“Probably just low blood sugar,” Parker said. “Liam, why don’t you take her home? Make sure she gets something in her. Should take care of the headache.”
Liam swore he was going to rupture his spleen, trying to keep a straight face at Parker’s unintentional innuendo.
“Sure, I think I can manage that,” he answered.
Chiara’s lips had turned white as she tried to keep the laugh he knew was trying to bust out, buried. Parker turned toward Liam, narrowing his eyes. Liam was positive he suspected something. He was too good at observation not to. Finally, he just shook his head.
“Come in quietly,” Parker growled, walking out the door.
Jumping up, Liam grabbed Chiara’s hand as soon as she had her boots on and dragged her out the back door. He waited until they were both settled in her car before turning to look at her. They sat in silence for two seconds before they both burst out in laughter.
“Let’s go,” Liam said, turning the key. “I was told to put something in you, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing.”
ChapterNine
Chiara decidedas she pulled open the front door of her office the next morning for Liam that he might just be the best man she knew. That was saying a lot since having Max for a brother.
Max had taught her early that a man should always strive to be honest, loyal, trustworthy, and respectful. Even when he got fired from the college for kissing Karlie in front of the school administration (actually, she kissed him), his friends’ opinion of his honor never took a hit.
She had thought Brad was made of the same stuff. He talked a good game, although Max had never seemed to take to him. That should have been her first red flag. When she caught him cheating, she wondered if she had driven him to it with her ridiculous standards.
Liam was slowly rebuilding her belief that there were good men out there. She just needed to wait for the right one. She was even starting to believe she deserved one.
But why was she even thinking of her ex-boyfriend when Liam was standing outside, waiting to help her instead of sleeping in on Sunday morning?
Opening the door, she took a minute to appreciate what was in front of her. Sure, she had seen him naked in her bed last night, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need a shot of those rippling muscles, blue eyes, and lazy grin this morning.
It was even a better jolt than her regular grande vanilla cappuccino. Which he held in a to-go cup in his hand, complete with one of the sleeves so she didn’t get burned. Of course he did, because he thought of everything. Why did he have to leave in a week?
“Good morning,” he said. “Hopefully, it has enough cinnamon.” God, he even remembered the cinnamon!
“I’m impressed you remembered.”
“Well, yeah, I remembered. I also remembered you like your chocolate croissants heated,” he answered, slightly indignant, holding out the bag in his other hand. Setting the coffee down on the steps, she took the warm pastry out. Her eyes closed with a moan when she took a bite of the chocolate goodness.
“Wow, that response might need to be censored,” Liam said with a laugh before leaning down to lick chocolate off the corner of her mouth.
“And based on the response to my response,” she said when he stood back up, “we might just have a good start to a porn.”
“Yes,” he answered, pumping a fist in the air, “my dreams have finally been answered.” She laughed as she finished her croissant. Grabbing up her coffee, she motioned to him with her head to follow her.
Her office drew names every year to see who decorated the house for which holiday. She had drawn Halloween, which is why she was at her office on a Sunday morning. When Liam heard her plans, he immediately volunteered to come help.
“We can bring the stuff we already have up from the basement first. I bought a couple of things that are in the back of my car to fill in with,” she said, leading him through the offices on the first floor.
“Is this the Buffalo Bill basement I’ve heard about?” he asked, following behind her.
“It is. I was down there once when Karlie still lived here. It’s so creepy and I heard when they converted the house from apartments to offices they found evidence that somebody was once kept in a locked closet down there,” she added just to tease him. “I don’t go down there by myself. Ever.”
Looking over her shoulder, she found the same look on Liam’s face that most people got as they approached a haunted house. The one that said it was the time of the year for a self-induced heart attack. Damn, now she wished she had come down during the week and made it even more creepy for him.
The basement had been named, for good reason, by one of the mothers when Karlie lived here. It was an old-style white-washed stone room at the bottom of a set of old wood steps. At the far end was a room on the left that originally housed the lone washer and dryer for the building.
She was told it was always a thrill to be standing at one of the machines when somebody would suddenly appear in the doorway. Even though it was now used just for storage, it could still easily double as a psycho's lair in a Thomas Harris novel.
“What do you need me to do?” Liam asked when Chiara flipped on the light at the bottom of the steps.
“If you can go turn on the light in that little room on the left, most of the decorations are in there. I’ll look around here to see if I see anything we can use.”
