“Thank you, Bonnie. We’ll speak about this later,” he said. “Andrea and I need to talk. Privately.”
“Oh, I see.” Bonnie drew her knees together. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later then.” She stood and walked away.
When she’d gone, he turned to me. “Andrea, I’m sorry. I hope you understand I had no intention for anything like this to happen. If you want to go home, you can. It’s not on you to carry the weight of Bonnie’s mistake.”
But I couldn’t let him do that—not if it was as important as he said.
“Surely, there must be something else we could do,” I said. “Maybe I could switch rooms with Ben… or Bonnie… and one of them could share with you?”
Liam smiled. “I appreciate that. But I’m afraid that might be worse than you flying home. If someone saw Bonnie in my room after normal hours, or you coming out of Ben’s, you can imagine what they might think. Especially considering the image we’re trying to convey.”
Right, of course. That would look worse than people thinking this was fake.
“If you want the jet, I’ll make a few calls, and you can be home by evening. I’ll say you fell ill. Hopefully, nobody suspects anything.”
“But won’t that put your project at risk?” I asked. “Your plans for Novexia…”
The plans that were ruining my friends’ lives and breaking the company apart.Why did I still feel like I wanted to helphim?
“It will, yes. But you didn’t sign up for a shared bed or even a shared room. I know that.”
“If we did try to make it work,” I said. “Sharing the space…”
“Oh.” He paused. “Well, if you’re prepared to consider it, I’d simply be on the rollaway. I’d move it out to the balcony, and you could have the bedroom. As far as sharing the suite goes, I’d make myself scarce while you’re showering or getting undressed…”
His eyes rested on mine for a second and then dropped.
Were we both thinking about the last time we’d got undressed together?Was that only five weeks ago?
Ifthatwas where my mind went at the drop of a hat, there was no way we could do this. I could barely trust my thoughts when I was alone with him as it was. I couldn’t sleep in the same room as him—I just couldn’t.
But it wasn’t like I didn’t trusthim. We’d had a bad start with him leaving so soon after we’d… well, yeah, that—And then there was the misunderstanding at the meeting afterward. But he’d apologized for both those things, and he’d never given me any reason to feel uncomfortable around him. If anything, quite the opposite.
The person who couldn’t be trusted… wasme.
I stirred the ice in my glass. A lot was riding on this for Liam, I knew that. I’d be dropping him in it, and that felt… unkind.
“Andrea, if this is about what happened in my bedroom,” he said quickly. “I mean, the first time you came over, with the Snuggie—”
With theSnuggie?
“I saw your face,” he said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to… you know. Be inappropriate.”
He thoughtthatwas what this was about?
I still couldn’t get it out of my head, the look of him there, half naked, reminding me of how he’d felt in my arms, between my legs. We’d been so close we’d almost kissed.
The only thing inappropriate about that situation was what I’d wanted him to do to me.
Neither of us spoke. The olives sat in front of us, untouched.
“Why don’t you give it some thought, Andrea,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel under pressure because Bonnie screwed up.”
He met my eyes, steady and neutral, but a current crackled underneath. I wanted to stay distant—to remember the redundancies, the neat corporate language they’d used to slice through people’s jobs. But now he was offering me his private jet, saying he’d risk losing whatever he had going with Hugo, just so I wouldn’t feel awkward. I couldn’t quite square the ruthless billionaire with the man in front of me—this version of him who remembered to be kind.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll stay.”
A traitorous lift in my chest, something I knew I shouldn’t want. Something I knew could escalate if I wasn’t careful.
