Love Handles (Oakland Hills #1)(102)

“Bev—my niece—thinks differently.”

“Let her. It helps her sleep at night.” He leaned closer. “My needs are different. My needs are to issue a restraining order if I ever see you here again, because as a manager here, I have a responsibility to act on the sixteen documented cases of co-workers complaining about your erratic and violent behavior.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You do not.”

“I accept the inevitability of you popping up every once in a while over the years in Bev’s family’s life,” he said. “Just so you understand, I’ll be there watching, and these touching reunion  s will never happen anywhere near Fite. Or anywhere we live.”

She choked out a laugh. “We?”

“Me and Bev.”

“You cocky bastard,” Rachel said. “She’ll never forgive you for taking off when she was in trouble. Not that she really needed you—she got a teenage slut to fix everything. She won’t even give you your job back.”

He smiled and pushed the door open for her. “Remember what I said.”

“Kiss my ass.” She walked out with the large photo flapping at her side.

We’ll spend the holidays with my family. He locked the door and watched her disappear down the sidewalk.

“Let her have the house, Mom,” Bev was saying when he got back to the conference room. “All she really wants is to have Johnny live nearby, and her future grandbaby, right, Aunt Ellen? And if I let you get involved with Fite—”

“Not me,” Gail said. “Kate.”

“If I let Kate get involved with Fite—”

Gail leaned forward. “Not just involved. A real career.”

“—then you’d be willing to give the house to Johnny?”

Kate threw the t-shirt she was holding onto a chair. “This people stuff isn’t my thing. It would have to be something where I could really get creative.”

Bev shot her an icy look that reminded Liam of her aunt. Both of them. “Help me out here, sis. We can work out your job description later.”

Kate shook her head. “No way. I’m too young to sell out. I need to know I’m signing on to something I can believe in.”

“How about you, Liam?” Ellen asked. “Are you too young to sell out?”

Liam met her gaze. Looked over at Bev, who frowned.

“Leave him out of this,” Bev said.

Ellen put her hand over her heart. “Goodness. How romantic.”

He didn’t care what Ellen thought. It was the wariness in Bev’s eyes that bothered him. “Bev and I need to talk. In private.”

“There’s no reason for you to be here,” Bev said to him. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than worry about me and my family.”

“No, I don’t.”

Distress flickered across her face. “Please. Just go. You wanted out of here, go ahead.”

“I made a mistake.” He caught Ellen’s eye. “And no, I’m not feeling too young.”

“Now you want to sell out?” Bev asked. “Is that what Ellen meant? You’re willing to do anything to have Fite back?”

She wanted to force this here, in front of everyone? Fine. “Quite the opposite.” He walked over to her. “I’m willing to do anything to get you back.”

He saw the shock in her face, the fear, and wished he could relish it after the weeks of his own suffering, but all it did was stab him with more pain. He lifted his hand to her cheek. “I was wrong to leave. I didn’t give you a chance.”

She swallowed. “To call Annabelle?”

“To love me,” he said. “But now I’ve decided I can do all the loving for a while. Until you catch up.”

Bev’s eyes, wide and bright, shifted to turquoise. “Oh,” she whispered. She gazed at him with such open disbelief, such hope, he was able to tamp down his own panic.

“I wish I could say I’d work here without any pressure, that just being around you would be enough,” he said, “but I’d be lying. I’d never be satisfied. I wasn’t before, when it was just your body I wanted. Now—forget it.”

She rested her cheek in his palm. “What parts do you want now?”

He gave her a lopsided grin.

“Don’t believe him,” Ellen said. “It’s just another way of getting on top.”

Bev frowned at her aunt then back at him. A smile crept across her face. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

His body raged with heat. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“Would you feel used if I asked you to come back to Fite?”

“Depends how you pay me.”

She slid her hand up his chest. “You won’t sue for sexual harassment?”

“Not if you marry me,” he said, and Gail gasped. But Bev didn’t recoil so he went on. “We can date first if you’d like.”

She flung herself at him so suddenly he fell back against the table. Soft, warm limbs wrapped around him, firm and strong, smelling like her, tasting like her, everything he wanted.

“Oh, for God’s sake,” Ellen said. “Can’t that wait?”

No. Liam buried his face in Bev’s neck, inhaling her scent, feeling her skin, making her tremble in his arms. “I love you,” he growled.