“Maybe,” she said. She dropped her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. She had no idea where they were going, and she felt too weary to care.
He drove to a restaurant on the water called Jim’s Shack. “Have you ever eaten here?” he asked as he parked the car.
“No,” she answered.
The exterior of the building looked as though it should have been condemned years ago. The wood was weathered and splintered, but inside it looked brand-new. Bright lights on the pier reflected off the water and gave the dining area a glow. The bar wound halfway around the restaurant. It was crowded, but they didn’t have to wait for a table. Turned out, Liam knew the owner, Jim, who personally escorted them to a little alcove overlooking the water.
Allison stared out at the serene view of the gentle waves lapping against the pier, and the tension that had coiled inside her began to unwind. A waiter took their drink orders, and as soon as he left, Allison said, “How do you know the owner?”
Liam shrugged. “Who didn’t you want Dan to be polite to?”
Two could play this game, she decided, so she shrugged in answer and smiled at him.
Recognizing her stall tactics, he laughed before answering, “I know the owner of this establishment because I came here with Alec last year, and as it turned out, Alec went to school with him, so, of course, they had to catch up. Jim sat and drank with us. Okay, now it’s your turn.”
“My aunt. I had an argument with my aunt and uncle today” was all she said.
“These are the people who raised you?”
“No, my sister, Charlotte, raised me. She took care of me and protected me from them.”
She gazed out the window again while she gathered her thoughts. She suddenly had this bizarre desire to pour her heart out to him, yet at the same time she didn’t want him to know how screwed-up her life had been . . . and how pathetic. His opinion of her mattered, and for the life of her she couldn’t understand why. On the other hand, he already knew she was a criminal—she’d admitted breaking the law countless times—what difference did it make if he also knew about her personal problems?
Liam waited for her to explain further. When she remained silent, he sat back and watched her. He was trying to figure out why he was so drawn to her. Yes, she was incredibly sexy and attractive. Yeah, right. Attractive? She was a sight more than simply attractive. She was stunning. Every man’s head had turned as she walked to their table. She didn’t notice. He sure as certain did. He’d dated a lot of beautiful women, but to him there was something special about Allison, and it had nothing to do with her looks. He liked the fact that she was so damn smart. He didn’t like seeing her so vulnerable, though. The overwhelming urge to protect her returned. That wasn’t unusual, was it? He was an FBI agent, and wasn’t it his job to protect and serve? Damn right it was.
Where did wanting to take her to bed fall under his job description? He really needed to get it together and stop thinking about how good it would be with her. But first, he was going to have to stop staring at her mouth.
“What are you thinking about?” she asked.
He wondered how she would react if he told her the truth. “Why do you ask?”
“You looked so intense. Not so much now, though.”
Jim stopped by to say hello again and to find out what they wanted for dinner.
“We’re really slammed tonight,” he remarked in his thick Boston accent as he pulled out a chair and sat, never taking his eyes off Allison. He reminded her of an old sea captain. There were deep lines in his face from exposure to sun and wind.
Liam made the introductions. Allison smiled and said hello, but Jim appeared to be tongue-tied. He finally found his voice and said hello to her. Then he turned to Liam and said, “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Liam agreed, then changed the subject. “What’s on the menu tonight?”
“You’ll want the chowder.”
Allison didn’t have much of an appetite, and she would have been fine with a couple of crackers, but she followed Jim’s recommendation. As soon as she tasted the chowder, her appetite came back. It was absolutely delicious. She ate every bit of it, and when she was finished, she sipped hot tea while she watched Liam devour a second bowl of chowder. She had never met anyone like him before, and she’d certainly never been this attracted to any other man. She was beginning to feel she didn’t have to be on her guard every second.
Though she tried, she couldn’t stop thinking of how it would feel if he kissed her. She’d probably melt in his arms. The crazy idea made her smile. She was letting her imagination get out of hand, she decided. So, to take her mind off her silly fantasy, she turned her thoughts back to the serious issues in her life, not the least of which was the fact that she and her sister had been lied to for years.
As though reading her mind, Liam broke into her thoughts. “What happened today?”
His question caught her by surprise. “Why do you think something happened?” she asked.
“The look on your face when you opened the door. You were upset. You said you’d had an argument with your aunt and uncle.”
“It was a bad day. That’s all.”
“Tell me,” he said. He started to add, “You’ll feel better,” but caught himself in time. He had the feeling she’d get her back up. Or bolt. She was already sitting on the edge of her chair.
“Do you have any idea how bossy you are?”
“Yes, I do,” he answered with a smile.
The dimple in his cheek was messing with her concentration. She wondered how he would react if she jumped across the table and kissed him. Probably put her in handcuffs and take her to the nearest mental ward.
“It’s always stressful whenever I have to go back to Emerson,” she told him, her voice hesitant.
“I would imagine so.”
Just how much had he dug up researching her background? He sounded so understanding. Maybe it was his sympathetic tone or the tenderness she saw in his eyes that made her want to tell him everything. She paused for a second and then did exactly that. She didn’t embellish; she simply explained what life had been like living with her relatives and how she had finally broken ties with them.
Her voice shook when she mentioned the life insurance policy. “Thinking about it makes me so angry.” She took a deep breath to calm herself. “What do you do when you’re angry and frustrated?”
“I like to hit.”
“Hit?”
He nodded. “When I need to get rid of the anger, I look for a rugby game. It can get pretty brutal, which I love. I played a lot of rugby growing up, but if I can’t find a game, I go to the nearest batting cages and hit baseballs until I wind down. Frustration is another matter.”
“Oh? How do you get rid of frustration?”
The dimple was back. “Sex.” He saw the instant blush and had to laugh again. “What do you do when you’re frustrated?”
She couldn’t bring herself to tell him that when her frustration grew, she wrote code. No, she couldn’t tell him that because it was such a nerdy thing to admit.
“Same thing,” she said with a straight face. She lowered her eyes and asked, “Tell me, Liam, are you frustrated now?”
He stared at her a long minute before answering, “You’re playing with fire. It doesn’t matter how frustrated I am. This is work and you’re an asset. I don’t have sex with assets.”
She could feel her cheeks burning. Flirting wasn’t her forte, and she should never have tried being coy. “I was not asking you to have sex.”
Too late she realized she should have kept her voice low. Half the restaurant had heard her. A rather good-looking man wearing a Celtics T-shirt at the end of the bar yelled, “I’ll have sex with you, honey, anytime, anyplace.”
She buried her face in her hands. “Oh God,” she groaned.
A second man at the bar, pointing to the two on either side of him, chimed in, “Forget these guys. They’re amateurs. I’m the man you want, sweet cheeks.”
When she raised her head and glanced around the room, a dozen people were looking at her and laughing. She was mortified.