Page 48 of The Reno
“Together like sat in this van?” he asked.
I made a frustrated noise. “No, like having S-E-X.”
“S-E—” His eyes widened, and he gasped. “Sex!”
The penny dropped. He was mocking me. I rolled my eyes as a wide grin took over his face.
“You’re taking the piss.”
Liam’s laugh filled the van. “You make it so easy.”
“I’m serious, Liam.” I couldn’t help the smile pulling at my lips. “You said people are nosy.”
“No one is going to care.” Liam paused and stared ahead, like he was imagining the conversations he would be having at the social club. “Some people might care. A beautiful woman moving into my house isn’t particularly normal—”
My eyes widened. Beautiful. He’d said beautiful. Liam turned to look at me.
“Did you just call me beautiful?” I laughed. “Does that line usually work?”
“It wasn’t a line, Red.”
I scoffed. “Okay.”
“I’m serious. I don’t make a habit of hitting on women I’m asking to move in with me.” Liam ran his hand through his hair. “Nothing like that is going to happen.”
I flinched at the serious tone that took over Liam’s voice.
Liam’s gaze bore into me. “I want you to know that you’ll be safe living in the annexe. I won’t try it on.”
“Oh.” I tried to pretend I wasn’t disappointed. I’d gone from being called beautiful to being completely off-limits. Great. He clearly didn’t fancy me, which was fine. It made things a lot simpler. There was no chance of anything happening.
“Are you sure? I’m not going to be in the way?”
“No more than usual,” he said with a smile, an attempt at lightening the mood, I was sure.
“If you are sure and only if you are sure. It would be really helpful, thank you. But I want to pay you something.” He protested, but I shut him down. “Please, just let me pay for utilities.”
“Lydia mentioned you’re a graphic designer. That’s why you were so offended by these.” Liam leaned forward, pulled a business card out of his back pocket and handed it to me. My nose wrinkled at the boring black card.
“So boring,” I muttered under my breath.
“You’re the expert. So you can pay me back by redesigning the logo and get me some new business cards.”
I waved it in front of his face. “You have to admit, they are boring.”
Liam levelled me a dry look, but his lips lifted slightly.
“We’re builders. All of our work is by word of mouth. Handing you that card was the first time I’ve ever used one of those cards. And that was only because I was worried if Ididn’t provide you with my ID, you’d throw another lamp at me.”
A burst of laughter came out of me at the memory.
“I didn’t have any more lamps to throw. I am lampless.”
“Just as well,” he muttered. “I think I’ve still got the bruise from the last one.”
“Baby,” I crooned, and surprise flooded Liam’s features at the word, his ears going pink. What… what was that about? It arrived as quickly as it was gone.
“Redesign the logo, and we’re even.”
