Starr Destined (Starr Series) (2 page)

I bided my time and made sure that I stayed in touch with Scott to keep tabs on what was going on with Liam.  After a couple of weeks, he told me Liam still hadn't organised himself a new playmate yet, as far as he was aware.  I knew Liam was a control freak who was absolutely fastidious about safe sex, so it was highly unlikely he’d have sought out casual sex with just anyone.  And knowing what a high sex drive he had, I guessed he’d be feeling pretty desperate for some female company by now.  So I sent him a casual text, offering a quick hook-up if he needed it. 

No reply.

So then I hauled myself out of bed at the crack of dawn to head for the fitness centre, where I knew Liam swum and worked out every morning.  I planned to casually bump into him, figuring that act
ually seeing me in the flesh might prove more tempting to him in his current celibate state.  I made sure I wore my sexiest possible gym outfit, and looking at myself in the mirror, I thought any man gagging for sex, as Liam surely must be by now, would be unable to resist the unmistakeable invitation I was sending out.

But resist he did.  As our paths crossed and I shot him my best seductive smile, he just acknow
ledged me with a slight nod and then ignored me as he headed for the swimming pool.  I must be a glutton for punishment, because I couldn’t help myself.  I had to go and watch, and found myself literally drooling over his great body.  Big broad shoulders with muscles that rippled as he effortlessly swam several lengths.  As he got out of the water, I couldn’t help staring at his swimming trunks, thinking they looked just like the ones Daniel Craig wore when he played James Bond walking out of the sea.

I thought about the delightful contents of those swimming trunks, and it hit me that he’d totally spoiled me for other men.  After experiencing sex with Liam Starr, anyone else would seem second best now.

I had to find a way to win him back.

I hadn't heard anything from my usual source of info about Liam in a while - for some reason Scott wasn’t even returning my calls - so a week or so later, I resorted to finding an excuse to call in at Liam’s apartment.  He’d been away on business - I’d found this much out from his PA when I’d rung on the pretext of being a business contact who wanted to set up a meeting.  I refused to accept that I was beginning to act like his stalker.  I was just giving the natural order of things a nudge in the right direction.

I’d wracked my brains to come up with a plausible excuse for needing to call in, finally settling on ‘damsel in distress’.  Liam had always been the perfect gentleman, showing impeccable manners to ensure my personal safety, insisting that if I didn't bring my car whenever I visited him, he would organise a taxi to or from his place for me.

“I don't want you taking any kind of risk to visit me,” he’d insisted.  I’d thought that was very chivalrous and had loved it, even if it was rather an old-fashioned attitude.  So I thought I would play on that side of him.  And that was how I came to be outside his apartment one evening, to put my plan into operation.

“Liam, I'm sorry to disturb you…”  He’d be able to see on his video entry screen that I was wearing my running gear, and he’d hear that my voice was all quivery.  I knew he was home, because I’d been watching to see his car arrive back from the office.  Okay, so I was acting like his stalker now, but it was necessary behaviour to achieve ‘Mrs. Liam Starr’ status.

“Kimberley?  What’s the matter?  Is something wrong?”  That lovely deep voice of his sounded so concerned.  Perfect.

“I was out running, when this man started following me and I got scared, so I just ran into your building, because I knew the security code to get in and the guy wouldn’t be able to follow me… but the concierge wasn't at his desk…  ” I practically sobbed. 
When did I get to be such a good actress?

Naturally after this little performance, being the gentleman that he was, Liam let me in to his apar
tment, and he was great in the way he looked after me and comforted me.  He still looked as sexy as hell of course - he’d taken off his suit jacket and tie, and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his crisp white shirt to reveal a tempting glimpse of his broad chest.  Mm-mm.  He sat me down in his kitchen while he got me a glass of water, but I had to hastily back track when he started talking about checking the CCTV footage and calling the police.

“No, there’s no need for the police, Liam.  I was probably just being silly a
nd overreacted.”

“I really think we should call them, Kim.  It’s better to be safe than sorry, and you can't be too car
eful…”

“I think the police would say it was a waste of their time, and anyway I expect whoever he was is long gone now.”

“Perhaps next time you should wear less revealing clothing when you go out running.  Or not go on your own.  This is exactly what I was trying to warn… someone else about.”  I felt a thrill run through me as Liam looked me over, but it was such a disapproving look that there was nothing in the least sexual about it.

“I would run you home, Kim, but I have an important date… meeting in a few minutes.  How about I call you a taxi instead?”

What could I say?  This wasn’t at all how I’d envisaged things working out.  I'd planned that as I wept on his shoulder, he’d take me in his arms.  I’d make sure he felt my boobs pressed up against him, and then one thing would lead to another, and we’d end up having great sex and that would be the resumption of things between us.

Instead, I was being shunted out again.  It was so frustrating, especially when he was being so nice to me as well.

“I hope you’ve been okay since the last time we met up?”  Liam’s deep blue eyes bore into me with what seemed like pity rather than lust, as we waited in his apartment for the taxi he’d called to arrive.

“I’ve been just fine,” I lied, my self-pride choosing now to kick in.

“I apologise if I seemed rather abrupt in the way things ended between us.”

“That’s the way it goes with our kind of arrangement,” I shrugged.  God knows I’d done the same thing myself to guys countless times before, but it was odd when the shoe was on the other foot, and I didn't like it one bit.

“It’s just my needs… well… they’ve changed.  I’m no longer interested in the kind of arrangement we had, and I’m not in contact with Scott anymore.”

“Oh, I see.”  That explained why I hadn't heard from the guy.  From the scowl on Liam’s face at the mere mention of his name, my guess was that they’d had some sort of a falling out.  Although I was curious to discover what that could have been about, I knew it would be pointless to ask Liam - he’d never open up enough to tell me something like that.

It wasn’t long before the call came to say the taxi was waiting for me downstairs.  As we made our way out of his apartment towards the lift, I reached up to kiss Liam’s cheek.  It was bristly because he needed a shave, but I liked that rough, masculine feel.

“Thanks for taking care of me.” 
God, the man smelled good.

“My pleasure,” he smiled back, and then the smile froze on his face.  I glanced behind me to see what he was looking at.

Standing there was a girl, probably in her late teens or early twenties.  She was pretty, petite and slim with very long dark curly hair.  She looked shocked for some reason.

“I’ll be back in just a minute,” Liam said to her, as he frowned.  Is this who his meeting was with?  He’d mentioned something about a date, but that must have been a slip of the tongue.  This girl couldn’t possibly be any kind of a date for Liam - she wasn’t his type at all, so I thought she was probably just a runner from his office, bringing something urgent over for him maybe. 

Liam escorted me down and then saw me safely into the taxi, as he’d promised.

“You know you can always call me anytime, Liam.  We were pretty good together, and I miss that.”  I tried one last shot.

“Thanks, Kimberley, but as I told you, I'm not looking for that kind of arrangement any more.  But I really do wish you all the best.  And remember what I said about dressing more appropriately when you go out running.  I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”

He smiled and I realised that I’d hardly ever seen him smile.  He’d always looked so serious before, which I’d found broody and sexy, but actually he had such a great smile that it made him even se
xier.

Damn.  How had I let Liam Starr slip through my fingers?

However, a few days later, I got a phone call from Scott, which gave me fresh hope that all was not lost.

I knew I’d told
Seraphina that I had a very busy schedule on that Monday, but I was surprised when she hadn’t rung me, or made an appearance in my office for our usual daily meeting by lunch time, especially as we’d not seen much of each other recently because I'd been away so much.  I thought she’d be as keen as I was to spend some time together. 

After dealing with a last-minute unscheduled visitor, I rang Sera’s office to find out where she’d got to. 

I was surprised when Tom told me that she wasn’t there.

“What do you mean, she’s left?”  I queried.

“Sera was unwell, so she headed off a few minutes ago.  She looked really dreadful - she had a sudden migraine apparently, and said she needed to go home and lie down in a dark room,” he informed me.  “I offered to take her, but she said she’d get a taxi.”

I felt a sharp pang of worry.  Sera had never mentioned suffering from migraines before when I’d asked her if there was anything else I should know about, following her panic attack at The Shard.  And why hadn't she let me know she was ill and needed to go home?  I became even more co
ncerned when she didn't answer her mobile.  She knew I expected her to keep in contact at all times - we’d gone over this enough times - so why wasn’t she answering her phone, or replying to the text I sent?

Are you ok?  How bad is your migraine?  Call me.

When there was no reply, I decided I really needed to find out what was going on.  I sent another text.

I’m coming over to check you’re ok.

I picked up my car keys, and made my way out of my office.

“Something’s come up.  I’m going out, and I don't know when I’ll be back,” I told my PA.

Joy looked at me as if I was mad.

“But Mr. Starr, you have back-to-back meetings scheduled for this afternoon.”

“Cancel them.”

“But… it’s such short notice…”  Joy protested.

“Just do it,” I stated, as I headed out of the door.  For fuck’s sake, all I was asking her to do was her job, wasn’t it?

All kind of thoughts were churning through my mind as I drove over.  Maybe going on the contr
aceptive pill had brought on Sera’s migraine, in which case it was my fault that she was ill, because I'd insisted that I didn't want to use condoms.  So it was my responsibility to make sure that she got herself checked out immediately, preferably at the private clinic where they would see her straight away.  But what if it wasn’t just a simple migraine?  What if it was something more serious?  I told myself to calm down, as I tried calling Sera again using the hands free Bluetooth interface in my BMW, but when there was still no answer from her, my gut instinct told me something definitely wasn't right.  I knew I had a tendency to overreact when it came to Sera, but I just didn't understand why she hadn't let me know what the matter was, when she knew how much I worried about her. 

As I parked my car in the Butler’s Wharf underground car park, I saw I’d finally got a text back from Sera.

You don't need to come over.  Just have bad headache.  Need to be on my own.  Stay away.

Well, I was here now, and whether the independent and self-sufficient Miss Jones liked it or not, I was going to check on her, and take care of her.  I didn't bother to answer her text, I just hurried on up to her apartment.

I buzzed the entry phone.

“Seraphina?  I'm sorry to disturb you if you’re resting, but I need to make sure you’re okay.”

I froze, as all I heard in response was the sound of smashing glass.  My immediate thought was that Sera had collapsed and dropped something.

“Sera?  Are you all right?  Can you please let me in?”

I heard more sounds of smashing glass, but this time it seemed as if something had smashed against the door, and I thought I could hear her shouting.  What the hell was going on?  Was somebody in there attacking her? 

I didn't wait to find out.  As the owner the apartment, I carried a spare key, but I'd sworn to respect her privacy, and not use it unless there was some kind of an emergency.  Well, this definitely counted as an emergency, as far as I was concerned.

As I opened the door and rushed in, I had to avoid broken shards of glass on the floor, which appeared to be remnants of the vase of flowers I’d recently sent Seraphina.  Then I looked up to see her standing there, glaring at me from the doorway of her bedroom.  She looked wild with what seemed to be anger and fury - and for some reason it seemed to be directed at me.  I ducked as she lobbed the photo frame she had in her hand, and I heard it shatter against the door behind me, to join the broken vase on the floor.

“Get out!” she screamed.  “I told you not to come over.  I hate you!  I don't ever want to see you again, you lying, cheating bastard!”