Page 68 of The Love Chase

You liar, Emma.

Why couldn’t I just be honest? Why was I so afraid of his reaction to my feelings? He’d sort of admitted he had feelings last night too. And he had just kissed the crap out of me. That said something didn’t it? But it didn’t stop my brain from ruminating on worst-case scenarios. I didn’t want to lose Liam as my best friend. I couldn’t. I had spent the last two years without him, and now with him back in my life, I never wanted to lose him again.

“I’m sure it wasn’t anything important,” I said through a breathy laugh, hoping he didn’t hear the trembling fear in my voice.

Liam was quiet for a moment, as if he was debating bringing it up. But in the end, he just smirked and said, “No more fish tacos for you.”

Then, like old times, he booped me on the nose.

The familiar gesture felt a little too friend-like and it made my heart squeeze in my chest. Why couldn’t I just be honest and tell him how I felt?

He cleared his throat. “Do you remember anything last night?” Though the room was still pretty dark, I swore I saw his cheeks blush.

Was he trying to see if I had been paying attention to his confession? How would he react if I said I’d heard everything?

In the end, my fear was too much, and I said, “I remember you carrying me to bed and that’s about it.”

I couldn’t tell if it was relief or pain or some combination of the two that crossed his face so quickly that I might have missed it if I wasn’t watching.

After another moment, he nodded.

Even after last night, and our make-out session just minutes ago, neither of us was willing to broach the subject of our feelings.

I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was good in a way because it kept our friendship intact—safe. But were we missing out on so much more by avoiding it?

My heart fell through the bed when Liam spoke again.

“Emma, I have a confession.”

What?!

Before I could even fantasize about all the things he might say, he admitted, “I really like kissing you.”

My heart stopped this time before sputtering back to a normal tempo. It wasn’t what I had hoped for, but…this was something I’d also never expected from Liam.

“You do?”

He nodded, but his brows furrowed. “I do. But…I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of you.”

I wanted to ask him why he liked kissing me, and why he had that worry, but that would likely lead to a feelings talk that clearly neither of us was ready to have.

“I’m your wife,” I replied with a shrug. “I’m yours to kiss.”

I hoped he heard the emphasis I put on I’m yours.

His smile was shy—the first time I’d ever seen such a look on his face.

“That goes both ways, you know.”

Did he mean…

“You want me to kiss you?” I asked, my eyes widening.

“If you want to,” he said, his gaze lowering to my lips again. “Whenever you want.”

Those words lit my insides on fire, and I couldn’t help it—I kissed him again.

And it was in that moment, when he pulled me back into his arms, that I realized I would rather have this moment—and all the moments that we were legally man and wife—than to never have had Liam at all. Yes, I would be broken when this all ended—but maybe it wouldn’t. Maybe we would finally fall in love and our fake marriage would turn into a real one.

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