Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
LIAM
I’m barely holding it together as I park the car in front of Juniper’s flat.
Juniper’s laugh is still echoing in my ears. The sight of her pressed shoulder to shoulder with my brother, that flirty little smirk on her lips, the way she leaned in just to watch me twitch. I’ve been climbing the walls in silence all night.
She’s having fun. Which would be fine, great even, if she weren’t using my own damn brother to get under my skin. Doesn’t she know? She’s already there. Been there for a year now and it’s time for me to show her exactly what she does to me.
Outside her flat, Beck stretches dramatically. “Okay. What’s next? Should we hit the bar? Juni, I bet you’re a good pool player. You’ve got good wrist control.”
Juniper bites back a laugh.
I grip the door to her flat building a little harder than necessary. “Actually,” I say, calmly, too calmly, “I think you’re going to crash early, Beck.”
He blinks. “What? No way. I’ve got energy for days. We should go out.”
“You should go out,” I tell him pointedly, blocking the doorway. “We’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”
His eyes flick from me to Juniper, who has the audacity to be smirking again, then back to me.
Beck raises his hands. “Right. Copy that. Message received. I’ll just…” He gestures vaguely down the street. “Disappear.”
“Excellent choice.”
I open the door, then after ushering Juniper in, slam it behind us.
Silence.
Juniper stands at the foot of the stairs, that smug little smile pulling at her mouth again.
“Subtle.”
I take a slow step toward her. Then another. Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t move.
“I’ve spent all night watching you flirt with my brother,” I murmur, voice low. “Letting him whisper in your ear. Letting him make you laugh.”
She shrugs innocently. “I didn’t let him. He’s funny.”
“Oh, he’s dead.”
She tips her head, eyes dancing. “He said you were wound up. Guess he was right.”
I’m in front of her now, hands braced on either side of the railing. “I’m wound up because I’ve spent hours watching the woman I want let someone else pretend to be in my place.”
She blinks up at me, her breath catching when I lean in. But I don’t kiss her. Not yet. I want her dizzy with it. I want her squirming with the awareness that I’m holding back.
“I’ve had to sit across from you all night pretending I didn’t want to drag you out of that chair and kiss you silly in front of everyone.” I press closer, mouth at her ear. “I’m about to make you forget anyone else was ever in the room.”
Her smug expression falters. “You’re not good at subtle.”
“That’s right,” I say, inching closer. “I’m good at showing up late. At not saying what I should’ve said last year. At letting you think I didn’t care when I’ve thought about you every day since.”
Her lips part just slightly, like she’s ready to interrupt, but I don’t let her. Not this time.
“I’m good at screwing things up,” I say, softer now, “but I’m really damn good at learning from my mistakes.”
She crosses her arms—not defensive, just needing something to do with her hands it appears. “What are you saying, Liam?”
My jaw tightens. “Like I told you at the hospital. I was scared.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Of me?”
“Of how much I wanted you. Of what it would mean if I let myself really go there.” I let a breath out slowly, steadying myself. “But I’m not scared now.”
A long beat passes between us. I can practically hear her thinking, weighing the words, the timing, the risk.
She tilts her head. “Still not subtle.”
I grin. “I’ll work on it.”
Juniper bites her lip, clearly trying to hold back a smile. “So, dragging me out of a chair, huh?”
“Still on the table.”
Her laugh escapes, soft and reluctant, but it’s real. And in that sound, in the way she’s still here—not running, not brushing me off—I feel the tension between us shift.
“We should go inside.”
I nod and follow her up the staircase.
Inside her flat, we slip off our shoes and hang up our coats.
Trying to calm down, I take a moment in the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth.
When I enter her room, Juniper’s sitting on the edge of her bed, still in that deep burgundy dress that’s been tormenting me all night. Her legs are crossed, hands braced behind her, watching me like she’s not sure what move I’ll make next, or if she wants to make the next move herself.
I stand in the doorway for a moment, drinking her in while her eyes stay locked on mine.
“Hey,” I say quietly.
“Hey.”
I move toward her, slow and steady. “If you want me on the couch—”
“No,” she says immediately, voice firm. “I want you here.”
That’s all the invitation I need.
I climb onto the bed, pushing her backwards until she’s pinned beneath me, my hands braced on either side of her head.
The moment my pelvis drops against hers, we both groan. It feels so right to have her under me. To enjoy the feel of her soft curves reaching up to meet me without an ounce of guilt. I’m so fucking captivated by her, tonight only made it more apparent.
I brush a loose hair off her forehead, letting my fingers continue to trace over the shell of her ear then her jaw.
“I didn’t like seeing you and Beck flirting.”
“Is that what we were doing?” She lifts her brows, a small laugh escaping her throat. “It felt like a one man show I just happened to be sitting next to.”
“I don’t think you understand how possessive I can be,” I murmur, dipping my head closer, letting my fingers lightly squeeze at the base of her neck.
“So show me,” she says, voice low and daring.
I pause, just long enough for her to read the hunger in my eyes, then I release her. Stepping back, until I’m standing again and I can see her fully, I curl my finger. “Come here.”
She sits up, taking my hands when I offer them. No hesitation, just heat and trust and the same ache I’ve been feeling since the moment I saw her again.
I guide her over to the full-length mirror by her closet and position her in front of me.
“Ask me to help you with your zipper.”
Her eyes meet mine in the mirror. She knows this scene. It’s chapter thirteen of her annotated book that I’ve been reading.
Turning her head to speak over her shoulder, she looks up at me from under her long lashes. “Will you unzip me?”
My head bows to examine the zipper. Then, with deft fingers, I easily glide it down her back.
“Thanks,” she says, holding the now loosened dress up to her chest.
“You’re welcome.”
I trace the outline of the tattoo behind her ear. It’s an open book with three hearts floating off the pages.
The sight of her ink has me already breaking character.
“Is this new?” I ask, combing her hair to the other side to get a better view.
“I got it when I opened Blush & Binding. To commemorate the event.”
“I like it.” I brush my thumb over the tattoo, and she shivers.
“Are you cold?”
She shakes her head. “Quite the opposite.”
“Hmm.” With my nose buried in her hair, my lips press against the sensitive skin of her neck. I focus on returning to the scene we’re role playing. The one where two quarreling roommates become lovers. “I liked us tonight. It was almost as if you could stand me.”
“Liam.” She sighs.
Fuck. I love hearing my name on her lips.
I turn my head, meeting her eyes in the mirror.
“What am I going to do with you, Firefly?”
The scene is a loose interpretation because I can’t not talk to her like she’s mine.
“Touch me.”
On cue, she releases the top of her dress and it pools at her feet.
The visual of Juniper standing in front of the mirror in her bra, lacy thong and sheer tights is electrifying. My fingers have been inside her, yet I’ve never seen her. Not like this. Not fully exposed.
I don’t regret what happened at the hospital today—not for a second—but I’m dying to see all of her now, in the warm light of her bedroom, where nothing about this feels rushed or hidden.
She shifts slightly, her gaze flicking between our reflections and mine over her shoulder.
“This isn’t quite the same as the book,” she whispers. “She didn’t have a bra on. Or tights. Because it wasn’t winter.”
“That’s an easy fix.”
She reaches for the waistband of her tights, but I stop her by closing my hand gently over hers. “Let me do it.”
A tiny gasp escapes her lips. It’s barely a sound, but it makes my cock strain against the zipper of my pants.
This isn’t about me, though.
I kneel behind her, my fingers curling inside the waistband. “You annotated this scene with three stars and a flame,” I say against her skin. “But I think you undersold it.”
She laughs softly, breath hitching as I slowly, deliberately, pull the tights and her thong down her legs, dragging them over her hips, her thighs, and finally her knees. My mouth follows the trail, kissing her inner thigh, then the back of her knee.
She’s trembling now—not from nerves, but anticipation.
“I didn’t realize you read the annotations,” she whispers.
“I’ve read every one,” I say, lips brushing her skin. “Especially the ones about what you’d want someone to do to you.”
I rise behind her again, fingers gliding up her sides, feeling the goosebumps rise beneath my palms. I unclasp her bra, and she lets it fall down her arms and onto the floor.
In the mirror, our eyes meet.
Juniper is stunningly naked while I’m fully clothed, and I love seeing her like this. The fact that she’s letting me do this with her is everything.
The mirror is nice, but glancing down over her shoulder I get an overhead view of her full breasts and the way her rosy nipples are pinched so fucking tight.
God, she’s perfect and I’m going to take my time proving to her what she means to me.
I bend, letting my mouth trail kisses across the slope of her shoulder, against the curve of her spine. Her breath catches when I brush my thumbs beneath the swell of her breasts, teasing slowly before my hands cup her fully.
“Liam,” she breathes, her voice wrecked and wanting as she arches into my hands.
“Fuck, Firefly. Look how beautiful you are.” I thumb over one tight nipple, then the other. “I’ve wanted to touch you like this for so long.”
“Please, Liam. I need more.”
“That’s right. You do.”
I take a step back, but one hand on the small of her back keeps her upright.
“What are you—”
I walk across the room to pull the small fabric reading chair from the corner, and position it in front of the mirror.
Her eyes widen. Did she think I wasn’t going to play this out exactly how it was written? That I wouldn’t give her everything she highlighted and noted in the margins of the book? Give her everything she asked for? And even things she didn’t, but I know she wants?
I push my sleeves up, then take a seat.
“Come here.”
She walks over to me, and I pull her into my lap with her back tucked against my chest.
“You feel that?” I murmur against the shell of her ear, our eyes locked in the mirror. “This is what you do to me, Firefly.”
My cock is throbbing beneath her, trapped against the confines of my pants, but this isn’t about me. Not yet.
I rub my palms along the arms of the chair, warming them before I make contact with her skin. Even so, her breath hitches when I run my warm palms up her thighs, slow and deliberate.
“You don’t get to look away,” I whisper in her ear. “This is what you wanted, isn’t it? Someone who sees you. All of you.”
I drag my hands up her stomach, slow and steady, until I’m cupping her breasts, teasing my thumbs over her nipples. Her body arches back into me like she can’t help it.
“Spread your legs, Firefly. Show me how wet you are for me.”
She complies and we both moan at the sight of her slick cunt reflected in the mirror.
“You look so fucking good like this. Open. Waiting. Desperate.”
She shudders, biting her lip. Her eyes meet mine in the mirror—wide and hungry—and I can feel it in every inch of her…she’s never been looked at like this. Worshipped like this.
My hand trails lower, over her belly, then teases between her thighs. She gasps.
“Keep your eyes on me,” I say. “I want you to watch while I make this fantasy real. I want you to see how much I enjoy playing with your sweet little cunt. And how fucking wet you get.”
She nods, barely holding herself together, and when my fingers slip inside her, I feel just how ready she is for me. Wet. Warm. Already shaking.
And still watching.
"You're not going to come until I say so."
She whimpers.
When I add a second finger, her walls tighten around me.
"You’ll hold on...because you trust me."
Her eyes flutter closed, and I slow my touch immediately.
“Uh-uh, open your eyes, Firefly. You’re not going to miss this.”
She blinks at the mirror again, lips parted, eyes glassy with want.
“That’s it,” I whisper. “Watch your slick cunt swallow my fingers.”
I thrust inside again, and we both watch as she takes my fingers deep inside her.
Fuck.
It’s almost too much. The sight of her, flushed and writhing in my lap. Her slick warmth coating my fingers.
“Look in the mirror, Juniper,” I murmur, my mouth brushing her ear as I slip my hand between her thighs again. “That wrecked girl is all mine.”
She shudders, her breath stuttering as I slide my fingers back inside her, slow but deep enough to make her hips twitch.
“Your mouth, your cunt—they’re mine to ruin,” I growl against her neck, kissing the skin just below her ear. “Say it.”
She moans, half defiance, half surrender. “Yours.”
“Good girl. Now watch while I make you prove it.”
She sighs, hips grinding down onto my hand, and I can feel how close she is. How her walls flutter around my fingers, trying to pull me deeper.
I press my mouth to her shoulder, teeth grazing her skin as I say, “Look at you, Firefly. So fucking pretty spreading those legs for my fingers.”
I thrust them deeper, slow and filthy, watching her eyes flutter as she tries to keep them open.
“Watch how wet you get for me. Look how well your cunt grips me—fuck, you’re so tight. Next time it won’t be my fingers. It’ll be my cock stretching you open while you watch yourself drip all over me.”
She moans, and I pump harder, dragging my thumb over her clit. Giving her the pressure there that she needs.
“I want you to see how wrecked you look when you come for me. You’re mine to ruin—every inch of you.”
Her breath catches, and her thighs tremble. She’s so close.
“Now let go, baby,” I whisper. “Be a good girl and come for me.”
I circle her clit and with one more thrust and curl of my fingers, she shatters. Crying out my name as her body writhes in my lap, her reflection a beautiful, fucked-out masterpiece in the mirror.