When the boat reached the dock, I’d turned and seen Jack standing there and all I’d wanted to do was throw myself into his arms. He’d looked furious. When I’d run off not wanting them to see me cry, I’d had no idea that Jack, not Liam, would come after me, but when I’d turned around and seen him standing there, the most natural thing in the world was to throw myself into his arms. He’d felt amazing against me, and yes, I’d felt his erection. Thick and long. He’d tried to hide it by pulling away, but he wasn’t quite quick enough.
Liam had been pissed when he’d found me there and had wanted to know what was going on with Jack stalking off. I’d told him he was still mad with him for being an ass.
I’d known Liam for a while and he’d never acted like an idiot before, and, but for the talk on the lake, I’d have said he was jealous of how Jack and I reacted to each other. I didn’t think that was it though.
“Thalia, I’m sorry, okay? I really am. I acted like a jerk out on the lake. I was curious.”
I brought my gaze from looking out of the window to Liam. “Curious?”
“I’ve never known my brother to act with anyone the way he is with you. I wanted to see how he’d react if he thought you were in danger of falling into the water. He wanted to kill me when we pulled up at the dock. He doesn’t even react like that around Mia.” Liam looked jealous.
What did I say to that? I couldn’t exactly deny it, because it was true, at least the worry about me had been true. Ugh, I needed a distraction.
“Hey, why don’t we go fishing? I haven’t done that for a long time. It’ll be fun.”
“I don’t fish!”
Well that said it all, and he was sulking.
My temper was close to the surface with his attitude. “Liam, stop acting like a two year old and grow up. If you didn’t want me to come here, just say and I’ll catch the next flight to Texas.” I turned back to stare through the window.
He pulled up outside the house and turned the engine off, climbed out and ran around to open my door. He took my hand and pulled me out, keeping my hand in his.
“Okay, let’s call a truce. I want you here I just wasn’t expecting this thing between you and Jack.”
I let out a sigh. “There isn’t a ‘thing’ between me and Jack. He’s getting married remember. Can we leave that alone and go and do something where we aren’t going to get into an argument.”
“Yeah. What do you want to do?” He turned and started to walk up the porch steps with me trailing behind him.
“What about walking to the river?” I sighed in relief as we entered the air-conditioned house. “We could take a picnic.”
Perhaps if I made an effort we would hopefully get the kind of friendship back that we had before we arrived at his family’s home.
“Oh, you’re back. I wasn’t expecting to see you both until dinner,” Stephanie commented walking out from the kitchen.
“Yeah, Thalia doesn’t like the water.”
I smiled, but felt like punching him. Stephanie glanced at me, as though it was unheard of.
Changing the subject, I said, “We thought we’d go on a picnic by the river.”
“Make sure you wear bug repellant, Liam. You don’t want to get bitten again.”
I hid a grin and turned to Liam, “Do you mind if I go upstairs for ten minutes, I need to return Callie’s call?”
“No,” he replied.
“Thalia, please don’t feel like you have to ask. While you’re here, please treat this as your home,” Stephanie informed me, which took me by surprise.
“Oh, okay. Thank you.”
With that out of the way, I turned and headed up the stairs.
“Wait up,” Liam shouted, and then he looked to his mom. “We’ll see you later.”
As I was entering my bedroom, Liam caught my hand and tugged on it to get my attention. “Give me an hour and we’ll go and raid the kitchen to have our picnic, okay?”
“Okay.”
“It’s a peace offering. I was a bastard earlier and I’m sorry. We need to have some fun.” My eyes widened and he burst out laughing. “Go rest.”
I opened my door and walked through turning around to look at him. “I’ll accept, providing you don’t chuck me in the river.” He chuckled and walked off to his room shaking his head.
With my door shut, I dropped my purse on the floor, retrieved my phone from my back pocket and then made a dive on to the bed, sprawling out on my stomach while I dialed Callie.
She answered on the second ring. “Hey girlfriend,” I said in response to her distracted ‘yeah’.
When she realized it was me, she screamed and dropped her phone.
“Thalia, you still there?”
“I sure am.”
“How’s it going with Liam?”
“Not too bad, although he was an ass out on the lake, earlier.”
She sighed down the phone. “You can’t swim”
“Yeah, I know. It was pretty scary, especially when Liam rocked the boat.” I inhaled and let my breath out slowly, knowing when I mentioned, Jack, I’d get bombarded with questions. “His brother, Jack, pulled me out and looked ready to murder Liam. I left them to it and ran off to cry.”
“That bastard, he made you cry – hang on – Jack – who’s Jack?”
I smiled thinking about Jack. “He’s Liam’s brother and so damn hot.”
“Please tell me you aren’t getting up to no good with his brother?”
“It depends what you call ‘any good’.” She stayed silent. “He came after me and held me in his arms. He felt good – hard and solid against me – he’s getting married.”
“Oh fuck!”
“Lovely language, for a lady.”