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“That’s quite the oversimplification, but I’ll allow it for the purposes of polite conversation.”
He continued as if I hadn’t spoken at all. “I’ve made decisions based on what Idon’twant. What I’ve never wanted.”
Something about this conversation had me imagining that I was walking a tightrope. The slightest tremble or a single misstep and everything would get all wobbly. We’d found an equilibrium, even if it was tentative and new and untested.
But I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to test the limits.
Curiosity was often painted as a bad thing, given that it killed the cat and all.
Maybe my own tendency to want to know things, to understand things, would kick-start something I couldn’t undo. The impetus for derailing all the forward progress we’d made.
Still ... there was no pause button on all those questions I wanted answers to. Couldn’t stop myself from wondering why I suddenly wanted to know more and more and more about this man.
I just didn’t know what would happen when I pushed past the limit of what he was willing to give.
But with his cryptic words hanging between us—what I’ve never wanted—I knew what I’d choose.
“A family,” I said quietly.
He hummed. “Got it in one.”
“That’s why you panicked so badly at the lawyer’s office.”
Liam gave no indication as to whether I was right or wrong, but I knew the truth.
“Why, though?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Despite all his protestations, he wasgoodat this.That’swhy I wanted to know more. Learn more. Figure him out on a deeper level.
Nothing he said aligned with the way he acted.
Liam inhaled slowly, his eyes dropping to my mouth for one prolonged moment. “That’s three questions, love.”
At the endearment, my heart ached. I knew he didn’t mean it, not like that, but even so, there was a tangible reaction deep under my ribs.
I’d never had a green thumb, but I could imagine what it was like to pry open a small pocket of lush, dark soil, to plant a seed when you had great hopes for what might blossom later.
Something to tend and take care of.
That one little word—love—was Liam pressing the hope of something lush and beautiful into a neglected place I didn’t realize I’d been holding on to.
For now, though, I ignored whatever might grow from that seed.
I had to. It was far too complicated to give it anything more than simple recognition.
My chin rose an inch. “No, that’s two. You never really answered me.”
He stepped toward me until I had to tilt my face up to look him square in the eye. My heart careened wildly at the closeness. “You’re right,” he said quietly. “I didn’t.”
And then he brushed past me.
“Good night, Valentine. Enjoy your book.”
The air left my lungs in a hard punch, and my eyelids fluttered shut.
“Oh boy,” I whispered. “This is not good.”
Chapter Sixteen
LIAM
