Begin Again novel Chapter 85

Eden tried every excuse in the book to get out of the business dinner with Liam.

She'd declined his invitation as soon as Clara sent it last night and again this morning, citing everything from being sick with a sudden bout of flu to Aiden not having a nanny, an obvious lie since Brenda lives with her.

Liam saw right through her bullshit reasons and rearranged his whole diary for her, moving their appointment from 7:00 PM to earlier in the day.

He was determined to get his money's worth from her and make sure she brings Lydia to the fold by any means necessary.

Promptly at 4:00 PM, he knocked on her door, and Eden sucked in her breath when she looked up from her laptop, and their eyes clashed.

She was convinced, now more than ever, Liam was sent on earth with the sole purpose of tempting her. He looked sinfully dapper in a navy three-piece suit and his usual white shirt, but he had abandoned the matching tie he'd worn throughout the day.

"Your chariot awaits," he bowed gallantly as he held out his hand.

Trying her best to ignore the way her heart skipped and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered at his silly gesture, Eden made a face at him as she grabbed her handbag and laptop and followed him out of her office. "I'm only staying for two hours."

"It's more than enough," Liam said, stopping her heart with his lopsided smile, only to pump it back to life with his hand on the small of her back as he led her in and out of the elevator and ushered her to one of the three black SUVs waiting at the entrance.

They were at the restaurant in under seven minutes and would have made it sooner if it wasn't for the peak hour traffic.

The hostess, a plump, middle-aged woman with long dark hair complementing her striking features, was way too excited to see them.

She prattled on in Portuguese, and Liam kept up the conversation fluently.

Show off, Eden pouted as he helped her out of her blazer and hung it neatly over her chair. She'd read in one of the Business Insider articles he's a polyglot. Something she never believed until now.

"Thank you," she smiled and graciously accepted the seat he insisted on holding out for her even though she was perfectly capable of sitting down with no help.

Eden looked around the room while Liam browsed the wine list, noticing for the first time that they were the only patrons.

"Where's everyone?" She leaned forward and asked in a hushed tone.

Liam mirrored her pose and whispered back. "I'm starting to question your processing power if you have to ask me that."

"God, you are infuriating!" She said, unable to keep her exasperation from her voice. How could she want him so bad and hate him all at once?

"Careful, Princess, I don't want you hurting yourself," he laughed as he watched her drape the napkin over her lap angrily, his denim blue eyes twinkling with joy.

"Why am I here?" Eden demanded, but their waitress returned with the oldest bottle of wine she could find in the cellar before she could get an explanation. She stopped her just as she was about to pour a glass for her and asked for sparkling water instead.

"I don't drink." She told Liam when they were alone again.

"Why?" Watching her carefully, he picked up his drink and twirled it in his hand. "On second thought, good choice. You look like you can't handle alcohol."

"If you brought me here to insult me—"

"That was a compliment," Liam smiled roguishly.

"I fail to see how that's a compliment." Eden threw her hands up in frustration, refusing to waste her intellect on him.

"So? Are you going to tell me what this is about?" She asked again, making a point of checking her wristwatch. The sooner he told her what he wanted, the quicker she could leave.

"Lydia Edwards," Liam announced in a business-like tone now. "I want a meeting with her handlers. The marketing team has tried countless times to get in touch with her, and she's rebuffed all their attempts."

She didn't want to talk about rebirth and new beginnings. She'd prefer to talk about Lydia and her handlers and the meetings they keep declining. Talking about rebirth and new beginnings would mean confronting the unfixable mistake she made two years ago and force her to come clean with him.

She's not ready for that.

"There should be a hundred in there," Liam carried on. "For the first hundred days, you left me. And if you look around the room, and you have time to count them, you'll find six hundred and thirty more. That's seven-thirty in total. For every goddamn day you were gone."

"I'm sorry," Eden said softly.

Now that she knew he's not married—was never married—she wished she could take back her choices and erase both their hurt and pain. She wished she could go back to that day and tell him about Aiden. Maybe things between them would be so different now, and there'd be none of this anger and resentment. And maybe, just maybe, they'd be so deliriously happy together.

Their starters arrived, carted in by the same smiling waitress who'd dropped off the flowers, easing some of the tension between them.

The Cape Verde soup looked as scrumptious as it smelled. But neither seemed to have any appetite.

Eden twirled her spoon inside the bowl while Liam chugged more of his wine. At one point, she wanted to ask him to put the glass down because if he didn't pace himself, she'd have to carry him home since he'd dismissed his security detail for the night. But she kept her mouth shut and pretended to enjoy the soup she could barely taste.

"If I knew you were not married, I would never have left," she said after a long stretch of heavy sighs and unspoken words as she let her spoon fall inside the half-full bowl with a soft clang before dabbing her mouth with the napkin.

Liam waved off her long overdue apology and set down his empty glass. "That's okay; it's all in the past. But we need to talk about the solution to my problem."

"Which is?" Eden frowned, stunned by the realisation they were back to the real reason he'd hired her—to fix him.

She still didn't understand what he expected from her because his problem was very likely psychological, as Linda suggested, and she couldn't fix him if he's not broken.

"—I want you, Eden," Liam stated with conviction. "And since you are the only woman I react to, the only woman I want, the only solution here is to make you mine."