Page 13 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)
“Unc, yous gots donuts?” Theo danced in place, her hair a mess and big eyes sparkling with hope. “Gonna gives to me? ”
Liam held the bag high in the air while the girls tried to jump and grab it. “Ms. Taylor brought donuts for Papa, and I think he’ll share them if you’re good and hang out here for a little bit longer. Can you do that?”
The girls screamed, each latching on to one of their grandfather’s hands so they could tug him down the hall toward the kitchen. “Come on, Papa!” Harper groaned as she pulled. “Before Daddy catches us!”
Evie’s pregnancy had been fraught with complications, and somewhere during the second trimester, the doctors had warned her to adjust her diet.
Samuel took that to mean everyone in the house had to eat healthier, including the girls who had been insisting their father was trying to kill them with a broccoli-based assassination plot.
“I’ll pour the milk,” Taylor chimed in, taking the bag back and sauntering ahead like she was on a catwalk. “Then maybe we’ll watch cartoons. Papa needs a break after his busy morning.”
The girls cheered. Her father groaned. The whole circus trooped away in a cyclone of noise, leaving Jamison alone with Liam.
Which was a rare thing these days.
Liam’s midnight eyes slid over to her. “Blue.”
“What?”
“Taylor’s bra. She flashed it twice in under two minutes.”
“Stop.” She poked his chest. “That show wasn’t for you.”
“Oh, I know. And I know we’re supposed to be eternally nice to her.”
“Forever and ever, William.”
His upper lip curled in disgust. “But this thing with your dad is getting old.”
“I’m used to it.”
“Liar.”
“Okay, fine. I am a liar, and my pants are, in fact, on fire.” She sighed. “You should totally take them off me.”
Before she could register what was happening, he looped an arm around her waist and spun them into the library. A whoosh of air escaped her when he pinned her against the door as it closed.
Hands braced on his shoulders, she shivered when he buried his face in her neck.
“We’re being watched,” she whispered. Starved for privacy, she’d actually fantasized about dragging Liam into the woods to have her dirty way with him, but then Rowan ruined the idea with more security cameras out on the trails.
“Like, right now. They’re all probably in the media room, placing bets on how far we get before someone interrupts. ”
Liam’s hips pressed into hers, and she groaned. “Ask me about my plan.”
“Is it a dirty plan? Please say it’s a dirty plan.
” Threading her fingers through his hair, she pulled him up to see his face.
“Because the last time you said you had a plan, I was assigned to help Izzy stay organized while she did background checks. Not that I mind, but I would much rather be involved in a different kind of plan—a dirty plan—that involves you doing dirty things to me. Or me to you. Whatever.”
“A dirty plan like the one you concocted the other night?” he teased. “You lost nine pairs of shoes, Jamison.”
Simone wasn’t the only one not sleeping.
Rowan and Liam were up around the clock with Will, trying to sift through the wreckage of information coming in.
But a few nights ago, Liam had snuck upstairs to rest, and when he slipped into bed with her, she'd suggested sneaking off to the walk-in closet to try to have some private time together.
And damn it, it had been a good plan. The closet had a camera, yes, but like the bathrooms, it had a code that would provide her with two-minute intervals of blackout so she could change in private.
Liam had thought she was crazy, and she should have listened. Wedging themselves behind the clothes in case the camera came back on before they were finished, she quickly learned that the shoe cabinet they tried to use for balance wasn’t as sturdy as it looked.
“It was worth it,” she said, even though they hadn’t done anything. Just a little kissing and nothing more. “But Annabeth replaying the footage on repeat is getting old. How was I supposed to know the cameras have thermal and night vision?”
Rowan and Annabeth were suffering from the same lack of privacy as them and found the partial collapse of her closet and the reason behind it hilarious.
“Don’t forget the facial recognition software.
” Liam grinned. Today really had been a good day, and seeing him happy was such a contrast to the cold and calculating man who had been prowling around Haven these last few weeks.
“That’s going to be a huge help if Zanmi ever shows their asses here again. ”
“We learned a bunch, didn’t we? ”
His smile grew until it took over his entire face. “If Toby is telling the truth, which there’s a high probability that he’s not, but if he is, this whole woman being the driving force behind their baby plan coincides with a theory my dad and I have been stuck on.”
“Toby’s group has never really had a high regard for women, but you think they’re letting one run the show?”
He had her across the room and on the couch in another dizzying move. Flat on her back, she giggled when he laid on top of her. “William!” she whisper-shouted as he shooed away a cat who came over to investigate. “Everyone saw that!”
“And everyone has been lecturing me to rest, so I’m resting.
” Dropping all his body weight on her, he shifted his hips slightly, rubbing a very erect body part against her thigh.
“To answer your question, yes. I think a woman might be running the show. Sinclair would never care about a plan to have Fairweather babies, but a woman—a woman who is obsessed with Toby—might be. Especially if he’s led her to believe they had a relationship. ”
“Then how does Michael work into all of this?” she asked, but remembered what Bernie said.
“He worked for him! You’re thinking that if this Brandy person is real, and Sinclair gave up bombing to go private for someone, it would have to be for an individual who, like, I don’t know, works in the shadows. ”
He chuckled at the description. “When you give Evie her Oscar for acting, make sure you give one to me and my dad. The whole Bryan Carroll thing checks all the boxes, but we had to be careful not to let on what we were thinking.” Tracing her lips with his finger, he groaned when she nipped at it playfully.
“Anderson has two new guys I don’t know, and my trust… it’s not there. Not yet.”
“But you trust Anderson?”
The excitement in his eyes dimmed. “After my dad shot Mayhew, Anderson was the one who came in and took over. He protected my parents, so none of it touched them until it absolutely had to. He gave us time to heal, and I think my mom is doing as well as she is, partly because of how hard he fought to give her that peace. He also kept the whole media circus away. ”
Laying a hand on his cheek, she tried to get him to smile again. “Anderson sounds like a good man, which makes me doubt he’s related to us, but if he is, then I guess we have more family.”
The joke worked, and he smiled down at her. “Because that’s something we needed. More family.”
We .
She loved hearing him include himself again. “So, what’s this dirty plan you were talking about?”
“I never said it was a dirty plan, but it’s definitely not background checks.” Shifting his hips again, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Thanks for helping Izzy stay organized, by the way. Not having enough people in our inner circle is hard.”
Izzy had an almost insurmountable task ahead of her.
Fairweather Holdings employed thousands, and background checks were an absolute requirement for them to one day return to the offices.
A simple one was already performed upon hiring, but now they needed to go deeper.
Izzy was starting with anyone hired in the last year and working her way back from there.
However, the sheer volume of people was overwhelming.
“She’s not even close to finishing the first batch. I can keep her organized, but other than that, I feel useless.” She tipped her head back so he could trace her jawline with his lips. “We need more help.”
“We’ll have it when Carter gets here. The man is part bloodhound.”
Resisting the urge to wrap her legs around him, she tapped his shoulder. “Stop stalling and go over whatever plan you’ve concocted. What do I have to do?”
“That depends. Do you want to play the good cop or the bad cop?”
“I’ll be either, but only if handcuffs are involved.”