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Chapter Twenty

Nancy

T he day passed in a lazy blur of caresses, embraces, meals—and then caresses and embraces all over again. The revolver sat on the bedside table, a small, dark sentinel, grimly reminding me of the fear and violence that lurked outside this magic bubble.

But it didn’t intrude. Liam’s place felt safe. Home free.

The sun was low and the window pink with sunset clouds when I opened my eyes and found him twirling a lock of my hair and staring into my face.

“What’s on your mind?” I asked.

“Lucia,” he said. “I was thinking of her showing me your picture. I feel honored.”

I blinked at him. “By what?”

“That Lucia thought I was good enough for you.”

I rolled my eyes. “Please,” I said. “I loved that woman tremendously, but I’m still furious with her for setting me up like that.”

He propped his head up on one hand. “What’s so mortifying about it? She wanted you to be happy, right? What’s the harm?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “Lucia never quite grasped one of the basic laws of the animal kingdom.”

“And what law might that be?”

I let out a sigh. “Men only want what they can’t have,” I told him. “They chase things that run. Babbling about my availability is like the kiss of death.”

Liam pondered that, looking disapproving. “I’m no animal.”

“I never said you were,” I snapped. “You’re taking this way too personally.”

“I don’t know any other way to take things. But you don’t have to run away to make me take notice. I was interested from the first photo Lucia showed me.”

“She showed you more than one?”

“Two photo albums,” he admitted. “Your high school graduation photo was cute. Hell of a hairdo you had back then. I personally like it better long.”

I groaned. “Don’t tell me you didn’t wonder why a reasonably attractive young woman would need her mother to find her a date.”

He smoothed a lock of hair out of my eyes. “Strike out ‘reasonably attractive’ and insert ‘drop-dead gorgeous.’ And yeah. Of course I wondered.”

I blew a lock of hair out of my mouth. “So, to get back to what I was saying?—”

“Stunning,” he added.

“Liam, we’ve been through the beauty-of-the-flower lecture. It was lovely, and I got it, okay? Do you want to hear the rest of this or don’t you?”

He leaned back and folded his arms behind his head. “Go for it.”

“Well, to start with, Lucia hated all of my fiancés,” I told him.

That got his attention. “All your fiancés? How many did you have?”

I huddled into the quilt. “She didn’t tell you about my train wrecks?”

Liam shook his head.

“I give her credit for masterful restraint, then,” I said. “I was engaged three times. All three of them dumped me. Not exactly at the altar, but uncomfortably close. Two happened to be my clients. Which was probably not a great idea from the get-go, but hey. Mistakes were made.”

He looked incredulous. “So what happened with these idiots?”

I plucked the quilt, embarrassed. “They fell in love with someone else.”

He winced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, it sucked. At least by the time Freedy dumped me, I knew better than to get the wedding dress made in advance. I’ve only got two wedding gowns in storage, not three. One takes comfort in the little things.” I kept my eyes down, so I wouldn’t have to see pity in his eyes.

“They did you a favor,” he said. “They did me one, too.”

“How do you figure?”

“If you were married to one of those boneheads, you wouldn’t be here with me right now,” he said.

A silent giggle shook me. “It really is just as well. Lucia nagged and nagged about how they took advantage of me, but I never really saw what she meant until this morning. After last night, those guys with the knife, then being with you…it finally came together for me. Lucia was right all along.”

“This morning?” He looked confused. “You’re still in contact with these assholes?”

“Of course, but they’re not assholes. Just temperamental artistic types. Two of them are my clients, as I said. Or three, I suppose I should say, counting Enid. I manage her, too, since she and Peter are a duo now.”

His jaw dropped. “These dickheads dumped you for other women, and you still work sixteen hours a day managing their careers?”

“Don’t you start,” I said huffily. “I will admit that I have problems setting limits, putting my foot down, defending my own interests, yada yada. Those character defects have been exhaustively pointed out to me by Lucia and my sisters. I have gotten all the sermons and lectures in full, multiple times. Trust me. But these people are genuinely my friends, and they’re very talented musicians, too. We’ve put it behind us.”

“That guy who called this morning—was he one of your exes?”

I hesitated. “Uh, well, yes,” I admitted. “That was Peter, my first fiancé. He’s married to Enid now. She’s another singer whom I manage. I was the one who introduced them, ironically enough. He’s an incredibly talented?—”

“Manipulator. Self-serving, self-indulgent user.”

My chin went up as tension thrummed through me. “You don’t know him.”

“I don’t want to. Actions speak louder than words. I know what I need to know.”

I breathed down the tension. “That’s pretty fucking inappropriate, Liam,” I said. “You don’t hear me making judgments about how you’ve lived your life all wrong.”

“I just call it how I see it. I didn’t mean to sound judgmental.”

“No? And I don’t mean ‘Liam, you arrogant, know-it-all bastard’ in a rude way.”

He rolled on top of me, leaning down to nuzzle my throat. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right. You got my protective instincts all fired up. Emotions are running really hot, and stuff just comes out of my mouth. Sorry.”

“Um.” I stared at the ceiling, biting my lip. “Right.”

“I didn’t mean to be a dick. I can be way too opinionated.”

“I’m starting to notice that,” I murmured.

My face was inches from his bright, pale green eyes. So freaking beautiful. Then he started kissing his way across my collarbone … and then down to my breasts. Licking, suckling, stroking. Then my belly.

That slick bastard. I was embarrassed to feel my anger and tension fizzling away under the blunt force of his masculine allure. I had to at least try to push back.

“Liam,” I said. “You can’t win an argument by seducing me.”

“This isn’t me arguing.” He pushed my legs wide. “This is me apologizing.”

I let out a soft cry as he put his mouth to me. “Smart-ass,” I whispered.

His laughter vibrated against my clit, and then he started in with his tongue, melting me down into a helpless, writhing frenzy.