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I listened with half an ear to Eugene’s carrying-on, my body still quivering.
God. After all my resolutions to be tough. Making out madly with a stranger in his truck. Having a rain-soaked orgasm like none I even knew existed. Getting swept toward God alone knew what—his house, his couch, his rug, his bed. I hadn’t been swept away since ... well, never, really.
I’d never known anyone that good. Hell, I’d never known that good existed. I was squirming, hot, wet, desperate. And that was after just some sweet talk, some gallant moves, a light kiss, a few buttons undone and my breasts expertly caressed. He’d barely touched me, and I’d gone off like a bomb. How on earth was that even possible?
I jerked my attention back to Eugene before I lost the thread. “All this work for nothing,” he moaned. “I can’t take it, Nance. It’s too much for me. I’m going back to school. I’m going to be an accountant, like Mom wanted.”
“You’re not going to be an accountant,” I soothed with practiced ease. “It’s too late for that. You’re not fit for any work but being a fiddler now, so get yourself a cup of tea and just calm down.”
“Where the hell are you, anyway?” Eugene demanded.
My eyes flicked up to the side of Liam’s impassive face. “I’ll call you back, Eugene. Later, okay?” I closed the call and dropped the phone back into my purse.
The rain was now driving sideways into my open window. I rolled it up.
“I’ll take you back to your car,” he said.
The warmth was gone from his voice. I missed it.
It took twenty-odd minutes to get back to Lucia’s house, and every minute that passed, his reproachful silence made me shrink further back into myself. As if I’d done something wrong, but I wasn’t sure what.
When we arrived, he parked behind my car. So much had happened since I’d been there last, though it had been less than two hours. The whole gamut of human emotions had blazed through me, in waves. I felt hollowed-out.
I stared up at Lucia’s shabby old house with the bright yellow crime scene tape festooned across the door, and started rummaging for my car keys.
“Thanks for the ride,” I said. “And for keeping me company when we went to Baruchin’s.” And for the most mind-blowing orgasm I ever felt. That, too.
I wanted to say something to him after that moment of incredible intimacy, but his face looked so closed. The words just stopped in my throat.
I flung the door open and slid out of the truck. My legs almost buckled, and I steadied myself on the door before heading to my car. I tried to unlock it, but the key slipped from my stiff fingers, splashing into a puddle on the cracked old sidewalk.
Suddenly, Liam was beside me, fishing the keys out of the water, wiping them on his jeans. He opened the door and helped me into the car. I sat heavily in the driver’s seat, glad to be off my feet.
“You need protection,” he told me. “Twenty-four seven.”
I snorted before I could stop myself. “Do I, now? Well, isn’t that a shame. In a perfect world, I might agree with you. But I live alone, Liam. I work, all the time. I have a cat. And most importantly, I can’t afford a bodyguard. So there it is.”
“You could stay with me,” he said. “Bring your cat. I like cats.”
I gaped at him, at a total loss. “What?”
He shrugged. “It’s a possible solution.”
“But I…but what about your work?”
“I cleared my schedule for three weeks for Lucia’s house,” he said. “I’m overdue a vacation. I’d take some time for this. Just say the word.”
“But your assistant?—”
“I can find Eoin work on someone else’s crew in five minutes. Don’t worry about Eoin.”
That finished all the obvious objections to the outrageous proposal. Now, I had to get down to the actual, awkward truth. “Liam. Get real. We don’t have the kind of relationship where I could move in with you. Not even close.”
“But you need protection,” he repeated. “I feel it. Something bad is happening. You shouldn’t be alone.”
I shivered. “Well, maybe so, but I just met you yesterday. All we have is ... well, hell. I don’t even know what we had.”
“We had breakfast,” he offered.