But he was staring at her, looking past her eyes and straight into her soul. Pleading with her again. And god, how she'd missed him. How she'd needed him, the last couple weeks. She blinked back tears and slowly nodded.
“Okay,” she whispered, then cleared her throat. “Okay, you promise and you try, and I accept your apology, and we start over.”
He smiled. It was small and it was sad, but it was genuine. Then he sat up straight and held out his hand.
“Hi, I'm Liam Edenhoff,” he introduced himself. She smiled and wiped at her eyes before shaking his hand.
“Hi Mr. Edenhofferhana, I'm Katya Tocci,” she laughed. He chuckled and squeezed her hand between his.
“We can work on the name,” he told her. “I'm a thirty-two year old ex-surfer who generally enjoys doing as little as possible while eating as many tacos as possible. I own two buildings in downtown San Francisco, and I own a successful sex club.”
“Sex club, huh. Sounds crazy. Way too wild for a simple little baker like me,” she said.
“I bet you'd surprise yourself. You'll have to come check it out sometime,” he offered.
“Maybe I will, Liam.”
“Or,” he took a deep breath. “You could go out on a date with me.”
She lost her smile.
“I don't know. I don't think I'm in the dating market right now,” she said slowly. He nodded.
“Okay, I can respect that – but if you ever decide to dive back in again, I hope you'll think of me. I think I could show you a really good time,” he said, staring at her again.
“I'm sure you could, Liam. I'm really, really sure you could.”
19
They spent the rest of the day and half the night on the roof – only leaving to grab a pitcher of margaritas from Katya's apartment. He called into his club, telling Tori that she was in charge of the downstairs bar for the evening.
Though part of her still felt like a traitor to herself and to the female sex in general, she was happy that they'd moved past his betrayal. It felt good to be laughing with him again. In the short time they'd known each other, they'd really forged a bond together. And it felt better now – there were no secrets between. No wolf lurking in the shadows – literally. They could talk openly and freely, about anything and everything.
“Tell me about Landon.”
She'd waited a while to ask that – there was a tension between the brothers that wasn't necessarily obvious, but she could still feel it. She'd been surprised to learn his twin would be staying with him, and she wondered how Liam was handling life with a roommate.
She learned that Landon was technically the older of the two, and he seemed to take that title very literally. He'd always been serious – quite a contrast to Liam's laid back personality, especially since they were twins. Landon had thrown himself into school and college and his work. Gotten married, then gotten divorced. Then he'd shocked everyone by joining an aide group and traveling to South America.
There was a lot of bitterness in all that information. Liam felt like the second-best twin. The also-ran, the after-thought. There was Landon, acing everything he put his mind to, traveling the world, helping people, saving lives. And there was Liam, struggling in school, inheriting his living, needing Wulf to help him get the club.
Even worse was the fact that Liam felt like everyone was idolizing a sham. Landon may have been a doctor, sure, and it may have seemed like he'd selflessly dedicated his life to an aide group, okay. But that didn't all translate to him being a good guy. Liam was privy to Landon's darker side, something the other twin kept hidden from the rest of his family.
A serial dater with more women under his belt than even Liam, he also had a problem with drugs that stemmed back all the way to high school. On top of that, he just wasn't a very nice person – his shame at his addiction and his lofty position as a doctor had turned him into a nasty, snobby, vindictive person. It killed Liam to see his family worshiping this man who had lied to them, stolen from them, and hidden himself from them.
But he let Landon stay with him because even though they had their differences, he said, that was still his twin. It was hard to look into what was essentially a mirror and say “no” – plus, Liam knew if he did, it would come back to haunt him. Landon would go home and claim that his brother wouldn't let him visit, or something. Liam didn't want to deal with a dozen phone calls from his family that would just result in him caving and letting Landon stay, anyway.
“Don't trust him,” Liam had warned. “And don't listen to him. He'll either treat you like you're stupid, so you'll let him get away with anything, or he'll lie to you, try to get you to do anything.”
“Jesus, being a lying shit hole seems to run in your family.”
“Watch it, angel cake. We called a truce, remember.”
Around two in the morning, Katya had to call it quits. She'd gotten up early to drive in from Carmel, and the day had taken an emotional toll on her. Dealing with Liam and coming to an understanding with him, then meeting his twin and dealing with all those issues. And of course, as always, running around in the back of her mind was Wulf.
She not only hadn't made him dinner, she hadn't bothered answering her phone when he'd called. No doubt he'd stopped by her apartment, and of course she hadn't been there. He'd be pissed.
Added to that, she still wasn't sure how to feel about him. She'd somewhat forgiven Liam, so it stood to reason that she should extend the same courtesy to Wulf. But his betrayal felt different from Liam's, she wasn't sure if she was ready to forgive Wulf. Wasn't sure if he was ready to truly apologize. She couldn't imagine him breaking down on a street sidewalk and begging her to forgive him with only a look.
So when she said goodnight to Liam, she was still thoroughly confused about how to move forward with the two men in her life. She changed into pajamas and brushed her teeth and climbed into bed, then got to her new favorite hobby.
Staring at the ceiling.
It was all so different. Knowing the two men knew each other, knowing she'd slept with them both and they both not only knew about it, but had talked about it. Discussed it. Before, she'd never considered Liam a contender because he'd never tried. Now, it was at the forefront of his intentions. Did she want to consider dating him? Could she ever forgive Wulf?
I'm going to be glad when I go back to work – I'm ready to have other things to concentrate on.
*
“Wait, wait, wait,” Tori practically yelled, slapping her hands down on the kitchen island as she turned to face Katya. It was noon the day after Katya had come home, but the first they'd seen each other.
“I know what you're thinking, and don't -” Katya tried to cut her off.
“There's TWO of them!?”
“- get excited.”
“Two Liams. Two! I mean, wow. I can't even imagine. And you saw him? Are they really identical?” Tori asked. Katya had made the mistake of mentioning Liam's brother.
“I did see him, and yes, they're almost indistinguishable. I was talking to Landon for a while before Liam walked in and I realized it wasn't him,” she replied.