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“And you’ll be brewing beer?”
His smile dimmed slightly. “I don’t have much to do there anymore. Bec’s been brewmaster ever since Colin took off, and Wyatt’s helping with the management end of things. They don’t really need me to do much of anything.”
“I’m sure she needs you. She can’t do it all.”
He shrugged. “She needs me right now, but she can do a hell of a lot on her own.” He gave her another quick smile. “Bec’s a genius with beer. You’re a genius with cheese. No wonder the two of you work well together.”
Ruth’s cheeks flushed. Liam managed to make her blush more than anyone she knew. She wasn’t great with compliments, but then, she didn’t get too many of them anymore. “Thanks.”
“So you learned how to do it when you were a kid?”
She recognized a change of subject when she saw one. Given the bleak look in his eyes, she was happy to move on. “Mostly. I did an apprenticeship with some cheesemakers in Denver one summer in college. It came back to me when I was looking around for something to do here in Antero.”
“Making goat cheese doesn’t seem like an obvious choice.”
“It wasn’t. And I wasn’t sure it would work at first. But the business took off and Brett and I opened the store so we could expand production. The building belonged to my uncle, along with this house, so we got sort of a deal on it.”
“And here we are,” he said slowly. “Both of us trying to make it in Antero with products that pretty much depend on tourists and dedicated locals. My dad owned a warehouse. My mom kept his books. I think they’d both consider their kids to be raving lunatics for doing something like this. My mom has sort of a thing about not mentioning the brewery when I visit unless I bring it up.”
She nodded. “My folks would never have considered something like the Salty Goat. Making cheese was just what we did. But here we are.”
“Here we are,” he echoed.
The warm light from the dining room overhead made his hair glow dark gold, his changeable eyes the dark gray-green of fir trees. She thought he was waiting, but she wasn’t sure for what. Come on, Ruth, you know what. She knew, but she also knew she shouldn’t want it, too.
He ran his fingers lightly along the line of her cheekbone, and there was a quick thread of heat where he touched. She was simultaneously delighted and terrified. Her almost-teenage daughter was upstairs, and who knew how long she’d stay there?
“I’m not sure this is a good idea,” she whispered.
“Aren’t you?” He gave her another of those seductive smiles. “I am.” And then he leaned forward until his lips touched hers.
Chapter Nine
Liam wasn’t exactly sure where they were heading with this, but he’d go with his gut. Or lower.
Sitting with Ruth in the warm light of the dining room had sent his libido into overdrive. He’d forgotten—maybe deliberately—just how lovely she was, with her tousled dark hair and her brown velvet eyes with impossibly long lashes. Her voice had a slight rasp, a huskiness that sent his temperature soaring. Her lips were pink and lush. When she’d paused in her dinner to lick off a morsel of tzatziki from the corner of her mouth, he’d almost moaned.
He’d been longing to touch her since he’d walked in the door, but he didn’t want to rush things. He’d managed to slip beneath her defenses as they’d talked, but he was afraid if he pushed her too hard the walls would slam back into place.
Once he’d touched her, once he’d run his fingers along the sloping line of her cheekbone, seen the slight widening of her eyes as she watched him, he was a goner.
Her lips were soft, warm, as sumptuous as he remembered. He ran the tip of his tongue along the seam, sliding his hands up to cup her face as he tasted. She opened on a sigh, her hands moving up his chest to rest upon his shoulders, and then to the joining of shoulder and throat.
She angled her head slightly and he plunged deeper, relishing the way her hands gripped him more tightly. He leaned farther forward.
And ran into the dining room table.
Ruth pulled back slightly, her eyes dazed. “Oh.”
