Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
The rules were simple. For the next twelve hours, we couldn’t say no to each other. Any request—as long as it was consensual and didn’t involve getting arrested—was fair game. There were no limits except the ones we’d already agreed on.
When I’d first written down “Yes day” in my notebook, I hadn’t imagined that I’d be doing it with my brother’s best friend, or on a weekend when my parents had driven to Bozeman to visit friends.
We’d added additional parameters that meant we still had to be careful about how much we interacted in town.
Now, sitting across from him at a diner booth at nine in the morning with his knee pressed against mine under the table, I realized I might have underestimated what I was getting myself into.
The butterflies in my stomach were out of control, as anticipation wove with wondering what Liam would ask me to do today.
“So.” Liam watched me over the rim of his cup. “You ready for this, Sunshine?”
My stomach flipped. “It was my idea, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” His grin was slow and wicked. “But you have no idea all the things I want you to say yes to.”
My nipples beaded under my top and my core clenched. Whatever he asked, I had no doubt he’d make it pleasurable.
He leaned back in the booth, watching me with a hungry gaze. “My first request is that you’re not allowed to wear underwear for the rest of the day.”
I nearly choked on my orange juice. “Liam—” Thank God there were no diners at the tables around us.
“Yes Day,” he reminded me, his eyes dancing with amusement.
I glanced around the diner. It was mostly empty—a few people at the counter and an elderly couple sharing a stack of pancakes in a booth next to the main window. No one was paying attention to us. But still.
My gaze met his, and I couldn’t deny the thrill that shot through me at the ravenous look in his eyes which had nothing to do with food.
“Okay, but I’m going to the bathroom to take them off. I’m not doing it here.”
“Wouldn’t dream of asking you to.” But his smile said he absolutely would have if he thought he could get away with it.
I slid out of the booth and walked to the restroom on slightly unsteady legs. My face was warm, my pulse already picking up speed. This was insane. We hadn’t even finished breakfast and I was already worked up.
When I returned to the table, Liam’s eyes tracked my movement with an intensity that made my thighs press together.
“Done?” he asked.
I nodded, sliding back into the booth, now hyperaware of every shift, every movement.
“Good girl.” The words were low enough that only I could hear them, and they sent a jolt of need straight through me.
We finished breakfast with his knee still pressed against mine, the contact innocent enough if anyone glanced our way but loaded with promise. Every time I shifted, the fabric of my dress brushed against bare skin, reminding me of his request.
Of what I wasn’t wearing.
Of the fact that only he knew.
When the waitress brought the check, Liam reached for it before I could.
“I’ve got it,” he said. Then, quieter, “Request number two. You let me take care of you today. No arguing.”
I opened my mouth to protest—I hated feeling like I couldn’t pull my own weight—but his eyebrow lifted in challenge.
Right. Yes Day.
“Fine,” I said. “But I’m keeping track.”
“You can try.” He tossed cash on the table and slid out of the booth, offering me his hand to help me up.
It was a friendly gesture he’d done a thousand times—nothing anyone would look twice at—but when his fingers wrapped around mine, his thumb brushed across my palm in a way that made my breath catch.
We spent the morning wandering through town—browsing Riverside Books, grabbing coffees at The Meadowbrook Mug, stopping to pet a dog outside the hardware store.
To anyone watching, we were just two friends killing time on a summer Saturday.
Liam held the bookstore door open for me the same way he’d done a hundred times when Drew was with us—but this time, his hand found the small of my back, and his thumb traced a slow circle lower until he was just at the top of my butt, a touch that was far too intimate for only friends if anyone caught it.
I shot him a look and he returned it with the most innocent smile I’d ever seen on a man who was absolutely not innocent.
At the coffee shop, he handed me my latte and let his fingers drag across mine, unhurried, like he had all the time in the world. Like he wasn’t setting my body on fire with every touch filled with the promise of more to come.
“Request number three,” he murmured as we walked past the old movie theater. “Tell me what you’re thinking right now. And be honest.”
I shot him a look. “That’s your request? Conversation?”
“Honest conversation,” he corrected. “No telling me what you think I want to hear.”
That was harder than it sounded. I’d spent my whole life editing myself, trimming down my thoughts and feelings to make them more palatable. More manageable. Less too much.
“I’m thinking…” I started, then paused. Took a breath.
“I’m thinking that I’ve never felt like this before.
This kind of…anticipation. Like my whole body is waiting for something.
I’m thinking about the fact that I’m not wearing underwear and you know it, and instead of feeling embarrassed, I feel powerful.
Sexy.” I glanced at him. “I’m thinking that my ex was wrong about me. That maybe I’m not boring at all.”
Liam stopped walking, and the expression on his face made my stomach clench. Had I been too honest?
“Ava.” His voice was rough. “You were never boring. Not for one fucking second. The fact that he made you believe that—” He cut himself off, jaw clenching. “He didn’t deserve you. He didn’t even see you.”
The intensity in his gaze made it hard to breathe. This didn’t feel like part of the game anymore. This felt real.
But I was also terrified maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see.
“Liam—”
“Come on.” He started walking again, his hand finding my lower back. “I know where we’re going next.”
The river was a summer staple for locals, but Liam had driven us out past the main swimming holes to a small beach most people didn’t know about.
Liam, Drew, and I had found it when we were in high school and had never once seen anyone else here.
The water was slower here, shaded by trees, and accessible only by foot down a dirt path that was easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it.
We spread the blanket on a flat stretch of sand about a dozen feet from the river’s edge. I could see upstream for a good distance—far enough that we’d spot any floaters coming long before they reached us.
“Request number four,” Liam said, sitting down and pulling me with him. “Come here.”
I settled between his legs, my back against his chest. His arms wrapped around me, and for a moment we just sat there, watching the water flow past.
“This is your request?” I asked. “Cuddling?”
“This is the setup.” His lips brushed my ear, and I shivered.
“The request is that you stay very, very still while I touch you. And if you see anyone coming down the river, you tell me. But you don’t move.
You don’t make a sound.” His hand slid up my thigh, pushing my sundress higher. “What do you say, Sunshine?”
“Yes,” I breathed. “Yes.”
His fingers slid higher until he traced over my clit, his touch light and teasing, and I had to bite my lip to keep from gasping. He stroked me slowly, maddeningly, his other arm holding me firmly against his chest.
“Eyes on the river,” he murmured. “Be a good girl and keep watch.”
I tried.
God, I tried.
But it was nearly impossible to focus on anything except the feel of his fingers—circling, teasing, dipping inside me just enough to make me desperate for more.
“Liam, please—”
“Please what?” His thumb pressed against my clit, and I whimpered.
“Please make me come.”
“Not yet.” He eased off, and I nearly sobbed. “Tell me something first. Tell me what you want me to do to you later. Before our yes day is over.”
“I want you to kiss my neck.”
He dropped a kiss to my neck, right on that spot he’d found that always made goose bumps shiver across my arms. As he kissed my neck, his fingers slid back through my wetness, rewarding me with a slow stroke that made my thighs tremble and words dry up.
“Keep going, Sunshine. That’s the deal. You talk, I keep touching. You stop, I stop.”
I swallowed hard, trying to gather my scattered thoughts. “I want…I want you to go down on me. For a long time. Until I can’t think straight.”
“Mmm.” His fingers pushed deeper, curling against a spot that made stars burst behind my eyes. “That’s a good start. What else?”
“I want to ride you.” The words came easier now, loosened by the pleasure building in my core. “I want to be on top so I can control how deep you go. So I can watch your face while I move on your cock.”
“Fuck.” His breath was hot against my ear, his cock hard against my lower back. “Keep going. You’re doing so good, Sunshine.”
“I want to be on my hands and knees while you to take me from behind.” I was panting now, my hips grinding shamelessly against his hand. “I want you to pull my hair and tell me I’m yours. I want—oh God—I want you to come inside me while you’re saying my name.”
His fingers picked up speed, his thumb working my clit in tight circles while two fingers thrust into me. “What else? Tell me the thing you’ve never told anyone.”
The words spilled out before I could stop them.
“I want you to wake me up in the middle of the night. I want to feel you pushing inside me before I’m even fully conscious.
I want—” I gasped as he added a third finger, stretching me deliciously.
“I want you to use me. Like you can’t help yourself.
Like you need me so badly you can’t even wait for me to wake up. ”
“Jesus Christ, Ava.” His voice was wrecked, his hips jerking against me involuntarily. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
“I want to feel you everywhere,” I continued, too far gone to feel embarrassed anymore. “In my mouth, in my pussy. I want to be so full of you that I can’t remember what it felt like before. I want—”
“Fuck, Sunshine, I think your mind might be as dirty as mine,” he whispered against my ear, before nibbling my lobe. “If you say any more, you’ll make me come in my pants and that’s not what I want. What I want right now is for you to come all over my fingers.”
He curled his fingers just right, his thumb pressing hard against my clit, and I shattered.
The orgasm ripped through me, and I turned my head to bury my face against his neck as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through me.
My inner walls clenched around his fingers, my whole body shaking as he worked me through it, drawing out every last tremor until I was boneless against his chest.
When I finally came back to myself, he was pressing kisses to my temple, my cheek, the corner of my mouth. His fingers were still inside me, gentle now, and I could feel the hard length of him pressed against my back, straining against his shorts.
“You good?” he asked, his voice rough.
“Better than good.”
Everything was perfect. I never wanted to move from this spot, held in Liam’s arms, feeling like the center of his universe.
We spent the rest of the afternoon by the river.
Liam’s requests continued, each one pushing me a little further.
Tell me your dirtiest fantasy. I did, and the way his eyes darkened made me feel powerful instead of embarrassed.
Let me take a photo of you. Just for me.
I posed for him, shy at first, then bolder when I saw how he looked at me through the screen.
Once, a group of floaters drifted past—adults I didn’t recognize, so I assumed they were tourists—on inner tubes, laughing and splashing each other.
But otherwise, we spent the day alone, Liam requesting different things that always left me feeling loose, relaxed, and more pleasured than I’d ever been.
By the time the sun started to sink toward the horizon, I’d lost count of how many times he’d made me come. My body felt languid, satisfied, completely wrung out in the best possible way.
“Come on, Sunshine. Let’s get you home. Our yes day isn’t over yet.”
I let him pull me up, my legs still a little unsteady. We gathered the blanket, shook off the sand, and made our way back to his truck hand in hand. It was the first time we’d been able to hold hands like a real couple, and my heart ached with longing for something I knew he couldn’t give me.
But God, today had made me want it more than ever.
Want him.
I wanted him to be mine, but that was a fantasy I was too afraid to voice.
The drive back was quiet too. I leaned my head against the window, watching the fields blur past, my body still humming with the afterglow of the day. Liam’s hand rested on my thigh—casual and possessive, like it belonged there.
Like he had a claim on me.
If only he knew how much of a claim he really had. He’d probably run screaming in the opposite direction. There was no doubt in my mind he’d end this before we’d finished my list.
When we pulled up to my parents’ house, it was fully dark, and I didn’t love the idea of being alone in that big house. What I really wanted was to invite Liam in. To have him hold me all night long.
But I knew that was crossing a line.
Liam walked around the truck to open my door, and I pushed my crazy emotions aside.
“I had a good time today,” I said as I stepped out of the truck. It felt inadequate—today had changed me on a fundamental level—but I didn’t have words for what today had actually been, nor did I think he’d want to hear them.
His smile was almost shy, different from the wicked grins he’d been giving me all day. “Me too.”
He walked me to the porch, and when we reached the door, he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me. It wasn’t a hungry or demanding kiss. It was sultry, like he was savoring every millisecond that our lips were touching. And it wrecked me more than anything else we’d done today.
When he pulled back, his thumb traced along my cheekbone.
“You know, the day isn’t over yet, and you told me some naughty things you wanted me to do to you that we weren’t able to do at the beach.”
My breath caught. He couldn’t mean…
His eyes darkened. “Let me come inside with you and finish this day properly.”