Chasing Shadows (First Wives #3)(39)

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Avery said once they stopped walking.

“Peaceful. I managed to take a walk before everything started today. Wade has quite the spread.”

“Texas has grown on me a little,” Avery admitted. “But I wouldn’t want to live here.”

“City girl?”

“I like where I live. But I don’t think I’ll be there forever.”

She felt Liam’s breath against her ear.

“Where else would you go?”

“Somewhere, anywhere. What about you? Ever wanted to live somewhere different?”

“I haven’t really thought about it. My family is close by, my business is in LA.”

She held his arms, which wrapped around her shoulders, keeping the cool evening air away from her bare skin. “I guess that’s the difference between a close family and what I have.”

“Is it really that bad?”

Avery thought about the measures she’d gone through, marrying Bernie for a short, contracted time for a massive payoff to get out from under her parents’ financial thumbs. “It’s not good.”

“My sister and I are eleven months apart. For a long time people thought we were twins. You’ll love her, and Cassandra . . . that kid has my number.”

“How often do you see them?”

Liam laughed. “They live with me.”

Avery leaned back to look at him. “Really?”

“Michelle’s ex left without financial support. She was out of choices. Not that she needed to ask. I offered.”

“What about your parents? Couldn’t she move in with them?”

Liam’s smile faded. “My mother has Alzheimer’s.”

“I’m so sorry.”

He kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay. Right after Cassandra was born, she was diagnosed. It’s been a slow, steady decline. My dad kept up with her care for a while, but last year we had to hire help during the day so he could work. He encouraged my sister to move in with him, but the stress of a five-year-old is too much day in and day out.”

“I can’t imagine.”

He tilted his head. “My parents love us unconditionally and with every ounce of their being. I can’t imagine that you’ve lived a life without that anchor.”

“Don’t feel sorry for me. It no longer rules me. Do I wish it was different? Yes. But it isn’t. Now I take my parents in small doses and leave when it’s unbearable.”

Liam turned her around and rested his hands around her waist. “They’re missing out. You’re a special lady.”

“You hardly know me.”

“That’s changing rapidly. Besides, if I wasn’t figuring that out on my own, your friends have all told me.”

“They’re biased.”

He brushed his hand along her chin and watched his fingers as he traced them down her neck and shoulder. The touch was more intimate than if they were naked and skin to skin.

Avery shivered.

“Are you cold?”

“No.”

His eyes smiled, and he leaned closer and touched his lips to hers.

Avery closed her eyes and melted. Like every time he kissed her, there wasn’t a rush or any urgency. Only the movement of his mouth on hers, the slow request for her to open and let him inside. Her body quivered and her mind went blank.

What was it about this man that was so different from any other? Was it the fact that he wasn’t rushing? Or maybe it was the way he slowly ran his hands over her back, as if he were memorizing her. Maybe the difference was how much she knew about him. Since before Bernie, she hadn’t bothered to know more than a first name and a short sexual history. Family history and desires for the future only shortened the time she spent with the previous men in her life.

This one was different.

Liam was different.

Following his leisurely pace, Avery stroked his back and squeezed his shoulders when he nipped at her bottom lip. He heated every cell that begged for his attention.

His fingers squeezed her hips but didn’t move lower. As the bases went, he hadn’t rounded second, and she wanted a home run in the worst way.

Avery pressed closer and knew without any doubt Liam had all the working parts fired up and ready.

Unlike the man holding her, she let her hands drop lower on his hips until his firm ass filled her palms.

Liam stalled, his mouth open over hers, eyes closed. “Careful, Princess.”

The huskiness of his voice empowered her. “Why?”

He gripped her hips and brought her as close as two standing bodies, fully clothed, could get. “My control is painfully close to snapping.”

“Have you considered that I might want that?”

Liam opened his smoky eyes. “I didn’t force my hand at you bringing me here for this.”

She lifted her hand from his butt to his hip. “I know that, Liam.”

There was something he wasn’t saying; she could see it in his gaze.

Noise from the reception cut in through the night. “Now isn’t the time,” he told her.

She wanted to argue but knew he was right. Avery swallowed and shifted her weight.

His grip stopped her. “Never think, for one second, that I don’t want you. That I haven’t dreamt of peeling each layer of your clothing off your skin and kissing every bare spot until you can’t take the torture any longer.”