“Would you like me to take a photo of you and your husband?”
Liam stiffened at the word husband. Lorelei turned her head to find a woman with a small child standing next to them. She’d almost forgotten there were other people around.
“Thanks, that’d be nice,” Liam said, gently taking the camera from her hand and passing it to the woman. “Smile, sweetheart,” he said as the woman lined up the shot.
“There. Lovely picture,” the lady said as she handed the camera back. “You make a beautiful couple. You’ll have gorgeous babies.”
Lorelei glanced up at Liam at the woman’s pronouncement. A shadow crossed his eyes before he blinked. “Thank you.” His voice sounded strained, colder. Or was it her imagination?
He cleared his throat and looked over her shoulder, not meeting her eyes. “If you’ve got enough photos we can head down the Greenwich Street stairs. I think a cold drink and a snack are called for. We’ve worked off the calories on the climb up.”
“Sounds great.” Lorelei said. It was far too soon in their acquaintance to discuss marriage and babies, no matter how often the thought had flitted through her brain during the morning. Díos mío, she was more like her mother than she wanted to think. She only hoped she could make it through the day without dropping onto one knee and proposing.
…
They sat at a small metal table on the sidewalk. He gave up trying not to touch her legs with his. He’d given up trying to stop himself from touching her since she’d slipped her hand in his at the tower. They’d descended the stairs hand in hand, and when she’d stopped to take photos his arm had naturally gone around her shoulders or her waist.
Nope, no touching was no longer an option. Best he could hope for now was to keep to his clothes-on rule. Except the image of Lorelei in leather with thigh-high boots kept creeping into his mind every time he stopped reciting “get a grip” in binary.
“So, where to next, Mr. Tour Guide?” Lorelei sipped a glass of iced tea; her face was slightly flushed from the decent from Telegraph Hill. Still, nothing like it’d be after they made love. Damn, 0100011101…
“Liam?” She put her hand on his on the table.
He coughed, pretending he’d choked on his muffin and not been caught up in an illicit fantasy. “Well, if I had my car I’d suggest we drive over to Golden Gate Park…”
She dug around in her cavernous handbag and pulled out a ratty map. “Golden Gate Park, hmm, we can take the number 10 bus from Sansome and Broadway, get off at Sutter Street and then catch the number 71 at Market and Second.”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Liam swigged his pomegranate juice, wishing it were something stronger. “My car’s five blocks from here.”
“Where’s your sense of adventure?”
Still imagining you in those boots. “It died at the age of sixteen when I got my driver’s license.”
“Niño!” Lorelei stuck her tongue out at him and he had to grip the juice bottle with all his strength to stop himself from pulling her into a kiss. When was the last time a woman had teased him like this? When was the last time a woman hadn’t let him have his own way? There were perks to being rich, but now he was realizing there were pitfalls as well. No woman he’d been with had stood up to him the way Lorelei did. And he liked it.
“All right. As you insist on dragging me around by bus we’d better get a move on. It’s going to take all day at this rate.”
“Hey, you promised me a full day’s sightseeing. Got someplace else you’re supposed to be?”
“Nope. Just wanted to give you the full tour. If I don’t do it right, then the state gets after me and I have to do it all over again.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t be making any complaints.” Her eyes did that quick rove over his body thing they’d done in the coffee shop this morning. Her tongue peeked out of her mouth and licked her upper lip.
He shot to his feet. If she did that one more time he’d drag her to his car and take her back to his place for a sightseeing adventure of an entirely different variety.
An hour and a half later, Liam pulled gently on the oars as they sat in a boat on Stow Lake. Lorelei trailed her fingers in the water, a blissful expression on her face. “This is absolutely gorgeous. I never knew a place like this existed in the city.”
“To be honest, I’ve never been here before, either. I read about it last night and thought it sounded interesting.”
“Are you sure you’re okay rowing? I don’t mind walking around.”
“The view’s better from the water,” he said, distracted. Actually, rowing kept his hands busy and less likely to roam all over her sexy body. He gave himself a mental shake. This was only a game to get into the spirit of Marcus’s character. At least he’d managed to get half a chapter written last night when the hero and heroine first met. It was complete crap and read like a five-year-old had written it, but the words were down. Liam had to give it to his brother. It was slightly easier to write how the main character felt at seeing the heroine, having experienced the same feelings himself a few hours earlier. Today’s adventure had given him further fodder for the growing romance between the characters.
“So, what exactly do you do with computers?” Lorelei looked as though she was trying to keep a grip on reality as well.
“I work for a company that specializes in security. We analyze our clients’ systems for vulnerabilities and then suggest changes or sometimes even create programs to prevent hacks and breaches.”
“Sounds interesting. How do you check for vulnerabilities?”
“We try hacking into their system. The longer it takes, the better their security.”
“Have you ever hacked into a system of someone who wasn’t your client?”
“I plead the fifth on that one,” he said quickly.
She hesitated for a moment then asked, “What company do you work for?”
“IWC Security.” A bead of sweat tricked down his brow and he wiped it with his sleeve. He hadn’t been prepared for an interrogation. Although this is probably what most people talked about at the start of a relationship. Relationship. Even the word sent a shiver through him.
“You said last night they were mega-rich. Have you been with them long?”
“A while now. I work from home at the moment.”