Page 17 of A Tangled Web

He had painted himself into a corner. But he’d be an asshole to regret what they had together just because he hadn’t gotten everything he wanted. Living with Dani, sharing her life, that was worth all of the prolonged sexual frustration and suffering.

Something drastic.

There was an answer there, he could feel it. He just had to find it before she began her new life without him.

***

“Don’t be mad, angel food. She’s fine, I swear. It’s been so long since she had more than one or two drinks around me that I forgot what a lightweight she is.”

Dani heard them through a sangria-soaked haze. The part of her brain that was still working knew she should have stopped drinking when Kaya got that phone call and left in a very un-Kaya-like hurry. Or maybe she should have eaten more, but she’d been so thrown by the entire day that Bailey’s suggestion of getting blind drunk to celebrate their magical bonding session had sounded brilliant.

She rarely drank. She’d seen what alcohol could do to people. How it could change them, make them violent. She never wanted to be that out of control. But the spider. The magic. Liam’s kiss and her apparently shared threesome dreams were too much to take while sober.

She focused on Liam’s blurry expression. Was it disapproving? Angry? Disgusted? “Stop moving so I can see you.”

“I can do that,” Liam said easily, gathering her in his arms and taking her weight from Bailey as he spoke over her shoulder. “Everyone else is gone. You can stay tonight or, if you wait for me to get her upstairs, I can drive you home.”

“Me?” Bailey laughed. “Oh, you are really two peas in a pod, aren’t you? She said the same thing, the little sweetheart. If I thought you’d take advantage, I might pretend I was drunk and ask you to tuck me in. But I’m not even buzzed and we both know better.”

Dani’s arms tightened around Liam possessively and Bailey laughed, patting her on the back fondly. “Aspirin and water, babycakes. That’s the cure for what ails you. Hopefully we can both forget about tonight’s session with Kaya. I wish I could. Get it? Wishes? Never mind. You will in the morning.”

Dani knew Bailey expected a response. “Mmmhmm.”

She heard the door close but she didn’t try to move out of his hold. She was fine exactly where she was. Cozy. With Liam’s arms around her, the room wasn’t spinning quite so much.

“You smell good.”

His surprised laugh jolted her. “After hours in front of a grill and a few spilled beers? I’m sure there’s an aroma, but I wouldn’t call it good.”

“Under that. That’s why I borrow your shirts. I should stop that, right? Friends shouldn’t want to smell each other, should they?”

Did he groan into her hair? “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of irony.”

She pushed a stray curl out of her eyes and squinted up at him. “Huh?”

“Nothing, Shortbread.” He hefted her more securely in his arms and started walking. “Just remembering a conversation I had with the guys.”

“What did you think of Nick’s friend, Stax? We thought he was interesting, in a kind of sexy but also sort of creepy way.”

“And the hits keep on coming,” Liam blew out a loud breath. “Yes, he was super creepy and hopefully we’ll never see him again. You need to get some rest.”

He started up the stairs and she tugged on his shirt, not ready to go to sleep yet. “Kitchen, please, driver. I’m hungry and I haven’t eaten for hours. Is there pie left?”

Liam swung around mid-step, causing Dani to grab her head to ensure it went with her. “Oh God, it’s already starting. Why do people do this to themselves?”

Liam snorted. “My question is, why did you? The first night we met you took one sip of a watered-down rum punch and started to get tipsy. How many glasses of sangria did you have to get this toasted?”

He set her bottom down on the island and turned to open the refrigerator, keeping her weaving form in view.

She bit her lip, trying to do the math in her head. “Six? Or maybe four and a half. I dropped one in the pool when Bailey dared me to howl at the coyote.”

“Son of a bitch, Dani, no wonder you’re soused.”

She lifted her chin, placing her hands on the counter to keep steady. “I. Am not. Soused. That word sounds funny. Soused.”

She saw what he had in his hand and forgot about balancing. “Ooh, pie!”

“I gotcha, darlin’.” She was in Liam’s arms again before she knew she was falling.

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