Page 44 of New Girl in the City
Chapter eleven
Igot ready the next morning like I was getting ready for a date, one that was meant to be more than fine. Claudia would be proud of me and my abandonment of the word. I was going for big, just like she’d instructed me. I dressed in a loose and flowy floral maxi dress hued in golds and vibrant greens. I wore my hair loose, curled with care and arranged specifically to be office appropriate but also alluring. Espadrille sandals and a loose and breezy kimono rounded out the outfit. I had just put in a pair of earrings when my phone buzzed, alerting me to a text. I picked it up on my way towards my front door.
‘Outside. Come on when you’re ready, Princess.’
I smiled down at the text. If I didn’t want to see him so badly, I would stop to get him a cup of coffee. I would make up for it after work with a cocktail. Cocktails would be better. There would be more time for us to just be. Right now, I had to get my ass downstairs. We had about twenty minutes of New York City traffic to contend with, so there would be some time for us to figure out plans for tonight.
I paused, picking up my bag from the end table and looked at the sofa. That sofa was easily one of my favorite items in my apartment now. It held my single most favorite memory since moving in. I expected it would remain the same for a very, very long time. I couldn’t think of any experience or moment that could top my time with Liam on the couch. You didn’t move on from being on top of a man like that easily. Then there was the being under him. It was burned into my memory, making me linger longer than was necessary.
“Get moving, you have the real thing downstairs,” I chided myself and set off towards the door. I locked up and was downstairs in record time, the promise of seeing Liam enough to get a woman moving. I pushed open the gleaming glass doors of my building and perked up. I forced myself to keep my steps even, not wave at him excitedly like I wanted.
I knew it the minute that he saw me. Liam had been leaning against the car, arms crossed in front of him, and his eyes focused uptown. When I was halfway to him, he turned his head and his eyes hit me. He pushed away from the car and stood up straight, arms coming to his sides. I lost the fight trying to play it cool. I sped up my walk and that’s when he hit me with a smile that could only be called beautiful.
“Hi,” I breathed, coming to stand in front of him. My bag slipped off my shoulder, but I didn’t bother to pull it up out of the crook of my arm. I was too busy staring at the handsome man in front of me. The man that only had a smile for me. I watched his eyes soften as they drank me in.
“Morning, Princess.” His voice was low, gravely, like he had just gotten up and I warmed at it. I liked thinking about what Liam was like first thing in the morning, and I couldn’t wait to see it for myself.
“You forgot the spoiled,” I reminded him.
His eyes rolled slightly, and he tucked a hand into one pants pocket while going to the door beside us. He opened it with a slight bow. “My apologies, my spoiled princess.”
“That’s more like it,” I told him, stepping past him and into the car. It was only when I was sitting in the car that I reached out and put a hand to the door, stopping him from shutting it. “But you should know that I’m not just a spoiled princess.”
Liam stopped, one hand on the door, the other on the top of the car as he leaned down until we were eye-level. “Oh? And what else are you?” He asked.
I nodded at him and trailed a finger along the side of the door. “I’m also a greedy princess,” I said, giving him a look I knew was a guaranteed trouser dropper. The one where I looked up through my lashes and hit them with maximum bedroom power. Paired with a slow smile, the look was powerful enough to drop a man to his knees. That was exactly what I wanted from Liam. I had spent the better part of the night tossing and turning, replaying the evening’s events in my head until I had picked out my favorite bits.
Liam’s eyes darkened, the familiar aquamarine of them deepening. I felt the satisfaction at knowing he was now as affected as I had been for hours last night. When I finally had fallen asleep it had only been to shoot awake early that morning to get ready. I had wanted to impress him, after all. That had meant very little sleep.
“A greedy and spoiled princess. Can’t say that I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing one of those before,” he murmured.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Believe it, Mel.” He winked at me and I blushed like I was a naive intern, but I didn’t hate it. In fact, I liked it. Feeling happy and carefree. Being like this didn’t make me feel silly, or like I was making a mistake. Even if it looked that way to anyone else that wasn’t us.
A woman dating her driver, playing with the idea of something real. Something that lasted. It was not going to inspire confidence in the outside world. But they weren’t us, and what the hell did anyone really know anyways?
Nothing. That’s what.
“Okay, I believe you,” I told him without hesitation. I knew he liked that too when he reached out and ran his knuckles lightly against my cheek. He didn’t say anything, just held my eyes for a beat, his thumb stroking the side of my jaw before he stepped back from me. I pulled my hand away from the door and settled into my seat.
He shut the door then and I watched him round the car. Openly appreciating the figure Liam cut in his suit. The man might feel like he was being strangled in his suit, but I saw different. He looked refined and elegant. The suit’s material and fit offered nothing less, but it was enhanced, all wrapped around the rawness that was Liam. He was powerfully built. He definitely didn’t skip leg day...or arm day...or any day, that I could see. I knew his tattoos extended down his arms and wrists to color the backs of his hands. I wanted to see the entirety of where his ink covered him. Although it was fun to think about where they might be without knowing for sure. Imagination was a girl’s best friend.
“What are you thinking about back there?”
I startled and looked away from the back of the car seat I had been staring at. “What?” I asked, still lost in my daydream of Liam’s tattoos.
“You were looking a little distracted. Anything you want to share?” He was pulling away from the curb now and into traffic. I was a little miffed that Liam had to keep his eyes on the road and not on me.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, folding my hands in my lap and giving him an innocent smile.
Liam hummed but said nothing, keeping his attention on the road in front of us. The silence in the car was easy, not awkward. I didn’t feel like I needed to fill the space with empty chit chat and that was...well, it was nice. It had been a long time since anyone but Claudia or Aurora made me comfortable enough to sit in silence and just enjoy it. Some people gave to you, and some took. Liam was one that gave. Even now as he drove he was giving me his steady presence and that was a gift. I hadn’t known how my mornings would shape up without Walter, but Liam had more than made the transition and loss of Walter easier. This was exactly what I had needed. He was exactly what I needed. It was almost as if Walter had known that we would be a good mix, that we would fit. Hadn’t Liam said that before?
I ran through my memory and remembered that he had said Walter had known we would fit. That he had made sure Liam knew all about me, though I had known next to nothing of him. Walter had assured me I would like him. Had said that he had picked him out special for me. Just how special had Walter meant for Liam to be? My eyes narrowed as I thought over the old man playing matchmaker for me.
We had never talked about me dating, but Walter totally would do something like that.
“What did Walter tell you about me?” I asked, finally breaking the silence.
