“Proud may be taking it a little too far.” He winked, hoping to lighten the mood again. “Not embarrassed is good enough for me.”
“Yeah, right!” Her eyes narrowed to smoky gray slits. “As if you aren’t aware of how hot you are, showing off your muscles in that tight shirt. And then you wonder why women act like idiots around you.”
“What are you talking about?”
He gave his head a shake to clear it, but Carly’s outraged face was still glaring up at him.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” She lowered her voice but poked a finger at his chest for emphasis. “Those kinds of muscles don’t happen overnight. You have to work hard to bulk up like that. How’s a woman supposed to ignore them when they’re all in your face? I’m telling you, it’s not easy!”
“It’s not?” All her bluster sounded like a roundabout way of saying she found him attractive. The woman was an enigma, rejecting him one minute, declaring him hot the next. Maybe she wasn’t like his ex after all. But how would he know the difference?
“No, it’s not! And then to go fishing for compliments is like rubbing salt on the wound.”
Was she being serious or simply teasing him?
“I promise I never meant to rub salt anywhere.”
In the silence that followed, he battled his lips and cheeks, commanding them to stay in a solemn position. “Just so you know, I exercise my upper body so I can make up for losing my leg strength. I have to do a lot of heavy lifting with my arms and torso on a daily basis.”
Her clamped jaw went slack, the skin on her face progressing from a rosy flush to a deep shade of crimson. “So you don’t work out just to look all ripped?”
“I’m afraid not.”
She buried her face in her hands. “I’m so embarrassed! I can’t believe I just said you were ripped!”
“The adjective I really liked was hot.”
“I did not use that word!” She turned her face toward him, but kept her protective fingers in place.
“Whatever you say.”
“Did I?” She groaned into her hands. “I did, didn’t I?”
Grinning, he shrugged. “I believe you did.”
“Please kill me now and put me out of my misery.” She tucked her chin further down and sandwiched her head between her bent arms. “This is like that dream where you go to school in your underwear.”
“I never had that dream.” He leaned close to her ear and put gravel in his voice. “But I wouldn’t mind watching yours.”
Chuckles erupted from inside her arm-cocoon, and one hand reached back to slap playfully across his chest.
“I’m just saying the hotness goes both ways.” His grin was wasted on her shielded eyes.
“My goal is to keep my face hidden until the end of time,” Carly said. “Or at least until after we land.”
“Fair enough. Glad to help any way I can. Maybe I could fasten your seatbelt so you don’t have to move your arms. I’ve been told my muscles are ripped and my fingers are impressive.”
The hand delivered another swat, and more muffled chuckles filtered from behind her arms.
“That’s not funny,” she mumbled.
“I beg to differ.”
He laughed, enjoying the moment so much he almost forgot he had a disability of any kind. Then he remembered that even though she’d said he was attractive, something had made her turn down his lunch offer. And in his gut, he knew the most likely reason was his paraplegia.
What else is new?
CHAPTER 3
CARLY
After hiding out as long as reasonably possible in the restroom, Carly returned to her seat. One glance from Liam’s twinkling eyes and she was blushing again.
“I wondered if you were ever coming out.” He stretched his arms over his head in a mock-casual manner.
“Your display of muscles isn’t going to work on me,” she said. “I refuse to look.”
“Drat!” His eyebrows danced. “That was my only weapon.”
It wasn’t true. His charming dimples were also wreaking havoc on her defenses. But she’d had her foot in her mouth enough times for one four-hour flight. No use mentioning his dimples and jamming it in there again.
“Those muscles are lethal,” she said. “Do you have a license to carry?”
She loved the way his eyes crinkled in the corners when he laughed.
The truth was now that they were both joking about their mutual attraction, it felt relatively safe and harmless. Nothing bad could come of it, as long as he never discovered her true identity.
Liam had made no more comments to indicate he was still pondering her familiarity, which meant she’d be home free once they departed the plane. Avoiding him at the conference ought to be easy since he’d be busy demonstrating his company’s latest prosthetics in the exhibition center. If he found time to attend any lectures, he was unlikely to be interested in her obscure nanotechnology presentation.
She knew he’d been offended by her refusal to accept a simple lunch date. But it would hurt him more if he realized who she was and was forced to relive all those painful events. And he’d been quite candid about harboring some ill feelings toward some of the people who’d injured him at the time of the accident. Since his family had sued hers for damages, it wasn’t hard to guess where his grudges lay.
