I woke up in Liam’s bed. After I’d given him a blowjob and we’d talked about what he planned on doing to save our reputations, I’d gone home with him. We’d spent more time together, talking – not talking – and I’d decided to stay the night afterward. Until now, I’d left. It had been too dangerous to stay.

But I was throwing caution to the wind.

I turned to Liam and watched him. He was still asleep. He looked calm and peaceful when he was asleep, that perpetual cocky grin wiped off his face. He looked younger. His dark hair was messy, flopping onto his forehead and he looked different when I couldn’t see those ice blue eyes that were the focal point of his face.

I realized with a pang that I cared for him. More than I’d thought I would. I was starting to fall in love with him. How did I know? When I looked at him, something tugged at my heart and it was different than what I’d felt around him, before.

I was in real trouble, now. Before, it had been about my virginity, about the attachment I had read women formed with the first men they slept with. I’d known that Liam’s charm was dangerous.

Now, it was about my love for him. If I cared for him and he didn’t feel the same – which he probably didn’t – I was in for more pain and heartache. How was I going to get through that when it finally came down to it?

Liam opened his eyes as if he’d known I was looking at him and he grinned.

I smiled back at him. I couldn’t help it – no matter how nervous I was about what I felt, his grin thawed me completely and I couldn’t help but feel warm and loving toward him when he looked at me like that.

He leaned forward and kissed me.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said. “We should take tonight as a place to fix everything.”

Really? When had he had a chance to think about all this? I remembered sex, more sex and sleeping.

“Tonight?” I asked.

Liam nodded. “We’re doing another dinner with the investors but Bernard wants to make a public announcement so the press will be there. If we come out as a couple, then, it will set the world at ease and let the investors know that we’re still serious about their business.”

I nodded, rolling it over in my mind.

“That could work,” I said.

Liam kissed me again. “It will work,” he said.

He dropped me back at home an hour later, telling me he had to take care of Kenna and a few other things before he saw me tonight. It was my job to find something spectacular to wear and to leave the rest to him.

I was nervous about the statement. My stomach was a tight knot of nerves. Liam looked determined, calm, collected. This was what he was good at, I realized.

And when he was so confident that this was going to work, why wouldn’t it? I would have to trust him on this.

Which was why, at seven on the dot, I got out of the cab in front of the restaurant wearing a red scoop neck dress and high heels. The dress was longer than what I usually wore but the idea had been to go for responsible and respectable, not sexy or slutty. I’d pinned up my hair, too. There were cameras everywhere, some of them pointed at me with flashes going off in my face. I felt like a celebrity.

Liam waited for me in the restaurant.

“You look fantastic,” he said. “And you’re just on time. We’re up in two minutes.”

I felt like I was going to throw up. This was the best move for our careers, I trusted that, but what if it meant I was forever stuck with a man that didn’t love me the way I loved him? How long would I be able to pull it off before it slowly killed me?

“Come on,” Liam said, taking my hand and kissing it before leading me toward a room where the reporters and cameras were waiting. There were so many more than there were outside it was overwhelming.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Liam said, silencing them with his voice. “Thank you for joining us tonight. I want to make a public statement – I’m aware that there are rumors about the nature of my relationship with Miss Peterson. We’re here to announce that we are, in fact, together. We wanted to keep our personal lives away from the public eye, but the truth is always better than rumors.”

They press erupted. Cameras flashed in my eyes and I wanted to run away.

“Do you love her?” someone asked.

Oh, God. What was his game plan for that one? The agreement when we’d talked about it had been not to lie.

“I do,” Liam said and I snapped my eyes to him. He turned his face to me and his eyes were bright and serious when he looked at me. He wasn’t lying. This was all real. “I love you.”

My stomach turned, erupting in butterflies. He loved me?

“Give us a kiss!” someone called and the others joined in, cheering. Liam laughed.

“Are you up for it?” he asked me.

I nodded, blushing. Liam smiled and grabbed me, spinning me around and dipping me before he pressed his lips against mine.

The press went wild. My heart felt like it leaped out of my chest. When Liam lifted me up again, planting me on wobbly legs, I felt like I was made of air, that if he let go of me I would float away.

“I love you, too,” I breathed, knowing it was fast as hell, but I wanted it. I wanted him… badly.