Begin Again novel Chapter 148

Liam held the door for her, and she jumped in the backseat. He joined her a second later, and they pulled away from Anderson Logistics.

"Where are we going?" Eden asked as they left the skyscrapers behind and sped towards Glen Eagles.

"To see my parents since they couldn't make it for the board meeting," he replied, taking her hand in his and held it on his lap.

She relaxed in her seat and stared at their entwined hands, liking the calloused feel of his palm in her soft one.

Liam had good manly hands, thanks to the countless hours he'd spent in the past—back when he was still a motorsport driver—tearing apart his cars' engines and putting them back together again. Eden remembered watching one of his interviews once where he had given an in-depth guide to his car maintenance routine.

"Are you nervous about meeting them?" Liam whispered in her ear as he pulled her close to him. His low, gruff voice sent sparks of awareness twirling at her centre, and she let out a shaky breath, praying he couldn't hear her heart ramming in her chest.

"I've met them before, remember?"

"That was different," Liam murmured, kissing her knuckles.

"I don't see what's changed," Eden said breathlessly.

"After last night," he said, giving her a sidelong glance. "Everything's changed, Princess."

"How so?" She asked. "I'm still your assistant."

"We can change that, you know. You just have to say yes, and we'll go to the courthouse and get married," Liam said, and she made the mistake of looking at him, and like so many times recently, she was powerless against the riptide in his eyes.

She stared at him, once again mindblown by his proposal. When he first brought up the courthouse idea—it was hard to believe it was just hours ago—she thought he was joking and still drowning in postcoital bliss, but now she wasn't sure anymore.

"So?" He nudged her shoulder gently. "What do you say? We can do a summer wedding. But for now, we'll register our marriage."

Eden opened her mouth to say something, but her mind drew a blank. Yes, she was insanely in love with him and couldn't imagine herself with any other man.

But marriage?

It was too soon.

And to be honest, after Simon, she didn't think she would ever want to make such a commitment again. The recent collapse of her parents' union, too, didn't exactly inspire confidence.

Of course, she did.

But marriage was a lifetime commitment. One she once came close to making before one of her best friends brutally ripped it from her. There was no way she would go down that road again. It almost killed her when Simon practically left her at the altar.

"Eden," Liam said, "Don't you want me?"

"I do," she croaked, and he brought his face close to hers in a long, gentle kiss.

"Good," he smiled on her lips. "We want each other. That's all that matters."

She sighed wistfully, knowing very well it wasn't that simple.

They didn't want the same things, and they had very different views about everything.

She would have to make a decision soon about their relationship. But she was happy to put it off for now and focus on the meeting with his parents. So she pried herself away from his arms and leaned back in her seat as she mentally counted backwards from a hundred, trying to compose herself and still her nerves.