Free When We Kiss by Darcy Burke Page A

that. It’s one of the things we had in common, remember?”
    He remembered. He also knew that he kept his sports life and his love life completely separate. Extreme sports were a constant he relied upon, whereas his love life was more of an extracurricular activity. Wow, put like that, he sounded really fucked up.
    He ignored her question. “I need to get back to Ribbon Ridge.”
    â€œI’ll walk with you.”
    Great.
    She turned and fell into step beside him as he strode from the hangar. “So what’s on tap next? I heard you dislocated your shoulder heli-skiing. Bummer. I wondered if you’d maybe try BASE jumping.”
    He flashed her a glance but said nothing.
    â€œMaybe you’re not ready, especially since you just recovered.”
    â€œI just jumped out of an airplane.” He didn’t bother suppressing his sarcasm.
    She laughed, and his nerves frayed. “True. But then you’re Iron Man, aren’t you? Right down to the playboy mentality and the rich-boy arrogance.” Her gaze flicked to his chest. “And I’m pretty sure you’ve got a battery-operated heart, if you have one at all.”
    Ouch. She had his number.
    Except he hadn’t been much of a playboy since Alex died. Or since he’d started hooking up with Aubrey, depending on how you looked at it. And for the first time, Liam was looking at it. Why hadn’t he gone back to his revolving arm candy? Every six months or so he moved on to someone new. Someone who wasn’t looking for forever, just a great, mutually satisfying time. Once in a while he wound up with someone like Whitney, but he’d been pretty careful to date women who understood his rules up front.
    â€œListen, Whitney, I know you’re still interested in me, but I told you in the beginning that I wasn’t a long-term guy. Then, when we parted ways, I made it clear that our fling was done. End of story.”
    She frowned. “That means we can’t even be friends?” Something dawned in her eyes, something that turned her frown into a half-smile, something that gave him another uneasy feeling. “You have no women friends.”
    Sure he did. He thought of Tori and Sara, but they were his sisters. He could argue they were friends, but it wasn’t the same, was it? Damn, he really didn’t have any women friends. Nevertheless, he wasn’t going to invite Whitney Parker to be the first. In fact, he was through trying to be polite. “Your dad is gunning for my family. He’s trying to destroy my brother’s legacy. You and I are not going to be friends.” He quickened his pace toward his bike.
    She caught up to him as he picked his helmet up. “Hey, that’s not fair. That’s my dad, not me.”
    He cocked his head to the side and stared at her. “You can’t be serious. Anyway, even if it wasn’t for that clusterfuck, I’m not interested in you romantically or as a friend.”
    She pursed her plump, probably collagen-enhanced lips. “Too bad. If you were, I’d talk to my dad and get him to stop his attack.”
    Her use of the word attack told him all he needed to know. The Parkers were on an offensive, and Liam didn’t believe for one minute that she was blameless. “You know, my family thinks this is some jilted boyfriend revenge plot hatched by your dad, but I’m beginning to think you and he are both going after the people who dumped you. Pathetic.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him. “I wonder what your family would think if they knew you used to date me.”
    Date? “I wouldn’t characterize it that way. Whenever I came to town, we got drunk and screwed. Try to at least be honest about that.”
    Her jaw hardened. “Whatever. I still think your family’s reaction would be interesting.”
    Interesting was not the word he would use. They’d be pissed, not that Liam could’ve known that