Liam's Perfect Woman (Home to Harbor Town 2) - Page 48

She stared at him in amazement, tears still running sluggishly beneath her glasses and onto her cheeks.

“I can’t believe you went through all that. It’s not fair. I feel like beating the crap out of something…out of someone,” he bit out, his jaw tight.

“Liam,” she whispered, “I’m okay. I’m all right. I was just trying to explain to you. I’m not really used to talking about it. I’ve never had to talk about it before.”

He looked troubled.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, not understanding the source of his unrest, but sensing the depth of it.

He didn’t respond for a taut moment.

“I’d like to kill my dad at the moment, if he wasn’t already dead.”

She inhaled sharply at the impact of his stark words. For a blinding second, she considered what it would be like to say something similar about her mother to another person. The thought horrified her. This thing she’d started with Liam had the potential to hurt so many people…. She placed her fingertips briefly on her eyelids and felt the burn.

“Don’t say that, Liam.”

“Why? It’s the truth. He’s the one who did it. He’s the one who took away your childhood. My own father.” He gave her a wild glance. “It’s like…I knew that before, but I didn’t know it. That sounds stupid, but it’s true,” he mumbled under his breath.

“No. It doesn’t sound stupid. I understand,” she assured him. She looped her arms around his waist in a comforting gesture. “Derry made a mistake. It affected a lot of lives. If I could have explained to you why I’m a virgin in a way that didn’t involve the crash, I would have. But for me, that’s where it all started. Who knows? Maybe I would have been this socially backward if the accident never occurred. I was certainly shy enough—”

“You don’t believe that,” Liam said with quiet bitterness.

“No. I don’t,” she admitted. She inhaled slowly. What a mess this was. “I guess this is one of the primary reasons why it’s a bad idea for us to get involved.”

“Hmm?” he asked distractedly.

“There’s too much between us. The closer you get to me, the more you might come to resent your father’s memory. I don’t want that for you.”

“You don’t need to take on the worry of what I think of my father,” Liam said in a hard tone. “That’s not your responsibility. If I want to be with you, then I’ll be the one to deal with that.”

Natalie looked up at him. “If you want to? Does t

hat mean you haven’t decided?”

His fierce expression faded. His thumb brushed against her cheek softly. “It means I’m starting to realize it was a bigger decision than I’d been imagining.”

Her heart seemed to drop when she heard that. So…she hadn’t been too wrong when she’d thought that making love was much more of a simple, mundane occurrence to him than it would have been to her. Now that he fully understood all the baggage that might come along with their intimacy, he obviously was losing interest.

Surprise, surprise.

“Don’t, Natalie,” he warned softly.

“Don’t what?” she asked, wondering what he’d spied on her face.

“Don’t think that I’m not making love to you right this second because I find you lacking in any way. You think you’ve led a secluded life so far. If you had any idea how sexy I think you are, you’d probably run out of this house and begin a life of isolation in earnest,” he added under his breath wryly.

Laughter burst out of her throat. He smiled at the sound.

“I guess you probably think I’m a real idiot, for not really getting how complicated this situation was for you,” he said.

“I don’t think you’re an idiot. And it’s complicated for both of us,” she whispered.

“I just need to absorb it all, that’s all. I don’t want to screw this up.”

She nodded. “I understand.”

He grimaced and grabbed a handful of her loose hair, seeming distracted as he let the length run through his fingers. “I kind of doubt you do, actually, since I’m not so sure I understand myself.” His head came up. “Do you think it’s selfish of me to ask you to sleep here tonight? Just to sleep. I meant what I said before—maybe I mean it more now. I don’t want to take you back to your place, but I will, if you want me to.”

Tags: Beth Kery Home to Harbor Town Billionaire Romance
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