Seconds later, Liam appeared at my side, slipping an arm around my waist. “Hey, sunshine. I see you’ve had the displeasure of meeting my brother.” He looked at the other man. “Callahan, this is Cerise. She’s here with me. Cerise, this is Callahan.”
Whatever interest Callahan’s eyes held moments ago vanished, as if he was bored with me now that he knew I was unavailable.
Trying to be polite, I held out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He ignored it. “Charmed. Well, Liam. Haven’t seen you in a while. Still messing around at that school of yours?”
Liam’s face was a mask of calm, but I saw the irritation flare in his eyes. “Still spending your days licking Father’s boots?”
The tension in the air was palpable. Squeezing Liam’s arm, I prepared to extricate him from the conversation when another man approached with a woman who appeared about my age at his side.
“Brother!” The second man exclaimed, friendlier than Callahan but still with a hint of superiority in his voice.
Liam sighed, rolling his eyes. “Cerise, this is Otto. My other brother. And his wife, Sera.”
Otto was the shortest of the three, about my height, with the same deep brown hair as Liam’s sister. His wife wore a scarlet gown accentuating her generous curves, her chestnut locks pulled back in an intricate updo.
After the introductions, Otto turned his gaze on Liam. “Our dear baby brother has finally decided to grace us with his presence, eh?”
“Don’t get too excited,” Liam said. “I’m just here to wish dad the happiest of birthdays and then I’ll go back to my ‘teaching cave’ and stay out of your hair.”
“How disappointing,” Otto said, but it was obvious he didn’t meanit. “Well”—he flicked his eyes to me—“you brought a woman, which you never do. I was hoping that indicated you’d grown up. Sera would love to introduce her to all of her friends. She can join the little wifey club they have. Maybe attend a luncheon?”
I had no intention of befriending any of these women. Though Sera seemed kind, I was tired of putting on airs and worrying about impressing people all the time. I had enough of that to manage with my own mother.
“Thank you for the invitation,” I said. “However, I am rather busy and don’t live nearby.”
“That’s quite all right,” Sera said, her husband now in a heated conversation with Callahan. “So…what do you do?”
“She’s a lowly professor, just like me,” Liam interrupted, holding another glass of champagne—his fourth, I believed. And it was already almost empty. “And now I’m tired of this conversation. We’re going to go find Father and do the whole birthday thing.” He dragged me away as he took the last sip of his drink.
I took the now empty glass from him, setting it on a bare table. “Why thank you, sunshine.” He reached for another as a waiter passed by and I pulled his arm back.
“No, Liam. You’ve already had four.”
“Actually, that was the fifth…or sixth…Well, perhaps itwasonly four. I can’t recall anymore.”
Oh, gods. This is going to be bad.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m cutting you off. You’re already too tipsy.”
Liam adjusted his glasses. “Well that’s the only thing that makes it tolerable to be around my horrid family.”
“Come here,” I said, pulling him away from the crowd and into a large garden in the back of the yard. “Let’s take a walk.”
Clutching his hand in mine, I led him through a path surrounded by tall flowering shrubs, sitting on a bench beneath a large deciduous tree.
I cupped the side of his face and turned him to look at me. “Are you all right?”
He gave me a warm smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. The man seemed to be falling apart right in front of me.
And I knew exactly how that felt.
“Not really, to be honest. This is more difficult than I imagined it would be.”
I brushed his hair from his face. This sweet, ridiculous man I was falling for. Who looked at me like I was the air he needed to breathe. Who always seemed to be able to read my every thought and knew how to get me out of my head.
Now it was my turn to do that for him.
