Jo Leigh - One-Click Buy - September Harlequin Blaze

“How do you do, Mr. James? I don’t believe we’ve ever met.” Delancy stuck out his hand.

Liam gritted his teeth. It was all he could do to civilly shake the man’s hand. “No?”

Delancy looked confused by the questioning tone in Liam’s voice.

Liam said nothing, just stared Delancy in the eyes. The mayor was the first to look away, shifting his attention to his glass of Scotch. “Can I get you something to drink?” Delancy searched the room for the maid, snapped his fingers at her and said, “Alice, get Mr. James a…”

“Whiskey,” Liam said. He wasn’t much for hard liquor, but this evening was shaping up to be a whiskey kind of night. “Neat.”

Delancy reached up and put a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Come on over and let me introduce you to everyone.”

He flinched at the intimate contact, turned his head to look for Katie and found her right beside him. If not for her, he would feel like a hapless sheep among a pack of wolves. He might know how to make money and flip real estate, but he didn’t have a clue how to walk the delicate tightrope of high-society politics.

Everyone at the party knew Katie and while Liam had met a few of the people in the room at various functions, he knew none of them personally. He chatted with State Senator Gerard Clarkson and his wife, Nancy, along with two CEOs of Boston’s largest corporations, a retired PGA superstar and their dates.

Alice brought Liam his whiskey and he took a bracing swallow. Katie was charming the crowd, regaling them with stories of her family, taking the pressure off him. He ended up in one corner, shoulder propped against the wall, watching her dazzle the guests. She would make someone a wonderful wife someday.

The thought sent a fissure of jealousy through him. He didn’t want to think of her as someone else’s wife.

Occasionally she paused in the middle of her conversation to cast a sidelong glance his way. There was no question about it-Katie captivated him.

She also scared him.

“Dinner is served,” Alice announced from the doorway.

Everyone trooped into the large dining room. The table was lavishly but very tastefully set with expensive but simple patterned china, genuine silverware and crystal goblets. A roasted goose was the main attraction.

Liam started to sit next to Katie, but Sutton Delancy intervened. “No, no, we don’t sit with our dates.”

Her chastisement over his faux pas sent a heated rush of embarrassment through Liam, reminding him how out of place he was here.

He remembered something he’d read once. When riding in a car, lower-class couples sit beside their spouses, middle-class couples sit with men in the front seat and women in the back, and the ruling classes sit with each other’s spouses.

And here he was, uncomfortable with the ruling class. He looked over at Katie, who seemed totally at ease.

“You’re the guest of honor,” Sutton went on. “You must take your place here, young man.” She pulled out the chair at the head of the table.

Delancy took the spot directly opposite Liam at the foot of the table and guided Katie to sit at his right hand. Sutton sat to Liam’s left as the remainder of the guests found their places.

“So tell us,” Sutton began, after the maid served the first course of bouillabaisse, “how did you get started in real estate? The way you’re going, you’ll own half of Boston within the next five years.”

Liam shifted, uncomfortable in the hot seat. “I fixed up my first car when I was a kid, sold it for double what I paid for it. Did that enough times until I could afford to by a small house and I renovated it. Then I flipped it, reinvested the money in a new house and the rest is history.”

“Goodness,” said Nancy Clarkson, fanning herself. “He’s wealthy, handsome, passionate and hardworking. Hang on to this one, Katie. He’s a keeper.”

“Your initiative is impressive,” Delancy said.

Liam glared down the end of the table. He contemplated blurting out the mayor’s dirty secret right then and there, and he took perverse delight in imagining the shocked reactions.

But then his gaze caught Katie’s. The last thing he wanted was to look like anything less than a hero in her eyes. The realization bothered him, but it was the truth.

“I read in the Young Bostonian article that you grew up in a South Boston housing project,” Delancy said.

The hairs on his forearms lifted. He drilled his gaze into the mayor’s, holding on tight to his anger. “That’s right.”

Katie was watching.

“You’d be the perfect person to introduce me at this year’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for my Habitat for Humanity project,” Delancy continued. “Local gang-banger not only turns good but becomes a multimillionaire in the process.”

Rage tinged with degradation froze Liam’s blood. He curled his fingers around the silver spoon in his hand. Could Delancy have figured out who he was? Could that be the real reason he’d been invited here tonight?

“Has a certain cachet, don’t you think?”

Liam forced a slow smile, smacking his gaze hard against Delancy’s, giving the mayor a menacing, predatory stare. “How do you know I was in a gang?”

Delancy’s returning smile was uncertain. “Why, Katie told me a few minutes ago.”

Liam swung his stare around to capture Katie with it. Nervously, she licked her lips. “I…didn’t know your past was a secret.”

Her betrayal of his confidence wounded like a razor’s blade. He bit down the inside of his cheek, mentally berating himself for having trusted her.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, but had the strength of courage to hold his gaze.

He realized then he’d been looking at her the same way he’d been looking at Delancy. As if she were the enemy. Her blue eyes pleaded with him for forgiveness. God, how could he hold a grudge when she looked so remorseful and beautiful?

Liam shrugged, softened his gaze. “It wasn’t a secret,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”

“Then you’ll introduce me at the Habitat for Humanity ceremony?” Delancy prodded.

Liam kept his eyes on Katie. It was the only way he could hold his contempt for the man in check. “All right.”

What was it about Katie Winfield that twisted his insides into knots? Just the act of tracking the snowy skin between her pear-studded earlobes and slender collarbone made Liam forget everything except pressing his lips to that vulnerable spot.

“It’s settled, then.” Delancy dusted his palms together. “The ribbon-cutting ceremony is on the twentieth at noon. Make sure to mark your calendar.”

“I won’t forget.” Liam looked back at Delancy, silently acknowledging that he’d just agreed to do a favor for the creep. Tension locked his neck muscles. But then it occurred to him that the ceremony-complete with media coverage-was the prime opportunity and the perfect venue to exact his revenge upon Delancy.

The maid reappeared to clear the soup bowls and to ask if anyone needed fresh drinks.

“Could I have another whiskey, please?” Liam asked. It was the only way he was going to make it through this damnable dinner.

Katie, Liam noted, missed nothing. He could see it in her eyes and the way she held herself with a calm stillness. She might be young, but in some ways she was much more worldly than him.

She put a smile on her face and lavishly praised the Caesar salad that was served as their second course.

By the end of the meal, Katie had managed to defuse any tension running through the room, although there was still plenty of tension coursing inside Liam that even two tumblers of the finest whiskey in the world could not stop.

“It was so interesting to meet you,” Sutton said as she ushered her guests toward the front door. She took Liam’s hand in hers and squeezed it. “I’m so looking forward to the Habitat for Humanity ceremony.”