“I don’t think I want to, Mara.”
“Right.” My heart hiccups. “You wouldn’t enjoy good food and pleasant conversation and getting laid.”
“Is that how your date went?” he asks softly, not looking at me anymore.
“I just meant—” I’m flustered. “You might enjoy dating the right person.”
“Stop channeling Helena.”
I laugh. “Gotta keep up the household tradition of being nosy about people’s personal lives.” Something occurs to me, and I gasp. “You know what’s really shocking?”
“What?”
“That Helena never tried to set us up. Like, you and me. Together.”
“Yeah, that’s—” Liam falls silent abruptly, as though something occurred to him, too. He stares into the middle distance for a moment and then lets out a low, deep laugh. “Helena.”
“What?” He doesn’t answer me. So I repeat, “Liam? What?”
“I just realized that...” He shakes his head, amused. “Nothing, Mara.” I want to insist till he explains what revelation he appears to have reached, but he puts a controller in my hand and says, “Let’s play.”
“Okay. Who am I supposed to kill, and how do I do it?”
He smiles at me, and a million little sparks crackle down my spine. “I thought you’d never ask.”
Chapter 10
Three weeks ago
When Liam arrives home, I can barely feel my toes, my teeth are chattering, and I am more blanket than human. He studies me from the entrance of the living room while pulling off his tie, lips pressed together in what looks a lot like amusement.
Asshole.
He observes me for long moments before coming closer. Then he crouches in front of me, widens the gap between the layers of blankets to better see my eyes, and says, “I’m afraid to ask.”
“Th-th-the heat isn’t working. I already looked into it—I think a fuse has b-blown. I called the guy who fixed it last t-time, he should b-be here in half an hour.”
Liam cocks his head. “You’re under three Snuggies. Why are your lips blue?”
“It’s freezing! I can’t get warm.”
“It’s not that cold.”
“Maybe it’s not that cold when you have six hundred pounds of muscles to insulate you, but I’m gonna d-d-die.”
“Are you.”
“Of hypothermia.”
He is definitely pressing his lips together to avoid smiling. “Would you like to borrow my baby-seal fur coat?”
I hesitate. “Do you really have one?”
“Would you want it, if I did?”
“I’m scared to find out.”
He shakes his head and sits next to me on the couch. “Come here.”