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“You do that one more time, and I swear I’m going to take you over my knee and you won’t be able to sit for a day,” he growled.
Slowly the realization dawned on me. “I didn’t mean to.”
His words had melted my insides. I’d thought all through dinner the comments were over-the-top hyperbole for the Schmulians’ benefit. I had pictured him in salesman mode, trying to close the deal and say what the Schmulians wanted to hear to get to yes. I understood how important this was to him, how he needed to make the right impression.
Now I had to wrap my head around his angry declaration. He’d meant every unbelievably kind word.
The acceleration pinned me back in the seat as he pulled away from the curb and we approached the speed of sound.
I planted my feet on the floor and clung to the door handle as we hurtled around a corner. “Please slow down. You're scaring me.”
He looked straight ahead and didn't ease up. “Soon as you're willing to behave.”
“I give,” I squeaked.
I wasn’t sure what I was agreeing to exactly, but dying in a fiery crash because he was mad at me was not the right way to end our evening.
He let off the gas, and the screaming of the engine lowered to a loud growl. “A lady would accept honest compliments from her boyfriend. Are you ready to be a lady?”
The only catch in his statement was I wasn't really his girlfriend. This was all make-believe. I’d been brought up to be modest, and compliments had always embarrassed me. I blushed beet red with merely the slightest provocation, which didn’t help.
“Yes, yes,” I pleaded. Anything to avoid becoming a traffic statistic.
He braked abruptly to the speed limit, and it felt like we were crawling along, but now we were safe.
I loosened my death grip on the door. “I'll make a concerted effort to be better. Because it's important to you.”
It was an honest promise because I truly meant the last part. If it was important to him, I would make it important to me. Understanding how his string of compliments had been from the heart touched me, and I would do what I could to please him——not only to secure the rest of his funding for our company, but because he deserved it and I genuinelywantedto please him.
My heart had raced with fear as he sped through the city. Now it beat heavily for a different reason as I contemplated what he’d said. It soon became too much to process. A man like Liam Quigley couldn’t possibly see me that way. Could he? Nobody had ever said things one tenth as nice as he had tonight.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have drunk the wine. Better yet, perhaps I should keep a bottle around for when I was feeling down and wanted him to tell me how wonderful I am, and how everything was about to get better.
He navigated the darkened streets back to my apartment in silence. He was probably testing to see how long I could behave myself.
I was still replaying the evening in my head when we reached my street. I couldn’t read his expression.
He parked in the loading zone out front once again and jumped out to run around and open my door for me.
Doubtless he was right; chivalry had died in Boston. Nobody had ever acted as gentlemanly as Liam did in my presence. Perhaps Californians weren’t all hicks.
He walked me up to my door, and we stopped outside.
I fished my key from my purse. “I had a very enjoyable evening tonight.” I fiddled with the key, unsure what his version of a lady would say next.
“Amy, thank you for the sunshine bouquet,” he said stepping back. It was an odd line, but I was learning he had a knack for surprising me, or I needed a California-to-New England dictionary to translate these things.
“Liam, I apologize. I didn’t mean… I just didn’t——”
He moved forward and halted me with a finger to my lips. “No apology, Sunshine. Remember to look forward, not back.”
I nodded and looked up to find fire in his eyes. I waited for his lips to replace his finger, for the kiss to begin. I closed my eyes. Tingles ran rampant under my skin, remembering Tuesday night and the kiss that had redefined kissing. I expected a kiss to sweep me off my feet, the way it had our first night. When it didn’t come, I opened my eyes.
He had backed away instead. “Good night, Sunshine. I should go. I’ll call you about the next step.”
I was unsure what I’d done wrong. Maybe I should have popped a Tic Tac. “Good night.”
I waved and slid my key into the lock, opening the door. I’d expected at least a kiss. Should I have been the instigator? Should I have invited him up before we got out of the car?
