Page 16 of New Girl in the City
“What is wrong with you?” I hissed, watching her yank on my arm.
“You two are like cats and dogs.”
“Well, yes.”
“But not in the just hate kind of way. In the hate fuck way.”
I gasped but my feet started moving again as I let her yank me along. “What are you—no we aren’t!” I sputtered out.
She gave a dry laugh and pulled me through the glass doors to Bab’s. “That’s hilarious. I know sexual tension when I see it, and I honestly I’m not sure why I put you on the dating app when you have that man,” she jerked her chin back towards the street, “waiting for you and watching you.”
“He does not watch me,” I lied.
“Sure, like he isn’t now?”
I whipped my head towards the door and blinked in surprise because Liam was there, just like she said.
“He’s just doing his job,” I said automatically. Liam was outside of the car, big body easily identifiable through the crowd, because even if he was wearing a dark suit that screamed restraint and refinement, he was anything but. There was something rough and wild to him, even if I knew he was meant to take me where I wanted when I wanted. That should soften him some to me, but it didn’t.
There was nothing biddable about Liam. Everyone around him could feel it. Even now they were giving him a wider berth than a few steps, which on a busy New York Street in lower Manhattan was saying something.
His head moved, just a slight tilt to it, but I knew he saw me looking back at him. His aquamarine eyes met mine in an unapologetic stare that had me going still as a statue. He saw me all right, and he wasn’t hiding it from me.
Princess.
I could hear it in the air, even with the door and all that sidewalk and afternoon crowd of people between us. It was there on the tip of his tongue. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore the building heat in my belly when his eyes started a track down from my head to my toes, but in between all that was my body. Liam’s eyes took their time in their journey from north to south. I could feel the heat and weight of his gaze on me, the cool handle of the door beneath my hand, hard and unyielding beneath my clenched fingers while I looked back at him. Liam moved then, and I swore my palm was bruised from the death grip I exercised on it at that movement. It was just a step towards me. I couldn’t help but let my eyes fall to his ink covered hands. Hands that were resting against his thighs.
Jesus Mary and Joseph.Those thighs could suffocate you and you would thank him--
“Stop eye fucking him and get over here,” Claudia snapped when I didn’t move from the door.
I dropped my hand from the handle and turned on my heel. “Keep it down over there,” I muttered to her, flashing a smile at the hostess who was now giving us a curious look.
“Oh, whatever, it’s not like he can hear us, even if the two of you are eye canoodling,” she said, wiggling her fingers at me while I sighed heavily and followed behind the hostess to our table.
“Not everyone needs to know what you think Liam and I are doing, you know.”
“Oh, where’s the fun in that?” She winked at me taking her seat. She had me there, so I laughed.
“Okay, you’re right...but that doesn't mean you have to say it like that,” I told her, accepting my menu from the hostess, who zipped off after she made sure our drink orders were in. A sparkling wine for the pair of us, because if we were going to be talking about this, then I needed a drink.
“Again, where is the fun in that,” she said grinning, but she held up a finger and leaned towards me over the table, “but that doesn't mean that I wasn’t really glad we got here when we did. I mean really, really glad.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
She pulled a face. “Princess,” she said, dropping her voice in a mimic of Liam’s and she scoffed. “Please, I thought he was going to drag you in the front seat and have his way with you.”
“It’s just an annoying as hell nickname.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s hot,” she said. “And when I say, ‘why are you on the dating app when you have that man driving you around’, I am serious.Why?”
“I cannot date my driver.”
“You were practically besties with your last one.”
I crossed my arms and leaned back in my chair because she was right. “You know what? I’m a little mad at him right now because he’s hardly texted since he made the move. I’m gonna give him a shout after this.”
“No, you are not. You are going to stay focused on this conversation with me about why you aren’t climbing your driver like a tree.”
