Chapter 18 Juniper #2
My arms stay stubbornly crossed, but my chest aches. “Don’t try to distract me.”
His eyes lift to mine, searching, like he wants to say more but can’t quite find it yet. Then he shifts closer, his voice soft. “Hey. Come here.”
I hesitate, but his hand finds my hip, tugging me the last few inches. I let him, even though my heart is hammering so hard it might break free.
“You came to see me?”
I shrug. “I was in the neighborhood.”
He huffs a laugh, but it’s soft. Like he doesn’t want to break whatever moment this is.
“You said you care about me?”
“I was stressed,” I mumble, looking anywhere but at him. “People say odd things under duress.”
“Is this the part where you take it all back? Say you were only being nice to a severely wounded man?”
I roll my eyes. “I was trying to give you a reason to live, obviously. Thought it might help. Maybe I’ll swing by the other triage stations to see if anyone else needs a little pick-me-up since you obviously don’t need it.”
Deflecting with humor, I try to step back, but his grip tightens, not letting me go.
His voice drops, low and certain. “Did you forget, Firefly?”
My breath catches.
“Hmm?” I ask, even though I already know what he’s going to say.
“You’re mine.” His voice is fierce and intimate and terrifying in the best way.
He said it last night and now here he’s doing it again. Liam trying to claim me when he’s done nothing but make me feel uncertain about what he wants.
“You don’t get to say that. Not after last year.” I swallow. “What happened last night doesn’t mean everything is forgotten.”
“I know.” He brushes his nose against my cheek. “And I hate what I did. Rejecting you like that—I’ve hated it every day since.”
“Then why did you do it?”
His forehead rests against mine, and for a second, he just breathes.
“Because I was scared. Because I didn’t want to lose Jasper, and I didn’t think I was worth the risk to you. But I was wrong.”
I don’t answer. I can’t.
“It’s only five stitches,” he says, his lips skimming the corner of my mouth. “But the second I hit the snow, all I could think about was you. Not my head. Not Jasper. You.”
His voice turns to a whisper. “Thought about kissing you. Holding you. Thought about pressing inside you for the first time and making you mine for real.”
“Liam,” I whisper, heart thudding as desire curls tight and hot between my thighs, but with something else tangled in it. More than need and ache, there’s hope.
His thumb skims just beneath the hem of my sweater, brushing bare skin as he exhales a shaky breath. “You put yourself out there last year. You told me what you wanted, and I didn’t handle it well.”
I blink, surprised by the rawness in his voice.
“I was scared,” he says, forehead still pressed to mine. “Of screwing everything up. Of not being enough. But I realize now, I did the worst thing anyway. I left you wondering.”
I swallow hard, my throat tight.
“This is me putting myself out there,” he continues. “This is my confession. I want you. Not just for now. Not because we’re sharing a space or getting tangled up in nostalgia or the ridiculous errands your mom has us doing together.”
He pulls back just enough to look at me—really look at me.
“I felt it last year, and I feel it even more now. And I’m done pretending otherwise.”
My chest tightens, causing my breath to catch. It’s everything I thought I wanted to hear, but it also changes everything.
“Then make me yours, Liam.”
He watches me for one breathless beat.
Then two.
Like he’s memorizing the moment.
His hand moves from my hip to the small of my back, pulling me flush against him. My lips part on instinct, a soft gasp slipping out as I feel the hard line of him pressed to my stomach.
“We have to be quiet,” I whisper, not sure if it’s a warning or a challenge.
His lips curl against mine, a slow, dangerous smile. “Then you’ll have to be good.”
He walks me backward until my ass bumps the one solid wall of this curtained-off space, his mouth capturing mine in a kiss that starts sweet, but quickly deepens. His tongue tangles with mine, coaxing, teasing…claiming.
One of his hands grips my thigh, tugging my leg over his hip so we’re completely connected. The other slides up under my sweater, palm warm and steady on my bare skin, before gliding lower, down the front of my leggings.
I gasp softly into his mouth as his fingers slide beneath my underwear, finding me wet.
“Christ, Firefly,” he breathes against my jaw. “You’re soaked.”
A soft moan escapes before I catch it.
His free hand covers my mouth, not to silence me—to anchor me. His eyes are locked on mine, pupils wide with lust, reverence, and hunger.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispers. “Let me have you.”
His fingers stroke through me with expert ease, teasing slow circles against my clit that make my knees tremble. I bury my face in his neck, panting quietly against his warm skin. His toe-curling scent only spurs me on. I bite down gently on the skin at his collarbone to keep from making a sound.
“Last night was perfect, but this?” he murmurs, his finger teasing at my entrance. “I’ve thought about how much I want this,” he fills me with his fingers. “To make you fall apart under my touch.”
He’s right. Last night was fun, but now, with his fingers thrusting inside me, it’s another level of pleasure.
His fingers move with infuriating precision. Like somehow he’s studied me. Like he knows exactly what I need and how I need it.
My head tips back against the wall, eyes squeezed shut as I bite down on the sleeve of his sweater to keep quiet. The sounds I want to make would definitely get us kicked out.
“God, Juni,” he murmurs, low and wrecked against my neck. “You’re so wet for me. You’ve been like this all day, haven’t you? Just thinking about how you got off on my leg last night.”
His fingers curl, slow and deep, and I clench around them.
“You’re perfect like this. So fucking tight. So ready.”
I whimper, a sound I try to swallow.
Maybe this was a bad idea. I’ve never been touched by Liam like this before. I’m not sure I can keep quiet.
Every nerve in my body feels lit from within.
It’s slow and deliberate. Devastating. Like he’s savoring every second.
Meanwhile, I’m trembling. On the verge of falling apart.
“You’re doing so good for me,” he whispers. “Letting me take care of you like this. Just let go, baby. I’ve got you.”
I want to look at him, but I know if I do, if I meet those heated eyes and see what I already feel—how much he wants me, how much he cares—I’ll come undone too fast.
But then he leans in, his lips brushing my ear. “Let go, Firefly. Come for me.”
And I do.
Right there. With his fingers coaxing me through it, his hand braced on the wall beside my head, and his lips brushing the shell of my ear. It’s too much and not enough. It’s everything.
I stifle my moan in his shoulder as my body clenches around his fingers, heat and light rippling through me in waves.
When it’s over, I melt against him, breathless and stunned, clinging to the fabric of his sweater.
He doesn’t say anything at first. Just holds me. Lets me come back to earth.
And that’s almost worse—because when Liam touches me like this, sees me like this, I stop being a woman trying to protect her heart. I become the girl who’s always wanted him to keep it.