Read Online I Spy a Wicked Sin by Jo Davis - Free Book Online

brought the straw to her lips, taking a tentative sip. “Oh, that’s good! So, what’s the kick?”
    His dimple deepened. “Beer and vodka.”
    She coughed. “What? You’re not serious! Those two words in the same phrase sound completely disgusting.”
    “Totally.” He laughed at her pinched expression. “My friends and I dubbed it Fuck-Me Punch. ’Cause a couple of glasses of that and you’ll wake up trying to figure out where your clothes are.”
    She took another sip. “It is good. You can’t even taste the alcohol. Weird.”
    “Which is why that recipe can sneak up on you. I’ll have to watch your intake or you might rip my shorts off.”
    “You are incorrigible. I have a strong feeling you and Jude are dangerous when mixed.”
    “You’d be right.”
    She eyed him as he took a few swallows of punch. “Indulge me on something?”
    “If I can. Shoot.”
    “Give me some insight on Jude. Tell me who this man is to you, to those around him.”
    The happy mood surrounding Liam faded along with the spark in his pretty eyes. “Which Jude would that be? The powerful force of nature who first hired me? The cold, distant stranger he became last year? Or the lost, vulnerable soul I brought home from the hospital? I’d hardly know where to begin.”
    His palpable anguish tore at her heart. “Any of them. All of them.”
    He looked away from her, staring out over the gardens. “I wish you could have known him in the beginning,” he said quietly. “Jude was always so sure of himself. On top of the world and confident of his place in it. Then those mysterious trips become more and more frequent. He’d come home exhausted and strung out. Depressed. He’d shut himself in his studio for days after he returned, and his paintings became angry. Violent.”
    “Can I take a look at those particular works?”
    He glanced at her in surprise. “I can’t imagine why you’d want to, but you can if you go to Très Geneva gallery. Jude completed five of those hideous things before the accident and his buddy Devon Sinclair sold three of them for more than a million each. Dev displayed the other two and refuses to part with them. Says they’re important works from Jude’s ‘transitional period,’ whatever the hell that means.”
    Do I detect a hint of animosity toward Sinclair? Interesting.
    “And his work since the accident?”
    “He’s still struggling,” Liam said sadly. “It’s early yet. His raw talent survived and anyone with a practiced eye can recognize the one he’s managed to finish is a St. Laurent, but . . .”
    Lily reached across the table, laid a hand on his arm. “I understand.”
    “Really? I’m not sure anyone can. No one except me was here when I brought him home. He shut himself in his bedroom and hid for days. Wouldn’t let me in, refused to eat. He was so alone, broken, and confused, and I didn’t know what to do, how to help him. Those were the most difficult few weeks either of us had ever endured.”
    “But you both made it,” she pointed out, wanting to comfort him. “Based on what you’ve told me, he’s come a long way.”
    “He’s got a long road still, but yeah. I’m starting to see a glimmer of the man I first knew, the man who let nothing stand in his way, and it’s a damned fine thing to witness.”
    Retracting her hand, Lily considered her next words for a long moment. She decided to probe a bit, gauge Liam’s reaction. “Do you love him?”
    Liam gaped at her, eyes wide. “Jude? No. I mean, yes . But as my best friend, not in the romantic sense.”
    She gave him a soft, encouraging smile. “You two play together, though, and I can see how close you are. Doesn’t that blur the lines of friendship?”
    He flopped back in the lounger, a smile curving his lips, good humor restored. “Not for us. We’re great friends, with benefits. I’d do anything for him and I know for a fact he would for me, too. It’s just . . .” He waved a hand idly. “You can’t put