She saw in his eyes just how tempted he was by the thought of staying in tonight, of canceling their dinner reservations and making a meal out of each other instead. But he still said, "You deserve more than just sex, Christie. So much more."
He was right. Only, dinner wasn't what she was after.
Love. That was what she really deserved.
But since all Liam was offering tonight was a nice meal out--and then mind-blowing sex afterward--she wasn't going to say no. She simply couldn't.
Thirty minutes later, they were in Wishing Lake, a pretty town that she hadn't had a chance to explore on her rare days off. It was a perfect Adirondack night. The sky was clear, the wind was still, and the air was sweet. She couldn't have set the stage any better for a romantic dinner...even if that romance was only ever meant to be temporary.
"This is a real treat," she told him as they settled into their seats and the wine was poured. "I love Summer Lake, but sometimes it feels like I never get a chance to leave town."
"The Adirondacks are definitely full of hidden jewels."
The way he'd phrased it had her asking, "Is that why we're at this lake? Are we hiding too?"
"I told you I'm not going to hide our relationship, Christie, and I meant it. I just thought it would be nice if our first date was for the two of us."
"You're right. If we'd gone to one of the restaurants in town, every eye would have been on us." Still, she couldn't help but feel that despite what he said, he might not actually be all that thrilled about being seen with her.
Her non-poker face must have given her away, because he said, "Tomorrow morning, how about we walk down Main Street holding hands?"
A surprised laugh left her throat. Did he have any idea how sweet he really was? "I don't know if we need to be quite that blatant. But thank you for offering."
"Once Wesley returns, once he isn't afraid to share who he is with the people who've known him his whole life, no one will think twice about you having dated both of us."
"I suppose you're right." Although, who knew when Wesley was actually going to come back? Not to mention when Liam would leave... "I meant to tell you last night about the man Wesley was with. But I got distracted."
Liam reached for her hand, his thumb stroking the inside of her palm in just the way to make her shiver with need. "Last night was about you and me. No one else."
Considering he had told her again and again that he wasn't right for her, that he wasn't going to stick around in the long term, he was surprisingly possessive about their time together. She shouldn't like it, should remember the lessons she'd learned from all her failed relationships, should make sure he understood that she wasn't his to possess.
But with Liam, she couldn't help but like it. Because she couldn't help but want to belong to him.
Just as she couldn't help but want him to belong to her too.
She needed to take a sip of her wine--a really big gulp, actually--before she could refocus her thoughts on what she'd been about to say. "John is someone Wesley and I have both known for a long time. He's a very nice person."
Liam's fingers stilled on the stem of his wine glass, and she could see his mind working. Processing. Considering. "Do you have John's phone number? Odds are, that's where Wesley is."
Christie knew Liam's heart was in the right place. He loved his brother. No one could doubt that for a second. But...
"Of course I'll give you John's number. And I know how deeply you care for Wesley. But please--" She paused, had to repeat it. "Please respect your brother's wishes. He asked us not to contact him. He told us he'd come back when he's ready."
"Wesley needs to know that I'm there for him. That we all are. We always have been."
"Deep in his heart, he knows that," she promised him. "And when he's less confused and overwhelmed, he'll remember the love that's waiting here for him."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because when Wesley and I called off the wedding, my family wanted so badly to protect me, to come and take me away from it all. But what I really needed was to figure things out for myself for once. I needed to do it away from the familiar comfort of people who would swoop in and take care of everything for me. I just needed to figure out how to love myself all by myself, for the first time. I needed to know that I was strong in my own right. That I'd been right when I saw Summer Lake for the first time and knew it was where I was meant to be."
*
So many times over the past week, Liam had wanted to get to know Christie better. Each time, however, he'd forced himself to push his personal questions away, if only to keep them from getting too close. But last night he'd been unable to resist his fascination with her body--and now he couldn't see how it made sense anymore to keep fighting his fascination with the rest of her.
"You long to travel, to see the world," he said. When she nodded, he asked, "What if it turns out that Paris or Rome or Egypt is really where you're meant to be?"
"I suppose the best answer I can give is that I hope I get the chance one day to see if that's the case."
"Why haven't you, Christie? I see the way you are with the inn's guests. You're not afraid of meeting new people. In fact, you thrive on it. And if money is an issue, I'm sure you know there are plenty of ways to travel cheap."
She lifted her eyes to his, and he hated seeing the defeat in them. "I'm afraid to fly."
Even as she confessed her secret to him, he knew he should let her be. Should stop pressing her. But it wasn't enough to know the taste of her skin, or the way flecks of gold appeared in her green eyes when she was crying out her pleasure in his arms.
He needed to know everything.
"Why?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I don't know."
"There has to be a reason."
Budding anger replaced the defeat in her eyes. He didn't like knowing he'd made her angry, but he was glad to see the resignation disappear. "Don't you think that if I knew the reason, I would get past it, get on an airplane, and go somewhere?"
"Maybe." He knew he was putting his opinions in where he shouldn't, but he couldn't stop himself. "Or maybe it's easier to stay stuck right where you are."
Her eyes flashed. "Says the man who clearly found it easier to leave than to stay and make things work."
He should have seen that coming. Her brain was not only incredibly quick, her heart was also dead on target. Every single time. "I had my reasons for leaving," he told her, leaving it at that, the way he always had before.
She stared at him for a long moment. "You and I slept together last night."
"Yes, I know," he replied, unable to keep from smiling now, despite the intensity of their conversation. "I was there, loving every second of it."
"We're probably going to sleep together tonight."
His grin grew even bigger. "I hope so."
"Me too." She paused again. "Here's the thing, though. I know you're not promising me love. You were really clear on that. But whatever it is that we're doing, for however long we're doing it, there has to be a foundation of honesty between us. I know this is our first official date, and on any normal first date, I'd be on my best behavior. But we're doing things a little backward." She paused, picked up her wine, and drank. "Wait a second." She took another large gulp. "Okay. Here goes." She pinned him with a serious gaze. One he couldn't escape. "Why did you leave Summer Lake, Liam? Especially when I can see how much you love it here. I can tell that of all the places you've been and seen, this is really your home."
He'd known that if he let himself get close to her, this question would come. But that didn't mean he was any better prepared for it. "Something happened with my mother."
"What did she do? What happened that hurt you both so much?"
He had never been so tempted to give away his mother's secret. But he couldn't bear to pass his burden on to Christie. Wouldn't put her in the position of having to face his father, or Wesley, with the knowledge of what his mother had done. "Right after Wesley left," h
e said softly, "when I asked if you knew the reason why, you told me you wished you could tell me. But you couldn't."
She shook her head, clearly remorseful over the decision she'd made. "You love him so much. I should have told you earlier."
"No, I can see why you didn't. Wesley had your trust. It's like that. I don't want to keep you in the dark, but this isn't my secret to tell."
"Neither was Wesley's, but I ended up telling you."
That was when he realized she didn't yet know what Susan had seen. "My mother was there. In the parking lot last night."
"She was...in the parking lot?" She looked horrified.
"Yes."
"When we were--" She scrunched her eyes shut for a moment. "--kissing?"
"She heard our discussion about Wesley too."
"Oh no." Her words were barely more than a breath. "What have I done?"
"None of this is your fault."
"But how can Wesley possibly see it that way? He asked me not to tell anyone why he left. And here I've ended up telling everyone."
Liam loved his brother, but the urge to defend her was strong. "He has absolutely no reason to be angry with you. He should never have asked you to keep his secret."
"But your mother asked you to keep hers, didn't she? And you've kept it. All these years."
He didn't know what to say to that, not when a slide show of painful visions from twenty years ago immediately began playing inside his head. Only when he felt Christie's hand cover his did he remember where they were and shut the memories down.
"I'm sorry," she said softly. "We both know I should think before I speak."
He hated the way she took the blame for his problems. He couldn't give her love, but he could work like hell to give her confidence. To fly. To travel. And to believe in herself as much as he believed in her. "You're perfect just the way you are."
He'd never kissed anyone in public before, had always been put off by displays of affection in inappropriate places. But tonight, he didn't care what was appropriate and what wasn't.
His mouth found hers soft and waiting for his kiss.
*
"I was planning to take you to my bed tonight," he said a couple of hours later, when they were back at the inn, and they were alternately kissing and stripping off each other's clothes inside her bedroom.
"Mine was closer."
After the heavy discussion that led off dinner, they'd settled into telling each other stories, each trying to make the other laugh harder. Liam had wild tales of mischievous elephants in India; Christie countered with things that had happened with guests at the inn--true comedy-of-error stories.
"My bedroom is only warm when you're here with me," Christie murmured into the crook of his neck as he lifted her and carried her to the bed.
He laid her down on the covers and moved over her, making her sizzle all over, inside and out. "Go figure."
She giggled against his mouth as he gave her soft, teasing kisses. And oh-so-potent as he ran them down her body--they were delicious drops of heat, of desire, of something that felt like reverence. And she felt exactly the same way as she ran her hands over him, as she kissed his jaw, his shoulder, his chest.
She shuddered as he found every last one of her sensitive spots, and she lost hold of everything but the intense, soul-deep pleasure only Liam could give her. And yet, even as he moved inside of her and she took all of him, it still wasn't enough.
I love you was right there on her lips, wanting so badly to be said.
But while he might have let his walls down with her for one night, that didn't mean they were going to stay down forever. Especially when everything he'd been struggling with for so long at Summer Lake--all the secrets and problems with his family--were still right here.
Reaching the beautiful peak of pleasure, they jumped off together. But though she made herself swallow back the three little words, that didn't make them any less true. Any less real. Or any less powerful within her heart.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The next morning, Christie woke when Liam kissed her on the forehead, then headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower.
Feeling a million times more rested than she had in weeks, she figured it had to be because sleeping in Liam's arms made the bed better than any had ever been. But when she looked at the clock, she supposed it could also have something to do with the fact that she'd slept a couple of hours longer than usual. After all the tossing and turning she'd done since calling off her wedding and Wesley's leaving, she had really needed the rest.
She looked toward the shower. Boy, oh boy, was it tempting to join him. But with only thirty minutes until she was needed downstairs at the front desk, she couldn't miss her window to make a couple of very important phone calls.
She got up and put on her robe, then called Catherine at the town hall to ask her to take a quick look at the zoning maps for the property. Catherine confirmed what Susan had said about the agricultural zoning. Her next call was to the Adirondack Preservation Council.
"This is Christie Hayden. I was in to see you last week, but I've just learned something really important about the inn's zoning, and I was hoping to bring the new information to you today." She was smiling as she said, "Noon? Yes, I can be there by then."
With bells on.
She had only just hung up when Liam walked out of her bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist...at which point she completely lost the thread of her thoughts as she took in his tanned skin, his muscles, and the heat in his dark eyes.
"Good shower?"
"Lonely shower."
The breath she was about to take caught somewhere in her windpipe. "I wanted to join you," she found herself admitting.
"Why didn't you?" he asked as he brushed a lock of her hair from her cheek and his touch sizzled through her.
Because I already want you too much. Because you're like a drug I can't get enough of. Because even though I know you're going to break my heart, when I'm with you, I forget all about the fall that's coming.
But she refused to ruin the time they had together by foolishly pushing for things he'd already told her he couldn't give, so she shook the thought out of her head. "I needed to make a couple of calls. My friend Catherine in the county clerk's office confirmed what your mother told me about the agricultural zoning. And I was hoping you could cover for me here for a few hours, because I've arranged to meet with the Adirondack Preservation Council at noon today."
"Of course I can cover for you." He grinned as he added, "Give 'em hell."
He kissed her again, and she was on the verge of forgetting all about the zoning maps and the council meeting, when he said, "I've got an inn to run. And you've got a festival to save."
From shower to dressing, to heading out to the clerk's office so that she could pick up copies of the zoning maps, to driving along the winding Adirondack roads to the Preservation Council building, Christie was pretty sure she didn't stop smiling the entire time.
"Ms. Hayden," the woman at the front desk said when she walked inside. "They're all expecting you. Are you ready to go in?"
Previously, when Christie had been standing in this light-filled entry, she'd been shaking with nerves. She'd been unsure of so many things--her feelings for Liam, along with her chances at persuading the council to let her festival go forward. And even though not very many days, hours, had passed--so much had changed.
One sweet kiss with Liam at a roadside dive had turned into so much more.
Liam's mother had approached her almost as a friend, or at least as an ally of sorts.
And Christie had decided to stop giving up.
Christie loved Summer Lake's community. Susan's suggestion to look into the zoning was wonderful. And, of course, Liam's support for her festival touched her deeply. But some things a woman had to take care of on her own.
This festival was her idea. Ultimately, it was up to her to fight the final battle. If she succeeded, if she failed--it was finally tim
e to find out what she was made of.
From here on out, if she wanted something, she was going for it. Because she'd finally learned that the worst anyone could say was no. And for the first time in her life, she was banking on yes.
"Yes," she told the receptionist. "I'm ready."
*
"The festival is back on!"
Christie had been bursting to tell someone her good news. She'd assumed Liam would be the first person she'd tell, but just as she was getting out of the car, she saw Susan in the inn's parking lot.
"I'm so glad," Susan said with a wide smile.
"Your suggestion about the zoning was brilliant," Christie said.
"More like helpful. You're the brilliant one for coming up with the festival in the first place. I don't know why no one thought of it before now, actually. Maybe it takes someone with a fresh eye on the town to see something new. By the way," Susan added, "your flyers and posters look great, but if you need any help in the future, please don't hesitate to ask."
Susan would have been her first choice for the design, but she hadn't thought she'd get a yes. "I'd love to work together, but I'm pretty sure we can't afford your graphic design skills."
"Nonsense," Susan said with a wave of her hand. "I do pro bono work for local events all the time. Besides, my sons own the inn, and the festival directly benefits their business. Of course I want to help them in any way I can. In fact, you're just what Liam needs."
"I am?" Christie could hardly believe what she was hearing.
"Yes, you are."
Tears pricked at Christie's eyes. It was a day of miracles. First the thumbs-up on her festival from the council, and then the same from a woman she'd never thought even liked her. "I care deeply for both of your sons." More than anything else, she needed Susan to know that. "Wesley will always be one of my closest friends, and Liam is..."
"Very special," Susan said softly. "Congratulations, again, on your good news," she said, then got into her car and drove away.
Christie felt more than a little dazed when she headed into the inn. But Liam took one look at her and knew.
"You did it," he said. And then he swung her up into his arms and kissed her, right there in front of everyone.
Liam had joked about walking down Main Street holding her hand, but even though she knew their relationship would last only until he left town again, this felt like so much more than that.