“I can walk.”
I think.
When he sees that I’m stable once again, he takes his hands away. Despite the hot evening, my skin is cool where his hands were.
I’m a bloody hormonal mess.
Liam is too virile for his own good.
We make it safely to the dock and the boathouse. Liam opens the door, and I step inside. To my surprise, he helps me up the stairs.
“I can do it,” I mumble.
“You’ll fall on your face,” he mutters.
Once at the top, I grin. “See? We made it!”
But my damn toe catches on something else. This time, I hit the floor.
“How many glasses of wine did you have?”
“Good question. I didn’t count. A lot. You can go, I’ll be fine.”
“Like hell.” He pulls me up, and suddenly, I’m pressed against him from hip to chest, looking up into his brown eyes. His jaw is firm, his lips pressed into a hard line.
“I’m a virgin.”
I feel my eyes grow wide, but I suddenly can’t stop talking.
“I know it’s silly, but I’m a twenty-five-year-old virgin. Can you believe that?”
“Uh—”
“Absolutely ridiculous,” I mutter and let my eyes travel down to his neck, where his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard. “And you’re an attractive man, Liam.”
“I should go.”
“No way.” I grip his shoulders. He could easily push me away, but he doesn’t, and I take that as a good sign. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this. Wait. Yes, I do. I’m telling you because I think you’re attractive, and I like it when you touch me, and maybe you should teach me all about the sex.”
“Christ,” he mutters and closes his eyes. “The sex?”
“Yes. I’m here for a month, and you’re here with me. It’s convenient.”
“No.”
“But why?” I sound whiny, even to my own ears.
“Because I work for you.”
“You work for my brother. Not me.”
“No.”
“But why?”
“Because you’re too young for me.”
“I’m a grown woman who can make her own decisions with her body, thank you very much.” I hiccup and do my best to look sophisticated.
“No.”
“But why?”
“For a million other reasons that make this a very bad idea.”
I frown and bite my numb lip, still staring at Liam’s Adam’s apple.
“Why do they call this an Adam’s apple?” I brush my finger down the firm bump in his neck.
“I don’t know.”
“Me either.” I smile up at him. “I’ve never even had an orgasm, Liam. Isn’t that just preposterous? Some women can do…things…to themselves to make it happen, but I don’t know how to do that. I would Google it, but all of my internet usage is monitored. All the time. Can you imagine being called into the king’s office because I’ve been caught looking at internet porn?”
“No.”
“But why?”
“I swear to God, Eleanor, I’m not going to say it again.”
“Are you going to sue us for sexual harassment?”
“No.” He laughs and grips my upper arms to push me back from him.
“I quite liked where I was.”
“Me, too,” he grumbles. “And this can’t happen.”
“Of course.” I shake my head. “I’m doomed to be a virgin forever. Because the men I’ve met are all complete arseholes. Especially that mean Beauregard. He thought he could bully his way into being my husband and have a place in the royal household.
“Made him real mad when I wouldn’t let him in my knickers, I’ll tell you that.”
“I’ll make a note to have him killed.” Liam’s voice isn’t light and full of humor.
His eyes are fierce. His jaw clenched.
“Are you angry on my behalf, Liam Cunningham?”
He doesn’t reply, just watches me with that intense look on his impossibly handsome face.
“You have a scar, right here,” he says, reaching out to point to my jawline, but he doesn’t touch me.
“I fell when I was small. I have three older brothers. They always got me into trouble.”
Liam nods. “You should go sleep off that wine.”
“Yeah.” I sigh, resigned to going to bed by myself. “I’ll stop hitting on you now.”
I take a step. “Wait!” I whirl back around and brace myself on a chair so I don’t fall again. “I have to apologize.”
“For what?”
“For last summer. For the stunt I pulled that put so many of us in danger. I didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt.”
“I know.”
“It was stupid and thoughtless, and I want to let you know that it won’t happen again.”
“You’ve apologized before.”
“I know, but I feel like you haven’t forgiven me, and that’s why you’re not very nice to me. Anyway, goodnight.”
I turn to walk to the bedroom, immediately pulling the glittery tank I wore to the party over my head and letting it fall to the floor.
I don’t even give the fact that I’m not wearing a bra a second thought.
“Jesus,” Liam says behind me.
“What?”
“Don’t turn around,” he says quickly. “Go to bed, Ellie.”
“Yes, sir.”
I’m dying.
I moan and roll onto my back, take a deep breath, and then shove my face back into the pillow.
Yep, I’m dying. Probably of alcohol poisoning. My head feels like it’s split in two, my stomach roiling. I swear I’ve eaten a whole handful of cotton balls.
I want to just lie here all day, but I have to wee like crazy, and my phone has been buzzing with messages.
That’s what woke me.
I have no idea what time it is, and I’d look, except with my head cracked open, I’m quite sure I’ve gone blind.
I stumble my way into the loo, and once I’ve done my business, washed my hands and face, and scooped my hair into a knot on the top of my head, the headache starts to abate.
I pull on some yoga shorts and a sports tank, then pad out to the kitchen for a glass of water.
I stumble into a chair, sending it crashing to the floor. Grateful that it wasn’t me landing in a heap, I pick it up and pour myself a glass of water.
“Are you okay up there?”
Liam appears at the top of the steps. His eyes roam over me from head to toe.
“It was a chair,” I reply and sit on the couch, pulling my feet up under me. I lean on the arm of the sofa. “I’m dying.”
“You had a bit to drink last night.”
“Yeah. Or a lot.”
I sip the water, hoping it’ll settle my stomach.
Images start to fill my mind, and I frown.
“You know, I had a crazy dream that I told you some of my secrets.”
“That wasn’t a dream.”
Liam sits in the chair across from me, braces his arms on his knees, and frowns.