Page 32 of New Girl in the City
How did that one word gruffly uttered name from this man have me feeling lightheaded and buzzing again? He hadn’t even been looking at me when I’d asked him, he’d been navigating a crowded downtown street, neatly avoiding a bike messenger and getting around what looked to be a soccer mom brigade. That had had his full attention, but he’d still managed to get under my skin with that nickname.
I blew out a deep breath and shook my head, wiggling my foot nervously. I needed to get my shit together. I looked down and, what the hell, were my palms sweaty? I scowled, realizing that yes, they were indeed wet and clammy. And for what? The answer came to me almost immediately and my eyes widened. I realized I was nervous about seeing Liam. Not the sometimes artist. My palms were sweaty on account of seeing my driver.
God why was it that all I could think about was my legs wrapped around his waist, his hand on my thigh. The way his hand felt on my wrist.
“Fuck,” I breathed out.
My driver. My hot as hell driver.
I groaned, eyes squeezing shut before I heard a car pull up and a window roll down.
“What’d I tell you about keeping an eye on your surroundings?” Liam barked at me, and I groaned again.
“Stop nagging,” I said, but I opened my eyes and fought back a smile at the sight of Liam glaring at me.
“Get in the car,” he ordered, jerking a thumb at the door.
“What? Not going to open the door for the princess?” I tilted my head to the side and fixed him with a raised eyebrow. “I can hear you worrying from here, Liam.”
Liam rolled his eyes, just a slight movement but I caught it all the same. For a second I was sure he wasn’t going to move, so I went to open the door when he surprised me and threw the car into park, before stalking out of it and towards me.
“All right, all right,” he muttered, rounding the car and power walking towards me with a smile tugging at the corner of his full lips. “You look real good,” he said when he came to stand in front of me.
“Thank you.” I gave a slight curtsey. “My friend Claudia helped me get ready for, you know…” My voice trailed off and he nodded.
“Yeah, for your date.” He opened the car door for me and leaned against it. “She does good work,” he said, eyes moving over me before lingering on my legs for a second. I blushed realizing he was checking me out.
“Hey, my eyes are up here,” I said pointing at my face and he winked at me.
“Yeah, I see that.”
“You sure about that?”
“Get in the car, Mel.”
“Yeah, fine.”
I got in the car and had the pleasure of watching Liam’s eyes once again move over my legs before he shut the door and went to his side. It was nice knowing I looked good, good enough to pull Liam’s attention that is. I wondered briefly if the sometimes artist would care about what I was wearing or think I looked good, but then Liam was opening his door and getting in and I found I didn’t really care so much what my date thought, one way or another.
“So what schmuck you meeting at this gallery?”
I laughed but looked out the window rather than at Liam “He’s an artist,” I told him. “It’s his opening.”
He snorted but said nothing, and that was when I looked at him.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing, Mel,” he said, but I could tell he definitely had something to say.
“You’ve got something to say,” I said, stating the obvious. He met my eyes in the mirror.
Liam shrugged, eyes drifting back to the road. “Maybe,” was all he said, and I resisted the urge to kick the back of his seat.
“What is it? You can tell me. We’re friends, right? I mean you nearly kicked that guy’s ass for me. Plus, I flipped him off. We’re accomplices, if nothing else, with you showing me how to sort of fight. So I think that makes us sort of friends.”
He laughed, just a huff of a sound and shrugged. “Yeah, I guess we are.”
“Okay, so then spill.”
