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‘That’s fairy, not angel,’ Alice interjected, but he ignored her.
‘—but I can’t not do this. Just once.’ And with that he dipped his head, bringing his lips to hers with the same decisiveness she’d come to expect from him in everything.
Except this time it didn’t annoy her. It set her whole body alight like the Christmas tree behind her.
For a shining moment Alice forgot that the whole village would be watching, forgot that Liam was still trying to find a way to get her out of Thornwood Castle. Forgot, even, all those incredibly good reasons she had for never getting involved with another man again.
Instead, she let Liam’s kiss wash over her like a cascade of stars in the darkness, bringing the night to life around her.
And then he pulled away and reality came crashing down.
She stumbled backwards and this time he let her go. ‘We shouldn’t have done that.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Liam said, looking far less flustered by the kiss than she felt. ‘Seemed like a good idea to me.’
A good idea? It was possibly the worst idea in the history of terrible ideas. She couldn’t get involved with the man who basically had the power to throw her out of her home and force her to abandon her vocation. And she really couldn’t risk a relationship with the man who was helping her take care of Jamie—if only because when she had to say goodbye to both of them it might break her all over again.
But Liam didn’t seem to understand either of those concerns.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s get to the Fox and Hare before they give our table away to someone else.’
* * *
Alice was freaking out.
Oh, she was keeping it very quiet and civilised, but Liam could tell her brain was going crazy with all the reasons why it was a mistake to have dinner with him. Well, and to have kissed him. He imagined that might be preoccupying her a bit too.
A day ago he’d have agreed with most of her arguments, he decided, as he queued at the bar in the Fox and Hare. Over at their table, Alice was fussing with Jamie and refusing to meet his gaze.
The thing was, a day ago he hadn’t had his brainwave. He was known in his company for flashes of genius—for the one second, game-changing idea. He’d thought he’d had one yesterday, when he’d decided to ask Alice about faking a family so he could keep Jamie. But now he realised that was only the start.
He knew, better than anyone, that family could tear you apart, that love counted for nothing when things went wrong. But that was the beauty of it—Alice knew that too and, crucially, they weren’t in love. But he’d come to respect and like her over the past couple of weeks—and he hoped she felt the same about him.
And from the way she’d kissed him back...there was no doubt in his mind that the physical attraction was mutual too, no matter how much she might try to deny it.
Which left them with an unprecedented situation in his life. One he intended to take full advantage of.
Liam took the bottle of beer and the wine glass from the bartender in exchange for the payment he handed over and headed back to the table, already running counterarguments through his brain.
Alice immediately started rooting through Jamie’s change bag the moment he sat down.
‘What’re you looking for?’ he asked casually.
She stopped fiddling with the bag and sighed. ‘Honestly? I have no idea.’
Chuckling, he nudged the wine glass across the table to her. ‘Calm down. Have a drink. This is just dinner, remember?’
Alice looked up at that. ‘Just dinner? We kissed, Liam. Well, you kissed me.’
‘I might have started it, but you have to admit to being an enthusiastic participant.’ He could still feel the touch of her lips against his, the fire they’d sent streaming through his veins. That was no ordinary kiss. And it was definitely something they should do again.
Alice flushed, her cheeks as red as her sweater. ‘Fine. I might have joined in. A bit.’
‘A lot.’
‘But it was your idea. So you need to tell me exactly what you’re expecting from this.’ She looked up and met his gaze head-on, her eyes no longer confused or cautious but demanding and stubborn.
And for once Liam felt strangely compelled to tell her everything. To give her the truth.
* * *
‘What I’m expecting?’ Liam shook his head. ‘That’s the wrong question.’
‘Then what’s the right one?’ Alice asked, frustration leaking out in her voice. The man was beyond infuriating.
‘You want to know what I’m proposing.’
‘I think I got a pretty good handle on that,’ Alice said drily. After all, that kiss had not been subtle, and they’d been pressed very close together. She could well imagine exactly what he’d been proposing. Too well, really, since it probably shouldn’t happen. Probably.
Liam gave her a lopsided smile. ‘You think this is about sex.’
‘Isn’t it?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s about Jamie.’
Alice’s blood ran cold, and she resisted the impulse to wake Jamie in his pram and hold him close, just to be sure he was still there. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean, Jamie needs a family.’
‘Yes, he does.’ Oh, she really didn’t like the way that this was going. ‘But there’s still been no luck tracing his mother. So social services will probably want to take him soon.’ Something she was trying very hard not to think about.
‘Except Jamie’s mother left him for us to care for, right?’
‘I’m not sure that note would stand up in court. And we’re hardly the ideal carers for him, are we? You’re going to be flying back to Australia as soon as you’ve got things set up here, and I’ll be moving on as soon as we find a new location for the groups and we get everything up and running.’ Something else she’d been avoiding dwelling on.
Somehow, it seemed her whole life had turned around until she was entirely focused on where she was, and not where she could run to next, for the first time since she’d left her marriage behind in a pool of blood.
‘What if we didn’t?’ Liam asked. Alice stared at him and he went on. ‘We both know that family and blood and love and all that don’t guarantee you a damn thing.’
‘Right.’ But she wanted it for Jamie, anyway. Wanted his experience to be different to hers, to Liam’s.
‘We’re both too damaged to even try for that fairy tale, I reckon,’ he added, looking to her for agreement. She nodded. ‘But we could give it to Jamie.’
Her heart stopped. He was offering her exactly what she needed. ‘How?’
‘By convincing the courts that we are a stable, loving home for him. That together we can raise him as heir to Thornwood.’
‘You mean we fake being a couple?’
The look he gave her was heated. ‘It doesn’t have to be entirely fake.’
Alice bit her lip. ‘I don’t understand.’ His words didn’t seem to make any sense in her brain, and she reached for her wine glass. Maybe there’d be some truth in there.
‘It’s simple. Stay here, with me. In my suite—in my bed—wherever you want. You know what I want.’ He smirked, and she felt the heat flooding to her cheeks again as she remembered how clearly she’d felt what he wanted. ‘But that side of things is up to you. All I want from you is a promise that you’ll stay at Thornwood with me and Jamie until I’m allowed to legally adopt him.’
‘Wait. Until you’re allowed to adopt him?’ Of course, it couldn’t be that perfect, could it? Sooner or later, he’d push her out.
Liam shrugged. ‘Or us. If you decide you want to stay. And I hope you will. But if you do...that’s it. You’re in it for life. No running away to the next thing the moment you think you’ve stayed too long.’
‘I don’t—’
‘Don’t you?’
Alice looked away. Of course she did. Every time. The one time she’d stayed—in her marriage—she’d had everything ripped away from her. Her love, her future—and any possibility of having children.
‘Why?’ he asked softly. ‘Why run so much?’
Could she tell him?
She’d have to, she realised, if she wanted what he was offering. It might not be love and fairy tales, but it would be a life together. A family. And he might have...expectations. Ones that she could never meet.
It was only fair to tell him exactly what he’d be signing up for.
‘We’d be a proper family?’ she asked, her voice small.
