Rumor Has It (2 page)

The breath he blew out was her second indication that he was getting pissed off, but in for a penny, in for a pound.

“I thought that was a pretty personal question, but she said she knew we hadn’t. Because if we had, you would have gotten rid of me by now like you had everyone else.”

His face became a blank mask. She’d seen that look before. She’d ask about his family or his childhood, and
bam
, there it was. Cool blankness. She didn’t know how he could do it, but somehow he could just turn it all off.

Once, after he’d saved a woman from a burning car, he’d been traumatized and had attempted to dull the pain with alcohol. It was that one night he’d told her more than he ever had. His father didn’t sound like the most caring of men, and he’d lost his mother when he was eight—something else they shared. Her mother had passed away when she was the same age, so she knew how he must feel about that.

She looked at her best friend of four years and wanted behind that mask. She slid a bit closer to him to return to the warmth that they’d had a few minutes ago and get the answer to the current question.

“Is that true? If we had gotten together and hooked up, would our friendship be a thing of the past?”

“Umm…I’d like to think not.” He took the magazine out of her hands and opened it to a random page in the middle.

“You’d like to think not,” she repeated dully. This was not how she had anticipated this conversation going, although since he’d never seemed interested, she probably should have. She’d figured she’d ask the question and he’d figure out the rest.

“Raina, you know I don’t do romantic relationships, but any woman I’m with knows and is all right with that. I’m sorry someone loaded you full of unwanted information. Just forget about it.”

“We’ve shared a lot, and I know you don’t really want to be in a committed relationship, but I never knew you limited yourself like you do. I thought we had a friendship nothing could tear apart.”

He was flipping through his magazine but not actually looking at the pages.

“When I met you all those years ago, you were so sweet, but you never came on to me. Why? Am I not your type?” She knew she should stop, but you might as well call her butter ’cause she was on a roll.

“What?” He looked at her like she was a foreign being or at least speaking a foreign language. “You’re in a weird mood today.”

She got up and slid onto Liam’s lap, displacing his magazine. Was she coming on a bit strong? Abso-freakin-lutely, but she had thrown this idea out into the light, and there was nothing to do but give it all she had. Thank goodness she was wearing a long, gauzy skirt that was light and made moving around easy. She leaned back a little, thrilled at the confusion on his face as he tried to figure out what was going on. He was calm under fire, she knew that, and not just because he was the lieutenant of his crew. She’d seen him deal with many situations that would have reduced the average man to swearing and shouting. He was able to handle everything with a calm detachment that was just Liam. She didn’t know where she was getting the courage to flirt with the master, but she was enjoying it. She had no idea what he would do.

She hoped he’d help her. She had her whole life planned out—marriage at twenty-six, babies before thirty. She’d almost had all of that until an ultimatum given by her almost-fiancé had made her rethink what her priorities were.

“I wasn’t aware that you wanted our relationship to progress to anything other than what it is. Have I misread our situation?”

She’d never seen Liam this close before, and it was both intimidating and exhilarating. “I just didn’t know you were so dominating in the bedroom or how many fans you have. Makes me wonder what I’m missing. Here I am, having fun with the mild-mannered Clark Kent, and there’s a Superman in there I had no idea about. Although some of Superman’s rules are a bit rigid for my liking.”

“Which rule is the most problematic for you?” He looked like this closeness wasn’t doing anything for him. She could have been one of the fire dogs he’d been certified to train and his response would probably be the same—friendly and understanding, but no fire. That was disappointing since she couldn’t get her heart rate to calm down or her breathing to remain normal.

“Well, there’s the no-cuddling rule. I don’t like that. Who wouldn’t like to cuddle up to your hot body? That seems like an extraordinarily bad rule. How do you expect women to resist?”

“They have to make do… What other rule?”

“The ‘If you want to play in my bed, you have to play by my rules’ rule. That doesn’t seem like you at all.”

“For the record, I’ve never said anything like that to anyone.” His tone was calm like still waters, but a storm was brewing in his eyes.

She continued like he hadn’t added that tidbit. “You are nothing if not diplomatic. Where is that guy?”

“That guy is not the bedroom guy or the anything-else guy. Your guy is the diplomat.”

“My guy is the doormat. Most of the time you let me have my way with everything. I guess it’s hard for me to put this phantom guy with the fella that I know, because you don’t seem to care or take control of anything around me. ‘What movie do you want to see, Liam?’ ‘Any one you’d like.’ ‘What would you like to eat tonight?’ ‘Whatever you’re in the mood for.’ I guess I should have asked for a cuddle and watched you perk up… So tell me, if someone wanted to cuddle up to your cock, are you up for that?”

“Who are you, and what have you done with Raina?”

The look on his face was shocked and confused, and she was overjoyed. He was finally seeing her as something more than her regular boring self. Any reaction from him made her feel sexy and powerful. Now she just had to get the right reaction, one that would suit what she wanted.

“I’m still me. I’m just wondering how I’m sitting with you and how much I don’t really know about you.”

“You know me… It’s the women I sleep with who don’t know me, and I don’t know them, and that’s how I like it.”

“That seems so sad. Why is it that I am sitting on your lap, and you aren’t telling me to get off? Or is it that you aren’t attracted to me, so I can do whatever I want?”

“Tell me… What is it that has you so worked up? It can’t be that I have a one-night-stand rule. You’ve never shown much interest in me, so you can’t be jealous. Are you just trying to prove a point? And if so, what is it, because I’m busy and want to finish my magazine.” He tapped her butt to get her moving.

“Hmm…so you do have a bit of bark you’re willing to share with a friend.”

“Looking for a bit of bark? Go find a tree.” The stern voice and cold eyes should have scared her, but somehow they did the opposite. “Get off my lap.”

“Can I have a kiss, Liam?”

“What?” He rested his head on the back of the couch and closed his eyes. He seemed to be trying to pull himself together or just blocking her out. She didn’t know if she was torturing him because she wanted to see the beast or if she just didn’t believe it was in there. “Why?”

She’d seen him with his fire crew, and he undoubtedly was the one shouting the orders, but it was hard for her to reconcile what Elaine, one of the buckle bunnies at the club, had told her about Liam—her intense, discreet friend.

“I just want one.”

“I kiss you all the time, and you haven’t moved yet,” he said in the most authoritative tone he’d never used with her.

Damn, where had that come from? It begged her to be defiant.

“You kiss me good-bye like my grandma…on the cheek or the forehead. I want a real kiss.”

He moved his hands to cup her bottom, and she didn’t know if he was going to push her off or pull her closer.

“I want to see what has all those women stopping me in line at the market or as I wait to use the restroom, whenever your back is turned. They ask me about your daily habits and how they can get you. In their words, you’re so exciting and seductive. With me, you’re like my cousin Billy.”

His gaze was filled with something she hoped wasn’t pity, but she wasn’t going to look too closely at him in case it was.

The puppy-dog twist of his head was back, and suddenly she felt foolish for even starting this. She wished she could turn back time and talk about something else. Fire-hose water pressure or the safest way to fireproof your house. That always got him off on a tangent.

LIAM HADN’T GOTTEN as far as he had in life without recognizing dangerous situations, and he knew he had a sizeable keg of it on his lap.

Watching her struggle with what she wanted to ask him was hard. He knew whatever she wanted was a big deal to her, no matter how she was trying to package it. He should give her a break and help her out. Unfortunately, he knew exactly where she was leading and what she was asking for. Maybe not exactly, but he knew he was in the ballpark.

He wanted to make her work for every word because he didn’t think he could deny her, and he wasn’t sure of how this would end up. He liked to know the end game. That was just how he liked to play.

He watched her study his neck and willed himself to calm down. It was time to get to the crux of the matter. “You want to see if I can make you have an orgasm. Is that it?”

“I’m frigid.” She’d said it so softly that he shouldn’t have heard it. The only reason he did was because she was perched on his lap and he was staring at her full, pouty lips. He certainly hadn’t seen that intriguing piece of information coming.

“Bull—” She put her hand over his mouth. He knew she was trying to break him of swearing, but that was the thing. She was always trying to get him to do something, and he usually tried to do it. There was just something about her that made him want to try…made him want to please her. Not that he wanted her to know that.

“No, seriously, it’s true. I don’t have as much experience as you, but I do have experience, and I’m not dumb. I know how it’s supposed to work, but for me, it just doesn’t happen.”

She would hate to know how adorable he found her right now, but he couldn’t help it. She scanned the room with her whiskey-brown eyes, attempting to look anywhere but at him. It made him notice how much he liked her eyes on him.

“You’re not a frigid woman. You are extremely passionate. If the guys you’re with aren’t getting you off, then maybe they have the problem. You just need a better partner.”

The smile he loved to see lit her face.

Damn. Why had he just said that? He wanted to kick himself as that last sentence flew out of his mouth, but looking at her face, he could tell she was serious, and that was almost laughable…almost.

“That’s exactly what I wanted.” She moved to center herself over his quickly stiffening cock and continued the discussion like they weren’t fitting together like a lock and matching key.

“What is it exactly that you want?” He tried to pull his mind back to the conversation, but she was making subtle rotations with her hips. She was probably doing it subconsciously, but it was driving him nuts.

“What you give any other woman you meet.” That brought him back in the game.

“I don’t have sex with every woman I meet. I’m extremely selective.” He was going to have to deal with this one way or the other, so he may as well put his cards on the table. “You want me to see if I can make you see fireworks without using any battery-operated device. You want me to show you what your body is capable of?”

A pretty pink flush was working its way up from the collar of her T-shirt. He loved how she blushed, and this one was a doozy.

“Who said I used battery-operated devices?”

“That was just a guess.” He wanted to see how easy it was to shock her. Test her limits. “Did I offend you, Raina? Do you only use your hand?”

Her quickly inhaled breath told him how much she liked how the conversation was going and that she might not be as easy to shock as he originally thought.

Liam knew that playtime was over, and now it was time for the real deal. The last thing he wanted to do was mess up his friendship with Raina. “I don’t want to lose how close we are.” He rubbed his thumb across her forearm. While he enjoyed the closeness of this encounter and wanted to soften any blow she was about to receive, he didn’t think this was the best road for either of them.

“Who says we have to lose it?”

“Things change when sex is involved. People change after the deed is done.”

“Not if we make promises not to let anything change the friendship we have.”

He scanned her face and saw the honesty he’d always found there. She genuinely believed what she was saying. It didn’t look like he was going to be able to change her mind about this, and he wasn’t sure he could turn this sexy woman down. She was a staple in his late-night thoughts and dreams. He could see she was beginning to look at this as a challenge. He tried to think of something to stop this train wreck he saw coming.

“Whatever, Liam. Where’s my kiss?”

“If you want it, come closer.” He was torn, and that wasn’t like him. He found himself wanting to indulge her even as he chastised himself for encouraging any part of their current situation. It was this mix of shy and sassy. She was intriguing in a way he didn’t think would happen if she were someone else. Her very presence was comforting, and she seemed to soothe the part of him that was so neglected. He’d told her more about his past than he’d ever shared with anyone…although he’d let her think his mother was dead. His car seemed to find her house when he was at his lowest, and although he wanted nothing more than to sink his cock deep inside her sweet pussy, he didn’t know how he’d deal with the aftermath. She was so important to him, and he still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. His father might have had it right, keeping emotional attachments out of his life. He’d done a great job with it, because after his mother walked out on them, his father packed up his emotions and put them in storage.

“You’re actually going to kiss me?”

“I have always given you whatever you’ve asked for. Why would I stop now?” He watched her eyes light up and knew he’d said the wrong thing, but he was enjoying himself too much to stop.

“So you’re saying all the rules don’t pertain to me? If you were with me, would I have more than just one night?” Her eyes sparkled with mischief, and he didn’t think he’d ever seen her this playful.