“I’m not, love, I’m really not. I apologize, I know how it’s coming off. I just meant to say, you had a nice time tonight, didn’t you? I watched you spray painting that car and I swear, I’ve never seen a woman more alive and more beautiful than you were right then. And when you tossed the lighter?” He gives a slow shake of his head, eyes burning with pure, unabashed desire. “Divine. Absolutely fucking divine.”
I shift uncomfortably, heart pattering hard as I tuck my legs underneath me. “I always look that way. You actually caught me on a bad night.”
He doesn’t laugh at my deflecting joke. “It was a risk bringing you back here. Probably a stupid one, but I couldn’t leave you behind. If your father knew his precious girl was in my apartment?—“
“Why are you bringing my father into this?”
“Because of who he is and who I am.” There’s an edge in Liam’s voice now.
“Are you asking me not to say anything?”
“I wouldn’t do that. But I am saying that I’m glad you followed me home.”
“I didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Ah, see, that’s where you’re wrong. There’s always a choice.” His smile returns, edged and brutal. “Though I admit, I can be very persuasive.”
We sit in silence for several seconds. He’s very close to me, his body lean and lithe, muscular and obscenely handsome. I feel the attraction between us pulsing rapidly. He’s bad in so many ways, bad for me and likely bad for the whole world, a man who ruins for fun and burns cars for strange girls. I should want to put as much distance between us as possible.
But I don’t.
He stands, like he’s fighting back an idea. “I should let you get some rest,” he says and drifts away. I struggle not to ask him to sit back down.
“You’re going to bed?” He has to hear my disappointment.
“I’ll move your laundry over first. Goodnight, Regan. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Maybe,” I say as he walks to the side hall leading to his bedroom. “Or maybe I’ll sneak out in the middle of the night.”
He glances back at me. His mischievous smile is back. “I doubt you have that in you, love.”
I can’t sleep.
At least the couch is comfortable. He gave me a very fancy cashmere blanket that looks brand new and disappeared back to his bedroom without much conversation. Now it’s past midnight and moonlight filters in through the massive city windows. I keep looking out toward the nearby buildings. What did he see when he gazed out there? Was he thinking about how small everything makes him feel? Or does he think he’s a king looking down at his subjects?
The washing machine whirrs softly from the hall closet.
Tonight has been… interesting.
A disaster for sure, but not the end of the world, assuming Liam’s right and we don’t get caught. And I have a feeling he gets away with this sort of thing all the time.
For me though it’s like wading out into the ocean only to realize there’s a brand-new continent right over the horizon. A world’s opening to me, and I can’t decide how I feel about it. Maybe that’s the whisky in my stomach talking, or maybe it’s the rush I felt when the flames licked up the edges of Kieren’s precious car.
But I really like the way Liam made me feel and I don’t want tonight to end.
Which is reckless. I should be praying for forgiveness right now and hoping God doesn’t punish me for being a freaking idiot. Arson with a stranger? Really? Just because the guy’s hot doesn’t mean I get to commit crimes with him.
Liam really is hot though…
Those eyelashes. The way he looks at me, intense, penetrating, confident. The aura around him, buzzing and hard to ignore. His body’s trim and muscular, and his clothing fits him like it was molded to his shape.
Kieren was handsome too. He had that All-American look to him: clean, trim, healthy.
But Liam’s on another level. There’s something rugged and seductive in the way he moves, predatory and lethal, a strange erotic grace. Thinking about him sets my heart racing.
The door to his room opens.
I stay very still and listen. His footsteps creak the floorboards. The closet door groans and the dryer door thuds open. I draw in a quiet breath and blow it out. For a second I thought he was coming out here and it played like a movie in my head: his shadow falling across me, his naked torso, his needy, hungry eyes, him ghosting over and kneeling down, not saying a word as he kisses me gently at first, probing, curious, until I return his touch?—
