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Finn laughed as the patio door slid open. Liam stepped through with his hair mussed into a dark halo and a shadow of stubble across his jaw. Even rumpled and bleary-eyed, he looked ridiculously, sinfully gorgeous.
Cora laid the folded blanket on the arm of the couch. “Good, you’re awake. I’ve had one too many glasses of wine, so you get to be the designated driver. Ready to go?”
Liam shoved a hand through his hair, eyeing her and Finn on the sofa with an odd expression on his face. “Not...just yet. I came in for some water, so carry on with whatever—” he waved his hand in the air “—you’re doing.” He strode past them into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and made a beeline for the patio again.
“Liam,” Cora called out. He stopped without turning around, but she could see his face reflected in the sliding glass door and he didn’t look happy. “Come and join us.”
“No, I’m well enough out there.” He glanced over his shoulder with a casual smile, but she wasn’t fooled. Something was up with him, and whatever it was, he was conflicted about it. “Don’t let me interrupt.”
“Wait.” A sudden thought occurred to her. God, did he think there was something romantic going on between her and Finn? That wasn’t good. She needed to nip this in the bud immediately. “You’re not interrupting. We were just shooting the breeze. Anyway, I want to go home withyou.” Okay, that didn’t come out quite right. “I mean, I need to go to bed, and I want you to take me.” Worse. Much worse.Thanks, alcohol.
When it looked like Liam was about to argue, Cora added more firmly, “Please. It’s been a long day, and I’m exhausted. I’m also way past the age where it’s cool to crash on someone’s couch—even though this one is ridiculously comfortable.” She bounced a couple of times on the springy cushions, then jumped to her feet, stumbling a little.
“Whoa there.” Finn shot off the sofa to steady her, but Liam beat him to it. He wrapped a strong arm around Cora’s side and gave Finn a reproving look. “How much wine did you give her?”
“Don’t ask him that,” Cora said, digging her elbow into Liam’s ribs. “It’s not up to him.Ichoose. And for the record, it was only two glasses.”
Finn glanced sideways at her.
“Or three,” Cora amended. “Two or three.”
Finn pressed his lips together like he was trying not to laugh.
Did she drink more than that? She eyed the empty Pinot Grigio bottle on the coffee table. No wonder she felt like her head was stuffed with cotton balls. She was going to be in hangover hell tomorrow. “Come on, Liam. Take me home.”
She spun to leave, and Liam kept his arm clamped around her side to steady her. Somewhere in the back of Cora’s mind, she realized she should be self-conscious about her slight lack of coordination, but she wasn’t sober enough to care.
They said their goodbyes, Finn promising to call them as soon as anything important popped up on Magnus’s phone. Liam led Cora toward the bank of elevators down the hall.
When the elevator doors closed, she leaned her head against Liam’s biceps, blinking up at him as she swayed on her feet. With his sun-bronzed skin and thick, dark lashes, he was even more handsome up close. How was that possible? Nobody looked better in HD. Not in the real world, anyway. She reached up to swipe a lock of hair from his forehead, but she ended up poking him in the eye. “Whoops. Sorry.”
He rubbed his eye with a crooked grin. “It’s all right. I have another.”
“Okay, here’s the thing,” Cora said in a conspiratorial whisper. She held her hand up, pinching her thumb and forefinger together. “I’m a little bit tipsy.”
Liam’s deep, rumbling chuckle sank under her skin, spiraling outward through her limbs until she felt warm and languid and blissfully content. “I think you’re well past that.”
Cora shrugged. Maybe she was, but at the moment, she didn’t care. Resting her head on his shoulder, she hummed happily. “This is nice. I like this.”
“Good,” he said, wrapping both arms around her. “You’d best enjoy it now while you can, because tomorrow you’re going to have the devil beating a war drum inside your skull. Believe me, I’d know.”
“Worth it.” Cora tipped her head back and blinked lazily up at him. He peered down at her with amusement and a spark of mischievous fire that licked along her nerve endings and sucked all the gravity from the room. If she weren’t tethered by the smoldering look in his half-lidded eyes, she could float off into the atmosphere, too mesmerized to care. Why did he have to be so irresistible? He was just so... Cora drew in a breath and exhaled, “So handsome.”
Liam lifted a brow in amusement.
Wait, did she say that out loud? She lifted her chin, owning it. “Well, you are. As a police detective, I am compelled to state the facts. You are, objectively speaking, ridiculously attractive.”
“I’m very glad you think so,” he said with a grin. “Though you are deep in your cups tonight. In my experience, strong drinks and good judgment make poor bedfellows. But I’ll take your compliments any way I can get them. Tomorrow, you may regret telling me.” Cora considered this with a small frown, but he reached up to smooth the crease between her brows with his thumb. Then he cupped her face gently with his palm and said, “As a police detective myself, I feel compelled to state this unshakable fact: every day, every night, and every single moment, you are adorably, intoxicatingly, unbearably beautiful to me.”
Pleasure flared so hot and bright inside her chest she felt incandescent. “I am?”
“Always,” he said solemnly.
Their faces were so close Cora could feel his breath stir the fine strands of hair at her temples. He dropped his gaze to her mouth, his thumb brushing featherlight across her lower lip. Cora’s heart did a triple cartwheel into a back handspring and struck the landing. Was he going to kiss her? She felt like she was hovering at the top of a roller coaster right before the fall.
“Sometimes it hurts to look at you because I know I can’t—” Liam squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head with a muttered curse.
That didn’t sound good. Her skin prickled with sudden awareness. He’d been about to say something important, and it was about the two of them being together. She’d bet her life on it. “You can’t what?”
