Because of His Heart (For His Pleasure, Book 27) Read Free Page B

ground and then she felt the cold drops all over her body. It was pouring now, soaking through her clothes.
    Liam was watching her with anguish on his features, but also—and Grace couldn’t deny it—deep love.
    The deepest love that Grace had ever witnessed or felt.
    “I know that I don’t deserve you,” Liam told her, as the rain poured down. He didn’t seem to care, or even notice, that he was drenched.
    A rolling thunder rolled across the sky, booming above them.
    People around them ran for cover, but Liam and Grace just stood there, oblivious to everything but one another.
    “Liam, you hurt me. You hurt me,” she told him, and then she broke too—as if the storm that was raging around them had given her permission to unleash her own inner storm. And the tears came, but they mixed with the cold rain that was cleansing her skin, and she shuddered and shook.
    Before she knew it, Liam’s strong arms were wrapping around her, and he was holding her tightly, even though she struggled against his touch. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her ear as he cupped the back of her head with one hand and his other hand rested between her shoulder blades. “I’m so sorry, Grace. I love you. I never want to hurt you again.”
    “But you will hurt me,” she sobbed. “You will, Liam.”
    “No,” he said. “No, it’s over. I’m going to take care of you forever.”
    She began beating her fists against his rock hard chest, but the punches weren’t very fierce. Her strength was fading as she collapsed, her resistance to Liam broken in half by the love she felt burning through her fear and sadness. “You left me all alone!”
    “I know,” he said. “But that will never happen again. I’m going to fight for you,” he told her. And then his lips were on hers, and she’d never felt such searing hot desire blowing through her every cell—the desire to have him, to be possessed by him.
    She let his tongue enter her mouth and she sagged into his arms, completely undone by the effect that Liam Houston had on her.
    His lips were so familiar and yet still so mysterious, the way he could instantly disarm her and make her his own.
    She felt herself responding, and then she grew afraid and started to fight against him once more. “No. No!” she yelled.
    The rain was still emptying down from the heavens, and although she was shivering, Grace almost didn’t feel it.
    “Grace,” Liam said, his eyes intense now. “You know that we have to be together.”
    “You’ll lose everything again,” she said. “And this time it will be for real, and it will be permanent. I don’t think you can handle that, Liam.”
    “Why, because of the money?” he said, scoffing.
    “Yes, exactly.”
    “I don’t care about the money,” he replied.
    She had to admit that he had a confidence in his voice and a look of determination and clarity in his eyes that she’d never seen before.
    And in the rain, his shirt clung to his skin and she could see his strength, the sheer muscularity of his chest and shoulders and arms. He was strong physically, and sexier than any man she’d ever laid eyes on.
    She needed him. Needed his touch, needed to feel his body against hers.
    Grace felt her resistance buckling further, like a house of cards that was quickly coming down all at once around her.
    She put up one last fight against Liam’s logic and persistence. “You’ll start drinking every night, just like last time. Drinking with your college buddies and fighting for cash—I can’t watch you destroy yourself like that again.”
    Liam gave her a look as if he’d been waiting for just this argument. A tiny smirk played on his lips.
    “I’m clean and sober, Grace.”
    She just stared at him. “What do you mean?”
    The rain was abating now, as if the gods themselves were stunned into submission by his announcement.
    “I mean exactly what I say,” Liam responded. “I stopped drinking. And I don’t intend to start back up anytime