14. Piper
FOURTEEN
PIPER
It’s no surprise Liam kisses me like he does everything else in life: meticulously. Purposefully. Obsessively, almost, to the point I wonder if he lied to me about not having sex in four years, because he’s that good.
I never thought I’d have the best kiss of my life with Liam Sullivan, but here we are.
I’m utterly consumed by him. He’s touching me, encouraging me, coaxing sounds out of me I didn’t know I could make, and somehow, I want more .
I adjust our positions, nudging him backward until he’s sitting upright on the couch. I push up onto my knees and straddle his lap, moving on what feels right. His palm slides up my thigh and stops on my waist, just under my shirt. When his thumb strokes across my bare skin, I’m electrified.
Is it supposed to feel this good?
I know it’s only his hand, but I’ve never been so turned on.
It’s like I’m aware of every inch of my body. Hypersensitive to the press of his fingers and the shapes he’s drawing on my skin.
I wonder if the sensations take getting used to.
I wonder if I’ll stop feeling fluttery after we’ve moved on to lesson number ten or twelve.
I wonder if it’s him or if it’s me, the slow and sensual display of affection more than I’ve received in years.
“Slow down,” Liam mumbles when I try to roll my hips. He moves his mouth to my neck, sucking the skin there in a way that makes my eyes roll to the back of my head. Makes my breathing stutter and my fingers dig into his muscles because it feels like I’m about to float away. His tongue licks at my collarbone, and I don’t know if I hate him or love him. “We’re only kissing tonight.”
“Do you not want me?” I ask.
Stronger women wouldn’t consider a question like that at at time like this, but that’s not me.
Not yet.
I’ve been the girl in a new piece of lingerie, posing on the bed and begging to be touched, only to be told no.
I don’t want this to go any further if it’s one-sided.
It’s supposed to be casual and fun, and I’m not looking for romance or candles or rose petals on the bed. That doesn’t mean I want to learn with someone who’s only placating me, though. With someone who’s doing this as a pity favor because they feel sorry for me.
My ego can’t take it.
Liam doesn’t answer. He lifts me off his lap like I weigh nothing more than a sack of feathers. With painstaking care, he puts me on my back again. Nudges his way between my legs and glances down at me.
His eyes are blazing. His face is red. He carefully touches my throat, a juxtaposition to his swollen lips and the rough and hungry way he kissed me a few seconds ago.
“I’m hard as a rock, Piper.” He wraps his fingers around my wrist. Guides my hand down his stomach so I can feel his cock straining against his shorts, and I inhale sharply. “Don’t think for a goddamn second I don’t want you. That I’m not enjoying this.”
When he pulls away, I blink up at him, a silent question hanging there. He gives me a single nod, encouraging me, and I run my fingers across his shorts.
“Wow,” I whisper. I trace down his length and back up, only pulling my hand away when he rocks his hips forward. “That’s because of me? Just from kissing?”
I know how dicks work, but I had no idea something so innocent could elicit this kind of response from a man.
When I kissed Steven, it was bland. Quiet with quick pecks on my mouth that missed half the time.
And he never got hard.
“Yeah.” Liam’s voice is raw and hoarse. Tinged with desire, and I imagine his words against my neck or the curve of my knee. Between my breasts and thighs. “When a guy is in the moment, anything can make him hard.”
“Then why aren’t we doing more? I might not know if your fingers can get me off, but I do know what comes after that.” I gesture at his shorts wildly. “And it has to be more fun than kissing.”
“You deserve to be fucked right, Piper, and that means taking our time. Going slow and working you up to it. I’d hurt you if I tried to push inside you right now, and that’s the last damn thing I’m ever going to do, okay?” I nod, biting my lip to keep from smiling as he continues. “You’re going to listen to me so this can be good for you, and I’m telling you we’re not doing anything else tonight. Okay?”
Hell .
I love bossy Liam.
I’ve heard him shout out calls and bark out orders on the ice. I’ve watched him pinpoint where his teammates were weak on a play, but being on the receiving end unlocks a different side of me.
I want to listen to his every word while also wanting to know what would happen if I disobey. I squirm, a distant thought of his hand on the curve of my ass invades my mind, and I think I might be ruined.
“Okay,” I whisper, the word heavy on my tongue.
His thumb grazes over my nipple and I stifle a groan. It’s too much. It’s not enough. “Good.”
“Do I get to touch you? I want to see what you look like.”
“Not tonight. This is about you, remember?” Liam lowers his mouth to my breast. He blows a hot puff of air against the threadbare cotton of my dress and I whine. “I wonder if I could make you come like this. By teasing you. Riling you up. Would you beg for it?”
I would.
I’d get on my knees and promise everything I have if it meant I could find the release I’m so desperately craving.
A warm, aching feeling starts low in my bely. It’s like a fire; dull at first, then turning into an inferno the longer he touches me. The longer he keeps his mouth inches away from my nipple, another puff of air ghosting over my chest.
I’ve experienced it before when I’ve been in bed and lifting my hips, trying to find the best kind of friction.
It’s never been like this, though.
Powerful.
Addictive.
A whole-body experience.
“He never did,” I admit. “It usually took some work to make me finish. Sometimes I can’t even make myself finish.”
“That’s the wrong thing to tell me, Piper.” He pulls the straps of my dress down. The cool apartment air bites at my skin and his gaze never leaves mine. “I’ve always liked a challenge.”
“Are you always this confident?”
“When it’s something I know I’m going to win I am.”
“Then maybe you should hurry up.”
Liam lifts his eyebrow, a grin curling on his mouth, and I’m worried I said the wrong thing.
Was that sexy? Obnoxious? Too forward? Not enough?
I’m used to keeping my mouth shut in the bedroom. Smiling instead of speaking. Nodding instead of moaning, and I have no clue if I’m doing this right.
“I see the wheels turning in your head,” he says.
“You’re talking to me and I thought I should talk to you. I don’t know if you even like to be talked to, but I?—”
“I like to be talked to. I like to be told what to do too.” His grin melts into a smirk. “Can I look at you, Piper?”
“Look at me?” He lifts his chin my way and understanding dawns. “ Oh . Yes. You can.”
His eyes drag down my body from my neck to my collarbone. A string of expletives tumble from his mouth when he gets to my chest, and I know my skin is bright red.
“ Fuck . Perfect fucking tits. I knew you’d be pretty underneath your clothes.”
He cups my breast and pinches my nipple between his thumb and pointer finger. I don’t bother to hide my moan, and when he lowers his mouth and sucks , I almost levitate off the couch.
“Shit,” I whisper, a new and unexplored sensation clutching me tight. “I like that.”
He moves his mouth to my other nipple, and I think I might die. I think my tombstone is going to have to read perished from the grumpy goalie’s mouth on his living room couch , because he swirls his tongue in a pattern I’ve never felt before, then bites— hard —and I can’t remember my name.
I slip into a trance, reveling in his hands on my body and their exploratory path. When he strokes the underside of my breast, my toes curl. When he pinches my nipple again, adding more pressure than before, I loop my arms around his neck so my hips don’t leave the couch. And when his free hand brushes against the front of my underwear in the cruelest teasing touch, I know I’m going to fall apart.
“I think I need more,” I pant. “I think I’m close. I don’t know. It’s never felt like this before. I’m—” I suck in a sharp breath, not knowing what I need or how to voice it, only that I want him to never, ever stop. “ Please , Liam.”
“There’s that word again.” He moves his hand away from between my legs, and I whimper at the loss. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
“My skin is on fire. There’s this… this energy in my stomach. Like I’m close to something but I can’t reach it yet. I’ve come before but it’s not… this is totally different. It’s never been so intense.”
“Because it hasn’t been done right before. If I keep touching you, do you think you could come?”
“Would it be okay if I did? I-I like what you’re doing.”
I don’t know the proper protocol here, and I just want to be good .
My foreplay knowledge is limited, and I’ve never tipped over the edge to an orgasm without some form of penetration.
To think Liam could do it with only his mouth has me angry about all the pleasure I’ve ever missed out on.
“Fuck, yeah it would be okay if you did. God , I want to see it. I want to hear it. You don’t have to last long for me, Piper, and when you’re close, I want you to let go. Don’t think about anything else besides how good you feel, okay?”
I nod and take a deep breath, exhaling when he puts his mouth on me again. I moan when he strokes up my thigh, his long fingers bunching the skirt of my dress like he wants to see more of me.
When I think he’s going to move to my other breast, Liam surprises me by kissing me again. It’s heavy, passionate, and he nearly folds himself on top of me to get close. I’m not sure where I end and he begins, only that this feels unbelievably right .
I lift my hips, a frantic need pulsing through me and clawing at my spine. He presses his thumb against the front of my underwear, finding my clit without ever breaking our kiss, and I detonate.
My body trembles as I ride the high, the sensation simultaneously unfamiliar and welcome. Liam sends another orgasm racing through me when he rubs his thumb in a slow, torturous circle and whispers, “Take it all, Piper. You’re so good, you deserve it.”
I don’t know how long it takes for me to calm down. Five minutes? Five years? When my legs finally stop shaking and my breathing evens out, I open one eye and find him staring at me.
“Hi,” I whisper shyly, watching with blissed out wonder as his mouth hooks up on the right side in the start of a smile. “I’m afraid I’m dead.”
He runs his hand down my leg and kisses my knee. “You gonna haunt me from the afterlife, Mitchell?”
“I think I might. It’s your fault I feel like this.”
“And how do you feel?”
“I’m not sure I can form coherent sentences and you want to know how I feel?”
“It’s the perfect chance for your exit survey. It’s fresh in your mind.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. “Do you really want an exit survey?”
“Seems like I was promised one.”
“It’s pretty clear how you did. I came on your couch.”
Liam hums. “Yes, you did. What did you like about it?”
My cheeks heat at his blunt question. “Is there going to be a debrief after each lesson?”
“If it’ll help you figure out what worked and what didn’t, we might as well. You’re not going to hurt my feelings.”
“I wouldn’t hurt your feelings if I didn’t come?”
“No. We’d take a break and try again. And if you didn’t finish, that’s fine too.”
“Should I come every time? I’ve had sex more times than I’ve orgasmed. Seems like the math is off there.”
“It’s not a requirement, but a guy should always try. It’s fucking easy for us to get off, and we should be the last priority.”
“Oh.” My smile falls. “So when we’re together, I’m always going to come first?”
“Always.” He looks down at me and frowns. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m learning how much I’ve missed out on, and it’s humiliating. I’m thirty-two. I’ve been married , for god’s sake, and I don’t know the rules of orgasming. He made me come five times, Liam, in ten years. That’s it. I made excuses for it, and now I’m thinking it’s because he didn’t find me attractive. It’s because he didn’t want to spend the time making sure I understood. It’s because I was bad in bed. He had experience before he met me, so I know it’s not him.”
“Don’t do that,” Liam says fiercely. “Don’t blame yourself for his shitty intimacy. It took me ten minutes to figure out you like when I suck on your tits. You don’t need a degree in anatomy to know what turns a woman on, and that tells me he was lazy. Selfish and a giant fucking prick.”
“That’s because you’re a sex god.” I take a deep breath, winded from the conversation and the sweet bursts of pleasure. “You’re an anomaly.”
He barks out a laugh and touches my knee. “That’s the orgasm talking. Give it to me straight, Mitchell.”
“The kissing was nice. I like that thing you did with your tongue.”
“Nice,” Liam repeats. He drags his thumb across his bottom lip and a line of wrinkles form across his forehead like he’s angry at the world. “Weather is nice. A hot shower is nice. I don’t want the way I touch you to be nice . I want it to be fucking mind-blowing.”
“It was good,” I blurt out. “Really, really good. The best kiss I’ve ever had.”
“What about where I touched you? Was it too much?”
“I liked that a lot.” My voice turns quieter as I try to gather my courage. As I try to come to terms with the fact the man in front of me is fixing my dress. Smoothing his hands over the fabric and watching me with a hopeful gaze that makes my heart do a somersault. “I liked when you—” I swallow and rest my hand on my chest. “Touched me here.”
He nods and sits back on his heels. “Good. I’ll do that again next time. Is there anything you didn’t like?”
How you didn’t slip your fingers inside me. How I didn’t get to touch you. How I can’t stop picturing your cock and wondering if I’d even know what to do with it.
“I liked it all.”
“You’re really giving me some confidence here.”
“Four years off and you haven’t lost your touch. You deserve an award. Maybe some gold stars.”
“Watching you come is enough of an award for me, but I’ve always been motivated by positive reinforcement. What did you learn tonight?”
“I didn’t realize I was going to be put on the spot.” I laugh nervously. “Um, I guess that my chest is more sensitive than I thought. I never pictured enjoying your mouth on me, but I did.”
“Does the idea of my mouth gross you out, Pipsqueak? Be honest.”
“ No ! It’s not that. I know how anatomy works, but I always figured Steven never touched me anywhere because it wouldn’t feel good for me.”
“Do you touch your tits when you get off by yourself?”
“No, but I’m going to have to start.” My cheeks flame and I clear my throat. “Do you want me to…” I trail off and glance at him. His hard length is obvious through the thin material of his shorts, and I can’t stop staring. Can’t stop daydreaming about touching him and making him fall apart. “Give you a hand?”
“I can’t tell you how badly I want to say yes to that offer.” Liam tips his head back. The tendons in his neck stretch as he stares at the ceiling, and his hand flexes at his side. “But we’ll save it for next time.”
“There’s going to be a next time?”
I feel drunk on the aftermath of his careful and considerate touch. High on how powerful I feel. Disoriented from the recognition of learning what it’s like to be with someone who wants to be with you too.
More importantly, I feel alive , awakened from a slumber of sorrow and grief. For the first time in forever, I’m catching glimmers of myself, the me that disappeared far too long ago, and I like what I see.
“That was the preseason, Piper. The season is long, with lots of games. Lots of practices.” Liam grazes his fingers down my cheek, and I sigh under his touch. One time, and I crave him. I’m a plant and he’s the sun, and I’m a maniac for his warmth. He curls his hand around my chin and my palm rests on his arm, drawn to him like a magnet. “You and I are going to have a lot of fun.”
“I’ve always liked having fun, and it feels like I’ve been missing out on so much for so long,” I breathe out, a wild exhale rattling my lungs. “Am I allowed to ask for a kiss before I leave, or is that too… relationship-y? I don’t want to cross a line.”
“Not crossing a line at all.” His eyes light up and he leans forward, mouth inches away from mine. His lips press against mine in something soft and slow. “Text me when you’re home?”
“Worried about my wellbeing? That might go outside the scope of the bedroom, Sullivan.”
“It might, but I’m still going to do it. I told you I’m going to treat you right, and this is lesson number one. You should always send your orgasm provider a text when you get home so they know you’re safe. And maybe a picture of your tits too.”
I laugh, light and free. “I’m taking notes right now.”
“Good. There’s going to be a quiz next week.”
“Is there? Maybe you can bring the glow in the dark condoms and I can bring the glow in the dark lingerie. We can see who lights up the best.”
“That’ll be a fun game.” He drops another kiss to my forehead, and I untangle our limbs. I stand and stretch my arms above my head, a happy sensation settling in my bones. “I’m serious, Piper. Let me know when you’re home.”
Is this what it’s like to be cared for?
If Liam can show me this much affection after only one night together, how is the man of my dreams going to treat me?
Will he show me off in public? Dip me low in front of a crowd of people and kiss me like there’s no tomorrow?
He’s proving to me there are good men out there, and for the first time in a long time, I have hope.
“I will. I promise.” With a salute, I check to make sure I’m not going to flash anyone in the hallway then head to the door. “Good night, Liam.”
Liam doesn’t say anything else as I hurry away, but I can feel his attention follow me long after I’ve slipped into the night.