O face, p.1
O Face, page 1
Table of Contents
O Face
Chapter One | Liam | (click here to unlock this e-book’s special features)
Chapter Two | Cassie
Chapter Three | Liam
Chapter Four | Cassie
Chapter Five | Liam
Chapter Six | Cassie
Chapter Seven | Liam
Chapter Eight | Cassie
Chapter Nine | Liam
Chapter Ten | Cassie
Chapter Eleven | Liam
Chapter Twelve | Cassie
Chapter Thirteen | Liam
Chapter Fourteen | Cassie
Chapter Fifteen | Liam
Chapter Sixteen | Cassie
Chapter Seventeen | Liam
Chapter Eighteen | Cassie
Chapter Nineteen | Liam
Chapter Twenty | Cassie
Chapter Twenty-One | Liam
Chapter Twenty-Two | Cassie
Chapter Twenty-Three | Liam
Chapter Twenty-Four | Cassie
Chapter Twenty-Five | Liam
Chapter Twenty-Six | Cassie
Chapter Twenty-Seven | Liam
Chapter Twenty-Eight | Cassie
Chapter Twenty-Nine | Liam
Chapter Thirty | Cassie
Chapter Thirty-One | Liam
Chapter Thirty-Two | Cassie
Chapter Thirty-Three | Liam
Chapter Thirty-Four | Cassie
Chapter Thirty-Five | Liam
Epilogue | Liam
Did you enjoy this story? Please consider leaving a review!
__________________
CLICK to download and keep reading | Kiss of Death | Chapter One | Chapter One
CLICK to download FREE and keep reading
Other titles by Heather Hildenbrand:
Sign up for Heather Hildenbrand's Mailing List
Also By Heather Hildenbrand
O Face
© 2017 Heather Hildenbrand
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the authors’ imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the authors.
Cover by Mayhem Cover Creations
READ FREE!
Chapter One
Liam
(click here to unlock this e-book’s special features)
The exhaust from my borrowed pickup was the only familiar scent as I slid into the narrow parking space and cut the engine. The last chug of the motor echoed off the garage walls—thick, gray cement that was too perfectly constructed to exist anywhere except good ole’ America. Specifically, downtown Charleston. Home sweet home. Sort of. But even though it was familiar enough, being here left me unsettled. I’d just spent four months diving off the coast of Africa and the Middle East before that. South Carolina was terrifyingly luxurious by comparison.
Was it insane to miss the pickup truck beds full of government gangbangers rolling through town with guns raised? Probably. But then it was even more insane that I was here of all places. Even before my years in the military, I’d never spent any time in the world of corporate America, and I knew I wasn’t going to fit in now. But a promise was a promise.
I paused inside the cab long enough to roll up the windows. Manual windows took more elbow grease than pushing a button. A familiar for both of the worlds I’d lived in. At least some things were universal.
Just fucking breathe, man. I inhaled. Exhaled. Got out.
Shoving the keys into my pocket, I started walking.
The closer I got to the street—and the view of the skyscraper across it with the words Franklin Industries mounted over the front—the faster my heart pounded. The more my irritation bubbled up, threatening to boil over.
I didn’t want to do this shit. I wanted to go home. To Summerville. To the house my parents had raised me in. They were gone; retired and living off the coast of Florida. Purchasing my childhood home was the first step I’d made toward building a life for myself after almost losing it. Well, surviving that IED had probably been the first step if you asked anyone else. But “surviving” and “making a life” were two different things. And it was the former that had brought me here—all the way to the doorstep of the last place I ever expected to visit.
Just one meeting, I reminded myself now. One dog and pony show. Kiss a few babies. Shake a few hands. And then home to the peace and quiet of Summerville.
In a blur of forced will and silently repeated responsibilities, I made it into the building and through the security checkpoint.
“You’re Liam Porter,” the security guard said, his smile friendly. Open. Not murderous. Not radicalized. But I hated his enthusiasm. I did not want to be recognized. Not here. Not anywhere, really, but especially not on my own turf.
“Yeah.”
“I graduated from North Summerville too. Three years ahead of you. Wow. It’s an honor, man.” He put out his hand, and I shook it, gritting my teeth to bite back all the asshole things I wanted to say.
“Thanks.”
“Your meeting’s on the fourteenth floor. You can just go right up,” he said, releasing my hand and nodding at a bank of elevators behind him.
“Thanks,” I said again. Better a repetitive monkey than a cursing asshole.
I spun on my heel and headed for the elevators. Maybe I should have brought Sophie after all, like she’d begged me to. “Just for backup,” she’d said in that voice that always sounded like a warning of some kind. “Just in case.”
“I survived an IED at forty feet,” I’d told her with more than a little sarcasm. “I think I can handle this.”
The words were true enough. One visit to Franklin Industries should have been cake. But Sophie and I both knew, for me, this sort of thing was worse than death. Even as I thought it, I tugged on my collar. I’d vetoed the tie Sophie had tried forcing me to wear. A dress shirt and slacks were bad enough.
I stepped into the elevator, reminding myself it was more than a fair trade. Not exactly an eye for an eye. More like a mouth for an ear. This company had done more for me than technology should have allowed. Definitely more than the military would have. The least I could do was stand up beside them and tell the world who’d given me a second chance at life.
They’d get one speech. That was the deal.
After that, I could fade into obscurity. I was already well on my way with the stubble on my face and longer hair hanging over my forehead. After a few more months, with any luck, no one in town would recognize me ever again. I wouldn’t be “Liam Porter, war hero.” I’d be “that guy who never shaves and spends all his time carving out rocking chairs.”
Sophie probably had a warning for that too, but I didn’t give a shit. The idea of taking over my dad’s old workshop, of losing myself in the sound of the saw, the smell of the sawdust... It was exactly what I needed after the stress of the last few months. Between the explosion, the subsequent surgeries, and now the spotlight, I just needed some solitude for a while. To get some peace and quiet. Move on.
But first, I had to pay my dues.
The elevator doors dinged, the yellow light indicating I’d arrived on the fourteenth floor. When the doors slid open, the first thing I saw was the view. Floor-to-ceiling windows ran the length of the foyer, offering a look at a cityscape that was too far away to look anything less than pristine. Even the silence ringing in my ears had a tone to it that screamed money.
I stepped out into the hall, caught up in the cityscape of Charleston as it stretched as far north as I could see. I knew Franklin’s office wasn’t at city center, that behind me, the city limits gave way to forest and from there, only winding back roads leading straight home to Summerville. But from here, all I could see was the bustle of a city too bloated with people and pollution to comfort me just now.
I thought of my dad’s shop again, still full of half-finished passion projects from the last time I’d come home for a visit. It smelled of sawdust that burned my eyes and reminded me of the life I’d had before I’d almost lost it all. I’d left town as a player looking for glory, but four years later, I had returned as something else. I just didn’t know what yet.
I took a deep breath and turned away from the window, walking slowly to the other end of the hall and the office that awaited me. Plush carpeting lined in gold trim led me straight to a reception desk made of glass and marble.
“Can I help you?” A bright-eyed twenty-something with gold earrings that glinted off the harsh lights greeted me.
“I’m Liam,” I began and her eyes went even brighter.
“Liam Porter, oh my God!” She jumped up and raced around to shake my hand, gushing in a way that made her look even younger.
I nodded a lot, and when it was clear I wasn’t going to encourage her any further, she led me to a conference room and plied me with coffee without waiting for my agreement. The low b uzz of muted voices and dollars wrung from desperate hands hovered everywhere. If my mother could see me now...
I was glad in this moment that she couldn’t.
One press conference, I reminded myself.
Finally, the chirpy receptionist left me alone.
I sipped the coffee. The fact that it was good pissed me off somehow. I set it aside, pretending to study the artwork on the walls mixed with various awards given for Franklin’s research and contributions to global causes. A pat on the back made out of paper and ink. I snorted, ready to turn back and find a seat again, but a photo on the side table caught my eye.
Shit. I’d almost forgotten.
Okay, not really. But I hadn’t expected to see a photo of her here. It had seemed too simple, somehow. Just because her father owned this place, and just because she was heir to it all, didn’t mean I’d actually see her—photo or otherwise. But there it was.
I got up and wandered closer, reaching for the glass frame and holding it closer to get a better look. And sure as shit, there she was.
Cassie fucking Franklin.
If that wasn’t her middle name, it should have been. Thick blonde hair that made your fingers itch to grab a handful of it. Full lips that were made for kissing. A body with curves in all the right places and legs for days. But it was the eyes that stopped traffic. Blue as glaciers and just as cold. She was the ice princess that had ruled men’s daydreams and fantasies probably the world over. I’d known her in high school. Okay, known was a strong word. Everyone knew Cassie Franklin. But no one really knew Cassie Franklin.
In the photo, she stood next to an older man in a gray suit. He was smiling, his shiny, bald head glinting in the sun almost as sharply as the private plane parked behind them. Mr. Franklin himself: CEO of Franklin Industries.
I’d met him once at a school fundraiser. He’d been friendlier than I’d expected from the stories I’d heard, but then I hadn’t been old enough or rich enough to have something he wanted. If I had, rumors suggested he would have been less inclined to talk and laugh and shoot the shit with the kid hauling his donations from the trunk to the gym.
On Cassie’s other side stood two other men, both expensively dressed. Both smiling the smile of men with money and a never-ending drive to accrue more of the same. The one closest to Cassie had his arm slung a little low on her waist. Possessive. But something glinted in his eye as his lips curved upward. Something twisted I’d come to recognize in my years facing off with pieces of shit that I was forced to be diplomatic with. Something dark I didn’t like, not with him standing so close to Cassie. But I shrugged it off, and when I blinked again, I wondered if I’d just imagined the cruel twist to his smile.
Maybe blowing out my eardrums had lost me more than my balance. The guys back at the dive locker had given me shit about also losing my good sense and what brains I had left and maybe they weren’t wrong after all.
When I looked again, their expressions seemed less menacing all around. In fact, the whole picture was predictable, and yet nothing about the photo told me a thing about the woman in the center of the group. Cassie Franklin had clearly grown up since high school, but from the shuttered, distant expression on her gorgeous face, she hadn’t changed a bit.
Still as untouchable as ever.
Had I thought of her when I’d learned it was Franklin’s medical technology and surgeons that had saved my life three weeks ago? Hell yeah I had. Was I thinking of her today when I’d purposely left my little sister at home this morning and come here alone secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of the only girl I’d ever wanted yet never managed to have?
Damn right.
But one look at the photo, and I knew all the answers to all the questions that had made me wonder about her more times than I wanted to admit over the years. Cassie Franklin was still a frozen wasteland. Unreachable. Untouchable.
And despite all that, I still wanted to get my hands on her.
A soft noise made me turn.
The door to the conference room opened, and I glanced at the newcomer, my mouth open and ready to offer a stiff greeting. The email hadn’t said which snot-nosed executive I was meeting with today to prep for the speech they wanted from me, but it really didn’t matter. They were all the same: stuffy, condescending assholes. I was going to make this as short and sweet as I could. In fact, even as I turned, I pasted on a sour expression just so the asshole knew I wasn’t going to be impressed by the large numbers that made up his bank account or his waistline.
But I stopped short at the sight of the face that stared back at me, my voice drying up in shock. Definitely not the corporate idiot I was told to expect. In my right hand, I still clutched the photo, my knuckles tightening as I realized what was happening here. Maybe it was fate or karma or whatever—not that I believed in any of those. Whatever it was, I knew this was my lucky day. Staring at her phone, hovering just inside the conference room where I stood was the blonde bombshell from the picture I still held. Close enough for me to smell her perfume. And damn if it wasn’t sexy as hell—just like the rest of her. If I’d ever wanted a chance to get my hands on Cassie Franklin, now was my chance.
Chapter Two
Cassie
I scratched absently at my elbow and shoved open the conference room door, my phone clutched tightly in my hand. Bev, my assistant, was trying to catch my eye from down the hall, but I ignored her. My ten o’clock appointment wasn’t on the books so the fact that she’d beat me to it by escorting him to the conference room could only mean questions I wasn’t ready to answer. Without acknowledging her, I stepped inside and let the door click shut behind me, pausing to send Bev a quick text message with clear instructions: In a meeting. Do not disturb.
I had no doubt she’d take that as an order.
With that done, I dropped my phone onto the table and shoved aside every single misgiving I had about this crazy idea. Besides, the level of crazy didn’t matter. He was already here; there was no going back now.
It was a good thing retreat wasn’t in my nature, I realized, as I got my first look at the man waiting for me now. Because the reality was nothing like I’d imagined. In fact, in a lot of ways, it was a whole lot better. Now that I was meeting him, I wasn’t even sure what I’d expected, but it hadn’t been this. The man standing before me was straight up eye candy.
He wore heavy boots with utility pants and a fitted long-sleeve shirt that seemed to accentuate every line and ripple of his muscular arms and broad chest. Displaying his assets as it were. I tried not to roll my eyes—or drool. But the stubble and longish dark hair sweeping down over his forehead was better than every alpha male love interest on any magazine cover or action movie I’d ever seen. Jess would have called him an ovary melter or something similar. My own sex drive wasn’t nearly so creative. But even I could agree this guy was hot.
Business arrangement, I reminded myself. This was just business.
I cleared my throat, scratching again at my arm. It was beginning to redden and swell into what I already knew would become hives if I didn’t chill the fuck out. But between Dad’s lecture earlier and this ... relaxing wasn’t an option.
“Glad you found your way,” I said, striding across the room and offering my hand to the man standing near the window. The sunlight streaming in behind him was partly shaded by clouds, casting his silhouette in a gray glow that made him feel even more dangerous up close.
I suppressed a shudder, hiding everything I felt and thought behind the mask I’d perfected a long time ago. Neutral. Give nothing away. That’s what Dad had taught me. And I was a pro.
“Sure,” he said uncertainly.
He took my offered hand, shaking it slowly. Our gazes met, and I found myself caught by a pair of dark brown eyes that seemed at once both familiar and strange. I shifted my weight, the itching on my arm intensifying as I arranged my features carefully and drew my hand away. There was something about him... Something I thought I recognized. And that was not okay considering what I was about to ask him to do.
“I see Bev got you a coffee,” I said, my voice strained as I realized she’d spent a few minutes with him. Damn. I should have met him after work at some darkened dive bar after all. But if this worked out he needed to be seen here. Besides, I couldn’t get a contract notarized at a bar.
