Playing hostess gave her something to do and gave her some time to process. The magnitude of her relief at hashing things out with Liam told her something important. Despite his lie, despite his manipulation, she wanted their marriage. She’d known when she married him that he had a wide controlling streak that manifested in maneuvering people around him to suit himself. Given the chaos and disorder of his childhood, it wasn’t exactly shocking that he’d become so adept at it. With that need for control, it shouldn’t surprise her that he needed a more stable arrangement than their current approach. That didn’t make his manipulation okay. Hunter, though. Hunter was both new and familiar and she wasn’t sure of her footing with him. He and Liam seemed to have come to an accord, and that was good. But she still wasn’t clear on what the ground rules were. She was afraid of making a mistake, of driving him away out of ignorance. He wasn’t exactly known for talking through his feelings before acting upon them.
