Page 132 of Somebody's Watching Me
“Can you make it to your room?” Abe rolled up, startling her. “Or do I need to get my mom?”
“I’m fine.” She went to the stairs and worked her way onto the first step to prove it. “They locked you out?”
“Nah, I’m just supposed to keep an eye on you.”
“No need.” With the dress practically ruined anyway, she trudged up the stairs, not bothering to be careful. “I’m going to bed.”
It turned out that the dress wasn’t only ruined, but the zipper had become jammed, and once in her room, she thought about grabbing a pair of scissors to cut herself out.
Liam came in without knocking, watching her as she struggled. “Need help?”
The hint of amusement on his face was a good sign. He’d been so quiet since they left Firewater.
“A little.”
Coming up from behind, he swept her hair aside. “It’s a shame it’s ruined.” The zipper slid down at a snail’s pace. “You look beautiful in it.”
When he reached the bottom, he didn’t move, the warm brush of his knuckles stroking along her spine. She didn’t want him to stop and stood perfectly still. “You said you didn’t like it.”
“I don’t always tell the truth. I guess that’s just one more thing we have in common.” His hands slid inside the dress to hold her waist. “Your skin is like ice. Take a shower while I sweep the room for listening devices.”
Jamison stiffened. “I thought you already found them all.”
“That’s the funny thing. They keep reappearing. We take one out, and more pop up.” He leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “Hurry, so we can talk.”
Desperate for information, she took the fastest shower of her life and rushed back into the room wrapped only in a towel. Liam sat waiting on the corner chair, his stoic expression dousing her excitement. Closed off and dissociated, with his emotions on lockdown, he scanned her as if she were someone being brought in for an interrogation.
And that just wasn’t going to work for her.
The towel hit the floor.
Walking across the room naked, she went to the dresser and bent at the waist to reach a lower drawer. Always accurate in her aim, she left her ass hanging in the air until she found something to wear. A near transparent nightie. Yep, that should knock him out of his head.
Straightening, she pulled the sheer babydoll dress on while he watched. “Do you remember that time in New Orleans?” he asked.
She shrugged and sat on the bed. They had been to New Orleans at least a dozen or so times. “Which trip?”
“The first one.” He was smiling, her nightie working its magic. “When you were hungover, and I dropped the towel and showed my ass.”
“How could I forget?”
Not only had his ass been memorable, but so had the day. They left that hotel room and tumbled into a dizzying nightmare that had yet to end.
“Well, you just paid me back.”
“Long time coming, I guess.”
That was when she noticed her laptop was missing. A quick check around the room told her the phones were also gone. “Did you find anything?”
He stood from the chair and stretched. “Not in here, but I went ahead and put your electronics across the hall in Evie’s old room.”
Something else she noticed, his duffle bag was back in the corner again. “Are you staying in here?”
“I’m taking a shower.” In one fluid motion, he yanked his shirt over his head. The pants were next until he was left only in his boxers. “And I’m not talking to you while you’re practically naked. My brain can only handle so much. Change into something more comfortable, and we’ll get started once I’m done.”
She tried to speak, but the words got caught somewhere between his newly defined abs and the perfectly shaped V at his waist.
“My eyes are up here, Jamison.”
