Page 31 of Flirtatious

I don’t know why, but suddenly, it feels foolish to ask him to tell me more about his family now that I’ve had all these impure thoughts about his body. My mind races to come up with another excuse to be there in his bedroom this late at night, and all I can come up with is asking about the men he’s hiring.

Not that I’m the least bit interested in them.

“Well, I was just wondering how it’s going with finding four men you want to work with. Did the company you work for have people ready to go?” I ask, barely able to conceal my utter lack of curiosity about this topic.

For his part, Liam seems completely excited about the men and when they’ll be arriving, and for the next five minutes, he talks about who they are, what their backgrounds are, why he chose them, and what seems like a million other details about these people I don’t give one damn about.

Finally, he stops, but I’m focused on trying to remember what the tattoo on his lower stomach meant with its design that reminded me of some Celtic thing I saw at a store in Clearwater one time. I don’t realize there are no words coming from him for a good half a minute, and when I do, I feel my face grow hot instantly.

“Oh, sorry. You were saying?”

Not my best attempt at covering up for not paying attention.

“It doesn’t seem like you really want to hear about this.”

I’m not sure, but I have a sense that I hear hurt somewhere beneath his words, so I quickly say, “No, no. I do. Why else would I have come here and bothered you?”

Liam smiles, and my stomach does a flippy thing at how sexy he looks right now. “I don’t know. Is there any other reason you would come here to see me?”

Embarrassed, I look away and mutter, “You’re very neat.”

“I guess. I’m not sure I’d say very neat. Just neat.”

Staring off at the curtains hiding the door out to the balcony, I ask, “Do you like your room?”

Suddenly, he doesn’t seem to have much to say. “Yes.”

Questions barely get answers and no detail at all, but he couldn’t stop talking about all of the guys he’s planning to bring onboard to work with him.

My gaze lands on the armoire that houses the TV, so I ask, “Is the TV okay?”

“Yeah.”

God, why has he suddenly clammed up like he’s being charged by the syllable? I’ve never felt this uncomfortable in my life! So much for being the owner of this house and his boss. You’d swear he’s the one in charge and I work for him.

We sit silently, each second that ticks by more awkward than the last, until I turn to look at him and blurt out a thought about something I watched a few nights ago on one of the nature channels. “You know what some of my favorite shows are? Animal shows.”

For a moment, he merely stares at me in what appears to be complete confusion before he finally says, “Really?”

That’s all he says. Really.

So I keep going, almost as if I can’t stop myself. “I saw one about a goose who had a dozen goslings. Do you know they look like geese after only a couple months? I thought they’d look like babies for longer.”

He doesn’t respond, so I bolt up from the bed to leave. Clearly, he doesn’t want to talk to me tonight. It’s okay. I shouldn’t have come here anyway.

“I’m going to go.”

Behind me as I take a step toward the door, he says, “I think I watched that the other night when I couldn’t get to sleep.”

Suddenly, a wave of relief washes over me. Spinning around, I see him smiling. “You did? I couldn’t believe how quickly those baby geese grew up to look like full grown geese. I never knew that about them.”

“I didn’t peg you for an animal lover,” he says, still smiling at me. “Why don’t you have any here?”

With a nod, I sadly admit the reality I wish wasn’t true. “I’m allergic. I would love to have a dog, but I can’t.”

“We had a cat when I was little. A Siamese my father got for my mother before I was born,” Liam says, finally giving me more than one-word answers.

Thrilled he’s brought the conversation around to his family, I take a step back toward the bed and sit down. “That’s so sweet. You have the greatest family, or at least it sounds like it.”

---