She dished herself a small helping of spaghetti and took two of the meatballs. Liam eyed her plate. “Is that all you’re going to have?”
“Don’t know if I could eat more than this. But there’ll be leftovers, right?” Mina put on her best smile. “I bet this is even better the second day.”
It felt so weird, to be talking about leftover food when he’d agreed to be the father of her baby. She’d just eat instead. A little bit, in case—in case Liam decided to get down and dirty in the middle of the meal. But—no. The decision belonged to her. Heat flooded her face. How was she going to do it? Waggle her eyebrows at him? Climb onto his lap on the sofa? Actually say the words? What words would those be? Liam, I’d like to have sex with you now for procreation purposes.
Lord.
The lights in the cabin flickered and went out. Mina froze, her fork poised over her plate. She’d made it three or four bites into the spaghetti. The flavors burst on her tongue, salty and savory, but her stomach felt tight with nerves. Liam pushed his chair back. “Sit tight,” he told her, and then the flashlight on his phone illuminated. “I’ll go light the lanterns.”
“Lanterns?”
“You might not’ve seen them. Battery-powered. Made to look like the old-fashioned gas ones. Sometimes the power goes out when there’s too much snow on the power lines around here.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Mina. “That’s happened to me before.” Who was she, making small talk about snow on power lines? Liam moved into the other room and Mina buried her face in her hands. Get yourself together, girl. She padded behind him into the living room, where Liam was adding more wood to the fire. The warm glow lit up his face, and a corresponding flame came to life low in her belly.
“I’m going to go out and walk around the cabin to make sure everything’s okay.”
She swallowed hard. “What kinds of things do you have out there?”
“Oh, I want to make sure the firewood doesn’t get too buried. I should check this side of the fence, too. Sometimes animals get out of the barn and head to strange places during storms. I can’t get ahold of Cade right now, but I can make sure his cattle are all right. Or at least not wandering by the fence.”
“Okay. Sounds good.” And—when did you think we should have sex, again? It’s part of your stipulations that we do it the old-fashioned way, which means we’re going to have to get busy at some point. I’m going to have to jump in with both feet, so—
Liam stood up and brushed his hands off, watching her. “Did you have something else in mind?”
“Not yet,” Mina said quickly. Kitchen. The kitchen was a better place to be. She started clearing the dishes while Liam shrugged on his coat, hat, and gloves. At the door he caught her in his gaze, flashed her a smile, and whistled for Lucky. Lucky came running and circled Liam’s feet. “Have fun out there.” She waited until the door had closed behind the two of them to let out a groan. This waiting was the worst. She’d thought the struggle to make her baby decision in the first place had been the hardest point of all, but no—this was harder.
Well. She didn’t have to make it harder on herself. Mina washed and dried the dishes, then spruced up the rest of the kitchen. There. It was hard to be in the mood for anything with dirty dishes hanging around. She laughed out loud at that thought. Liam Wells could make even the dirtiest kitchen a moot point. He was the attraction, not the room. Mina imagined the cold kissing his cheeks while she rummaged through the drawers in the kitchen. She imagined her own lips pressing against the side of his neck, and a delighted shiver moving through his body. The drawer offered up a set of tea lights in plastic wrap. Sure, why not? Mina lit them one by one on the small table at the arm of the sofa, then went back into the kitchen. Her entire body felt as though she stood on the edge of a precipice, waiting for the moment when Liam would open the door and come back in. She found a bottle of schnapps and set it out by the candles.
The door opened with a bang and Lucky ran in at full speed, snow clinging to his fur. Liam’s boots hit the ground with two solid thuds, and then he stood in the doorway to the living room. “What’re you doing in here?” His eyes scanned across the candles and the schnapps.
“Just…” Mina shrugged. “Sprucing things up a little bit.”
He grinned, then came across the room and opened the cupboard beneath the TV. Mina held her breath. Was that where he kept condoms? Wait. He didn’t need a condom. Oh, god. This was about to get so, so real. Liam came up with a box. Checkers. “Care to play a few rounds?”
They settled on the braided rug and poured glasses of schnapps, and Mina felt herself falling into the easy rhythm of the game. She beat him handily three times, and on the final move Liam leaned back on the rug and groaned. “You’re too good at this. Let’s play another game.”
Her face was hot from the schnapps and her own victory. “Name the game, Liam Wells.”
“Truth or dare.” He jutted his chin at her, his green eyes sparkling in the lantern lights. “You pick first.”
“Truth.” The word tasted safe on her tongue, and Mina almost instantly regretted it.
Liam considered her. “Most embarrassing moment.”
She laughed out loud, old shame mixing with the current buzz from her drink. “My bathing suit top came off at the public pool when I was fifteen. I didn’t know it until I’d been above water for a long time.”
Liam winced. “The worst.”
“What about you? Truth or dare?”
His full lips pressed into a hard line, then relaxed. “Truth.”
“Who—” Mina had to force the words out. “Who was your first kiss?”
Liam looked at the ceiling. “I kissed Katie Gregory in the sixth grade, on a dare from one of the other guys. She was on a dare from one of her friends. It was fast and awkward.” He gave a definitive nod. “First kiss. Truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Why did you come back to Benton Ridge?”
This was an easy one. “To be near Aileen.” Maybe life would be more exciting somewhere else, but for now, that closeness mattered more than anything else. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth.” Liam’s voice had gone a bit low and husky.
“How come you’re not in a relationship with anybody?” Mina gestured toward him with the bottle of schnapps. “You’re attractive. You could find somebody.”
He laughed out loud, the sound lighting her up. “Because my life revolves around the rodeo circuit. I don’t have time to slow down and spend all my time working on a relationship.” Liam looked her in the eye, the air weighted with meaning. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” she whispered.
“Why aren’t you in a relationship?”
The truth—the pure, unadulterated truth—welled up in her chest like a sob, but when she went to speak the words something shifted. Maybe it was being so close to Liam, with his eyes on her. “Nobody has ever fit in to…to what I want a relationship to look like.” Not since you.
“I can see that,” Liam said solemnly.
Mina felt it overtaking her again—the urge to lean in and kiss him. This time, there was less debate than ever before. She knocked the bottle of schnapps out of the way and lunged over the checkers board, scattering the pieces. Liam caught her like he’d expected it all along. Their lips came together in a burst of sweetness and softness and lust. Mina melted into his hard body. He was so strong, so sturdy, and everything in her gave an enormous sigh of relief. Need coiled tight between her legs. “I’m ready now, Liam,” she murmured against his lips, and then she found herself being lifted in his arms and placed on her back on the pullout sofa.