Chapter 40
LONDON
“Awhole new shipment of furniture is being delivered today,” I told Liam as we walked into our office building.
With my coffee in one hand and my sunglasses in the other, I looked around our lobby and smiled. “It’s a bit sparse in here, so I’ve ordered some things to give the place a bit of character and we’re getting some more stuff for upstairs as well.”
Liam stopped walking abruptly, both hands shooting to his head.
He dragged his fingers through the thick, dark locks as he blew out a measured, heavy breath.
“We have a reception desk, a coffee station, and couches. What more could we possibly need? And I shouldn’t have to ask this, but I’m going to anyway.
Did you pay the extra fee for them to build all this furniture you ordered? ”
My stomach went ice cold. “I honestly don’t know. I don’t think so. I assumed it was included. I don’t remember seeing a box to tick, and if there was one, I would have done it.”
He groaned, scrubbing his palms over his face before he walked away from me. When he reached the elevators, he pressed the call button and shook his head but didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, I stared at his back, desperately trying to remember if I’d seen anything about an extra fee being payable.
The longer I stared at him though, the less I was thinking about the furniture and who would be assembling it.
Instead, I found myself running my gaze across his broad shoulders and the way his white button-down stretched just so over them.
I glanced at his denim-clad ass and drank in the tapering of his torso from his shoulders to his hips.
When the elevator doors slid open in front of him, he suddenly turned to look at me over his shoulder. “Are you coming? We’re going to have to get the team rolling if we’re really going to be spending the morning assembling furniture we don’t need.”
“We do need it,” I said, snapping myself out of my Liam’s-ass induced trance and striding forward to join him in the elevator. “We only have the bare necessities at the moment. No one wants only that. We need flair. Style. Comfort.”
“It’s an office. We need desks, chairs, computers, and coffee.” He stood beside me, arms crossed over his chest as he sighed. “What exactly did you order?”
“You’ll see.” I smiled and drew in a deep breath, inhaling the faint scent of Liam on the air in there.
God, he smells good.
As the doors opened, I darted out, needing to get away before I licked him or something equally as embarrassing. We headed to our separate offices before calling the team together for a quick meeting, and then I got a call to let me know that my order had arrived.
Liam came downstairs with me, watching as the delivery guys wheeled in boxes upon boxes of furniture we would have to assemble. He glanced at me after I’d signed for the delivery, head shaking again when the guys left without so much as a word being said about them putting it all together for us.
“Yep. I don’t think you paid the extra fee.”
“Well, I guess this is our project, then.” I stared at the piles of boxes now decorating the floor and winced. “I might’ve gone a tad overboard when I placed this order. I didn’t think I got quite this much stuff.”
Liam smirked. “Don’t worry. It’s not that much. It’ll take us no time at all.”
Four hours later, no time at all had turned into both of us sweating and huffing, and we weren’t even halfway through.
My shoes were off and Liam’s sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, our receptionist and assistant now manning the phones and answering emails in our offices since neither of us could be there right then.
“That’s it,” I finally declared, wiping my brow with my forearm before I started rummaging through the boxes and packaging material on the floor. “If all else fails, read the instructions. I’ve had enough of your manly intuition. It’s not getting us anywhere.”
He straightened up, hair messy from the hours spent shoving his hands through it and a slight flush on his cheeks.
Those eyes were blazing as he scoffed and brought his hands to his hips.
“How is it not getting us anywhere? We’ve assembled at least forty-five pieces of furniture so far.
This isn’t a manly intuition problem. It’s a London Walker shopping problem. ”
“I don’t have any problems with shopping.”
“I can see that.” He cast a glance toward the pile of boxes still waiting for us. “Just a quick question. Were you planning on hiring a whole army, or only half?”
“This is for the people we already have,” I said. “Just you wait until we need to start hiring more.”
“I’m busy that day.”
I sighed. “Lazy bones.”
“There’s a difference between being lazy and being opposed to wasting time on tasks that are a waste of time.”
“If you’d just read the instruction manual, we wouldn’t be wasting any time.” I finally located the booklet in the box of the table we were trying to set up. After briefly flipping through it, I shoved it toward him, open to the correct page. “See, I told you we were doing it wrong.”
“How could we be doing it wrong? It’s a table. There are four legs and a top.”
“Then why isn’t it up yet?” I asked, pointing at the screws lying around his feet. “If it was that easy, those would be in the table and not on the floor.”
“It’s not my fault you bought a table with funny, entwined legs.”
“They’re not funny. They’re trendy. This is a really popular design.”
“Popular with lunatics,” he muttered, picking two of the legs back up and studying them. “Why can’t these just be straight? I’m telling you, we need to slide one of these into a slot on each corner and we’ll be done with this one.”
“But that’s not how it works, so it won’t work,” I said. “If you’d just look at the darn picture, you’ll see that it’s more like a trestle design. There are two triangles on each side and a bar between them.”
“That makes zero sense.” He eyed the square-shaped frame at his feet and glanced back at the legs in his hands. “Okay, wait. I think I got it. We slot these in just like I said, and then we balance that between them.”
Frustration coiled through me, tightening even my veins at this point. “Wow. You really are committed to doing this completely wrong, but with complete confidence, aren’t you?”
“It’s called instinct. Look it up.”
“Right,” I said. “That’s what raccoons use when they dig through the trash. Us logical, thinking humans know we should read the instructions.”
“No, logical, thinking humans pay the extra damn fee for the professionals to build this stuff when they’ve ordered enough furniture for an entire legion of employees that they don’t even have.”
“Just pass me that wrench and let me show you how it’s done.” I nodded at the tiny tool that had come with the table.
Liam set down the legs and bent over to get the wrench, but instead of handing it to me, he sank back down onto his knees and inspected the square-shaped frame again.
I groaned. “Give it up already, would you? I’ve got the picture that shows us exactly how this needs to be done and I’m going to do it myself. ”
“Don’t be a brat.”
“Don’t be a dick.” I dropped down next to him with my knees on the tiles. The bright sunshine coming in through the windows warmed my back as I reached for the tool.
Liam yanked it to the side and I scowled, leaning over and holding out my hand. “Give it.”
“Nope. I’m going to get this done so I can prove to you once and for all that manly intuition is more effective than a manual with drawings in it that look like they’ve been done by five-year-olds.”
I held his gaze but made a reach for the wrench again when I thought he wasn’t looking. Unfortunately, he must’ve seen my movement because he moved with me, twisting his body to put it between me and his arm that he’d extended all the way back, away from where I was.
Suddenly, however, his face was only inches away from my own, his lips parted and his eyes locked on mine. In my periphery, I saw his tongue sliding across those lips and desire sparked deep within, just about obliterating my annoyance with the guy.
Liam’s gaze dropped to my mouth and I bent over a little, about to kiss him when I heard the elevator doors slide open. “Ms. Walker, I’m sorry to bother you guys. I just wanted to know where the copy paper is for the printer upstairs. Mrs. Carrington—”
My assistant stopped speaking when she saw us and I sat back, quickly getting up and sending her a smile. A slight bit of embarrassment took root in my belly, but I pushed past it to show her where the paper was.
When I got back, I gave him a serious look. “Okay, no more funny business. I’d hate for the staff to start thinking that we’re together.”
“God forbid,” he said dryly. “Not a chance in the world.”
“Never. For sure, no.”
He looked up at me. “I could never be with the scary monster from the kitchen.”
I groaned. “The only woman who’s ever loved you is your mother.”
“Okay, that was hurtful.” He grinned and pumped his eyebrows. “My sister loves me too.”
I laughed and he joined in, chuckling. He finally managed to put together the first trestle for the table.
Deciding that the roast of Liam for not following the instruction was over, I got to work, pulling out a little side table from a box and assembling it myself before carrying it over to the couches in the lobby.
In the end, it took us most of the day to assemble all the furniture and move every piece to its new home, but by the time we left, our offices were finally starting to feel more permanent. Less like a pop-up that could be gone in the wink of an eye.
Jerry and Lorelei had invited us with them to a barbecue hosted by a guy who was working with Jerry on his resort, and Liam and I headed home to get ready. Our friends had already gone ahead, but Jerry had texted Liam the address and we raced through quick showers before we went to join them.
As soon as we got to the barbecue, Lorelei raced across the beach in front of the house to me, grinning excitedly as she took my arm. “There’s someone here I want to introduce you to. His name is Brandon and he’s in finance. He’s going to be working with Jerry and he’s delicious.”
“Thanks, but I should probably stick close to my awkward cousin, Liam, for now,” I said, but when I glanced at him standing by my side, he shook his head.
Jaw a little tighter than usual, he waved me toward Lori. “No, you should go talk to delicious Brandon in finance. I spy a little blonde over there with my name on it.”
He nodded at a gorgeous woman standing near the grill, and my insides rebelled against the thought of him hitting on her, but I forced a smile anyway. “Alright, then. Lead the way, Lori. Let’s go meet delicious Brandon in finance.”
She chuckled, giving each of us a strange look before she shrugged a shoulder and took my arm. “That’s him over there.”
As she inclined her chin toward a guy who was tall, blond, and handsome, I took a quick peek over my shoulder to see Liam making a beeline to the woman he’d pointed out to me before. Without even being able to hear what he was saying when he reached her, I knew he had his charmer voice on.
It was written all over the smile on his face. At the sight of it, I felt a weird, stabbing pain in my heart that I’d never felt when it came to him. We’re just friends, though. Don’t be ridiculous. We need to be talking to other people. This is a good thing.
I refocused on delicious Brandon as Lori led me to him, deciding to actually invest in the conversation. He truly was a good-looking man and he had a nice, easy-going smile. I could definitely do worse, and I was going to give him a real chance tonight.
Before these strange feelings I’d been having about Liam got even stronger—and before something happened that neither of us could ever take back.