Last Chance (Liar Liar #3) by C.A. Mason Read Free Book Online Page B

this?” she asked, closing her arms around mine. “Everyone had gone to bed, so we weren’t afraid of being caught. It was dark, and we were all alone.”
    I smiled. “Those are some of my favorite memories.”
    She turned her head, her cheek close to my lips. “Really?”
    “Yeah, we’d sit here and talk for hours, sometimes until the sun threatened to come up.” I chuckled. “Your old man was an early riser, and we were always afraid he’d come out and find us like this.”
    “It’s not like we were doing anything, just talking.” She laughed. “Well, most of the time.”
    “I’d never just talked with a girl before. That was a first for me.”
    “So why’d you spend so much time ‘just talking’ to me?”
    “I wanted to know everything about you.” My grip tightened. God, now that I had her back in my arms, I never wanted to let her go. I wasn’t sure if this was stirring her emotions the way it was mine or if she just needed the comfort of human contact, but I prayed we were starting something more, something real and honest and lasting. “The mundane things made me fall in love with you. It was never about your body or your beauty. It was the little things that made me love you. Your quirkiness.”
    She smirked as she turned her head to look at me. “My quirkiness?”
    “Yeah, like who the hell hits hard candies with a hammer so they can sprinkle them on their ice cream?”
    “Hey, I put them in a Ziploc baggie first!” she said, folding her arms with a pout.
    I laughed, squeezing her tight. “God, this feels good.” I breathed deeper than I had in years because I finally felt like the second skin I’d been wearing, the mask, was falling away. I was getting in touch with the best parts of the guy I used to be.
    “That’s what scares me,” she said tentatively. “It does feel good. It feels right, but at the same time, it feels wrong.”
    “How so?”
    “Even if you’re innocent, which I’m beginning to believe you are, I shouldn’t have these feelings for a man who lied to me and used me to further his own cause. I don’t want to fall in love with the wrong man again. I want someone who’ll put me first, who’d rather die than hurt me.”
    How could I tell her the guy she’d met just a short time ago in New York was fading fast? I’d spent years becoming Blaise Walsh, a hard-ass business mogul who built an empire one ruthless fighter at a time. But I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be that guy anymore. She made me remember there was more to life than business. Moments like these, just hanging out with her, made me happier than any career success I’d experienced.
    “Part of me wishes you’d just go back to New York and leave me alone,” she said.
    “Part of you?”
    “The other part of me remembers…” She gripped my hand. “Is so grateful I’m getting a chance to reconnect with my first love. I still can’t believe it’s happening. I mean, I saw you on TV dozens of times and thought there was something about you that captivated me. I assumed it was because you were so handsome, but now I know it was more than that.”
    “So you think that intangible thing that drew us together all those years ago is still there?”
    “Obviously. I never would have cheated on my fiancé if it hadn’t been.” She dropped her head. “God, I still can’t believe I had sex with you the first night we met. You must have thought I was just like all the other women who throw themselves at you.”
    “If I’d thought that, I wouldn’t have followed you here and bought your office building and apartment building just to be closer to you.”
    She shook her head as though she couldn’t let herself believe I was being sincere. “You came here because getting closer to me was part of your plan. You intended to use me to get information so you could clear your name and reconnect with your parents.”
    “I’m not going to lie or try to make excuses, angel.” I held her tighter, afraid