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“Areyou sure you’re not gay?” Nina asked, sprawled out on Liam’s worn leathersofa.
He laughed from the kitchen. “I’m sure. Why do youask?”
“Karen says all the best guys are gay, and after that meal, I think you definitely qualify,” Ninasaid.
“I’ll take that as acompliment.”
She sighed and looked around the loft apartment while Liam put the leftovers away. He’d made an amazing dinner of mushroom risotto, caesar salad with homemade dressing — she’d watched him mix in the anchovies — and crusty garlic bread hot from the oven. They’d eaten at the rustic table next to the old factory windows that ran almost floor-to-ceiling throughout Liam’s apartment, each one offering a gritty view of Brooklyn, and one offering a view of the city across theriver.
She’d offered to help clean up, but like Jack, Liam insisted on doing it himself, adding to the feeling Nina had had recently that she’d stepped through a portal into a fairytale where gorgeous men were eager to bed her after stuffing her full of amazingfood.
The days were growing longer as they inched toward summer, and the loft was bathed in golden light, turning the old brick, concrete, and wood into a work ofart.
She loved Liam’s place. It had none of the grandeur of Jack’s apartment, but what it lacked in luxury, it more than made up for in warmth and comfort. Books lined an entire wall of shelves and photographs took up residence on the floors, stacked in frames four and five deep wherever there wasroom.
She’d asked him once why there weren’t any pictures on the wall and he’d said the walls were his blank canvas, that he needed mental space to see the composition of pictures not yettaken.
She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she heard the scratch of the record player. Nina Simone’sLilac Wineerupted from the speakers placed around the apartment, her voice smoky andsorrowful.
Liam crossed the room and eased onto the couch next to her, pulling her into hisarms.
“This song always makes me sad,” she said softly, rubbing her cheek against the his T-shirt.
It was the kind of revelation she never would have made to Jack. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted from her — what he wanted to do to her body, what he wanted to know about her past, about hermind.
Forcing him to know things about her feltdangerous.
“It’s okay to be sad,” Liam said. “But I can change it if youwant.”
“No, you’re right,” she said. “We’re human. Sometimes we’re justsad.”
It was something she’d only recently come to accept, something she’d only recently felt safe admitting: she was human, she had feelings, some of those feelings were messy andcomplicated.
Maybe it was because Peter had a tendency to use her moments of vulnerability when things disintegrated between them, but she’d stopped admitting them in her marriage a long timeago.
Liam nuzzled her head until she looked up at him. He lowered his mouth to hers in a kiss that quickly turnedpassionate.
“Nina… Nina…” he murmured, rubbing his cheek against hers, the scratch of his stubble soft and sensual. “I want so much to make love toyou.”
She touched his cheek, slipped her hand into his hair. In the fading light, his blue eyes were as deep and fathomless as the ocean. When she looked into them, they seemed to stretch all the way to thehorizon.
She swallowed hard. Now or never. “I’d likethat.”
He kissed her again, and this time there was no buildup to their passion. It was all there in the way he swept her mouth with his tongue, taking possession of it withouthesitation.
Her nervousness disappeared as they gasped and groped, their hands traveling over each other’s bodies, exploring with a fervency they’d obviously been holding back during the previousweeks.
She was trying to get his shirt off when he broke their kiss. He was breathing fast and heavy as he stood and looked down ather.
“Not like this.” His voice, gruff and commanding, was almost unfamiliar. “I want to see you — all of you — and I want to take mytime.”
He scooped her off the couch like she weighed nothing at all. There was no time to protest, no time to worry about being too heavy or tell him all the things she’d meant to tellhim.
There was just his strong arms around her, his mouth on hers as he carried her across the open expanse of the apartment to a door she’d only peeked through on her way to thebathroom.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and let everything else fallaway.
