His nostrils flared a few times before he finally conceded. “Fine.” He bobbed his head. “Fine. What’s your height andweight?”
“Five-seven. I haven’t weighed myself in months,though.”
“Approximately? One-forty?” he asked, typing out anemail.
“Last time I checked, one-thirty.” I contemplated the cottony clouds fraying and assembling into new shapes outside the window. “You think Aidan Michaels can still shift? He must’ve taken more than Morgan to hide in plainsight.”
Liam looked up from the screen, amber eyes shaded by a swooping curl of blackhair.
His cheek dimpled as though he were worrying the inside of it. “It’d be interesting toknow.”
“Maybe we can invite him for a run? Like a ceasefire before thewar. . .”
“Ceasefires happen after wars,Ness.”
I wasn’t trying to be literal. “Like the calm before the stormthen.”
“Even though I’d rather fight another bear than extend an invitation to run with that man, you might be ontosomething.”
After the flight attendant removed our empty glasses to prepare for landing, I asked, “I’ve been thinking a lot about something recently. Why didn’t you tell me your father wanted to killmine?”
Liam’s head jerked in surprise. Had he thought I wouldn’t pick at the scab? That I’d just let the truth of my father’s death slide into the tide of things past and unchangeable? “What made you think ofthat?”
“Aidan.”
He bobbed his head twice. Then, “Telling you meant confessing I knew your father was going to die . . . that I’d done nothing to stopit.”
That he’d been all forit.
“I didn’t know Callum well, Ness, but Mom used to say he was a good man. She would tell my father that she wished he would be more like yours.” He stopped talking and directed his gaze to the tiny rooftops and blue spots that were swimming pools gleaming below us. “You can imagine what that did to him.” He pressed his lips together for a long,longmoment. “Tome.”
“I’m sorry you suffered because you didn’t have the right role model, Liam. I’m sorry Heath gave you all these inner demons. That he made you lose faith in people. But I’ve also seen what sort of man you can be when you fight those demons, and that’s the sort of man I want as myAlpha.”
He swept his gaze back to me. “But only as yourAlpha?”
“Liam, you just want me”—my eyes drifted to his black V-neck that quivered with breaths—“because you can’t haveme.”
“That’s nottrue.”
“I’m the girl who gotaway.”
He crossed one ankle over his opposite knee. “You challenge me. You’re the only girl who’s ever dared challenge me. How am I supposed to become a better man if all I get are pats on the back and strokes to myego?”
I raised a small smile. “I don’t need to date you in order to challengeyou.”
“But it would make the challenges and criticism a lot more palatable,” he said, just as the wheels of the plane bumped into thetarmac.
The lap belt dug into my waist, slamming my navel into my spine. “How about we try to be friends? According to Sarah, I’m pretty good atfriendship.”
The vein in his neck throbbed and throbbed. “Fine. But I draw the line at mani-pedis.”
I snorted. “Is that really what you think wedo?”
“I also think you discuss shoes and tamponsizes.”
“Tamponsizes?”
Hesmirked.
