Spin the Bottle (7 page)

Damn, he had some serious apologising to do. It shamed him to think of how badly he’d treated her. For all his accusations of her superficial lifestyle, he’d been the shallow one. Only seeing the one side of her, the one splashed all over the world, barely clothed, in sexy poses, tempting the male of the species to lust after her. That’s the way he’d seen her modelling. He’d done what every other male on the planet had done. Looked at those glossy prints and thought he could see into her soul. Except he’d already seen Lilli’s soul. He’d watched it blossom from child to teenager to woman and he’d ignored it and superimposed the image of her mother on top.

He was a fool. The biggest kind. The kind that cuts their nose off in spite of their face. But no more. From now on he wouldn’t fight what he felt, wouldn’t assume anything about her. Wouldn’t let the guilt of falling for his best friend’s sister get in the way either. It might feel like a betrayal of every best-mate code ever thought, uttered or written, but he couldn’t deny what was in his heart.

Lilli. Now that Mac had opened his eyes he was determined to fix things between them. Only one problem stood in his way. Right now he was probably the last person she wanted to see. Good thing he had a thick skin and over the years of tough business negotiations had learned to hold on until he got what he wanted. Shame he couldn’t have figured out sooner that what he wanted most was right in front of him all along.

Lillian’s feet hurt. Her five-inch heels might be drop-dead sexy, but they were also torture devices designed to make her toes drop off. She headed into the kitchen for a much needed breather. While the party was a huge success and she should be thrilled, she wasn’t. This wasn’t how she pictured it. There was only numbness where euphoria should have been. She’d like to blame Mac. Why not? He’d been a source of misery for most of her life, so why couldn’t he shoulder the blame for this too?

She slipped out of her shoes and sighed. Curling and uncurling her toes on the cool tiles brought some relief, but it was only temporary. She’d have to slide those damn sandals back on again in a moment and continue to smile while her blood refused to circulate. First thing next week, she was getting a pedicure. The deluxe version. Lil arched her back, stretched muscles sore from walking in heels for hours when in recent months she’d either been barefoot or wearing flip-flops. Maybe she’d spring for a full body massage.

Her feet protested as she shoved her abused toes into the strappy Jimmy Choo’s. She may have been given the ultra-sexy stilettos after featuring in a shoot for the famous designer, but right now Lil couldn’t think of one good reason why anyone would pay over five hundred dollars for some skinny strips of leather and heels that were thinner than ice picks. How she managed not to break her neck was a testament to her exceptional balance and determination to remain upright.

Shoes firmly in place, Lil turned to head back into the throng of partygoers when Aaron Watson entered the kitchen. He stumbled towards her and instinct, not any lingering feelings of affection for the man, had her reaching out to support him. His breath reeked of gin and Lil wasn’t at all surprised by his inebriated state. Aaron had a weakness for alcohol. At least that’s the way his doting parents referred to it. As far as Lil was concerned, the man was an alcoholic and needed a ten-step program. But who was she to argue in the man’s favour. He’d lost his last friend credit when she’d been informed he’d leaked the photos of her sunbaking topless last year.

Aaron flung his arms around her neck and spoke against her cheek. “Is lofe ou.”

Lil was fairly certain he didn’t know the true meaning of the word love but figured in his small world what he felt for her was real. Not that she had ever returned his feelings. He’d never been more than an acquaintance in her youth, just two kids from families with money, but once she’d started modelling and socialising in a different circle he’d become a trusted friend. Of course, that was before the booby shots. She cringed. They weren’t even flattering pictures.

“Come on, Aaron, let’s find somewhere for you to lie down before you fall down. And take me with you.” She manoeuvred his dead weight towards the laundry. There was plenty of floor space in there and no foot traffic—perfect for keeping his drunken arse out of sight too.

“Lie wiff me.” He wasn’t just slurring his words, he was sloshing them.

She tried to ignore the drool now covering her face, but between that and his clumsy attempts to land his mouth on hers, Lil was close to dropping him where they stood. Serve him right if the wait staff walked over him. They’d made it to the doorway and Lil reached out to open the door, but Aaron shifted in her grasp, making a valiant effort to grope her breasts, and they lost balance as she dodged his clammy grip. The door handle turned in her hand and they both went down as it opened. Hard.

A renting sound filled the air as her dress split at the seam. Lillian cursed. The dress was one of her favourites. Aaron would be compensating her for it as soon as he was sober. Right now though, she had to worry about getting him off her. She’d taken the brunt of the fall, her shoulder and side connecting with the ceramic tiles with a bone-bruising thump before Aaron’s dead weight landed on her. It was hard to believe the red-faced drunk on top of her was one of Australia’s favourite television hosts. Lillian pushed against his chest and attempted to shove him off. He didn’t budge. All she got for her trouble was agony.

Her side throbbed and her left arm shook, a pain shooting up into her shoulder when she tried to put some strength behind her push. Aaron lay still, a dead weight flattening her breasts and squeezing the breath from her lungs. She wiggled around to shift him to the side and a glimpse of his face told her why getting him off proved so hard. He’d passed out, either from the alcohol he’d consumed or a bump to the head. Lil assumed it was the alcohol since she’d broken his fall, and the only place his skull had come in contact with was her nicely padded chest.

Lil turned her head to see if anyone had come over, but the laundry door was tucked around a section of wall and they’d landed inside the utility room. So unless somebody saw them fall, no one could see them from the kitchen area. She took another stab at shoving Aaron off, but he’d fallen in such a way that his body pinned down her non-injured shoulder and draped across her diagonally, his thick middle resting on her sore hip. No matter which way she moved, her left side pounded with sharp stabs of pain. Sucking in as deep a breath as she could, she gave it one more go. Lil’s eyes stung with tears as fire shot from wrist to shoulder and her arm gave out.

She sank her teeth into her lip to stifle the agonised cry from leaving her throat. Gasping for air, she struggled to breathe through the painful waves. Eventually, they eased off until there was no more than a dull ache beating at her side. Resigned to the fact she wouldn’t be able to move Aaron on her own, Lil gave in and opened her mouth to yell for help. But Aaron’s weight disappeared before she made a sound. Her eyes fluttered closed as her lungs finally filled to the brim with oxygen.

“Lilli?”

Lil opened her eyes to see Mac’s face swimming above her.

“Are you all right?”

She was vaguely aware of his hands running all over her.

“Talk to me!”

Her lips curled in a small smile. Mac cared.

“Dammit. Don’t just lie there grinning. Answer me!”

“Okay.” She licked her dry lips, swallowed to coat her parched throat. “I’m okay.”

“You don’t look okay.” Mac’s hand slid up her side. “Fucking Christ! Your dress is torn. What the hell did he do to you?”

Lil tried to sit, only to have Mac press on her sore shoulder to keep her down.

“Argh…” She clenched her jaw and closed her eyes against the dull pain. The only thing she could think was Aaron would be a dead man if anything was broken.

“Jesus.” Mac ran his hands over her shoulder and down her arm, his fingers probing gently as he searched for serious injury. “There’s no blood and I don’t think you’ve broken anything but I can’t be sure…”

“Jarred.” Lil breathed through her words. “Hit the floor. Hard. Aaron fell. On me.”

“What were you doing?”

Lillian could hear the strained anger in Mac’s words and sort to reassure him. “He’s drunk.”

“I can smell that. Besides, I saw him staggering towards the kitchen and followed.” He eased her off the floor and into his arms, his hands running down her spine. “I’d have gotten here quicker without all these people filling the place. Of course, the dickhead wouldn’t be here then either.”

She couldn’t argue with that, but Aaron hadn’t meant any harm and really, it was her own fault for trying to help the drunken idiot when he outweighed her by at least forty kilos. Although Lil was fairly sure Mac would blame him, and she didn’t want to be around for that.

“Can you see my denim jacket?” she asked. Her head was tucked under Mac’s chin and she felt his stubbled jaw catch in her hair as he looked around.

“Yeah, it’s on a hanger over the tub.”

“Help me up. I need to change out of this dress, but I can’t walk through the house with the side split open.” Now that her lungs were supplying oxygen to her brain and body, Lil realised her injuries weren’t that bad. Jarred and winded was as severe as it got.

“You’re not walking.” Mac stood and scooped her into his arms. “I’ll carry you to your room.”

“No. Put me down.” Lil squirmed against him. “I don’t want to draw attention to myself or the situation, and being carted around the house by you will guarantee phones will be pulled out and pictures will hit Twitter and Facebook within seconds. Now. Put. Me. Down.”

“Lillian.”

“Mackenzie.”

They stared at each other, neither willing to give an inch. It was Aaron’s moan that broke their deadlock. Lil and Mac turned to look at the grumbling man—Mac with a snarl of disgust and Lil with a heavy ball of disappointment and sadness in her stomach. She had no illusions though. Aaron was one of many in her life who were only after what they could get from being Lillian McDermott’s friend. But that was her old life. The one she would walk away from without a backward glance after tonight.

“Please put me down, Mac.”

Mac let her legs drop, but he held on to her when her feet touched the floor. With his arm around her back, he ushered her deeper into the room. He steadied her against the counter before reaching to retrieve her jacket.

“Here. Can you put this on by yourself?”

“Yeah.” Lil took the still-damp denim from his outstretched hand. She’d only need to make it up to her room, so thankfully the clammy fabric wouldn’t be on for long.

Mac walked back to where Aaron lay muttering. He wrapped his hands around the other man’s wrists and pulled.

“What are you doing?” Lil slid one arm into her jacket and cringed at the clingy sensation.

“Moving him out of the doorway so we can shut the door.” Mac dragged a now spluttering Aaron across the floor.

“Why would we shut it?” Her other arm disappeared into the sleeve and she noticed the pain had almost gone. Lil reached for the zip.

“So he doesn’t go out there and cause more havoc. Or come looking for you again.” Mac glanced at her. “Are you going to tell me what happened?”

Lil closed the zipper halfway. She shivered. Her dress was no barrier to the moisture the material still held. “Not now. I need to get out of this dress.”

“Come on then.” Mac stepped forward with his hand out. “Stay close and I’ll get you through the crowd without stopping.”

She hesitated. It would probably be simpler if she ducked upstairs on her own.

“Don’t even think of saying no, Lilli.”

“But…”

Mac’s gaze told her there’d be no arguing with him.

With a sigh, she placed her hand in his and allowed him to lead her from the room. He guided her through the door first and shut it behind them. She would have protested, but he shook his head and nudged her forward. As they passed through the kitchen, he tugged her closer to his side, let go of her hand and slipped his arm around her shoulder.

Lil marvelled at how swiftly Mac moved them through the house. She offered smiles to anyone who looked her way, but her companion obviously had a scowl on his face because everyone immediately turned away as they drew near. He marched them up the stairs, and by the time they reached the top she was out of breath.

“Slow down, Mac. It’s not a race.”

“Just keep up or I’ll pick you up,” he growled through clenched teeth.

She wasn’t sure where the anger had come from. Other than the snatch of it back in the laundry, Mac hadn’t shown anything but concern. Lil had a feeling that was about to change. They arrived at her door and she stopped, ready to thank him.

“Don’t even think about it, Lilli.” Mac gripped the doorknob, his knuckles blanching white.

“I can take it from here. You don’t need to come inside.” The door opened in front of her and Mac placed his hand on her lower back and propelled her forward. She spun around, her toes pinching in her shoes but she couldn’t stop him from following her and shutting the door behind them. “Mac?”

“Get changed.”

“I will when you leave.” Lil folded her arms over her chest. The damp jacket was uncomfortable but she ignored it.