me.”
    He was getting a sense of who she was and
what she needed, and it definitely wasn’t a philandering country singer with a
wandering eye. “We both know I’m right. When you meet the right man, you’ll
realize it wasn’t him.”
    Their eyes locked across the table and she
asked, “How do you know?”
    “You’ll feel it when he touches you,” he
whispered. “You’ll see it when he looks at you…” He tried to stop the words
from spilling out, but his restraint was nowhere to be found when he needed it
most. “You’ll know that he could never do to you what that bastard did because
you’re the only one he wants, the only one he’ll ever