She stared blindly at a spot just below Liam’s shoulder while the band played. Her heart began to beat erratically when she felt him lower his head. His chin turned, nuzzling her, his short goatee whisking across her temple.
“It’s like holding on to a dream, feeling the way you move.”
She glanced up—couldn’t have stopped herself if she’d tried. What he’d said didn’t seem to match up to his expr
ession. He looked strange…like he was irritated…or torn?
“Don’t think I go around saying crap like that,” he added stiffly. “I mean…it…it wasn’t crap. It was the truth. Honestly.” She saw his strong throat ripple as he swallowed.
An uncontrollable wave of sensation went through her at the sight of Liam Kavanaugh looking uncomfortable.
Liam Kavanaugh.
She ducked her head. Natalie couldn’t decide what had stunned her more, the excitement caused by his warm breath and hoarse whisper in her ear or his unexpected revelation. His compliment had been undeniably sweet, but also electric somehow…erotically charged.
Why had that been?
Her heart fell to the vicinity of her belly when she realized why.
Because despite Liam’s reputation as a charming playboy, she’d believed every word he’d said.
Her body buzzed with sensual awareness. As if Liam knew this perfectly, he pulled her closer. Her breasts pressed tight against his ribs. Their hips moved together. The music flowed not just through her, but Liam as well, joining them…entwining them. She couldn’t decide where his heat began and hers ended.
She couldn’t help but consider in wonder what it would be like to move even more intimately with Liam, to be joined with him so deeply that she felt his heartbeat at her very core.
The shivery sound of the drummer’s brush lightly caressing the cymbals caused a tingling sensation to mount beneath her skin. The music ceased. She leaned her head back and peered up at Liam dazedly. His hand shifted as he drew off her glasses.
She peered up at him through eyelids that had gone heavy. His expression went hard. His nostrils flared. For some reason, his fearsome expression made her lips part in anticipation.
The saxophone wailed the opening notes to a new song. Natalie blinked. The two other couples were leaving the dance floor. Their faces were so bland, as if they hadn’t noticed the magic of the moment at all.
The thought penetrated her sensual lassitude. She started out of Liam’s arms. He didn’t say anything when she took her glasses from him, donned them and walked toward the dining room.
They hardly spoke for the next several minutes, the one exception being when Liam grabbed the bill from her when they returned to the table.
“You shouldn’t have to pay, it’s a business exp—”
She pulled up short when she saw the expression on Liam’s face. She’d been about to say the dinner was a business expense, but he’d halted her with a glance. He flipped a credit card into the leather folder. They waited in silence while the waiter returned, and the silence still hadn’t broken once they got in the car and reached the outskirts of Harbor Town.
Natalie wasn’t being silent to be obstinate. She was being quiet because her thoughts were coming too fast and chaotic to form a coherent sentence. Had she really been so keyed into him out there on the dance floor that she’d lost all sense of time, or purpose…or self? She’d known she was uncommonly attracted to Liam, but this was…unprecedented, in her experience.
And why was he so silent and somber? She wondered nervously as she gave him a sideways glance as he drove. His shirt showed up starkly white in the darkness, lit up as it was with moonglow. Despite all her uncertainty about the wisdom of her desire, she longed to ask him into her town house. But maybe—given his withdrawal—he wouldn’t be interested? Surely he was second-guessing his occasional moments of attraction toward her, as well.
Second-guessing it…regretting it?
Liam had turned on the air-conditioning, but the atmosphere seemed to froth and boil in the small confines of the car. At last, he pulled into her driveway and the car came to a halt. He remained turned in profile, confusing her even more.
“Thank you for dinner,” she tried to say, but her nervousness made her voice come out as a whisper. “Liam?” she asked when he didn’t respond, just repositioned his hands on the top of the steering wheel.
“Yeah?”
“Are you…are you going to tell me about the meeting with your mother?” Natalie asked, suspecting the topic was partially responsible for his strange mood.
His face was cast with shadows, but she could feel his stare when he turned his head. “There isn’t much to tell. I told her I was trying to gather information to better understand what Dad was going through when he caused the accident. I asked her about him coming home from the city on the night of the crash. She essentially told me I was being disrespectful to my father’s memory and that I was a huge disappointment to her for agreeing to investigate the matter.”
“Oh, no,” Natalie whispered.
He laughed mirthlessly and reached for her hand. He pulled it into his lap.