I pointed out defensively, ‘You’re the one who came in here. You kissed me.’
And you loved every second of it, that familiar snide voice pointed out.
His mouth twisted. ‘If I hadn’t, the whole place would have exploded with the tension between us. Clearly this isn’t going to work, and I’m not going to indulge whatever sick little game it is you’re playing.’
Emitting a curse, he ran a hand through his hair and turned around to pick up his discarded T-shirt, pulling it on roughly. His back was to me and he was radiating tension. I hated that he thought I was some kind of tease.
And even though I’d only been working at the bar for a few nights, I liked it. Even Candy had stopped looking at me lasciviously to have a proper conversation with me earlier.
Liam stopped and put his hands on his hips. Clearly building up to saying something. To firing me.
It felt as if there was a huge obstruction in my chest, but I knew I had no choice but to be honest. ‘I can explain.’
Liam shook his head and then turned around, crossing his arms again. Defensive body language. I wasn’t welcome.
‘I don’t really think I’m all that interested,’ he drawled. He opened his mouth to speak again, but I held up a hand, not wanting to hear exactly what he thought of me.
I looked at him across the small staff room, under the fluorescent lights. Even their harsh filter couldn’t diminish his sheer charisma.
‘I’m not a tease.’ I attempted a laugh, but it sounded strangled. ‘I wouldn’t know how to tease my way out of a paper bag.’
Liam snorted derisively, ‘I’d hate to see you try it for real then.’
I winced. Did I deserve that? I recalled his stunned look after he’d come in my mouth. Maybe I did deserve it.
He turned around again and walked to the door, where he stopped and said, ‘When you’re ready come into the office and—’
‘I’ve never come.’ The words had tumbled out of my mouth before I’d even registered just how honest I wanted to be.
Liam went very still, my words hanging in the air. Slowly he turned around, incredulity stamped onto those gorgeous features. Eyes blazing.
‘What did you just say?’
My belly cramped. I’d never told anyone about this. Not even Mary. Only my GP, who had reassured me that the cause was most likely psychological and who had encouraged me to experiment by playing with myself, which would have been fine if he wasn’t a genial seventy-year-old man who looked like Professor Dumbledore from Harry Potter.
I looked Liam straight in the eye and shrugged minutely, determined not to feel ashamed of this. ‘You heard me. I’ve never had an orgasm. It’s really no big deal.’
Yeah, right, my conscience mocked. Anytime I’d heard someone talking about their G spot I felt jealous. At the rate I was going, I’d be lucky to get to the A spot before I hit forty. It was as if I’d committed some crime in a previous life—tortured people by denying them orgasms—and now I was on the other end of some crazy shit-karma fallout.
Liam was staring at me. Ground, swallow me now.
Chapter Seven
The silence stretched to breaking point and then Liam said carefully, ‘It was a big enough deal for you to kick me out the other night.’
My mouth opened, my conscience slapped me even as I denied hotly, ‘That’s not why I kicked you out.’
He came closer, the look in his eyes assessing. ‘You never expected me to notice, did you? You even said it the other night—why should you care when no one else seems to.’
I cursed his recall and my mind went blank. All I could see were those mesmeric eyes.
His voice was rough when he spoke. ‘Let’s go out to the bar to talk about this.’
I opened my mouth to blurt out some excuse, anything to leave, but he quelled me with a look. I wasn’t going anywhere. He took my hand, leading me out of the changing room and back into the bar.
He pointed to a stool at the corner of the bar and said, ‘Sit.’
I muttered caustically as I did, ‘I’m not a dog.’