“You give him a job and a place to stay? That’s nice of you.”

“Not really. People helped me when I was a kid. This is the best way to pay them back. Besides, he’s family. My mom’s cousin’s boy.”

“People helped you how?” Her slender hand trailed over his shoulders, exploring his muscles. It was turning him on like crazy.

He wrangled his attention back to her question by brute force of will. “When I was Eoin’s age, I traveled the world. I worked my way across America on cattle ranches. Crewed on a yacht on the Pacific. Worked on sheep stations in Australia. I met lots of people who gave me a meal, or a job, or a place to sleep. It was a good education.”

“How did your parents take it?” she asked, fascinated.

He shrugged. “They worried. My stepfather wanted me to be a cop, like him. He was a good man. He taught me music. Carpentry, too. It was what he did for fun.” He studied the curve of her cheekbone as Eoin’s pipes began to sob out yet another haunting tune.

“Did you ever think of going to college?” she asked.

“Seemed like a waste of money,” he said. “Anything you want to learn, you can just go to the library and study up on it for free.”

She slid her slender arm around his waist. “I never thought of it that way, but I guess you’re right. What’s the story on your real dad?”

His body stiffened. “I haven’t seen him in twenty-six years.”

Her eyes were full of interest. “You don’t know where he is?”

“Maybe there was an address with the flowers he sent to Mom’s funeral,” he said curtly. “I didn’t bother to look.”

Nancy sat up slowly. “I’m sorry. I guess I hit a nerve.”

“It’s okay,” he said tightly.

She caressed his shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’ve put it behind me,” he snarled, and then felt like shit for using that tone with her, but his gut was clenched. Every word she said pulled them closer to that wall. They needed an emergency detour. He grabbed her arm, yanking her down. She cried out, and he froze abruptly. “Did I hurt you?” he asked.

“No, but—”

He muffled the rest of her words with a kiss, using all his skill and instinct to drag her back into the burning present moment. No future, no past. Just the melody that throbbed outside the window, the moonlight, and Nancy’s slender body moving beneath his. So generous, and soft, and strong.

He didn’t want to think about the wall they would hit. The look on his father’s face as he walked away forever. Lucia’s freshly dug grave. Masked attackers in the stairwell, the violence that lurked around every blind corner, the gun on the bedside table. The uncertainty, the danger. And this delicate thing they had. So precious, so fragile. Beset on every side.

She gripped him, crying out as her first climax jolted through her.

Yes. His. The satisfaction that burned in him felt almost like anger. He buried his face against her hair and hung on as his own dark explosion blasted him, mind and body, into blessed oblivion.

He would cheat fate for as long as he could. Fuck them all.

Chapter

9

The sky was pink outside Liam’s window when Nancy woke up. The bed beside her was empty, and a shower was running behind the door. She flopped back onto the pillow and studied the room. A photo of a younger Liam sat under the lamp. He had longer hair and a big carefree grin, his arm around the shoulder of a handsome older woman with the same eyes and smile.

She found the bathroom. Took a shower. Muscles she didn’t know she had were pleasurably sore. When she came downstairs, bacon sizzled on a skillet, a teakettle was whistling, and Liam was spooning pancake batter onto a griddle. It smelled incredibly delicious.

He looked over his shoulder and smiled. “What kind of tea would you like?” he asked. “I’ve got Darjeeling and this great Nepali stuff.”

“No coffee?” She stared at him in dismay.

“Not in this house.”

She plugged her cell phone into a countertop outlet to recharge. “There’s got to be an espresso bar somewhere in Latham.”

“I wouldn’t know,” he said, unsympathetically. “Do you like your bacon crisp or chewy?”

“Chewy, please. Could I use your telephone? I want to give my sisters your home number.”

“Be my guest,” he said.

Nancy forked some wet food into a bowl for Moxie as Vivi’s cell rang and rang. She picked up, though her voice was sleepy. “Yeah?”

“Get a pen, Viv. I have to give you a telephone number.”

“Omigod. Omigod. Is it the telephone number of that big, tall green-eyed drink of water? Hey, Nell! Wake up! Nancy got laid!”

“Get the pen, Viv,” Nancy repeated, with gritted-jaw fortitude.

Vivi hummed ebulliently as she copied down the number that Nancy dictated. “Okay, it’s on the fridge. So? Details, honey, details! Is he, well, as vigorous as he looks when you two, well, you know?”

“I absolutely will not discuss that,” Nancy said primly.

“I should think not, since he must be right there in the room with you, am I right?”

“Bingo,” she whispered.

“So go upstairs, or outside, or whatever, and I’ll call your cell,” her sister ordered. “You’ve just got to tell me everything!”

“I don’t have my cell on,” she admitted. “The battery’s dead.”

There was a dramatic silence from the other end of the line. “The battery is dead? You forgot to recharge your cell phone? Wait. Who is this, and what have you done with my sister?”

“Oh, stop it,” Nancy snapped.

“Well, tell us all about it when you get back,” Vivi burbled. “And I mean all. When are you getting back, by the way? Let’s do dinner.”

Nancy hemmed and hawed for a moment. “Um, well…I don’t exactly know when I’ll be coming back. You see, he’s asked me to—”

“Omigod! Nell!” Vivi bawled out. “Get this! Nancy’s shacked up!”

“Stop it, Vivi,” Nancy begged. “Please. Don’t jinx it for me.”

“Okay, you big scaredy-cat. Call me when you get the chance, between the bouts of hot bed-play. And say hello from the two of us!”

Vivi hung up, and Nancy clutched the receiver with a hand that shook. A high-frequency buzz, as if every cell in her body was electrified.

Liam’s hand touched her shoulder. He took the phone, hung up.

“My sisters say hello,” she offered.

“Great. Why do you look so worried about it?”

“Because now they’re having this big, happy freak-out about me being up here with you, and it’s making me nervous,” she snapped.

Liam’s mouth hardened. “Nervous? You mean you think they’ll be crushed to find out that it’s no big deal, then? Just a casual fling?”

Nancy’s throat started to burn. She winked back tears. “You’re the one who said we were going to hit the wall,” she said.

“So I did,” he said heavily.

She laid her hand upon his chest, feeling the steady throb of his heart. “It isn’t casual. It’s a very big deal.”

He covered her hand with his own. “How big?”

“Huge,” she admitted, surprising herself with her own honesty.

They came together into a tight hug. She buried her face in his chest. They clung to each other, silently agreeing to let the dangerous moment pass. An ominous scent some time later made them look up.

“Oh, God. The pancakes,” Liam said, lunging for the griddle.

They feasted on pancakes and bacon. Nancy ate twice as much as usual. They washed up and looked at each other, embarrassed.

“So, ah, what now?” she asked.

His lips twitched. “You tell me, Nancy.”

The gleam in his eye was hard to resist, but reality beckoned sternly. “I really need to get some work done,” she said.