Atonement(28)
I laughed as I turned over to my side away from him. “Don’t worry about me, sweetie. I may look delicate but I can handle a horn dog like your brother.”
My mind danced along the edges of sleep again when I heard him murmur, “I wouldn’t be too sure of anything if I were you.”
ALTHOUGH OUR GET-TOGETHER was supposed to take place originally at the townhouse I shared with Drew, the location quickly changed to O’Shaughnessy’s. Liam couldn’t hold water and what was supposed to be a small intimate get together with friends wishing us well on our trip to Europe turned out to be a no-holds barred mega party with plenty of people I didn’t know.
Half the uConnect office turned up along with Liam, Drew, Colin, Caitlyn and Aubrey who had taken the night off from Bare to celebrate with us. Alcohol flowed as easily as water and unfortunately, my food intake didn’t keep up with the endless mojitos I found myself enjoying.
The celebration was in full swing but two hours into it, my head began to spin and I quietly wandered outside to get some air. I took deep breaths and knew if I stopped drinking, I would be all right for the time being and probably wouldn’t end up puking either.
I pulled out my Android to call a taxi as Liam walked out with a friend. He kissed her cheek and bid her farewell as she climbed into her car and drove off shortly. I prayed he wouldn’t see me but unfortunately, he turned my way and smiled.
“What are you doing out here? Shouldn’t you be enjoying your last couple of days here in the States before you take off for Europe?” he greeted as he walked over to me.
“I don’t feel all that great. I drank too much and seriously, all I can think about is going back to Colin’s. I was going to call a cab. Can you tell him I left?”
“Nonsense! I barely drank much, I can take you back to his condo. Come on.”
My mind kept repeating this was not a good idea. In fact in the shitty world of bad ideas, this was right up there with the experimentation of acid and bungee jumping as far as I was concerned. I should have stuck to my original idea of a cab.
I followed Liam, albeit reluctantly, to his late-model black BMW X6, and I seriously questioned my sanity. I could have asked any number of people to take me home, including Caitlyn, Drew or even Colin who hadn’t seemed too drunk.
Liam was dangerous. Walking sex on a stick dangerous because he was not only my new boss but he was Colin’s brother and I had to admit I did find Colin attractive and I liked him a lot. Too much to sully what we had with easy sex and something that would eventually end up a “friends with benefits” type of arrangement because he wouldn’t be able to take me seriously.
At the same time, I was also a woman. A woman with sexual needs who hadn’t gotten laid in a while and I wanted to desperately. I wanted to be sated so I wouldn’t go on this trip to Europe a total over-hormonal bitch who would act like a complete and utter basket case because I hadn’t bothered to get laid before boarding a flight to another continent.
And there was that dangerous part of me who, like Aubrey, liked to live life on the wild side. Most of the time, she was hidden from the world but she questioned me that night. There was no guarantee Colin and I would end up in a relationship and no matter what happened between Liam and I, it would just be a one night stand and that would be it. No strings, no love, no feelings—just pure sex because that is what people our age did to blow off steam and show we were attracted to someone without them necessarily becoming a spouse, life partner or the parent of our potential children.
All this raced through my mind and by the time Liam pulled up to the building and he parked in his designated spot, he looked over at me. “Hey. You wanna come up to my place? I don’t think you have ever seen it and it has a great view. I could make you a cup of coffee before you go back to Colin’s all on your own.”
Oh the man was smooth but he also seemed sincere and I had no real reason to doubt he didn’t care about my well being.
“Sure, that would be great,” I replied before I smiled shyly.
We stepped out and walked into the large condominium complex before we boarded the elevators up to his floor. His was located several floors higher than Colin’s but that wasn’t the only difference between his place and where I was staying with his brother.
Liam’s home looked like it had been designed for an episode of MTV’s defunct show, Cribs. The place was amazing. Everything was high tech and instead of a proper second bedroom, it was a playroom with a pool table, a dope computer system and a mini-bar. He gave me the complete tour and afterwards, I felt dizzy from everything he’d showed me in such a blasé fashion as opposed to from one too many mojitos.