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uncertain. He always set the course for his relationships,
and his partners happily followed his lead, but he found himself deferring to
Alisa, waiting for her signal before he made his next move.
    He wanted her with a ferocity that left him
grasping to make sense of it. He was a middle-aged man with decades of
experience with women, yet he’d never experienced this kind of immediate
connection with a woman, especially not one passing through his life for only
one night.
    The thought of saying good-bye to her
tomorrow, knowing he would never see her again, made his gut coil in knots of
tension that stirred his body. He needed more time to get to know her, to try
and decipher this inexplicable hold she seemed to have over him. He’d seen her
admiring that diamond ring in the window, and instead of being disgusted by her
greed, as he would with another date, he wanted her to have it. Just because it
made her smile.
    His Blackberry buzzed and the distraction relieved
him. Business, as always, would remind him of what was important. “Bryson.” He
winced when he realized he’d said that loud enough for her to overhear, had she
been listening.
    “Hey, bro.”
    “I thought you’d be sipping Daiquiris on
the beach with Tracey by now.” His younger brother, Matt, served as Bryson’s
CFO and his right hand. “What’s wrong? You do something to piss her off
already?”
    Matt laughed. “First of all, I don’t sip Daiquiris,
and second of all, I know how to keep my woman happy, which is more than I can
say for you.”
    Liam knew how to keep a woman happy; he
just chose not to. He smiled when he heard the shower in Alisa’s bathroom. Just
knowing she was only a few feet away gave him a sense of peace he hadn’t felt
in a long, long time. “What can I do for you?”
    “I wanted to talk to you about that Lawson
deal. Paul told me—”
    “Can this wait until we get back to the
office, Matt? I’m kinda busy right now.”
    “Since when does anything take precedence
over business? You got another big deal in the works you haven’t told me about?
Hey, were you able to buy that piece of land in Costa Rica you’ve had your eye
on? That one is gonna be—”
    “No, this has nothing to do with business.”
He knew he couldn’t get his brother off the phone unless he told him the truth.
“I, uh, met someone on the plane.”
    Matt chuckled. “Okay, gimme the deets.”
    Liam wasn’t ready to talk about Alisa, not
when he couldn’t even make sense of what was happening himself. “She’s great. I
like her. A lot.”
    “What the hell is goin’ on with you?”
    “Nothing. What’re you talking about?”
    “You’re usually so nonchalant about women.
When was the last time you liked one… a lot? Especially one you just met?”
    Liam winced when he heard his sister-in-law’s
voice in the background. Matt and Tracey had been on him for years about
settling down and finding a suitable role model for his thirteen-year-old daughter,
Abby. “Would you guys back off? I’m still getting to know her.”
    “But…”
    “But nothing, it’s not going anywhere. She
lives in Nashville.”
    “Damn it.”
    Liam shared the sentiment. It was just his
luck; the most intriguing women he’d met… ever… and she lived thousands of
miles away. “Besides, she’s younger, a lot younger.”
    “How young are we talking?”
    “Twenty-five.”
    Matt laughed. “You had me scared there for
a minute. I thought you were gonna tell me she was barely legal.”
    “Shut up.”
    “So, tell me about her.”
    “God, you sound like such a girl. What are
we, in high school?”
    “You can either tell me or I’ll put my wife
on the phone and let her grill you.”
    “Don’t even think about.” Liam pinched the
bridge of his nose, knowing he had no choice but to concede. “The truth is, I
don’t know a lot about her yet, aside from her age, the fact that she lives in
Nashville, works in fashion, was engaged, is a daddy’s girl…”
    “Hold