Well. I’d just be… careful.
He looked at me, and the corners of his mouth curvedup, but he didn’t speak. The silence between us balanced on an edge, and then Dex’s voice sliced through it, cheerful and oblivious.
“Drinking already?”
He dropped into the chair beside us. “Not a bad spot, is it?”
I straightened and looked out the window. “It’s amazing,” I said. “I’ve never seen a forest quite like it.”
“What’s this, some light bedtime reading?” He reached to grab my etiquette guide from the coffee table, but Liam covered it with a single, easy motion. “Work stuff,” he said mildly. “Briefing notes for my catch-up with Hugo tomorrow. Thought I’d get a head start.” He stood, as if the matter were settled.
Dex sat back, already bored. “Jesus, you never stop, do you?”
“Occupational hazard,” Liam said. He turned to me. “Come on. Let’s head up before Ben orders the entire cocktail list.” His hand dropped to my back again. I tried to ignore it, but the warmth bled through my thin shirt.
I looked up at him like I imagined an actual girlfriend might, but it felt too real, especially knowing we were heading upstairs together to a shared room.
“Oh, we’ve got the welcome reception at the château at seven,” Dex said. “Shall we meet you there?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Liam called over his shoulder as he steered me toward the lifts.
Well, I guess I was actually doing it then—sharing a room with Liam Roth. But there was nothing to worry about, at least for the time being—of course there wasn’t. I’d just freshen up, eat something, maybe even flick through Bonnie’s guidebook.
It was a shame it didn’t have a section on avoiding French words that meant something entirely different from what you thought—though knowing Bonnie, it probably did.
What I really needed was a section on avoiding Liam Roth.
That, I suspected, was going to be the harder rule to follow.
Chapter 28
Andrea
The lock clunked,and Liam pushed the heavy door open and stepped aside for me to enter. Our luggage was already waiting in the entryway.
“Wow, this is about four times the size of my entire flat,” I said.
“Maybe five,” said Liam. “Depends on whether you count the balcony.” He wandered in and picked up a wrap from the selection of food on the coffee table. “Want one?”
“I’m good, thank you.”
Behind us, the door clicked shut, and I tried to ignore the way my heart jumped. We were alone together in the most beautiful hotel room I’d ever seen. The walls were painted cream and decorated with white wood paneling. Wooden floors gleamed under the afternoon light.
“Oh,” I said, “French doors.” The views stretched for miles, the sun hovering over the trees in the distance.
“They just call them doors here,” said Liam, chuckling at his own joke.
I rolled my eyes and stepped into the living room—thesalon. The ceiling rose high above, with ornate moldings curling at the corners like icing. And then beyond it, the bedroom, an orange-and-peach hand-tied bouquet lying on the perfectly turned-down bed.
I could sense Liam standing silently behind me, taking it in—the bed, the en suite, the intentional romance of the room—and the awareness slid slowly down my back like heat.
“Do you mind if I just use the bathroom, and then I’ll get out of your hair?” he said after a moment.
“Oh, of course.” I perched on one of the emerald-green armchairs as my phone buzzed again from my bag. Kelly.
Kelly:I’m all right. Thanks for checking, though.
Me:What are you going todo?
