Sinful Rapture (The Rapture Series) by Alexandra Ivy Read Free Book Online

her furniture that was chosen for comfort rather than fashion would steal what little corner of peace she had left.
    “You’ve done your duty,” she informed him. “Now go away.”
    He clicked his tongue, reaching to take the key from her hand and efficiently unlock the door.
    “Ungrateful brat,” he chided, urging her over the threshold. “You can at least offer me coffee.”
    She glared over her shoulder as he pressed a hand to her lower back, giving him enough room to step inside.
    “Do you ever take no for an answer?”
    His lips twitched, the gold flecks in the emerald eyes more pronounced in the sunlight that filtered through the high, arched windows.
    “That’s a foolish question,” he said.
    She sighed. It was. This man had created a personal empire out of nothing.
    No didn’t figure into his vocabulary.
    “Someday,” she breathed, at last turning her attention toward her living room that was decorated in soothing shades of turquoise and tangerine. Her gaze, however, was swiftly captured by the stack of boxes that were piled in the center of the tiled floor. Wrapped in white and silver with large bows, they consumed an amazing amount of space. “Shit.”
    Yesterday she’d informed the reception staff to deliver the unopened presents to Ted. He was the one who’d jilted her. Why should she deal with the unpleasant duty of returning the gifts?
    Now she could only assume that her ex-fiancé had used his spare key last night to dump them here.
    It was a childish act of vengeance.
    But why?
    It was his choice to abandon her at the altar. Why act as if he was the victim?
    The raw, savagely painful humiliation she’d experienced while she’d stood in the small vestibule with her father impatiently pacing the floor and her bridesmaids watching her with growing pity, seared through her.
    Oh…god.
    She pressed a hand to her stomach, suddenly feeling like she was going to be sick.
    Stepping forward, Liam stared at the stack of boxes with a grim fury, his hands clenched.
    “What the hell is this?”
    “Wedding presents.” She pointed out the obvious, inanely sensing he was even more disturbed than she was by the unexpected sight.
    “I know what they are, princess,” he snarled. “What I don’t understand is why they’re here.”
    She hunched a shoulder, unconsciously backing away from the unwelcomed reminders of her aborted wedding.
    Another failure …a treacherous voice whispered in the back of her mind.
    “Someone will have to deal with them,” she forced herself to mutter.
    Perhaps sensing her distress, Liam turned his head to study her pale face with a perceptive gaze.
    “Not you,” he gruffly said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and steering her out of the still open door. “And not today.”
    “What are you doing?” she demanded, instinctively falling into step beside him as they retraced their route through the hallway and down the stairs.
    “Taking you to breakfast,” he told her.
    A strange emotion twisted her heart.
    It wasn’t the anger she should be feeling at his assumption that she would meekly accept his plans. Or even the embarrassment that he’d witnessed yet another shameful reminder that she’d been so publically revealed as unworthy.
    It was fear.
    Fear that she wanted to go with him.
    That she was secretly thrilled at the thought that the night of mad pleasure didn’t have to end.
    “And it didn’t occur to you that you might actually ask me if I want to go to breakfast with you?” she snapped as they exited the apartment building into the sun that was already warming the crisp morning air.
    Liam came to a sudden halt, grabbing her shoulders so he could turn her to meet his scorching emerald gaze.
    “Do you really want to go in that apartment right now?” he demanded.
    She grimaced at the blunt question. “No.”
    “Do you want me to take you to your family?”
    And endure Luc’s outraged opinion of her former fiancé? Or worse, her father’s icy