This was a line they couldn’t uncross. But in that achingly tense moment — charged with longing, grief, solace, and something else drawing them both inexplicably together — neither of them seemed willing to extricate themselves.
They remained frozen like that, locked in each other’s orbit. This felt so dangerous.
Sunny
At last, Liam seemed to shake himself from the trance and abruptly stood, nearly knocking Sunny off balance.
She grabbed the arm of the chair to steady herself, her heart pounding wildly at how close they had come to crossing that line.
Liam scrubbed a hand over his face, his brow furrowed as he visibly wrestled with some internal conflict. When he finally met Sunny’s questioning gaze, his eyes looked so sad.
“It’s late. We should… get some sleep,” he said gruffly, looking anywhere but directly at her.
Part of Sunny wanted to protest, to remain in that electrifying moment when the air was thick with yearning and possibility. But the wiser part of her knew his suggestion was for the best. So she simply nodded, not trusting her voice as a lump of mingled disappointment and relief clogged her throat. With as much dignity as she could muster, Sunny rose from the chair.
As she brushed past him toward the doorway, she could have sworn she heard the faintest rumble of a deep sigh reverberate from his solid chest. Or maybe it was just her imagination running rampant.
The short walk up the stairs to her bedroom felt like an endless trek, with Liam’s smoldering presence burning into her back the entire way. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder, knowing that if she caught even a glimpse of his tousled chestnut hair or the slantof his sensuous mouth, she might falter. The alcohol had definitely weakened her defenses.
Only when she had firmly closed the bedroom door, putting a physical barrier between them, did Sunny finally allow herself to release the shuddering breath she had been holding. What the hell was happening to her? She wasn’t sixteen again.
She pressed her palms flat against the door, seeking its solid resistance to ground her. Sunny knew she was playing with fire, careening down a dangerous road. Her feelings were quickly becoming more tangled than she could make sense of. Sure, she had always found Liam physically attractive in that brooding, masculine way of his. But as she peeled back more layers of the man tonight, baring a sensitive soul who had the capacity to love with his whole being, something fundamental had shifted inside her.
This went far deeper than a shallow crush or hormonal urges dictated by her cycle. She had connected with Liam on an elemental level tonight. But just as quickly, the moment had shattered into jagged shards of propriety and cold reality. Liam may have flickered with a spark of reciprocated wanting, but he would never allow himself to truly go there. Not while he was still tethered to the ghostly specter of his wife and the memory of their forever love. Perhaps that was for the best.
Pushing off from the door, Sunny traipsed wearily over to her bed and collapsed atop the downy comforter. She knew she needed to get a grip on these unruly feelings. Her job, her purpose here in this household, was to care for those two little girls — not to indulge in forbidden fantasies about their wounded father.
Still, as she stared up at the ceiling, her body continued to thrum with Liam’s lingering imprint. She could still smell the rich notes of his cologne around her and could still feel the heated spark of his azure gaze.
Groaning in frustration, Sunny rolled onto her side and bunched a pillow up under her cheek. This was going to be a long, restless night as she wrestled with the tantalizing images her mind couldn’t seem to banish in the dark hours.
Because no matter how many times she told herself it was impossible, part of her couldn’t squelch the tiny kernel of hope that had taken root. The way Liam had looked at her tonight, his usual guarded walls stripped bare, made her dare to wonder if perhaps she wasn’t alone in her longing.
She found her mind drifting back to Liam’s handsome face. As she did so, she found her fingers creeping down below the sheets. If she wanted to sleep tonight, she needed a helping hand, so to speak, she reasoned.
Picturing Liam’s strong jaw, crisp blue eyes, and wide mouth, she felt her body awakening. Her breath quickened as her fingers stroked her own flesh. A tingling heat began building in her body as her fingers began working more furiously.
She began sucking in air as waves of pleasure radiated out from her center, building and building. She continued to picture the brooding Liam with his angular jaw, large hands, and thick muscular thighs. Soon her body was electrified with sexual energy, which she released into the room with a spasm of her body and a protracted moan.
It took a good while to come down from that high.
But still, sleep evaded her. Sunny tossed and turned the rest of the night, analyzing the intimate exchange with Liam from every angle until her thoughts blurred into an exhausted haze. Memories of his raw vulnerability as he opened up about losing Kate were branded into her mind’s eye. The sight of unshed tears glistening in those soulful blue eyes had unlocked something primal inside her — an aching need to shelter him, to pour her own light and warmth into the cracks of his broken spirit. To afford him the care and compassionthat she had never received growing up.
Groaning in frustration, Sunny stuffed a pillow over her face as pale streaks of dawn light crept through her bedroom window. She needed to get a grip before her vivid imaginings spiraled any further out of control.
Liam was her employer, period. It didn’t matter how profound their connection had felt in those electrifying moments together. She was here for the girls, not to indulge in salacious fantasies, no matter how ruggedly handsome and soul-achingly vulnerable he was.
A soft rap at the door startled Sunny out of her circling thoughts.
“Sunny? You awake in there?”
Liam’s low rumble filtered through the door.
She sat up, clutching the pillow to her chest as she attempted to contort her features into an impassive mask.
“Y-yes, I’m up. Come in.”
The door creaked open, and there he stood, already dressed for the day in a soft gray T-shirt and athletic shorts that strained enticingly against his muscular frame. Sunny’s mouth went instantly dry as he raked a hand through his brown locks.
