Begin Again novel Chapter 98

"Anderson!" Liam barked into the phone as he watched Eden through the window make her way back to her office. An office she now hated. An office he had no business messing with because she had loved it just the way it was.

It was Gibby. "Sir, Laura Stone is on her way to see you; I tried to stop her."

"Got it!" Liam grunted and slammed the phone back on the hook. He had enough shit on his plate; he didn't need Laura's crap as well.

It seemed he'd have to take it.

His ex knocked once and pranced in, bringing in with her the cloyingly sweet but expensive smell of her perfume.

"Liam—" She cooed as she ran into his arms but paused when he kept them at his sides and glared at her.

"I have a meeting in fifteen minutes," he said, making a point of checking his Cartier.

Laura was easily one of the most beautiful women he'd ever fucked. She had the body and the legs to make a man forget all his problems too. But his attention was on the other side of the floor, inside a tiny broom closet office.

Matthew's right. He shouldn't have bought the paintings and the vase. He should have just apologised.

He'd wanted to. He truly did. But somehow, he could never bring himself to say the words. He had never had to apologise to anyone before. Usually, money made everything go away.

Not this time, it seemed.

And the timing, too—The timing of everything couldn't have been more wrong.

He was so sure their dinner dates had brought them closer. Their lovemaking, too, last night, was perfect. But now, Eden seemed so far out of reach.

Where did he even begin making his way back to her? Could he, when she was so adamant she wanted nothing to do with him?

Was this their end before they'd even begun?

"—Li, did you hear me?"

He shrugged and checked his phone, fuming anew at the vitriol in the chats. He tried to downplay it for Eden's sake, but he was deeply disturbed by the rubbish they'd written about her.

He warned them before about posting shit in there. Now they would all feel his wrath—every single one of them—starting with Matthew's assistant.

"Can't we try again? I'm sorry, I was rash the last time at Crush; I miss you so much, Li."

Liam stared at her for a long time, wondering what it was that she missed. He hadn't fucked her in two years. Hadn't touched her in months before their final split. So for her to miss a loveless, sexless relationship was mind-blowing.

"Please, Li?" Laura batted her long fake lashes, a move he'd fallen hard for in the past. Not anymore. She had to come up with new tricks.

What exactly did he see in her? He wondered as he pushed her aside and returned to his seat. Underneath her pretty exterior, there was nothing of substance there. She was as shallow as they come and self-serving to boot too.

Tired of beating around the bush, Laura got straight to the heart of her unannounced visit. "Liam, I want you back."

"We've tried. Ten times already," he reminded her. It could have been more, but he stopped counting after the tenth try, and he was exhausted from all their attempts at breathing life into something that shouldn't have been born.

If it wasn't for Mrs Stone—his housekeeper and Laura's mother—they would never have met. But it was attraction at first sight when Laura unexpectedly dropped by his place a little over three years ago to check on her. He had ignored the sparks at first because he never mixed business with pleasure. But, Laura was headstrong and always knew what she wanted. Back then, it was his fully-functioning dick.