Strung Out by Kaitlin Maitland

her courage and lifted her gaze to his face. “It’s pretty much the end of the weekend, Erik. We both knew it couldn’t last.” She looked around at the room and the food on the bar, wishing she had the words to say what she meant. “This place is amazing. But it isn’t mine. And neither are you.”
    The words sat between them like a ticking bomb. But that’s what it was. Courteney was a ticking bomb. Soon she’d go off, and he’d allow himself to be leg-shackled to a woman he didn’t love to seal a corporate merger to make tons of money he probably didn’t even need.
    He took two steps around the side of the couch. “It doesn’t have to be like that.”
    Her heart began to pound inside her chest, and her fingers grew icy cold. What was he talking about? How could it be any other way?
    “I don’t want you to be a weekend fling, Talia.”
    Hope rose, and she struggled to ask the most important question. “Then what do you want?”
    “I want you here, with me.” He took two more steps, then another, and then he reached for her hand. “I want this to be your home. You deserve this and more.”
    He reached for her, and she went willingly into his arms, wondering at his change of heart. How was it possible that he’d chosen her instead of his merger?
    “I want to take care of you, Talia. See you every night. Make love to you every morning. I want you to be mine.” His arms were warm and reassuring around her body, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
    “So you’re going to take yourself off the bargaining table and risk the merger?” Her voice was muffled against his chest.
    He chuckled. “There’s no need. Once she and I are married, I’ll get her a place of her own. Everything here will be yours. Courteney and I will be seen together in public when I can’t avoid it, and I’ll have the rest of my time to spoil you rotten.”
    Something sharp and cold wedged itself into her heart. “So I’d be your mistress?”
    “That’s not exactly how I’d put it. Neither of us are the traditional type. Those are just labels.”
    So whore is just a label.
    His cell phone buzzed, vibrating insistently as it bounced against the polished wood of an end table half a step away. Because fate wouldn’t have it any other way, Courteney’s name was emblazoned across the iridescent blue screen.
    Erik made a low sound of annoyance. “Hang on just a minute. If I don’t answer, she’ll just keep calling.”
    Talia’s vision narrowed until she was gazing down a tunnel stretching into the future. This scene, this situation, the feeling of always being second best was the most she could ask of this man.
    It wasn’t enough.
    Erik snagged the phone and answered, turning away and wandering across the room to gain some privacy. His voice held a note of placation. Obviously the ice princess was displeased. Well, so was Talia.
    Turning on her heel, she headed for the stairs and didn’t look back.

Chapter Ten

    The message light was blinking on her answering machine. In a world of cell phones and voice mail, Talia was hopelessly out of date. But cell phones were a luxury item that fell toward the bottom of her priority list.
    She stared at the pulsing red light. It’d been blinking when she walked in the night before, but so far she’d managed to resist the temptation. She rarely received phone calls. And though she hadn’t given Erik her phone number, that didn’t mean he hadn’t somehow gotten hold of it.
    Her fingers itched to push the Play button, to hear his voice once more. And to know what excuses he would make for the callous offer to trade her dignity for financial stability.
    No. She turned decisively away from the promise of a blinking red light to rummage in her closet for clean clothes. She caught a brief glance of her reflection in the mirror and groaned. She looked like hell.
    Sleep had been out of the question. She’d tossed and turned on her sagging mattress until the small hours of the