Taylor was pissed, huh? How are we feeling about Bill, Steffy, and Liam?

Happy reading!

"Let me know the minute he leaves. I want to catch her early," Bill advised his friend and president of Spencer Publications, Justin Barber. They had been friends since college and came to Spencer together at the request of Bill's father.

"You sure are getting all crazy over a girl," Justin laughed. "I've never seen you so hooked. You've been with a lot of girls, Bill. What makes this one so special?"

"The fact that she's a woman."

"Woman, girl, they're all the same," Justin shrugged.

"Not Steffy. She's smart, beautiful, she liked me before anyone knew who my father was. She was just perfect."

"Was?"

"She's not the same. That light about her that made me so crazy that first night is fizzling out. She was a force."

"She had to be for you to fall in love in one night."

"It wasn't love," Bill clarified. "It was realizing I had met my equal. It was feeling like I was falling for the first time and someone might be there to catch me. It was the indescribable urge to rip her clothes off and have her where we stood. No girl could do that to me, Justin."

"But you said she's different. Are these feelings, the ones you say aren't love, still valid with the person she's become?"

"They're stronger, Justin," Bill admitted. "She's hiding the person she really is, but I see her. She gives me these little glimpses when we talk."

"And you know this after one night and a dinner eight years later?"

"Yes, and the meetings we've had since," Bill said flatly. "She stays out of reach when we talk business, but I looked into her eyes, and when I kissed her I felt her creeping back—"

"Wait, you kissed her? She has a boyfriend, Bill. A boyfriend that hired us to work for their company."

"I don't give a damn about him, and it's not their company. It's her family's company that she owns a stake in and runs. He works for her, and he's using her."

"Are you sure of this? How would you even know?"

"He's sleeping with someone else."

"Bill—"

"I looked into him, Justin. I needed to know what her life was like."

"You had him followed?"

"I had her followed."

"How did you even know? You said she didn't give you a last name and that she called herself Steffy instead of Stephanie. How did you find her?"

"My dad."

"Oh." It was all Justin said because he knew how persistent Bill Senior could be. He'd coaxed both of them to work at Spencer and dissolve their shared magazine business into his. He and Bill never really got along until now. They were much closer than they had been all the years he had known Bill. They had only met six years ago. Bill never knew who his father was before then.

"My mother and father never had a good relationship, so he left us when I was a baby, and one day he sat down and told me why."

"Why?" Justin seemed intrigued.

"There was a woman that got away. A woman that my mother apparently cost my dad when she got pregnant with my sister. The woman died eight years ago. She was named Stephanie Douglas Forrester."

"Wait," Justin cut in. "The woman was—"

"Steffy's grandmother. The woman she's named for. Without my mother interfering, Steffy wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here, but my dad never really got over it. We will probably never have a traditional father/son relationship because of it, but I get it. I just wish Karen and me didn't pay because he was angry with our mother."

"So your mother trapped your father, and he's resented her all these years?"

"Me and my sister too. He just told me all of this earlier in the year."

"So that's why you agreed to work here? You took the CEO and me the president position because you figured out that your Steffy was none other than the granddaughter of the one that got away from your father?"

"Yes and no."

"What's the rest, Bill? I need to operate with all the facts of you're doing what I think you are."

"I'm going to get her. Steffy will be mine, but she isn't the only reason I'm here. Before I knew she was the one running things, I made my father a promise."

"What?"

"He wants Ridge Forrester to pay for something."

"So it's deeper than the girl?"

"She's his daughter, that makes it more complicated, but Ridge has to pay. Before my oldest sister, Caroline, died Ridge was her husband, and he was carrying on with that blonde bimbo he's married to now. He also cheated on Steffy's mother with her."

"What are you going to do to him?"

"Any man can be hurt by the woman he loves. Always remember that, Justin."

"What the hell does that mean, Bill?"

"It means Ridge will have his day, but I will have his daughter."

"I think you're playing a dangerous game if you really want her. You can't be plotting against her father and trying to win her over at the same time. I don't think it will work. And how do you know she's even worth it? What changed her? What made her go from this free spirit to repressed?"

"Her grandmother died, and her father took advantage of her grief and need to feel loved. He took her away from herself."

"Why do I feel like this grudge is more about Steffy than your sister? I don't know Bill, sounds an awful lot like love to me. It's okay to admit you fell in love over one dinner."

"I didn't fall in love. She's a beautiful woman, and beautiful women deserve attention."

"That's a lot of attention for a woman you met once before."

"You weren't you there, you wouldn't understand the connection between us that night. Every word she spoke I just listened. I didn't get bored once. She lost a sister, just like me even though I didn't know about Caroline at the time, and we both wanted approval from our parents. My dad didn't want me, but he raised Caroline like his only child. Me and Karen were the outcasts until now. I didn't know my father at the time I met Steffy, but she spoke about hers, and I could feel how bad she needed him to see her. I saw her that night. I made a complete ass of myself by leaving my wallet home after taking her to this expensive dinner, but she just went with it. She didn't say a word as she slapped her card down and paid for it. It took me a damn week to earn that money after I repaid her, but I didn't even care. She was worth it."

"Bill, once again, it sounds like—"

"I know what you're going to say, but I've just never met anyone more confident in themselves than her. She said she wanted to run a company, and now she's doing it. She's realized her dreams, but I can't help but think something is missing."

"You want to fill the void."

"I want to eliminate the void. There is no reason why she shouldn't have it all. I want to offer her that."

"You've never been serious about any woman since I've known you. I mean there was the Katie girl from a few years back that fell in love with you, and you stopped returning her calls. How is this different?"

"Steffy isn't chasing me. She's trying to hold on to that sham of a life with that mediocre boyfriend and is denying herself what we could be."

"What would you like to be?"

"The person that makes her scream in ecstasy. I want her nails digging into my skin and my name rolling off those sexy lips. But I won't share her. Liam has to go. He won't be allowed to even look at her once she's mine."

"That's a lot to ask when she's been with him for three years."

"She's been with him for three years and has seen me six times, but when I kissed her the other day, I knew I could have had more. She clung to me, and it was hard pulling myself away. I wanted her."

"Well, I have no doubt you can have her, but you have to think about the consequences of going after her father. It could cost you her. And please don't break up her home if you're not at least planning to stay serious about her once she falls for you."

"People put so much emphasis on marriage. Why couldn't we just be? Me taking her body wherever she wants it to go, and her being my only woman. I'd never look at another as long as she was mine. I don't want to marry her. I just want to taste her."

"Too much information, Bill."

"You asked for all the details."

Justin looked out the window and turned back to Bill. "Well, you're in luck. Looks like the mediocre Waffle Boy just left."

"Waffle Boy?"

"This woman has your nose wide open. Any man willing to take that for granted and let another man slide in is nothing but a waffler."

"I like that," Bill grinned. "We will keep that name for him."

While Justin looked on, Bill walked out of his front door just in time for Steffy to do the same. She was reaching for her newspaper.

"What are you doing here? You stalking me now?"

"I know Liam told you about my real estate miracle. I was able to catch this little gem below market value." He waved his arm back toward his house. "I actually came out to get my morning paper. I was about to cook some breakfast, would you care to join, neighbor? You know sort of a welcome to the neighborhood meal."

"Technically, if it's a welcome to the neighborhood meal, shouldn't I be cooking? You can't welcome me if I already live here."

"Thanks for the invite, I accept," Bill threw out before she could protest.

"I wasn't—"

"Give me a second to let my best friend Justin know he will be having breakfast alone."

Bill sprinted off before she could stop him, and he heard her sigh loudly. He was wearing her down. Now he just needed to amp things up.

"Justin, my boy, you're on your own for breakfast."

"You have got to be kidding me. She agreed to let you in just like that?"

"I offered her breakfast, and she pointed out that she should be cooking instead of me."

"But you weren't going to cook, I was."

"And now she is," Bill chuckled. "Head to the office without me if I'm running a little late."

"Don't force it. She will fold if you push too hard."

"I know what I'm doing."

Bill left Justin shaking his head and walked up to Steffy's door. She hadn't closed it on her way in, and it was symbolic to him in more ways than one. The first, she trusted him to let himself in, and the second being a bit cliché, but right up his alley, she was leaving the door open for them. For everything he wanted to do to her.

Walking in and closing the door, Bill found Steffy in her kitchen. She had a coffee pot in her hand, pouring two glasses. She slid one to him once he settled at her bar.

"Two doors down, huh?" Bill nodded. "I drink mine with a little cream and no sugar. How do you take yours?"

"Hard and strong." He lifted the glass to his lips. "Perfect, although a little cream couldn't hurt either." Bill took the cream and poured it into his coffee. "I love watching the way it spreads into the cup, it's almost as if it's multiplying when I do this." He stuck his finger into the hot liquid and swirled it around before withdrawing his finger and licking it off. "Delicious."

"I umh... I was going to make bacon and eggs. Do you—" Bill dipped his finger into the cup again and saw her eyes tracing his every movement. "Do you eat that?"

"I'll eat anything you lay in front of me." Was that a shiver he saw? Through her silk robe, he could see the outline of her body and craved more than just the abbreviated version of the kiss he'd wanted the first night he met her. Her nipples were poking through the material, and he saw each rise and fall of her chest. This little game was making them both crazy. The knot in his jeans told him that much.

"Give me a few minutes," she swallowed hard, quickly turning her back to him. "I'll have it ready in no time. Do you like your eggs—"

He was behind her before she could finish, lifting her up to rest on the counter. "Bill—Stop."

"Steffy, start." He said the words, as his lips met her sweet skin.

Pulling the robe that adorned her body open, his fingers crept up her smooth thighs. "You look beautiful in the morning."

His fingers glided over the curve of her thighs and past the lacy barrier that covered the juncture between her legs. She was a heated, throbbing mess, he felt it through her moistening panties. Sliding a finger over her, his tip became saturated with her.

"Do you taste as good as you look? You want to find out?"

Bill slid his finger over her lips and her tongue wrapped around it. She tasted herself on his command, and when he withdrew his finger, she almost looked sad.

"Don't be greedy," he whispered against her pouty lips. "I'm next."

He ran his finger over her and saw her eyes flutter. Raising the finger to his lips, he inserted it into his mouth and sucked. "Better than I imagined."

Steffy's legs shook as he stood between them. When he kissed the side of her head, she damn near melted into him. "Have a good day at work."

Bill walked away, leaving her a trembling mess on her counter, and he could hear the unsteady breaths she took as he walked in the opposite direction.

"You're leaving?"

"Thanks for the coffee. The cream too. Best cup I've ever had."

Bill left without so much as a goodbye, but he knew he'd see her again. Running his hand over the bulge in his jeans, he hoped it would be soon. For now, a cold shower would have to suffice. A cold shower with him imagining what faces she would make with him inside her. If that little show back there was any inkling, she would be so amazing he couldn't stand it. She already tasted amazing.