Freedom's Price (16 page)
Authors: Suzanne Brockmann
EPILOGUE
T
HE PHONE RANG,
and Liam picked it up.
Without hesitation, he reached for it. He lifted the receiver from the cradle.
“’lo?” He tucked the receiver under his chin as he washed his hands in the kitchen sink, as if this was no big deal, as if he hadn’t spent nearly a year avoiding the phone. “Hey, Bud, I thought it might be you.”
He glanced at Marisala as he grabbed the towel that hung on the refrigerator-door handle. “It’s Buddy Fisher,” he told her.
Buddy Fisher. His agent. The man he’d worked so hard to avoid all these months.
“Great,” Liam was saying into the telephone. “Eight months, okay, I’ll try, and then…Yeah, I’ll agree to that.” There was a pause, and then he said, “Great, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
He hung up the phone and smiled at her. “Ready to go?”
They were meeting Santiago for Sunday brunch. Her uncle had flown up from San Salustiano upon hearing the news of her and Liam’s engagement.
Marisala laughed. “Do you really think I’m going to let you leave this room before you tell me what that conversation was about?”
“Buddy Fisher called yesterday,” Liam told her. “My publisher saw the column in the
Globe
and has offered me an eight-month extension on my book deadline. They’ve also offered to double my advance on the condition that if I
don’t
write the book in eight months they can bring in their ghostwriter.”
“Is that good?”
He laughed. “Yeah, I’d say so. Considering that I expected them to sue me for breach of contract.”
“Do you think you can do it?” she asked seriously. “Spend all that time writing about what you went through?”
He held out his hand to her and she took it without hesitation. “I think I can try.” He brought her fingers to his lips, kissing them lightly. “Come on. We don’t want to make Santiago wait.”
Marisala checked her hair in the entryway mirror. It was neatly combed, every curl in place. She wore one of her flower-print dresses, and she looked every bit the sweet young thing.
“You look beautiful,” Liam said. He smiled. “Santiago will be pleased.”
The Sunday newspaper was still sitting out in front of their condo door, and Marisala scooped it up. She would read her favorite columnist in the car on the way over to Santiago’s hotel.
“Santiago will never know,” Marisala told Liam as they started down the stairs to the lobby, “what lies beneath this dress.”
“You’re probably right,” he agreed. He could smell the sweet fragrance of her freshly washed hair. “He won’t realize that just because you look different, that doesn’t mean you’ve changed.”
“Well, yes,” she said. “There’s that. But what I was thinking is a little more literal.” She gave him a decidedly wicked smile. “Santiago will never know that I am not wearing any underwear.” Her smile got broader. “But
you
will.”
Liam laughed. Dear God. He was going to sit there at brunch with Marisala and her uncle, his old friend, and he was going to be able to think of little else.
“I had to take steps to preserve my own identity,” she explained. “This dress is not me.”
“But going without underwear to Sunday brunch at the Ritz—that’s you?”
“Absolutely.”
“God, I love you.”
Marisala smiled. “I know. I read it in the
Globe
.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Since her explosion onto the publishing scene more than ten years ago, Suzanne Brockmann has written more than forty books, and is now widely recognized as a leading voice in romantic suspense. Her work has earned her repeated appearances on
USA Today
and
New York Times
bestseller lists, as well as numerous awards, including the Romance Writers of America’s #1 Favorite Book of the Year three years running—in 2000, 2001, and 2002—two RITA awards, and many
Romantic Times
Reviewer’s Choice Awards. Suzanne Brockmann lives west of Boston with her husband, author Ed Gaffney. Visit her website at
www.suzannebrockmann.com
.
OTHER TITLES BY SUZANNE BROCKMANN
All Through the Night
Force of Nature
Forbidden
Into the Storm
Ladies’ Man
Heartthrob
Bodyguard
The Unsung Hero
The Defiant Hero
Over the Edge
Out of Control
Into the Night
Gone Too Far
Flashpoint
Hot Target
Breaking Point
FREEDOM’S PRICE
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam Loveswept edition published January 1998
Bantam mass market edition / March 2008
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright © 1998 by Suzanne Brockmann
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-553-90551-9
v3.0