“Love, ha. The only love he’s interested in is the one that results in bastards like him. Just like Liam’s doing to you, his father seduced me, promised me the world. All he gave me was a brat who destroyed my marriage.”
Lorelei’s blood began to simmer. There was no warmth or maternal feelings in the other woman. “Seems to me you destroyed your own marriage. And his father did give you one incredible gift—Liam.”
“You don’t know my son.”
“No, I think it’s you who doesn’t know him. Liam hasn’t seduced me and he’s made no promises he won’t keep. So far all he’s asked for is my time, and he’s given me much more than that. He’s a brilliant, caring man who puts others before himself.”
“Would a caring man throw his own mother out?”
“How can he throw you out when you’ve never let him in? This is Liam’s house. I believe he gets to decide who lives here. You’ve missed out on something wonderful, your son. I only hope for your sake it isn’t too late.”
Lorelei opened the door and slipped through it before Amy could respond. Judging by the thud that hit the door about Lorelei’s head level, her parting words hadn’t been well received.
The Aston Martin pulled out of the garage and when Liam stopped near the door she got in. His face was still a mask of fury; she could see the muscle in his jaw clenching and unclenching. He pulled away from the house with a squeal of the powerful car’s tires.
When they neared the gates, Lorelei put her hand on Liam’s arm. “Can you stop the car for a moment?”
“Did you forget something?” He braked and was about to shift into reverse.
“No.” When he turned to her she put her hand up to his face, running her thumb over his upper cheek to relieve some of the tension there. She undid her belt and hoisted herself up as far as she could in the bucket seats, pulling his head down toward hers. Touching her lips to his, she kissed him with a compassion that surprised even her. A soft sigh escaped his lips. “I didn’t want that ugly scene to be what you remembered of our trip here,” she whispered.
He kissed her again, echoing her gentleness. The all-consuming passion of earlier in the day was replaced by a tenderness that swelled her heart to epic proportions. When he pulled back Lorelei almost cried at the loss of contact.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
He waited while she refastened her seat belt before driving off. The muscle in his cheek no longer throbbed, but his knuckles still showed white on the steering wheel. She had the feeling if she wasn’t sitting next to him, he’d be back in San Francisco in a third of the time it took them to get there.
“So, what should we do with the rest of the day? You mentioned a winery tour and a nice restaurant earlier.”
Liam glanced at her and gave her a ghost of a smile. “Do you mind if we leave the tour for another time? Why don’t we take the coastal road back and then get something to eat in San Francisco?”
“Sure, sounds nice.”
The drive back to the Bay Area, while featuring stunning coastal scenery, was conducted in near silence. Liam answered politely when she asked a question, yet she could tell his mind was elsewhere. Was he thinking about what his mother said about his father? Was he curious to meet him now? Lorelei didn’t dare ask. What would she do?
Wasn’t she really in a similar situation? Her dad was getting out of prison in a couple years. Was she going to meet him when he got out? Before she’d met Liam it was a question she’d asked herself on a daily basis. Since Liam, it had seemed to matter less and less.
The traffic grew thicker when they got closer to the city, and they crawled along the highway. With nothing to look at except other bored commuters, she turned to gaze at the man next to her. “Do you want to talk about today?”
“No.”
“It may help…”
He heaved a huge sigh. “Lorelei, I’ve dealt with that woman all my life. She cares only for herself. If she thinks I’m selfish then I probably inherited that from her. I’ll have my lawyer get her out of the house, and when I’m sure she’s left we can go back. Marcus was the one thing we had in common. Now that he’s gone, I don’t want to see her ever again.” His tone was firm, adamant, and the glare he shot her as she opened her mouth again withered the words on her tongue.
They crept on for another couple of miles. “What are you going to tell your children when they want to know their grandmother?” She couldn’t let it go, she couldn’t. It wasn’t right to have family and completely cut them out of your life. With a sudden flash she knew she would see her father when he was free. She didn’t have the courage to face him in prison, but in the comfort of her mother’s home, she’d like to get to know the man whose DNA she shared.
“I’m not going to have children so it’s a moot argument.”
With her epiphany about her father, Lorelei had almost forgotten the point she’d been trying to make with Liam. The fact that he didn’t want children hit her so hard she forgot all about his mother and their cantankerous relationship.
“You don’t want children? Why not? You’d make a great father.”
“I had a rotten childhood. My mother was only the tip of the iceberg. No way I’d put another human being through that. No kids.” The muscle in his jaw was back to throbbing and the hands that had relaxed on the wheel clenched again.
She opened her mouth to protest that his children wouldn’t share the same childhood; they would have a father to love and protect them. It didn’t seem to matter.
…
Liam glanced over at Lorelei as silence once again consumed the car. She stared out the window and he thought he spotted the shimmer of a tear on her cheek. All right, maybe he shouldn’t have been so curt about not wanting children. Lorelei would make a fabulous mom. She’d sew Halloween costumes and bake cookies and read bedtime stories to her children. They’d be so loved they probably wouldn’t ever want to leave home. Liam tried to imagine for a second what his life might have been if he’d had a mother like that. He shook his head. Since when had he started living in fantasyland? Seeing his mother again had reminded him of who and what he was—an unlovable bastard.
He shot another glance at the woman next to him as he slowed and shifted into second gear. Tell her now. Tell her it was over. They obviously wanted different things in life. This was the perfect exit strategy. Catching sight of the sign for the Golden Gate Bridge, he changed lanes. He should exit their relationship as well. He had enough to complete the novel now. He’d experienced the rush of getting to know someone, known warmth and companionship. He’d…loved.