And then my stomach growled. Loud.
I broke the kiss in horror, my eyes flying open.
Liam chuckled. "Hungry?"
"I…I guess." But he was still giving me that sleepy, delicious look that made me want to fling my arms back around him, roll him onto his back and then straddle those hips that had rocked so deliciously against mine a second ago.
"Your stomach probably has more sense than us," he said in a low voice. "We should eat a big meal and sleep it off before continuing on the race."
"You're probably right," I said, my voice sounding far more normal than I felt. "How long was I asleep?"
"About two hours," he told me, and rolled away to sit on the edge of the bed. "You want to take a shower? We can head out afterward."
"Okay," I said breathlessly, but didn't move. My body was still thinking about that deep, wicked kiss, the way his mouth had moved against mine, the way his hips had ground against my own. That strange and wonderful tongue piercing. His big hand on my breast.
But Liam put on his earbuds and dragged his backpack over to his lap, and began to tap out a song. It was as if I wasn't there all over again. And that made me feel…weird. Like I was just a convenient stand-in for Tesla.
Frowning, I slid off the bed and grabbed my own backpack, heading to the shower.
The shower did a lot to restore my mood. By the time I emerged from it, fresh scrubbed and in a clean set of clothes, I felt almost human again.
Liam sat up when I emerged from the bathroom, my wet hair twisted into a sleek knot on top of my head. "Shall we go out to dinner?"
I smiled, still feeling a little out of sorts after our kiss. "I guess we can't visit Italy and not eat some food before we go, right?"
"Exactly right."
We left our backpacks in the room but kept our necessities - money, passports, room key - with us. I was disappointed to see there was a cameraman waiting in the hall when we left our room, but I supposed that was his job. I ignored it and headed down the hall with Liam, both of us trying to act like we weren't being tailed.
We exchanged a bit more of our money and then walked the city streets, trying to find a place to eat that wouldn't be too pricey. One place smelled absolutely heavenly, but the prices on the street chalkboard were more than I'd wanted to spend.
Liam stopped in front of the restaurant, as if reading my mind. "We could split the food and only spend half the money."
"Now you're talking," I told him, and we headed inside.
As we sat down at one of the tables, I smiled over at Liam and put my napkin in my lap…and froze. This was…
He noticed the weird look on my face and laughed. "This feels like a date, doesn't it?"
I nodded. "You feel it, too?"
"Can't help it," he told me as the waiter approached. He glanced over his shoulder, where the cameraman hovered, still filming. "That kind of kills the mood, though."
That it did.
Our waiter didn't speak a lick of English, but between him and a helpful person at another table, we managed to communicate that we wanted to order one plate and share it. We didn't know what to order, so the waiter suggested in rapid-fire Italian that we get the special of the day. And it wasn't Italian food without wine, so our helper at the next table ordered us two glasses, despite our protests. We looked like a nice young couple, he told us, which made me giggle nervously.
Liam just reached out and took my hand from across the table.
My eyes widened. "What are you doing?"
"He's buying us wine," Liam told me with a grin. "The least we can do is look like a happy couple." When I began to protest, he lifted my hand to his mouth, kissed the back, and murmured, "Good TV, remember?"
"Blackmailer," I said, but I laughed.
He winked at me, and then rubbed his thumb across my knuckles.
A prickle of awareness moved over my skin and I pulled my hand away just as the waiter brought us our wine. I sipped it, then made an exclamation of surprise. "Wow, this is really good."
Liam tasted his, and then agreed. "Doesn't taste a bit like that stuff I stomped earlier today."
I laughed again. "At least you didn't have to stare at giant penises."
He snorted. "I am sure I could have handled that challenge just fine."
I tilted my head. "You're used to handling giant penises?"
He wagged his eyebrows at me, that piercing moving back and forth. "I handle one in particular every day."
"I…walked right into that one, didn't I?"
"You did."
I chuckled and shook my head. "I take full responsibility, then."
"You did well today," he said, his voice growing serious. "Extremely well. I think Brodie messed up in switching partners."