Page 7 of Trouble

“You in ITthen?”

“Nope. I think I’ll do the ribeye for mains. Have you got somethingselected?”

“The soup of theday.”

“Dessert?”

“Nothanks.”

He shot me a decidedly wicked smirk. “Guess we’ll just see what we’re in the mood for at the time. Stay put, I’llorder.”

I fought to control my blush as he sauntered up to the bar to put in our order. He was clearly a tease, judging by the prank he’d put me through when he called my officeearlier.

And what was about not telling me what he did for aliving?

Liam returned shortly after with a bottle of white wine and twoglasses.

“Oh, I wasn’t going to drink,” I said when he put them down on our table and slid back into hisseat.

“Oh come now, love. You weren’t going to let me drink that beer on my own, were you?” he said, easily pouring a healthy measure first in my glass and then hisown.

I paused, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Are you really peer pressuring me into drinking on a work night, Mr.Steel?”

He let out that rumbly laugh of his that seemed to warm my chest in the most pleasant way, as if his amusement was as infectious as his easy smile. “Ofcourse.”

I sighed and eyed the full wine glass in front of me. It looked more inviting than it had any right doing—I hadn’t really enjoyed a cold glass of wine in good company in way toolong.

For some reason, the bloody condoms in my purse flashed in front of my mind’s eye again, and I scrunched up my nose in annoyance. Damn Eileen for putting those sorts of thoughts in myhead!

I glanced from the glass to Liam, then reached out, quickly swapping our glasses before I raised his to my lips and took a sip. It tastedheavenly.

“Clever girl,” he said, raising my swapped glass to drink long and deep without breaking eye contact. Demonstrating that my safety measure wasn’tneeded.

“Sorry,I—”

He waved me off with a hand. “Don’t apologize for being smart, love. A single girl has to look out for herself, I get it. In fact…” Liam reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, sealed plastic bag. He put it on the table, shoving it over to me. “Use these, if you don’t have your own. I won’t beoffended.”

I stared down at the small, factory-sealed kit of CYD test-strips. Who the fuck carried a set of drinks-testers around to hand out to randomwomen?

“Wow, that’s… a bit intense,” I said, arching an eyebrow at theoffering.

He smiled that disarming smile, shrugging as if there wasn’t a date rape drug-kit on the table between us. “You seem the type who likes to know she’s in control. I own a couple of nightclubs—we hand them out to all our patrons. Don’t worry, they’re leftovers from last night. It’s not that I carry them around as a pullingtechnique.”

Right, then. At least that answered the“what do you do for a living”question.

“I don’t know,‘Hey honey, wanna see if I’ve slipped you a roofie’ might be a great ice breaker with the kids these days. Would go well with the zip-ties you have handy in your jogpants.”

Liam barked a loud laugh, his eyes twinkling as he looked at me over his wine glass. “That’s quite a bit of sass from a bird who’s still running around with said zip-tie holding her shoetogether.”

I glanced down at my shoe. The tie was thankfully discreet enough no one would notice unless they stared at my heel. “Hey, I’m not knocking it. I’m just saying it’s not every twenty-something who feels the need to stock his pockets with zip-ties and drug testkits.”

He shrugged with a nonchalant move that seemed to emphasize the width of his shoulders. “What can I say? In my business, it’s best to be prepared.” His tone was light, but the small twitch of his soft lips almost looked likeregret.

Then he smiled at me, and I was too busy ignoring the responding buzz low in my stomach to pay that flicker of emotion any furthermind.

Damn, but that man was bursting with an almost tangible energy. It seemed to radiate off him, nearly overwhelming me when he so much as quirked his lips. His smirk brought to the forefront of my mind the condoms in my purse, and I hid my hefty blush behind my glass of wine as I gulped down a couple of mouthfuls to settle myembarrassment.

Eileen may have had a point about it being too long since I was intimate with a man, if all it took to wind me up was a couple of smiles from a handsome guy. Especially one almost a decade myjunior.