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He scrubs his face, the way he always does when he’s thinking. I smile at that, realizing I know a lot about him and what makes him tick. “What I’m trying to say is…well, you said you haven’t been with anyone in a long time. I’m glad you broke that dry-spell, or whatever you want to call it, with me.”
“You’re glad I chose you as my big daddy?” I tease.
He smiles. “Something like that.”
“What can I say, Liam. You’re a big fat snack. No girl can resist that.”
This time he laughs out loud. “I’ve been called many things, but a big fat snack was never one of them.”
I grin up at him, loving how easy he is to be with, how different he is with me behind closed doors. My phone pings from the other room, and I sit up. “I should grab that.”
“Sure,” he says, his brows pulling together. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, it might have something to do with work,” I fib. But I can’t tell him what I’ve been up to. It’s a surprise. I hurry to the kitchen, and check my messages, and almost do a fist pump when I see that I can get next weekend’s shift covered. I really need the money, but I want to do something special for Liam and if it means working longer and harder after he leaves so I can finally start my own business, so be it. I send back a thank you to Becca, who agreed to cover for me, and I walk back into the room to find Liam leaning watching me.
“All good?” he asks.
I shrug it off. “Yeah, it was just a work thing.” I plop down next to him and snuggle in. He throws his arm around me.
“If you start your own business, you probably won’t have to take late calls.”
I laugh at that. “Are you kidding me? I’ll be working twenty-four seven when I start my own business.”
“Tell me what you want.” He lightly touches my hair, curls a strand around his finger. “What do you envision this business of yours to be like?”
“I want a pet store, and I…well, it’s silly now.”
“What’s silly now?”
I look at him, and see the genuine curiosity in his eyes. “When I was little, I always wanted to be a vet, but then Gavin… and don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret Gavin. He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. But I guess life happened, circumstances changed, and that dream is a thing of the past.”
“No way, Harper.” The conviction in his voice catches me off guard. “You can still make that happen.”
I shrug. “Maybe someday I’ll be a vet, with my own practice and my own pet store. Right after I win the lottery,” I tease. “Was being a professional hockey player always your dream?”
“Yeah.”
“Have you given any thought to what you’ll do when you finish playing?”
“I thought about becoming a dog walker, but it turns out I’m not very good at it.”
I laugh and whack his stomach. “Come again with me tomorrow. You can only get better.”
“Hey, play nice.”
“What?” I say, feigning innocence and loving our easy banter. “That was a compliment.”
“It was an insult wrapped up to sound like you had faith in me.”
“I do have faith in you, big daddy.”
As soon as those words leave my mouth, heat dances in his eyes. He picks up the remote, shuts the TV off, and pulls me to my feet. “You want big daddy, you’re going to get big daddy.” I yelp as he scoops me up and I’m sure I’ve never seen him take his stairs so fast. I simply love the way this man reacts to me, the way he looks at me and wants me.
He carries me to the bed and sets me on it. Two seconds later he’s standing before me, naked, and I crook my finger, beckoning him close.
“Can’t forget this,” he says and pulls a condom from the nightstand. “Don’t want to tempt fate twice, right?”
Something in the way he posed that question makes me think he’s asking if I do want to tempt fate twice, but I must be mistaken. He told me straight up he didn’t want kids. Is it possible that’s changed over the last month?
