Chapter 29 Liam
TWENTY-NINE
LIAM
“Door locked. Now,” I rumble against her neck. My nose brushes that spot just below her ear. The one that makes her knees go soft and her breath hitch in the way that drives me fucking insane.
She spins, flicks the bolt shut with a sharp click, then turns back to me. Arms crossed. Cheeks flushed. Eyes daring me to test her patience.
I take two steps and press her gently into the door she just locked. One hand by her head, the other sliding under her shirt. She’s warm and soft under my palm, heartbeat pounding at my touch.
She tries for a glare, but it slips when I brush my mouth along her jaw. Her fingers twist in my shirt like she can’t decide if she wants to shove me away or drag me closer.
“This is such a book boyfriend move,” she says, breath hitching when my thumb strokes over her ribs, just beneath her bra. “Secret wine bar. Secret apartment. Grand gestures for days.”
I grin against her skin. “Yeah? You sound like you don’t hate it.”
She huffs, her laugh caught somewhere in her throat. “God, you’re impossible.”
My heart kicks in my ribs. I can have the bar, the name, the flat next door, but none of it means shit if she doesn’t want me. If she doesn’t say it like she did last year when I was too much of a coward to take it.
“Say you want me anyway,” I whisper against her mouth, my voice low but it cracks a little at the edge. Please.
She looks at me then, soft and a little wild, lips parted. I swear she can see every stupid, selfish hope running through my veins. Her hands slide up into my hair like she’s trying to hold my head together so I don’t fall apart.
“I always want you,” she says, quiet but so certain it steals the air from my lungs.
That’s all I need. I crush my mouth to hers and swallow her breath like it’s mine.
Lifting her off the floor, her legs wrap around my waist easily. She fits there like she was made for me.
I carry her through the quiet flat. She’s half laughing, half breathless, mumbling my name when I kick the bedroom door shut behind us.
My hands grip her thighs where they’re locked tight around my waist. When her eyes catch on the mirror on the closet door, she freezes for a second.
Her eyes flick to it, then to me, then back again.
We look so fucking good like this.
Her hair’s a mess, cheeks flushed pink from the cold outside and the way I can’t keep my hands off her. Her mouth is swollen, her thighs snug around me like she never wants to let go. I don’t plan on letting her.
I walk us to the bed but pause, feeling her shift in my arms. She’s looking around, taking in the throw blanket identical to the one on her bed because I know how much she likes it.
She cranes her neck, eyes catching on the stack of books by the lamp.
Her books. The ones she annotated and I borrowed for research.
Her eyes narrow like she’s going to give me shit again, but then they soften and her lips part.
Next to the books is the button she’d bought at the liquor store last year. Spice It Up. The one she’d snagged off the counter when I was unloading the cart. She had slipped it into my coat pocket like a secret dare. I found it two days later, back in LA, when I was already filled with regret.
She drops her legs, and I let her go. Reaching for the button, her thumb brushes the metal where the cheap enamel is chipped at the edge. Her laugh cracks open on a shaky breath.
“You kept this?” she whispers.
“You gave it to me.”
“I snuck it in your pocket.”
“Still counts.”
Her mouth curves into that smile that wrecks me every time. “Okay,” she says. “Spice it up, then.” Her voice is all sugar and dare and I’m fucking gone for her.
Whatever thread of patience I was holding snaps.
Hauling her with me, I drop to the mattress and settle her into my lap, legs spread wide over mine.
She glances at the mirror, then tries to duck her head, but I catch her chin. With my thumb stroking her jaw, I force her eyes back up.
“No hiding, Firefly,” I rasp against her ear. “You watch what happens when you say shit like that to me.”
She lets out a quiet, helpless laugh. The kind that’s half a dare, half surrender. But it dies in her throat when I fist the hem of her shirt and drag it up, slow, baring that soft skin inch by inch. She lifts her arms without me asking.
Good fucking girl.
Her shirt hits the floor. She’s breathless, cheeks pink, eyes flicking from my mouth to the mirror and back again.
“You cold?” I murmur, my hands skimming her ribs, thumbing under the soft edge of her bra.
“No,” she whispers, but her voice cracks when I mouth at her shoulder. “You’re warm enough.”
“Yeah,” I growl, palming her breast, teasing her nipple until it peaks under my thumb. “I’m going to keep you warm. Going to keep you sore, too. You still aching from last night? From how many times I made you come on my cock?”
She shudders, hips rolling in my lap like she can’t help it. Her breath catches when my hand drifts down, slipping under the waistband of those tight black leggings.
“Tell me,” I rasp against her throat. “You sore from me?”
She nods, her breath a tiny broken thing when my fingers find how wet she already is. How ready. How perfect.
“It…it aches,” she whispers, her hips bucking when I circle her clit, slow and teasing. “A good ache.”
“That’s mine,” I growl, pressing a kiss under her ear as I work the leggings down her hips. She lifts, squirming to help me strip them off. But the fuzzy socks stay, because fuck, I like her that soft when I’m about to ruin her.
I palm myself through my jeans, rough, desperate. “You want me anyway?” I growl, dragging my cock out, the head flushed and leaking for her. “Want me to stretch you open again? Fuck that sore little cunt until you’re dripping all over my lap?”
She whimpers when I line us up, back arched, her ass snug against my thighs.
“Yes,” she pants, eyes locked on mine in the mirror. “Please, Liam—please—”
My tip nudges at her slick entrance, the mirror throwing her wide eyes and parted lips right back at me.
She turns her head, brushing her mouth over my jaw, so soft it almost breaks me.
“Fuck.” I push in slow, dragging her hips down until she’s seated all the way. Until she’s full and the stretch is both brutal and perfect.
She moans, her knees trembling on either side of my thighs, the fuzzy socks brushing my jeans like some innocent halo around this filthy mess.
“Eyes up, Firefly,” I pant, my palm flat on her belly, pressing just enough to feel myself inside her.
Her eyes flick to the mirror, catching the place where my cock disappears inside her, where she’s spread wide and slick and fucking perfect.
A soft gasp escapes her, and it cracks something open in me. It splits me wide with how sweet she sounds, how she grips my forearm like she’ll drown if I don’t hold her steady.
I shift my grip, palm sliding up from her belly to her chest to cup her breast. My thumb teases over her nipple until it peaks under my touch. The sight of it in the mirror is fucking obscene—her back arched, her flushed tits in my hand while my cock disappears inside her over and over.
“Look at you,” I growl, rolling her nipple between my fingers until she gasps, hips twitching helplessly. “So pretty like this. So fucking mine.”
I drag her hips up slowly just to slam her back down again. The wet slap of it echoes soft and filthy in the warm quiet. “See how good you take me?”
She moans, her lashes fluttering as she locks on the mirror and sees my thick cock parting her. The slick mess of where we’re joined.
“That ache you feel?” I murmur in her ear, voice frayed at the edges. “That’s mine. This pretty cunt is mine. All of you—fucking mine.”
She whimpers, her nails biting into my thigh now where her hand has slipped back, clutching me like she needs something to anchor her to earth.
Her other palm fists the edge of my knee, bracing herself as I rock her up and down my cock, slow and filthy, every slick slide of her making my balls tighten and my breath catch in my chest.
“Can feel you clench every time I touch you here,” I rasp, tugging at her nipple just to hear her cry out. “You like that, Firefly? You like when I play with you like this?”
She nods frantically, her hips bucking when I roll my thumb lower, brushing her swollen clit while I thrust up into her. Her cry breaks into a soft, breathless moan when I pinch her nipple again, the shiver rippling through her so sweet I almost lose it.
“Fuck, look at us,” I pant, mouth at her ear. “Look how you grip me—look at that messy little cunt, all stretched and dripping around me.”
She moans louder, head falling back onto my shoulder, her legs trembling on either side of me. Her hand grips my thigh tighter, her breath coming in frantic little gasps that send heat curling low in my spine.
“You gonna come for me again, baby?” I rasp, voice raw at her ear as my fingers toy with her nipple and her clit all at once. “Gonna make a mess all over my cock while you watch yourself fall apart?”
“Liam—oh—” She breaks apart on my cock, her nails digging into my thigh while her whole body shudders so hard I swear I feel it in my chest. It’s like she’s got her hands wrapped around my fucking heart and she’s squeezing it tight.
I can’t hold off any longer. With her pussy still gripping me tight, my cock pulses, spilling deep inside her.
I hold her there, buried deep, my hand splayed wide over her belly, the other still cupping her breast like I can’t bear to let go. My forehead drops to her shoulder, breath ragged, the air thick with heat and her soft, broken sounds.
“Jesus, Firefly,” I rasp, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to her neck, tasting her sweat and that soft, clean smell of her. “You’re gonna fucking kill me.”
She huffs out a tired laugh, her fingers sliding from my thigh to my hair—tugging, petting, threading through it like she’s piecing me back together strand by strand before placing a soft kiss to my stitched-up brow.
“Good,” she whispers, voice wrecked but smug as hell. “Someone has to keep you humble, Hargrove.”
I laugh against her skin, still high on the feeling of having her here.
She shifts in my lap, her slick heat squeezing me just right, and I hiss when she clenches, on purpose, that wicked glint in her eye when she catches my face in the mirror.
“You think you can just...keep me here?” she teases, breathless but sharp, her fingers tugging my hair back so she can make me meet her eyes. “Buy the place next door, sneak your way into my bed...my bookstore...my life?”
“Yeah,” I smirk. “It worked, didn’t it?”
She laughs. It’s soft, sleepy, and so damn beautiful it hurts.
She shifts in my lap, her fingers tracing lazy circles on my chest, like she’s trying to memorize every inch. We’re a mess—warm and tangled up, the window glass still fogged behind us. I should get up and grab something to clean us up, but I can’t help wanting to stay in this moment with her.
She tilts her head, searching my face. There’s a question in her eyes she doesn’t quite say out loud, but I see it anyway. She’s wondering if I’ll really stay. If I want to. If she’s enough to keep me here.
She doesn’t know she’s the only thing that could.
“Are you really sure about this?” she asks, voice low. “Staying here. Me.”
I slide my hand up her thigh and squeeze. “Pretty sure the wine bar lease says I’m stuck with you.”
She huffs a laugh against my jaw, pressing a quick kiss there. “Terrible business plan.”
“Best plan I’ve ever had.” I tip my head back, watching her like I can’t believe she’s mine to look at.
“You’re not worried you’ll get bored with small-town life?”
I raise a brow. “Small-town life, no. You?” I lean in closer, brushing my mouth against her cheek. “Never. I’ll be too busy stealing all your romance books when you’re not looking.”
She laughs, warm and teasing. “You know I’ll just steal them back.”
Juniper’s concern is expected. From her perspective, I’m changing my whole life to be here with her. What she doesn’t realize is, my whole life changed the moment she kissed me. Since that moment, I’ve been working toward this life with her.
I brush my thumb over the curve of her hip, let myself look at her like maybe it’ll help her see it from my side. She’s it for me. “You know you’re the only thing that makes any of this make sense, right?”
She bites her lip like she’s trying not to smile too wide. “Well, when you say it like that...I guess it’s fine if you stay.”
I grin, tugging her closer until her laugh is muffled against my mouth. “Good,” I murmur. “Because I am not going anywhere.”