Page 70 of The Love Chase
“I’d say our little marriage scheme is working.”
At the reminder that this was a scheme—fake—my stomach dropped, and I suddenly was no longer hungry. I stopped grating cheese onto the tortilla.
“Good,” I said, trying to plaster a smile on my face. “That’s great.”
I felt Liam’s stare watching me carefully, but I couldn’t look at him. I didn’t know what would come out of my mouth under the power of his gaze. Especially not after everything that had happened between us.
He opened his mouth, but I turned away, not entirely sure I wanted to hear what he was going to say. I couldn’t handle the thought of him saying it was all fake, that it meant nothing to him. I gingerly lifted the tortilla and set it in the skillet, swirling it around until it was coated in melted butter.
“Do you want a quesadilla?” I blurted. “It’s the best cooked in butter.” I continued rambling, pointing at the pan repeatedly.
Liam cocked his head, clearly confused, but didn’t question my insanity.
“I ate when you were upstairs singing along to Backstreet Boys,” he said, and my cheeks burst into flames.
He was home?!
Liam chuckled at the look on my face.
“I didn’t know you were home,” I said quietly, unable to look him in the eye. Backstreet Boys was my guilty pleasure, especially when I needed to pump myself up to get some cleaning done. I definitely wouldn’t have been belting at the top of my lungs if I had known he was just downstairs, trying to work on his own music.
“It was cute, Em,” he said with a smile, letting one of his fingers draw a line of goosebumps down my arm. “I like hearing you sing.”
“You like listening to a beaver scream?”
Liam blinked at me several times before he burst out laughing. His entire body shook from the force of it, his face a bright shade of red. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him laugh that hard and a surge of satisfaction went through me that I had caused it.
I flipped my quesadilla to the other side, smiling to myself.
Then I suddenly found myself facing Liam’s chest as he pulled me in for an unexpected hug.
“I’ll take you, beaver screaming and all,” he said with a chuckle. Then he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
He kissed my head!
I swear I felt it all the way down to my toes. I couldn’t even be offended that Liam hadn’t denied that my singing was akin to that screaming beaver. I was on cloud nine being wrapped up in his arms, in the comforting scent of his cologne.
At least until the smell of burned cheese filled the air.
“I think your food is well done,” Liam commented with a laugh, nodding behind me where the tortilla was indeed smoking.
Cheeks burning, I raced to turn off the burner. The tortilla was black, most of the cheese having oozed out and burned onto the pan.
“Dang it,” I muttered and heard Liam snort. I dumped the food in the garbage, my appetite gone after the simple way he’d held me in his arms. I could live off Liam’s affection, no other sustenance needed. Slumping against the counter, I gave him a sheepish grin.
“How about I take you out instead?” Liam said, an easy smile on his face.
Take me out? Like…a date?
We had barely left the house, and I assumed it was because Liam didn’t want to be seen in public with me, or that he wanted to avoid paparazzi—though I hadn’t even seen a hint of them the few times I’d gone into town.
Liam had proven to be a homebody, where he could be comfortable and not have to put on a facade. We’d ordered takeout a few times when neither one of us felt like cooking, but outside of the gig that resulted in me puking my guts up, we hadn’t actually gone out in public to eat since the day we said I do.
The thought of going out with him, whether he thought of it as a date or not, lit me up like a lightning strike.
My face must have had my excitement written all over it because he held a hand out to me. “Come on, let’s get some food in you before you really become a screaming beaver.”
Emma