Page 71 of Unleashed By Eden

He watches me, not pushing yet. Liam knows the difference between stubborn and cornered. I’ve made that one easy for him over the years.

“I want my own space,” I say. “I’m eighteen, Liam. I’m not moving from one person’s house and rules into another.”

He winces. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I know.”

He blows out a breath and nods. “Okay, fine. I get it.”

“Good. I’ll figure it out. I’ll move into a better place once I start earning decent money.”

He cracks open one of the beers and hands it to me. I take it, and we stand there in the middle of my half-built life, drinking in silence while a car backfires somewhere out on the street below.

Liam starts unpacking my books without asking.

“How’s uni?” I ask.

“Boring.” He stacks my photography books by height, which is deeply irritating. “Too many finance bros. Not enough people with actual intelligence.”

“Sounds like your fault for going somewhere full of finance bros.”

“Says the girl who picked the weird artsy degree.” He slides another book onto the shelf. “You know, you could’ve come to my uni. They’ve got a solid photography program. But no. You had to do your own thing. Same as Carter.”

Carter’s face flashes up without warning—eyes blown wide, breath ragged, that disgusted look on his face when he realized I’d been touching him.

I drink too fast and the beer goes down the wrong way, making me cough.

Liam eyes me.

“What’s going on with you?” he asks, casual voice, not-casual eyes.

I don’t look at him. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

I move to the kitchen and open another box pulling out Jeanine’s plates this time. He follows me with his gaze.

“You’ve been weird for months,” he says. “Sad, or pissed off, or both. Half the time you look like you’re about to bite someone’s head off, and the other half you look like you haven’t slept. Did something happen?”

I stack two plates too hard. Ceramic clacks against ceramic.

“No.”

“Vi.”

I hate the gentle tone. It makes me want to throw the plates against the wall.

“I’m fine.”

He sighs. “Did something happen that night?”

I freeze.

Not visibly, I hope. But inside, every part of me locks.

Liam doesn’t move. “With Carter. When we came back to Riverstone that weekend.”

I keep my back to him and pick up another plate. “What about it?”