Escaping Reality

thinking of everything like it’s money spent. I know that’s hard.
    I had to adjust at one point. This is who I am, Amy. You have to get used to
    it.”
    Get used to it. I want the chance to get used to him, not the money.
    “I say,” Liam continues, “we order room service, watch movies, and
    get naked so I can be barbaric in approved territory. Actually I think I’ll call
    that side of me ‘the beast’. Let’s go set him free.”
    “The beast?” I laugh, and I like that he is confident enough to laugh
    at himself, and try to find boundaries that work for us both. “The beast?”
    “That’s right, baby. Let’s go get your things from your apartment.”
    My fear of being attached to him and then losing him comes back
    with a force. Once I move to his hotel indefinitely, I’ll never want to leave. I
    stop dead in my tracks and turn to him.
    “Liam.” We stand there in the middle of the sidewalk, forcing several
    people to walk around us.
    “I like that side of you. I like you.”
    He pulls me hard against him. “I’m insane for you, Amy. ‘Like’ lasted
    all of ten minutes.”
    “I’ve been alone a long time,” I admit, and I embrace being honest. I
    let myself be vulnerable now for fear of being destroyed later. “I’m afraid of
    forgetting how to be without you.” I laugh nervously. “I can’t believe I’m
    telling you this in the middle of a busy sidewalk.”
    He pulls me out of the crowd, settling my back against a brick wall,
    his big body shielding me from the outside. “How long, Amy?”
    “Six years.” It’s out before I ever even process my documented story.
    He curses and scrubs his face. “Since you were eighteen.”
    I nod. “Yes.”
    “Without anyone else to depend on?”
    “Right.”
    “Did you date?”
    “I tried in college. My dorm mate’s legs ended up around my
    boyfriend's neck and I was done with the dating thing.”
    “No wonder you have nightmares and cluster headaches.”
    “They aren’t headaches.” I don’t mean to blurt it out, but it feels
    good to tell him. To feel safe enough to let him into a small part of what the
    battle I’m fighting. “That’s a lie I tell so people won’t think I’m some sort of
    crazy person. They’re blackouts and flashbacks.”
    He kisses me. “That’s not a lie, baby. It’s survival.”
    He’s right. Surviving is all I’ve lived for. Until now. Until him.
    “How?”
    I don’t have to ask what he means. I’ve implied I lost my family all at
    once. I’ve promised myself I will lie to protect him. To ensure he survives,
    but not now. “I can’t talk about it without crumbling.” My eyes prickle, the
    pain of the past biting a path through my body, into my heart, deep into my
    soul. “I…I can’t.”
    He wraps his arm around my neck and lowers his forehead to mine,
    and if I felt sheltered before, I feel completely protected now, like nothing
    exists but Liam. “I’ve had my share of dark days,” he confesses. “I get it. You
    don’t have to do or say anything you don’t want to.”
    I surprise me—and probably him—by laughing, and he leans back to
    look at me. “I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to except,” I amend,
    “change my locks, go to the doctor, and let you spend money on me I don’t
    want you to spend.”
    He smiles, and it is a devastatingly sexy smile. “Exactly. Except those
    things.” He motions me forward. “Let’s go get your things and go lock
    ourselves in the hotel room.”

Chapter Sixteen

    I wake the next morning to the sound of a cell phone ringing, and I
    am naked, on my stomach, and Liam’s heavy leg is draped over mine. Liam
    groans and opens his eyes. “If I ignore it, it will end.”
    I laugh. “But it will ring again, and don’t you have meetings?”
    “The alarm hasn’t gone off. I’m not leaving this bed with you one
    second before I have to.” The cell stops ringing and the alarm goes off. He
    groans again. “I think I’ll call in sick.” The cell starts ringing again. “Oh, well
    hell.” He rolls over and answers the call. “What do you mean he’s not
    here?” He moves to lean on the headboard and I lift up on my elbows, my
    gaze riveted by the tattoo. That sexy, wonderful tattoo I could happily wake
    up to every morning.
    “Emergency my ass,” Liam continues. “This is a power play of some
    sort. Oh, come on.
    You know it is. And no, I’m not coming in until he’s back. That’s the
    intention. Get me committed to