Playing It Close (29 page)

Tess let out a deep breath and led Liam toward the living room. Her father and two women still crowded the door. “Mum, Gwen, this is Liam.”

Normally he’d have made a lame comment about seeing where Tess got her beauty from, but his niggling suspicion held him back. He shook their hands, noting with chagrin that they were both at least his height, maybe even six foot. And they were wearing flat shoes. The older one would probably have a good chance of kicking his arse—and the look she gave him said she’d enjoy it. “Liam, it’s nice to meet you,” she said. “Our daughter’s told us nothing about you.”

“Mum...”

The woman smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “So you’re a very nice surprise. Come in. Can I get you anything to drink?”

For the first time in his life, he really felt he could use one. “Just some water would be great. Thank you.” He glanced down at Tess. “Where’s Charlie?”

“In Mauritius, checking out a couple of potential partners,” she answered before muttering, “fortunately.”

Tess’s hand was squeezing the life out of his, so he carefully extricated himself and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer as he shook her dad’s hand. “Happy birthday, sir. Sorry I didn’t bring a gift.”

“That’s all right. It’s...interesting to see you here.”

The hot blush stealing over Tess’s cheeks made it clear she really had been keeping their relationship secret, even from the people closest to her. Not only that, but they were clearly less than pleased with the surprise. He didn’t know why it bothered him. He hadn’t said anything to Spencer until it became clear his secret was out. But he knew Tess was close to her family, so the fact she hadn’t let anything slip just seemed wrong. Not nearly as wrong as the way she’d tried to pass him off as being here for her dad, though. Was she ashamed of him? Did her family think he wasn’t good enough?

The thought unsettled him, and he spent the rest of the evening watching Tess closely. She might’ve tried to hide their relationship, but she didn’t do a very good job of hiding her discomfort at his presence. She sat next to him on the couch and let him rest his hand on her leg, but she didn’t reciprocate. Her back stayed stiff as steel, even as she ensured he was included in the conversation and understood the private jokes her family made. But by the time they called cabs to take them home to various parts of London, Liam’s face ached from keeping a false smile on his face and his teeth gritted.

He forced himself to try on her proverbial shoes. If his mum had been around, would he have introduced her to Tess already? He’d never brought any of his previous girlfriends home. Once, a girlfriend and his mum had ended up sitting near each other at the same match and his mum had introduced herself. He’d worried she would get the wrong impression and told her not to start picking out her mother-of-the-groom dress yet. “Thank God,” she’d said. “That girl talked about nothing but herself for eighty minutes. I had to leave the stadium during the half to score some whiskey, otherwise I never would’ve made it to the end of the match without smacking her.”

Mum would like Tess, though. Tess was forthright and strong enough to put him in his place, but she didn’t put herself at the center of the universe. She listened to him and supported him, but she wasn’t a pushover. She had a strong sense of family, like he did.

After tonight, though, a yawning emptiness gaped inside him. He feared he craved being part of her family far more than she craved having him there.

* * *

Tess let out a ragged sigh as the last family member finally left. She closed the door and fought the urge to sag against it, knowing Liam stood just behind her. His stare bored into the back of her head, and she gathered all her courage to face him and the confused disappointment he’d projected all night.

“Liam, I—”

She interrupted herself, not sure what to say.

He clearly wouldn’t make it easy for her, either, raising a brow as if to say “Yes? I’m waiting.”

“We agreed to keep everything private. I didn’t know that you’d want me to say anything to my family.”

She thought it was a good enough excuse, but he crossed his arms over his broad chest. “And when I made it clear that I wanted to stay and meet them? That wasn’t a signal to you that I was okay with your family knowing about us?”

She hesitated. “It was.”

“The real problem is that
you
didn’t want your family to know about us, right?”

She winced. “I wasn’t ready for that, no. I wasn’t prepared.”

“Why not? Do you think they’ll betray our privacy?”

“No! No, never. They’re not like that.”

His jaw worked from side to side, as though he was chewing on the insides of his cheeks. “Tess...are you ashamed to be with me?”

She gasped, the notion so ludicrous it had never even crossed her mind. “Are you kidding? Why the hell would you think that?”

He shrugged one shoulder, but now his closed-off stance seemed to take on a different meaning. Not belligerent or holding himself back from lashing out, but protective, as if guarding himself from an expected blow.

“I
can’t
get involved with someone from work. It’s against my contract with Charlie, and I’ve had to ask my family not to say anything to him. Keeping secrets doesn’t come naturally to my family, Liam. I could lose my job over this.”

He didn’t seem to believe her. She closed the distance between them and stroked his arms. When they didn’t open, she tugged at his wrists until he let her move them. She leaned into him and gave him a hug. His arms looped around her loosely, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted her this close.

“Liam, I’m not ashamed of you. Not in the least. If anything, I’m ashamed of myself.”

His brows drew together, and for the first time since they started sleeping together she opened an emotional vein.

“I told you I was recalled to the stand at the inquiry, and that’s why I had to leave Venezuela. I didn’t tell you why I was recalled. I made a really stupid mistake at my last job. I...sort of slept with a colleague, and when I overheard him telling people about it, I got drunk and sent him an email that I’m really ashamed of. When everything kicked off, I had to testify about the nasty things my colleagues had said and done. The bank handed over my email to the legal team, and I had to go back to court to explain myself. To explain the nasty things
I
had said.”

Her face felt like it was on fire, and nausea seized her. Liam watched her patiently, giving her his silent encouragement to continue. “It was humiliating. I had to tell the world about how I’d had sex with this man. The first time around, the panel asked me questions—awful questions—and I had to go over every detail of the degrading things I’d heard him say about me afterward. After Venezuela, I had to go back explain why I’d said the stupid, juvenile things in the email I’d sent him. I’d been treated like scum and I acted like scum, and the worst part was knowing my family was sitting right behind me in the gallery while I went over every awful detail. I must’ve been such a disappointment to them, and I don’t want them to think I’m making the same mistake all over, getting involved with someone I work with.”

Tears stung her eyes at the memory and at the knowledge that she was doing it all over again, having to reveal her most private humiliations to someone whose opinion she cared so much about. Liam’s big hand swept under her hair to press the back of her head forward until she buried her face in the comfort of his chest, giving her the privacy she needed. She took a deep breath to steady her emotions as he stroked her back, kissed the top of her head and held her close.

“Tess,” he murmured, “what did the man say about you?”

She shook her head, refusing to share any more. “If you really have to know, you can search for it online. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I just want to move on. Please.”

He squeezed her. “I won’t search for it. If you ever want to tell me, you can. But that’s up to you. I don’t ever have to know.”

She melted, making a funny little sound of relief. Every iota of energy drained from her, and the way he held her suddenly seemed significant—as if he was holding her up instead of just holding her close. When he tipped her head back and gave her a sweet kiss, she was putty.

“It’s been a bitch of a long week,” he said. “Come to bed with me?”

She nodded, too drained to do anything but whisper, “Thank you.”

He kissed her again. “Anytime.”

It was something people seemed to say automatically, but she got the impression he really meant it.

Chapter Eighteen

Tess woke up snuggled in a cave. A man cave. Liam’s whole body surrounded her. For the first time since they’d started seeing each other, they’d slept together without having sex. Neither of them had had the energy. Figuring she might as well sleep comfortably, she’d worn an old Legends T-shirt to bed. Sometime in the night it had ridden up to her waist, and Liam’s hand now rested on her naked tummy. They lay on their sides with Liam curled behind her, one of his legs nudged between hers. His deep breaths blew over her ear.

She could stay this way forever. The thought terrified her. The Liam Callaghan whose career she’d followed was not a forever man. He was a man attracted to a glitzy, glamorous world that she couldn’t give him and didn’t want to be part of.

But the Liam Callaghan she’d met in Venezuela and whom she’d been sleeping with for several weeks now? Yes, she could see him being a forever man. But did he see himself that way? Or was she a short blip in his life? An experiment in something different?

She couldn’t lie around torturing herself with these questions all morning. Carefully pulling her body away from his warm embrace, she rolled to the edge of the bed, pausing at his sleepy grumble of dissatisfaction. She allowed herself a few moments to watch him sleep. Her fingers itched to tug his unruly blond hair. He looked adorable all disheveled, with a day’s growth of stubble that took on a reddish hue in the morning sunlight streaming through her shutters.

No matter what happened to them in the future, she would always have these moments when Liam Callaghan belonged only to her. Forget his legions of fans and scores of exotic exes. This morning he was hers.

She slipped quietly downstairs and rooted through the fridge while coffee percolated and she tried to figure out what to give him to eat when he woke up. She’d always left his place before breakfast, not trusting herself to guard her heart if they shared everyday intimacies. But sometime in the night, she’d realized that guarding her heart was pointless. The way he’d listened to her, held her and let her talk about the inquiry’s most humiliating moments had released something inside her. She’d always struggled to admit her own weaknesses, and asking for help was unthinkable. Yet Liam hadn’t judged her, even though she’d obviously hurt him by trying to cover up their relationship to her family.

And when he’d held her and let her talk, he’d cracked her heart wide open.

Her fridge contained nothing but last night’s Turkish takeaway leftovers and some eggs she’d bought for a cake she’d tried—and spectacularly failed—to bake for her dad’s party. Not wanting to serve Liam
taramasalata
and day-old Turkish
pide
for breakfast, she woke up her computer and searched for how to cook eggs. She settled on a scrambled egg recipe, figuring anything she attempted would end up scrambled anyway.

When her eggs were nearly finished, her email popped up with a new message. Andre, the calendar photographer, had sent something with an attachment to her personal email account. She held her breath. It could only be one thing. Glancing over her shoulder even though her elderly stairs would’ve squeaked under Liam’s weight, she took the eggs off the heat and bent over her computer on the counter, opening the email attachment.

Holy mother of hotness...

* * *

Liam’s hand slipped across the sheet and told him he was waking up alone. Again. Blinking himself awake, he glanced around the unfamiliar room, momentarily confused by the fact that it looked so feminine and inviting compared to the nondescript hotels he usually stayed in. Then he identified it. Tess’s room, but no Tess.

His gaze automatically wandered to the dresser and nightstands, checking for a note like the one she’d left him their first night together. When he found nothing but knickknacks, he heaved a sigh of relief and sank back into the pillows.

Huh. He’d grown used to her leaving early in the morning when she spent the night at his, but this was her bloody house. Where had she gone?

A creak provided his first clue. He glanced at the open bedroom door just in time to spot her coming up the stairs and rounding the corner, a tray in her hands.

He grinned. A tray with food.

“Morning,” she said. “You look happy.”

“Mmm...why wouldn’t I be?” When she reached the bed, he took the tray and set it carefully on the nightstand closest to him. Then he grabbed Tess and tugged her into bed, growling against her neck as she squeaked in mock protest.

He couldn’t get enough of her. He worked his hands up under the baggy old Legends shirt she’d worn to bed, and his pride spilled over. Seeing her in his colors, wearing his team’s logo, released something primal in him. Something that made him want to growl and pound his chest and declare to anyone who asked that she was with him
.
He swept the shirt over her trim, naked hips until her belly was bare. She was so athletic he could see the play of muscles as she twisted away, laughing.

“Breakfast is getting cold,” she protested.

“Don’t care. I’m getting hot.” He kissed her neck, rubbing his stubble against her soft skin while she went from laughing to moaning.

“Liam...”

“Mmm?” Mouth too busy tasting the skin of her shoulder to say anything else.

She didn’t respond in words, so he glanced up and caught the way her eyes fluttered closed and her arms stretched over her head. “Oh, God, that feels good.”

Yeah, it did. A lazy Saturday morning rolling around in bed with his nymph while their breakfast grew cold. He could make a habit of this.