“I don’t think you do at all,” Liam said slowly.
Brigit’s sharp blue eyes flashed to meet his. “Don’t I? She’s a very pretty girl.”
Liam attempted to bury his anger at the insult, knowing his mother had cause to be upset. “I didn’t accept the assignment because she’s pretty.”
“She’s paying you a good sum, then?”
“I didn’t accept it for the money, either,” he shot back. “As a matter of fact, I’m going to return the money this evening. I want to do this for me, Mom. For us. For Marc and Deidre and Colleen…for Dad. Doesn’t he deserve to have someone try to understand him? Everyone has painted him as such a selfish bastard over the years. Is it really so strange I would want to get a more realistic picture of the man who caused that crash…a more human picture?”
“Selfish bastard?” Brigit repeated. Liam noticed her lips had gone white at the corners and she moved them as though they were numb. “That’s how you’ve been seeing your father?”
“No! Of course not. I’m just saying, most people would look at the situation from the outside and—”
Brigit stood up abruptly, halting him. “I’m not going to say anything more about this, Liam,” she told him in a low, shaking voice that set off alarms in his head. “I can’t tell you how disappointed I am in you at this moment, that you would consider doing something so disrespectful of your father’s memory. All for a girl.”
Liam sprung up from the couch, his worries about his mother’s well-being evaporating beneath the cold sarcasm of her tone.
“I’m not doing it for a girl. I’m doing it for the truth. I’d think you’d want that as well, Mom, but maybe I’m seeing things a little clearer now. You’re pretty damn happy leaving everything locked up tight, aren’t you? That suits you just fine.”
She walked out of the room. A few seconds later, he heard her rapid footsteps on the stairs.
Guilt ripped through him when he recalled her incredulous, hurt expression.
Natalie had a sneaking suspicion who was visiting when she heard the brisk, authoritative knock the following evening, just before the door opened.
“Let’s get one thing straight. I kissed you first the other day, but you sure as hell kissed me back.”
Natalie sat at her desk, stunned into complete silence not only by the first words that flew out of Liam’s mouth, but the unexpected sight of him standing in her office. He wore a white long-sleeved cotton shirt with the unbuttoned cuffs rolled back once and a scowl on his face. His short, golden-brown hair was mussed, as if he’d been raking his fingers through it in frustration.
What in the world was he talking about? Natalie loosened fingers that had gone stiff in the last few seconds and set her pen on the blotter.
“Well good evening to you, too,” she murmured calmly.
He gave her an irritated glance and fell into the leather chair in front of her desk like a dead weight.
“That’s just great, that’s priceless,” he muttered. “It’s so…you, to say something like that. That response proves my point completely.”
“And what point would that be?” she asked, strangely not at all offended by his behavior. If anything, she was a little concerned by his distracted, agitated manner.
“It means just what I said. That’s just the kind of thing you’d say to something inflammatory. Well good evening to you, too. Or what about, no, nothing personal, it was just a business meeting.” He shook his head as though he was exhausted by her antics, but his eyes studied her with a sharp gleam. “If that’s the way you kiss all your business associates it’s a wonder you aren’t the most popular accountant on the planet.”
The mention of that kiss finally pricked her anger, which is what he’d intended all along.
“How dare you barge in here and say something like that to me,” she said as she began to straighten the papers on her desk.
“I’d dare a hell of a lot more.”
She paused in her paper shuffling and glanced at him. He looked as lazy and uncaring as a big cat stretching in the hot summer sun. The analogy was completely apt. A big cat could turn dangerous in a heartbeat.
It took her a second to realize she’d stood up in her mounting fury and confusion.
“We do have a business arrangement. I was just stating the truth last night,” she said, her voice quavering.
“We kissed, and it was good. Really good. Now I’m just stating the truth, Natalie.”
She halted the retort on her tongue at the last second. She studied him more closely, noticing the tension in his muscles that belied his lazy pose. “What’s happened? What’s gotten into you? You didn’t come here to talk to me about…that,” she said, not wanting to utter the word kiss.
At first, he didn’t reply or move, but then his lean body uncoiled from his sitting position. He stuck one hand into a back pocket of his jeans.