Liam stands up from the table with a smirk and makes his way across the kitchen, retrieving a coffee mug from one of the cabinets. “There is absolutely nothing wrong with my ass, sunshine.” Yeah, I know that. Ugh. “So I couldn’t help but notice the brutal tension between you and Sterling thismorning.”
“There’s no tension,” Ireply.
“Well, clearly he’s not a good kisser. I mean, if he was, would you have been groping me thismorning?”
I’m peeling my orange as if I were skinning an animal, trying to breathe through my anger. “Grope you? More like I was trying to give a quick swing of my fist to your junk in retaliation for gropingme.” I laugh, but it’s forced, and it sounds that way. “Can we just talk about the fact that you somehow had a boner in ice-coldwater?”
“Oh, sunshine, that wasn’t a boner.” Shit! It was like hard and stuff ... I think. I don’t know. It happened so quickly. I thought it was impossible, but itwashard?
“Sterling was an amazing kisser, by the way. Since you’re so concerned with it, I figured you should know that there might be some validity to all those rumors you’ve heardabouthim.”
“Aw,” he coos. “Was it breathtaking while you were staring out into the ocean under the starlit sky? Did he tell you how beautiful you are, then say how long it’s been since a girl has given him any attention?” His question makes me think back to last night, replaying the order in which everything happened. The bottle of wine clearly didn’t help me hang on to most of what Sterling said, but I don’t recall him telling me I was beautiful or mentioning how long it’s been since he’s been with another woman. “You don’t have to respond. I already know the answer.” Suddenly, Liam is all-knowing and versed on Sterling’s perpetual dating behavior. “In any case, he should have told you the first part—any man who isn’t blind would said that to you, but he isn’t lacking attention, so that truth would never helphiscase.”
Did he just backhandedly call me beautiful, or am I confused by what he’s trying to say? The first part—he was totally sneaking in a compliment. Nice play, Liam. Nice play. “How exactly do you know allofthis?”
“I’ve been friends with the guy for a few years. You come to learn thesethings.”
“Well, you can’t fake a kiss like that, so, I don’t know.” I swear his cheeks are turning red, which tells me I’m getting under his skin. It’s the only way I guess. There must be some history between Sterling and Liam that I don’t know about, and if there is, I definitely want to find out whatitis.
“Maybe you just haven’t been kissed well enough to know the difference,” he says, pouring the carafe of coffee into his mug. “Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” I say, realizing I haven’t even had one cup yet. No wonder I’m feeling a bit short-tempered. I have to have my coffee in themorning.
“No, I didn’t mean I’d show you the difference between the two types ofkisses.”
“What?”
“Never mind,” hechuckles.
“Coffee. That’s all I agreed to.” God, he doesn’tgiveup.
“Okay.”
That’s it. I’m bringing in the big guns. I look out into the living room to make sure Dylan is nowhere in sight before I stride over to where Liam is pouring the coffee. As soon as he places the carafe down, I run my hand up the rippled muscles of his back, probably torturing myself more than him, but I continue, squeezing his shoulder a bit. I press up on my toes, bringing my lips closer to his ear and pull the only card I think I have right now. “I know you want me, but you’re going about this all wrong,” I whisper inhisear.
He releases a loud breath. “Oh, I don’t know,” he says, not as affirmatively as I expected, though. “You see, I figured if I hid your little friend, you’d eventually become desperate enough to come find me in a time of need.” Bastard. I knew he took Shermanator. Who does that? Why do I keep asking that? Clearly, Liam has no boundaries and does everything I would never expect another person to do. This is why I can’t stay one step aheadofhim.
“Keep it,” I tell him. “My shower is just fine.” That’s not going to do the trick. I need a betterweapon.
“I’m aware,” he says with a grin. “The massage setting on that thing vibrates the entire house, so I’m sure I was of some assistance with that blast of cold water this morning at justtttt—Ohhhh yeahhhh—the right moment.” I fall slowly from the tips of my toes down to my heels, feeling a heat rush through my cheeks. He knew what I was doing. I was in the shower, in private, doing the nasty to myself, and everyone who was in this house knew ... except for Dylan, thankfully. God help him if he’s aware of that shitalready.
Here I am, almost letting him get to me. I can’t forget how big of an asshole he is. That’s never going to change, and everything about him, sexy or not, is ahorribleidea.
“You know, you may just end up running me right into Sterling’s bed,” Itellhim.
“Good. Go.” If he doesn’t care, why put in all this effort to drive mecrazy?
I take the mug of coffee and leave the kitchen, feeling a little hurt when I should not be feeling a thing after what’s been going on between us. He is the exact reason why I made my rule about staying away from good-looking men. It shouldn’t be that hard of a rule to follow when I already know theoutcome.
There’snothing quite like sitting in a wet bathing suit on a rock under a cloudy sky. Plus, there’s a whole déjà vu thing that’s going on with Liam sitting next to me, and Sterling twenty feet in front of us, talking to the group of kids. Liam and I are the only ones sitting so close to the class. The parents of the other kids are spread out, but I guess Dylan tends to interrupt a lot so we—I—need to be close by in case I need to take him away from the class for a minute. In any case, here we areagain.
Sterling instructs the kids to begin running their beach laps, and he takes the opportunity to meander over to where we are. I stand up to greet him. “Hey, I was thinking ... everyone keeps talking about this pizza place in Ogunquit. I know I said I needed some time last night, but it’s just pizza, so do you want to get a slice after work?” I ask him. “It can be asfriends.”
“For real?” he asks, sounding very surprised after I turned him down last night and basically thismorning.
“Yeah, I’ll need to get a breather after this day, so it’ll be good to get away for a bit. Jade’s busy tonight I guess, so I need someone to keep me company.” I have no clue what Jade’s doing tonight, but after her display last night, I assume she’ll be busy with Cleary. That’s how she gets. Jade falls for a guy and gets wrapped up with him faster than any insta-love book I’ve ever read. I think that’s how she ended up engaged and almost married before turning twenty-three. Someday she’ll figure it out, but until then, I guess we live andlearn.
“Should I pick you up or would you like to meet me?” he asks, smiling from ear-to-ear. There’s nothing fake about that smile, or that kiss last night. I don’t care what Liam says. He’s just jealous. At least Sterling knows how to act like a gentleman, for themostpart.
