“I think you’re right. Now if we rocked the Charger too, we’ve hit a whole higher level of cliché.” Chiara’s giggle turned into the full throaty laugh he loved so much. “We probably shouldn’t sit here too much longer. One of the neighbors will call the cops.”
Standing up awkwardly, she waited while he pulled his underwear and jeans back up. He managed to climb back to the driver’s seat so she had a place to sit.
“Here, you can use this.” He handed her the T-shirt he had been wearing. “To clean up.” He could only imagine the blush working its way up her cheeks as she mumbled thanks.
“I’m taking Dad to lunch tomorrow, but can I come by after?” Knowing the more they were together, the harder it would be to leave at the end of the week still didn’t prevent him from wanting to spend every free moment he had with her.
“Sure. Want to come over for dinner? My kitchen might be small, but I can still find my way around in it pretty well.”
She leaned over the back seat to look for her shirt. It afforded Liam a great view of her ass. Now that he had been introduced to riding bareback, he hoped he would be allowed to work it into their activities as much as possible. It took him a few minutes to even remember she had asked him a question, much less focus on the answer.
“Liam,” she said with a smirk when she finally turned around to catch him staring at her. “Dinner? I’ll cook.”
“Yeah, right. No, dinner sounds perfect. I’ll swing by around six?”
“That works.” Leaning over, she kissed him on the cheek before opening her door. “See you tomorrow,” she added, hopping out.
Making sure she made it safely out of the parking lot toward her mother’s house, Liam couldn’t stop the grin on his face. He decided not to dwell on how soon he was leaving. Instead, he would focus on how many days he had left with the beauty he had fallen in love with. He had five more days to squeeze in as much time with her as he could, and he planned to make the most of every one.
ChapterTen
Chiara could not believehow quickly the next week was flying by. She had spent every moment she could with Liam. She was destined to have her heart ripped out when he left. She wanted to tell him she had fallen in love with him so many times. But it would accomplish nothing but to hurt them both in the end. For his part, he still seemed capable of walking away unscathed.
Liam showed up most days with lunch at her office. He also took her out for dinner, watched movies on her couch, went for walks, and made love as many times as possible. It seemed from the minute she permitted him to ditch the condoms, he was on a mission to end every night buried inside her.
Not that she minded. Especially since she was the beneficiary of that creative, naughty mind he had worked so hard at cultivating in high school. She had no idea you could use various pieces of furniture in such interesting ways.
He had done something else for her, though, that he hadn’t even realized. Liam had restored the confidence in herself that Brad had so thoroughly destroyed. Even Max commented on how much better she looked lately. It seemed she always had a grin on her face now. How could she not when Liam made her laugh every day?
He snuck by her office every night after leaving her house to pose the skeleton differently just to see if she noticed. She noticed. Her boss did, too, the morning they arrived to Albert humping the scarecrow. It had taken all of Chiara’s concentration not to burst into laughter.
Today, however, was Friday. Their last day together. Liam had talked Parker into letting him work the bar with her tonight so they could be together one last time. Although he had told Parker it was more of a nostalgia thing.
All of their friends were coming tonight to see Liam before he left Saturday afternoon to fly home. She knew he would insist on driving her home one last time so he could spend their last night together before he had to take a rideshare back.
She was just finishing up with some paperwork at her office when he stuck his head in at noon.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said, making her grin despite how sad she felt inside. “I come bearing tapas.”
Setting the containers down on her desk, he pulled up a chair across from her. This arrangement had become their regular lunch set-up over the last two weeks. He opened her favorite soda before setting it down in front of her. She shook her head. Brad had asked her every time what she drank. Liam had known in less than a week.
He had never once made her feel like anything less than the most important person in his life. She wondered what that would feel like every day for the rest of her life.
“These smell amazing. What have you been up to this morning?” she asked, digging into the tapas. It didn’t do any good to think about what could be when nothing could be changed.
“Astrid insisted I do my laundry instead of just taking it home. I packed and then took the kids to the park. FYI, you have to watch a toddler like a hawk. Those little suckers are fast. I’m glad I had Brendan with me to help corral him.”
Great. Now she could check perfect dad material off the list. Was it too much to ask for him to suck at just one thing? Maybe he liked to kick puppies when nobody was watching.
“I was probably too distracted trying to pet all the dogs in the park. One of these days, I’ll get to own a dog. Parker never would allow it. He claimed there were enough males marking their territory as it was.”
Ugh, asshole. All she was asking for was one flaw.
“Are you finished?” Chiara asked, pushing her container of tapas back. She had managed to wolf down several of the tasty appetizers while they visited. Her favorites were always anything mixed into a croquette, especially ham.
“No,” he answered, standing to begin cleaning up their lunch. She watched in confusion as he gathered the trash and combined the leftovers into one container.
“If you’re not done, why are you putting everything away?” she finally asked.
