It was hard to blame someone for not having faith inuswhen it sounded like he didn’t have much faith inhimselfanymore.
“Hey, since when do you get down on yourself?” I asked gently. “I told you back at the Crabapple. You’retalented, Liam.”
“Yeah. Well. Someone described one of my recent shoots as ‘the photographic equivalent of stick figures’ and told me I shouldn’t risk my current job to work on the book.”
“Jealous asshat.”
“Nah. This was a friend.” He shook his head. “Someone who’s generally pretty supportive.”
“Yourfriendsaid your work was like stick figures? What do your enemies say?”
He snorted.
“Anyway, just ’cause they have an opinion doesn’t mean they’re right. Opinions are like assholes, right? Didn’t your personal motto used to be ‘The greater the risk, the greater the reward’?”
He laughed. “Yeah. Sounds like some bullshit I’d’ve said. Hey, do you have a bowl for these veggies? I’ve basically pureed the peppers.”
I got him a bowl and tried to hide my frown. Two minutes ago, I’d told him I wanted to keep things light because I couldn’t handle hearing his reasons for leaving me. Now, the second the guy looked sad and mopey, I wanted to know every fucking detail of his life and demand the name and address of this shit-talking friend of his so I could kick their ass.
That was the moment when I began to think I was screwed where Liam McKnight was concerned. And not in thefa la la-ingfun way.
“You know, you could always—” I began.
“Actually.” Liam held up a hand. “I think maybe you had a point about sticking to pie flavors tonight. Mine’s chocolate, FYI. Chocolate brownie pie with thick, fresh cream.”
I went along with the subject change.
“Is that a realthing?” I demanded.
He nodded, smacking his lips. “It’ssoa thing. Best thing you’ve ever put in your mouth, guaranteed.”
“Hmmm. Bold statement. You have no idea what’s been in my mouth.”
“God!”Liam threw a tiny piece of pepper at me, and his eyes danced. “I’m having a perfectly innocent conversation aboutpie, and you had to take it there?”
“Me?Itook it there? You’re the one making an orgasm-face while talking about thick fresh cream. Youalreadytook us there.”
I picked another pepper out of the bowl and tossed it at him. It landed on his cheek, but Liam was laughing too hard to notice.
“Hey.” I reached out a hand slowly, like he was Fia and I was a stranger, and Liam froze, his eyes pinging from my face to my hand. I brushed my thumb over his cheekbone, wiping it clean…
And that’s when I should have moved my hand away, right? Gone back to my side of the island? So I wasn’t sure how to explain the way my palm cupped his face and my fingertips trailed back and forth across the light stubble at the hinge of his jaw, except to say that flames weren’tjustdangerous. They were beautiful and mysterious and warm and alluring too.
And I couldn’t explain why Liam’s cheek flushed hot beneath my hand, or why his gorgeous,gorgeouseyes went wide and glassy, or why his breathing hitched, except that maybe I was a fire in the night for him also, and he couldn’t turn away any better than I could.
Hazel came skipping into the kitchen and then stopped short. “Daddy?”
Liam cleared his throat and took a step back. My hand dropped back to my side.
“Yeah, Bug! I, um, got some pepper on my face, and Gideon was helping me… clean it.”
“Oh. Cool. Hey, Gideon?” She handed me a picture. “I noticed you don't have a lot of artwork around, so I made you some. It’s Santa,” she explained, like I might not have understood what the large red blob was.
But I understood only too well.
Santa Claus was fucking stalking me.
“It’s… great. Very lifelike.”
