Page 40 of The Science of Attraction

I smiled without thinking. “He is.”

She studied me for a minute. “And you two have donenothing?”

Another smile. “We kissed.”

“You... kissed?” She rolled her eyes. “He’s managed to tie you in knots with just a kiss. Damn, he’s good.”

I shot her a look. “To be completely honest, he had me in knots long before we ever kissed.”

That silenced her for a good few seconds before, “Holy crap, Jules. It sounds serious. And oh my god, you’re blushing.” She circled her hand in front of my face.

“Shut up.” I slapped her hand away and she laughed.

“So, he’s only here a short time?” she pressed. “So what? You don’t have to marry the guy to get your end off and maybe learn some stuff about yourself and about being with a guy at the same time. And he’s staying on the station, for fuck’s sake. It could hardly be any easier so long as you keep things on the down-low. You were always pretty good at sneaking around when it came to us. But in the meantime, I need you to get out of my cottage. This isn’t exactly how I envisioned my evening ending and I have an ego to repair.”

I reached for her hand. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She bundled me off the barstool and across to the back door. “Just go and do something about it, will you? And I’d like to stay friends if that still works for you.”

I turned at the door. “Me too.”

“Good.” She tapped her cheek for a chaste kiss and I obliged. Then she took both of my hands in hers. “You know you can trust me, right?”

I drew her into a hug. “I never doubted it for a second.”

* * *

Forty-five minutes later, I sat in my ute, in the dark, in the machinery shed, while checking the time on my phone a million times over. Just before eleven. Three minutes since the last time I looked.

Through the shed’s open back door I had a clear line of sight to Liam’s kitchen porch. It sat off the rear of the cottage, its window lit by a soft glow. He was clearly still up, which eliminated that excuse.

Behind me in the rear-vision mirror, the big house remained dark except for the ever-present night light shining in the hallway. But even if someonewasrattling around in the kitchen in the middle of the night, the machinery shed and large shelter trees either side, effectively blocked any view of the cottage.

I turned back to Liam’s cottage in time to catch a shadow pass across the kitchen window. Definitely still awake. My stomach clenched as I remembered how I couldn’t touch Laura or kiss her or feel her hands on me without thinking ofhim, of Liam. Without wantinghimand not her.

God, what a mess.

I got out of the ute and walked toward the back door of the shed, breathing through the nerves that fluttered like a million moths in my belly while my heart beat a tattoo against my ribs. I paused, dragged a hand down my face, and stared again at Liam’s cottage.

I didn’t have a fucking clue what to do with a guy. What to say. How to act. It would likely be a complete disaster. Not to mention, I’d pretty much avoided Liam since the infamous fishing debacle, finding every reason possible not to make it to lunch. I’d made that many fuckups on the job, Tennyson thought I was losing my marbles and Brent couldn’t seem to look at me without cracking a smile. The whole thing was doing my head in.

As I stood there, seemingly paralysed, Liam’s kitchen light switched off and panic gripped my chest.Shit.It was now or never.

My brain spun in a loop at the risk I was about to take.Just how stupid was I?

Apparently, really,reallystupid. Because I stepped through the door and started picking my way through the cloudy, starless gloom toward the dark outline of Liam’s cottage.

The only thing I really knew to be true was that I wanted Liam more than I’d wanted anything, or anyone, in a long, long time. Just the thought of kissing him again set my nerves jangling, knots coiling and uncoiling in my stomach but with excitement, not fear. This wasn’t just random curiosity, and the fact I knew that should’ve been a lot scarier than it was.

But before I could contemplate that too closely or second-guess my decision, I found myself standing on Liam’s back porch staring at his door.

CHAPTERELEVEN

Liam

I was sittingcross-legged in the dark on my yoga mat, trying to clear my mind.

Of him.

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