“I don’t want easy. I don’t want careful. Please don’t hold back. I need the opposite from you. I need it so much.”
It wasn’t until that moment she realized it was true. Liam’s attraction toward her, his need, had brought her to life somehow…sanctified her.
She seized his mouth with her own. The increasingly familiar fog of sensuality encapsulated her, and she forgot everything but Liam…
Everything but this.
Liam threatened to keep her hostage in bed instead of attending the Family Center fundraiser the following afternoon.
“Don’t be selfish,” she remonstrated as she’d pulled free of his arms, reluctant as she was to do so. “Mari would be disappointed if you didn’t go.”
“She’d be disappointed if you didn’t, as well.”
She glanced back at the sound of his low rumble. It’d been nothing less than an amazing experience being intimate with Liam during this sensual feast of a weekend. He was at times a gentle lover, at times demanding…always masterful. Her wholehearted responsiveness amazed her just as much. It was difficult to say who was more pleased by her tendency to lose all self-consciousness when making love: Liam or herself.
He lay there in bed, one arm resting on the pillow behind him. He wore nothing but the leather woven bracelet around his wrist, the heavy-lidded look of a well-satisfied man, and a sheet, which succeeded in covering pretty much nothing. Her gaze lingered longingly on the expanse of his ridged, sleek torso.
She turned away with difficulty.
“I don’t attend these functions, usually. Mari wouldn’t miss me, but she’d miss you. So come on, slacker,” she teased, pulling on the sheet that barely draped Liam. He leaped out of bed like a lion, nabbed her, and sent her into a fit of laughter.
What’d followed had delayed them getting ready for the fundraiser by a half hour, but Natalie wasn’t complaining.
“Liam?” she called as she walked down the stairs after her shower, running a brush through her hair.
She heard him talking in the distance, but it wasn’t to her. As she neared the kitchen, she realized he was on the phone. A notebook and his laptop sat before him on the kitchen table. She hesitated in the entryway between the dining room and kitchen, unsure if she should disturb him. He looked up and saw her standing there. He beckoned to her with his hand as he continued to talk.
“You don’t need to apologize, Ellen. I just appreciate you calling back. I hope you had a good trip.” He gestured to his iced tea with upraised eyebrows while Ellen spoke, but Natalie shook her head and sat at the table across from him. “I figured that as his administrative assistant, you were the best person to ask about anything that stood out as unusual about my dad during those last days.”
A few seconds later, Liam ended the conversation and hung up the phone.
“Your father’s assistant at Langford?” Natalie asked.
“Yes. I would have talked to her sooner, but she’s been on vacation in Italy. She told me that Dad was definitely preoccupied and withdrawn at work the week of the crash. First thing on Tuesday morning, he’d insisted she try to locate an old friend of his—Evan Mulonovic. I kind of remember Mulonovic. He was one of those old friends of my father’s whose name popped up once in a while,” Liam explained in a distracted manner as he tapped his fingers rapidly on the keyboard of the computer. He paused for a second, his face sober and his blue eyes intent on the screen, before he resumed. “Ellen said she was able to locate Mulonovic and book a lunch meeting for them on that Tuesday.”
“That was the day of the crash,” Natalie said in a hushed tone.
“Yeah. According to Ellen, my dad went straight to Harbor Town after that lunch. It says here that Dr. Mulonovic was a pediatrician—a pediatric geneticist, to be exact. He worked at Children’s Memorial Hospital.”
“What, Liam?” Natalie asked when he suddenly cursed under his breath.
“So much for questioning Mulonovic about anything significant during that lunch meeting. It says here he died of a heart attack a year ago.”
Chapter Twelve
They discussed the phone call with Ellen on the way to the fundraiser. By the time he pulled into the field designated for parking next to the Family Center, neither of them had made any sense of the puzzling information.
Most of the regular parking lot was being used for other activities for the fundraiser. The sounds of a party reached his ears: music from a small band, children’s hoots of laughter, the buzz of conversation. As they got out of the car, Liam saw information booths, an inflatable bounce house, and ring toss and bottle throw for prizes. Colleen had bribed Tony Tejada, Harbor Town’s mayor, with the use of her boat for a week in order to get him into the dunking machine. He noticed his nephew, Brendan, wearing swim trunks running fleetly through the grass, only to go down on one hip. Natalie gasped in alarm, but then Brendan glided like a hockey puck on ice for twenty-five feet.
Liam laughed and took her hand. “That was Marc’s idea. You can’t lose with the kids when you’ve got a Slip ’N Slide.”
Natalie’s smile looked a little shaky as she surveyed the crowd. He paused in the parking area and squeezed her hand.
“Do you really want to do this?” he asked her quietly while he examined her reaction.
She looked amazing in a pair of form-fitting jeans and a turquoise tunic that highlighted both her dancer’s lithe figure and healthy tan. The breeze blew a tendril of hair on to her cheek. He hooked it with his finger and drew it back. He’d asked her to wear it down earlier when he’d seen her start to twist it into a bun. She’d complied readily enough, but now he was feeling a little guilty for asking. She should have the right to go out into public any way she damn well felt comfortable.
“I’m fine,” Natalie replied, sounding a little breathless.