style="font-size:15px;"> ‘Shall I pour?’ Liam offered as Laura made no effort to do so.
‘Go ahead,’ Laura invited uncaringly, pacing the room as her thoughts raced.
There was no way Liam could have overlooked that mention of Bobby in the last sentence of the newspaper article. Not that it really told him anything except that she had a son, but she would have preferred that he didn’t even know that much!
And as for that reference to wedding bells for Liam and herself—!
No wonder celebrities got so angry at some of the things the press wrote about them. She and Liam had only been drinking coffee together, and yet Janey Wilson’s article implied so much more.
‘Here.’ Liam put a cup of coffee into her hand now. ‘I know you don’t take sugar, but I’ve put some in anyway. I think you need the energy boost.’
So he remembered how she took her coffee too. Strange, it afforded Laura no satisfaction that he had shown his own remembrance of their past relationship.
The sweetened coffee tasted awful, but Liam had been right about the energy boost making her feel slightly better. She now felt she had enough strength to administer the slap on the face he deserved!
‘Uh-oh.’ Liam eyed her warily over the rim of his own coffee cup as he pretended to back away. ‘Perhaps I put a little too much sugar in your coffee; I certainly recognise that light of battle in your beautiful eyes!’
Laura couldn’t help it—she laughed. He really was the most irritating, arrogant, attractive man she had ever met in her life. His blue eyes had darkened teasingly; the hard strength of his face had softened in amusement. Even if she had no intention of being affected by that attraction!
‘This isn’t funny, Liam,’ she rebuked. Although even to her own ears she sounded less than convincing.
‘No, it isn’t,’ he agreed heavily. ‘I’ve already spoken to Janey, told her exactly what I think of her half-truths and innuendos—’
‘For all the good it will have done you.’ Laura sighed. ‘She’ll probably print another story tomorrow along the lines of you doth protest to much!’
Liam scowled. ‘I think I’ve made it more than clear to Janey that if she prints another word about the two of us I’ll personally wring her neck for her!’
Laura grimaced. ‘I don’t think silencing Janey Wilson will have achieved much.’ She glanced pointedly towards the front of the house, where the reporters were still gathered. ‘I believe they already have several photographs of you arriving at my home to spice up another article for tomorrow’s newspapers!’
‘I really had no idea this would develop into such a circus.’ He shook his head disgustedly.
‘The press are even more vociferous now than they were eight years ago,’ she opined.
‘Obviously, if even a friend like Janey can make something out of nothing,’ Liam replied.
Laura gave the ghost of a smile, nodding ruefully. ‘Perhaps you should have told her she’s eight years out of date where we’re concerned.’
As soon as she had made the remark she wished she could take the words back. The atmosphere had suddenly changed between them, charged with an awareness now that hadn’t been there before. An awareness of each other, of what they had once been to each other…
Liam put down his empty cup, taking a step towards her. ‘Is she?’ he said as he stood only inches away from Laura. ‘I’m not so sure about that,’ he said softly, one of his hands reaching up to cup the side of her face. ‘You’re more beautiful than ever, Laura,’ he groaned.
She was barely breathing, her gaze locked with Liam’s. The ticking of the clock that stood above the fireplace suddenly seemed very loud and intrusive. Her heart, she knew, was beating a much quicker pattern.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think this is a good idea, Liam,’ she murmured throatily.
‘You’re not a child any longer, Laura—’
‘I never was a child where you were concerned,’ she protested.
‘Oh, yes, you were.’ His gaze moved slowly over the perfection of her face, the darkness of her hair, before returning to the softness of her mouth. ‘But you’re a woman now, Laura. A mother, too,’ he added gruffly, looking down at her with gentle enquiry. ‘I knew there was something different about you when we met again, something that couldn’t just be attributed to eight years’ maturity. Obviously being a mother suits you.’
It didn’t suit her; it was what she was. It was all she really wanted to be, and Bobby was the centre of her life.
‘Why didn’t you tell me about your son, Laura?’ Liam prompted softly.
‘I didn’t want to bore you; you’ve made your views on children more than plain,’ she scorned to hide her rising panic. She did not want to discuss Bobby!
‘Only having any of my own,’ Liam refuted. ‘How old is Robert, Laura? Does he look like you?’
Her mouth had gone very dry, and the beating of her heart sounded louder than ever. She didn’t want to answer any of these questions. Wouldn’t answer them!
‘We call him Bobby. Robert was too confusing when it was his father’s name too,’ she responded.
Only to witness the tightening of Liam’s mouth, that nerve pulsing in his throat once again. Obviously he didn’t like this reference to Bobby’s father, Laura’s late husband.
But even though Robert hadn’t been Bobby’s biological father he had been in every other sense there was. Robert had been beside her during her pregnancy, with her during Bobby’s birth, and had involved himself totally in Bobby’s babyhood and infancy, often reaching the baby’s cotside quicker than Laura if Bobby had wakened in the night. Robert had been Bobby’s father!
Laura moved determinedly away from Liam, turning as his hand fell back to his side. ‘I believe we have much more important things to discuss than my son.’ She felt an inward jolt at the possessiveness in her tone. But Bobby was her son, and with Robert gone she felt he was hers alone!
‘I would like to meet him,’ Liam suggested.
She turned to him sharply. ‘Why?’
‘Why not?’
Calm down, Laura, she told herself steadily, breathing deeply. ‘It’s been a difficult time for Bobby since his father died,’ she reasoned. ‘Losing a parent at such a young age has made him all the more attached to the one he has left; I don’t like to confuse him with transient friends.’ Even to her own ears that sounded like a deliberate slap in the face, and she could see by the tightening of Liam’s mouth and the narrowing of his eyes that he had recognised it as such.
His head went back challengingly. ‘Is that why you keep the man currently sharing your bed as a separate part of your life?’
A retaliatory slap! Probably deserved after her own remark, Laura accepted. But it wasn’t one she was
