Page 59 of False Confidence

“Hey. This is a nice surprise. Are you here to see your dad?” she asked, looking up at him. Liam stepped closer, leaning down to plant a quick kiss on her lips.

“I’m here to see you. Want to grab lunch?”

Her brows knit together, and she frowned at him. Suspicious. “What’s the occasion? Is something wrong?”

“The occasion is that I want to spend time with you.”

“Ah, of course. Because you never see me outside of working hours. You’re so deprived of my company, I honestly don’t know how you’re still functioning. I would be curled up in a ball, crying in the corner, if I were you.”

“Jasmine.” His mustache twitched.

“Hmm?”

“Get your ass off that chair so I can kiss you properly.”

She took her sweet time standing up, but as soon as she was out of the chair, Liam pulled her into his body, catching her lips with his and giving her a little bite for talking shit. Her toes curled in her shoes, her hands immediately finding purchase on his ass as his tongue danced along hers.

His hand crept up the back of her shirt, and, though his fingers were warm, the movement doused her in cold water.

She placed her hand on his chest, breaking their kiss and gently pushing Liam back a couple of steps. “We can’t do this here. Your dad could walk in at any second.”

“You know I’m thirty-seven, right? My dad knows I kiss people. I’m not going to get grounded or anything.”

“But your dad doesn’t know you kiss me,” she reasoned, and Liam’s lips turned down at the corners. “What?”

“Do we need to be so secretive about this? I know we hit our goal of making you come, but I don’t want to stop doing this, and you don’t seem to either.”

“I don’t. But do you really want your parents to know that we’re sleeping together?”

Liam frowned. “This isn’t just sex. I think we both know that.”

Maybe, but it was the first time either of them had said it out loud. And it wasn’t exactly a conversation she wanted to have in his dad’s office—or ever, if she could help it. Not talking about it was easier. Not talking about it was safer.

“Okay, fine. Do you really want your parents to know we’re casually seeing each other?”

“Uh, yeah. I do. Why are we keeping it so under wraps? Do you not want people to know you’re with me?” His voice was small, insecurity creeping into his emerald eyes. Shit.

She crossed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his middle. “Whoa, baby, it’s nothing like that. You’re perfect. But your parents… You’re their pride and joy. Their only kid. And I love them so much. I love how they’ve accepted me into their family, but there’s a big difference between me being in the family as Maggie’s best friend, and me sleeping with their son.”

The worry in Liam’s eyes morphed into confusion. “Why would they have an issue with that?”

“I’m not exactly the kind of person parents dream about their kid being with.”

“What the fuck? Jasmine, you’re incredible. My parents love you.”

“I know! And I don’t want that to change.”

Liam crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “You’re not very nice to yourself. I don’t like it.”

Jazz opened her mouth and closed it. She loved herself. It wasn’t her own perception of herself that was the problem; it was how everyone else perceived her. She thought she was great. And she didn’t care what anyone else thought.

Except Liam’s parents. And, she supposed, her own parents, deep down, but that was purely a biological urge and it wasn’t her fault. There was also her newfound worry about Maggie outgrowing her, but everyone worried about that kind of shit when they turned thirty, right?

Sometimes she worried that the people she worked with didn’t respect her as much as they had Maggie. She knew she was good at her job, but she wasn’t Maggie. And she’d drifted away from all her old college friends when they went on to do amazing things with their degrees and she hadn’t, but Maggie drifted with her, and Maggie… Well, Maggie had needed therapy to learn to love and value herself. Shit.

Panic was rising through her, her blood rushing faster through her veins, her lungs searching for air that just wasn’t there.

“You still with me?” Liam asked, watching her with concern. She must have looked as panicked as she felt, because he swiped a gentle hand over her back and pressed his forehead to hers. “Hey, I’ve got you. Breathe, darling.” His breath was warm against her face, and she copied him: in and out and in and out.

---