Page 51 of Power Play

“Come on, kid,” Liam said, opening the back door so Tess could climb in. He buckled her in her booster seat. He grinned at her, and to my shock, she reached up and patted his shoulder.

“That was fun,” she said. “You did good.”

“More fun than the aquarium?” he asked her and she nodded. “What about the circus?”

“That was a weird circus,” she said.

He nodded vigorously. “You’re right, thatwasa weird circus.”

“This was the best of all,” she whispered.

Liam Locke nearly started to cry. His neck got all blotchy and he blinked a bunch of times.

I had to look away or I’d start crying.

“I’m glad you had fun,” he said to her. “Harrison said we could go back anytime.”

She yawned right in his face and he shut the door, smiling.

I climbed into the passenger seat while he walked around the front of the truck to the driver’s side. The moonlight turned his blonde hair silvery and edged his white shirt with a glow that he didn’t need.

He was pretty enough.

I glanced behind my seat at Tess who was already asleep, head back, mouth open.

Liam got into the truck like a lumbering bear, singing under his breath and jangling his keys.

“Shhh,” I whispered and nodded my head to the seat behind me.

“Holy shit,” he whispered. “That was fast.”

“Kids,” I said and he laughed like he understood. He put the keys in the ignition and glanced over at me. “Where am I taking you?”

I gave him the address, which he clearly didn’t know. I guess he’d never been in my neighborhood. “I’ll tell you as we go,” I said and he nodded.

He started the truck, and despite the rear camera, he put his hand on the back of my seat, filling my space with the scent of him. Sunscreen and chlorine and sunshine. A normal summer smell that on him was somehow extraordinary.

This guy move - the hand on the seat, looking over his shoulder to back up- there was something sexy about it. A hot thing guys did that they probably didn’t even realize was hot. Was it the competence, I wondered? The sharp turn of the neck, the tension in the forearm making all those veins pop.

It was attractive when middle-aged accountants did it. When Liam Locke did it, it was deadly.

“What?” he said, smiling at me as his eyes cut to me and then back to the driveway.

“Nothing.” I said as he backed up the whole way.

Show off.

He put the car in drive and headed down the ridge.

“So,” he said. “I have a proposition…”

“Nope,” I said.

“You don’t want to hear it?”

“I think I know where you’re going.”

“I need a nanny.”

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