“Listen to me,” he said, his deep voice rumbling directly into the ear pressed to his chest. “I can handle my mother, just like you can handle your brother. You weren’t wrong to ask me to look into the crash. It’s like you told me in the beginning—the truth is what’s important.”
“Family is important, too.”
For a few seconds, she’d wondered if he’d heard her, because he didn’t move or respond. She couldn’t see him in their present position, but she imagined his expression at that moment—the careworn, sober one he rarely showed the world, the face of a much older man.
Natalie suspected he’d acquired that expression when he was a fifteen-year-old boy.
“You’re right. But if family ties are strong enough, they shouldn’t be damaged by the truth,” he said before he resumed stroking her hair.
She lifted her head slowly. An ache started up in her throat when she saw he wore the precise expression she’d imagined. A strange sense of foreboding came over her. She’d been the one to suggest this venture because her lack of understanding nettled her so greatly, made it difficult for her to heal.
But what if in finding the answers to the questions that burned inside her, she tore open old wounds for Liam?
What if her questions inflicted new, fresh wounds?
The possibility horrified her.
She opened her mouth to suggest they cease the investigation, but at the same moment he slid her body up farther against his. He lifted his head and took her mouth in a hot, possessive kiss. Her worries fizzled into mist.
He must have known it from years of experience, Natalie thought dazedly.
He must have known it was impossible for a woman to worry and kiss him at the same time.
By the time he sealed the kiss, her flesh had softened to the consistency of warm butter.
“Why don’t I take you out to dinner?” he asked gruffly.
“Oh,” she mumbled, surprised by his suggestion. “If that’s what you’d like to do.”
He cradled her jaw with one hand. “What I’d like to do is take you to bed. But I’m trying to restrain the caveman in me—for as long as possible, anyway.”
“Liam…I’m fine,” she whispered, both embarrassed and pleased by his words.
His hands found their way to her waist. Natalie moaned softly when he lowered to her hips and massaged the flesh there in a hungry gesture. His mouth slanted into a grim line.
“Come on, let’s go shower,” he said.
He swatted her bottom and she jumped. She glanced up at him and noticed the gleam in his narrowed eyes. She got off Liam’s warm, hard body as if it had just burned her. As she headed toward the back door, she glanced back over her shoulder cautiously. When she saw the devilish expression on Liam’s face, she gave a hoot of laughter and started running toward the screen door.
He caught her around the waist just as she reached it and lifted her off her feet. He flung open the door as he held her against him with one arm. His twiddling fingers on her waist and belly made her shriek in surprise. Liam burst into laughter at the comical sound. She couldn’t stop laughing as he carried her through the dim kitchen.
“You didn’t know cavemen knew so much about tickling, did you?” he teased as Natalie tried to catch her breath between eruptions of laughter.
“Oh…stop, stop it,” she pleaded breathlessly as he carried her through the living room.
“If you insist.”
She gave one last snort after he’d set her on her feet at the base of the stairs. Her cheeks were wet from laughing. Liam stood just inches away, grinning down at her. She tried to give him a repressive look for tickling her half to death, but he looked so appealing, her pretend irritation couldn’t survive.
She grinned back at him as if they were partners in a playful crime.
“I’ll get you back for that,” she murmured softly.
His eyebrows shot upward. “I can’t wait.”
“You’ll be very, very sorry. You’ll see,” Natalie told him before she started up the stairs. His deep laughter followed her.
“Natalie,” he called.