Free The Electrician's Code by Clarissa Draper Page B

flat shortly after Kendra’s death.
    “Where did you get all these posters on your wall? Do you like them?” the girl asked.
    Yes, of course he liked them. Why would he collect things he didn’t like? Liam smiled at the girl before replying, “I collected them from various shops around London. Some are the original but others are replicas.”
    His mobile buzzed. A text from Sophia. Don’t come. Will contact you tomorrow about the Merc.
    “How many are there?”
    He looked up. “Sorry?”
    “Oh, I asked how many posters you have.”
    He shrugged. “Maybe a hundred or so.”
    “Well, I like this one.” She pointed at the Invasion of the Saucer Men. “Aha, and this one is funny too.” She pointed to The Monster That Challenged the World.
    “Yeah, they’re great.” He wasn’t really interested in the conversation. He’d had the same one with all his guests. On occasion, he was tempted to take them off his walls. After he dished up the food, he held up her plate.
    She pranced to the kitchen in her stockings. “I had to get out of my shoes. After hours in four inch heels, my feet are dead.” She wiggled her toes. “Anyway, the food looks delicious. Where should we eat?”
    “On the settee if that’s all right with you.”
    It must have been all right for she quickly sat down and happily held the plate of food on her lap. Liam didn’t own a dining room table. He normally ate on the sofa while watching the telly or over his sink. After grabbing two beers from the fridge, he sat down next to her.
    “Dig in . . .” He meant to say her name but bloody hell if he could think of it. Sarah? Susan? Something with an S. Or was it a W? Wanda? He shook his head. She had a fine arse; that’s all he remembered about her in the office. He had planned to say no when she asked him for a drink but today she wore that fine red skirt. In the end, she didn’t talk much on their drive home, she just fiddled with the dials on the radio in Sophia’s car and adjusted her lipstick in the mirror.
    “Care for a beer?” he asked.
    “Sure.”
    Liam handed her a beer. “Most girls don’t like beer.”
    “No, I like it.” With all her might, she tried to unscrew the top.
    “You have to use a bottle opener on that one.”
    She pranced into the kitchen again. With a quick flip, the top flew off onto the floor. As his guest bent over to retrieve the green top, Liam leaned over to have a look. Perfectly fine. She turned her head to look at him and caught him. He gave her a smile.
    “You like what you see?”
    So, the woman was not as simple as he made her out to be. She stood and laid the top on the counter with a plunk. “So, why do you like collecting beer bottles?” She pointed to the bottles on the fireplace mantle.
    “I suppose it stems from laziness really. I put old ones up there instead of throwing them away and slowly I’ve been adding to the collection. Not sure what I’m going to do with them. The cockroaches have made quite a nest up there.”
    She laughed. Yes, of course she would. And he still didn’t know her name.
    They ate while watching Creature of the Black Lagoon. On one bathroom break, Liam rummaged through the girl’s bag and found out her name was Sarah. He felt so much better. Now he could sleep with her if he felt like it.
    “You haven’t touched your beer,” he said when she returned.
    “No, I do like it I just prefer to sip rather than take gulps. Why? How many have you had?”
    He looked down at the three nearest his plate. So he drank. He was a man, three was nothing.
    “Look, Sarah, I shouldn’t have—”
    But she cut him off when she leaned over and kissed him on the lips.
    “God, I’ve fancied you for so long,” she said.
    He meant to push her away and tell her that he wasn’t that sort of bloke, but she bit at his lip . . . and she smelled delicious.
     
    The next morning, Liam’s alarm awoke him at six-thirty. He picked up his mobile phone and ran his thumb over the smooth