Wickedly Wicked

Chapter Twelve

"You should thank me for saving you from that man." It affronted Thomas that Lilliana thought him to be the bad guy.

"Save me!" she thundered in disbelief. "I don't need any saving, especially from you. Get the damned notion out of your head." 

There she was, the old Lilliana, the one who wore her feelings openly for the world to see. No ruse. No pretence. Only rawness. 

"If you sign the contract with him, he will take over your business and every cent you have, but not before he hangs the threat to get into your panties," Thomas pointed out. This was the most emotion he had gotten out of her, and he wasn't backing down. It was catharsis. He swore he heard the violins playing in the background.

Those lips that tormented him fell open. Lilliana exclaimed, "Screw you." She pushed him, forcing him to take a step back. She pounded at his chest again. "I hate you, Thomas."

"Sweetheart, to hate, you have to love first." Something twisted inside him. Thomas had expected an outburst, but nothing like this. He held his ground. 

"I don't have time for your childish games." 

"Oh, trust me, there's nothing childish about the games I play," Thomas said evenly.

"Go to hell."

"Look, you know I'm right. All your sacrifices will be meaningless." He sighed.

 "What do you know about sacrifices, Thomas? You know nothing," she spat.

Biting back his irritation, he asked instead, "Why is Larissa absent from this meeting? Shouldn't she be here too?" It bothered him that Lilliana had to deal with the moron on her own.

"She's having tea with the Queen of England." Her tone dripped with sarcasm. "What do you think she is doing? She's trying for a re-mortgage. You may not think of us as business savvy like you, but Lara and I have reached this point on our merit. We don't need any lessons from you."

"If you're unsuccessful, you'll lose your home," Thomas said, not liking the idea. "It's risky given how saturated the jewellery industry is with the competition."

"We'll be fine." Lilliana put her arms around herself. "Please go."

He could see the crushing burden on her shoulders. Squashing the need to hold her, he reasoned, "Being this highly leveraged isn't the solution. Besides, it won't be enough to cover all the production costs—"

"There it is. That condescending tone." She threw her hands in the air with a murderous pout.

"I have more experience, Lilliana," Thomas argued, not backing down in the least. "From where I stand, Bennett Ventures isn't the answer to your problems. Kevin would have interfered in the day-to-day operations, and soon you would have lost the right to run your company. It's not worth it."

"From where you stand? You mean your glass tower where you look down at people with indiscriminate judgement. Don't you think I know this? Unlike you, we took this company off the grounds and made it lucrative." Pain and fury made her beautiful face more animated as she breathed fire at him. "Thomas, you were given a successful business to run. Don't you judge me. Don't you dare."

"Yes, I was handed an established business, Lily. When I took over, I made it an international name rather than run it to the ground." Aghast, Thomas defended himself. "Imagine the livelihood of thousands of employees going down the drain. Believe me. There are nights when I stay awake. So don't be self-righteous. I command respect as I'm the best at what I do."

Lilliana opened her mouth, but all the fight went out of her. She said, "I need to be alone. I wanted to persuade Kevin to make amends as a last resort, and you've kicked the alternative out of this office. You've done enough. Please leave."