Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Liam Farrell was taking me on a real date. An actual, honest-to-God dinner date at the nicest restaurant in Dunridge, where anyone could see us.
Where everyone could see us.
I’d spent an embarrassing amount of time getting ready, and in the end, I’d landed on a fitted black dress that hugged my curves and made me feel sexy and confident.
Which was still a relatively new feeling.
Liam’s face when I’d opened my apartment door had made the whole wardrobe crisis worth it. He’d gone still, his jaw actually dropping slightly, and I’d watched his throat work as he swallowed.
“Sunshine.” His voice had been rough. “You’re trying to kill me.”
Now we were seated at a corner booth at La Bella, candlelight flickering between us, and I still couldn’t quite believe this was real.
We were really here. Out in public, together as a couple.
His gaze held mine with so much affection swimming in those green eyes that butterflies took flight in my stomach. I nibbled my bottom lip and his gaze dropped to watch the movement, affection quickly turning to hunger that made me feel more powerful than anything we’d checked off my list.
“This is really nice. Thank you for bringing me here.”
His hand found mine across the table, our fingers intertwining. “You deserve nice. You deserve a guy who wants to show you off, not hide you away like some dirty secret.”
The guilt in his voice made my chest ache. We’d both played a part in keeping us hidden, but I wasn’t going to lie—it was a relief being out in the open together, getting to claim him as mine.
“We’re here now,” I said. “That’s what matters.”
His thumb traced circles on my palm, and I tried to focus on the menu instead of the way that simple touch made my whole body hum.
The waiter came and went. We ordered, though I couldn’t tell you what because I was too busy watching the way the candlelight played across Liam’s features, softening the angles of his jaw and making his eyes even more mesmerizing than usual.
God, I was so gone for this man.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked.
“You,” I said coyly, taking a sip of my wine. It was nice to be twenty-one. Drew and I had celebrated our twenty-first birthday in September. Liam and I had celebrated privately later that night when he’d licked whipped cream off places that had nothing to do with birthday cake.
He laughed, and the sound wrapped around me like a warm blanket. I wanted to bottle it. Wanted to remember this exact moment forever—especially the way he looked at me like I was the only person in the room.
“What about me?”
I hummed in my throat. “About how you fill out that shirt for one.” His smile turned hungry again. And I knew that look because pleasure always followed.
“What else?” His voice sent shivers through me with how rough it was.
“And what your reaction will be when you learn I might’ve forgotten to wear underwear under this dress.”
“Sunshine,” he growled.
Our waiter arrived with our food, and I bit back my smile at the look of sheer willpower it took Liam not to haul me out of this room and check my underwear situation for himself.
Despite the heated looks he sent me the whole time, we fell into easy conversation as we ate, talking about our classes this semester, his hopes for the hockey season, what I loved most about my dance classes. It was all normal stuff.
But it made the date even better.
“You keep looking at me like that and we’re not going to make it through dessert,” Liam said, his voice low enough that only I could hear.
I gave him a coy smile. “Who said anything about dessert?”
His eyes darkened. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“Maybe I like danger.” I traced my finger around the rim of my wine glass, watching his gaze track the movement. “Maybe I like watching you try to keep it together in public.”
“Ava.” My name sounded like a warning and a prayer all at once.
“Liam.” I mimicked his tone, batting my eyelashes innocently.
He flagged down the waiter for the check so fast I almost laughed. Almost. But then he switched seats and his hand was on my thigh under the table, sliding up my bare skin, and suddenly nothing was funny anymore.
“You weren’t lying,” he murmured against my ear, his fingers brushing higher. “No underwear.”
I bit my lip to keep from making a sound that would definitely get us kicked out. “Told you.”
“You’re going to be the death of me, Sunshine.”
The waiter returned with the check, and Liam practically threw his card at the poor guy. His hand stayed on my thigh the entire time, thumb stroking maddening circles on my skin, keeping me on edge without giving me nearly enough.
“Your place or mine?” he asked once he’d signed the receipt. The fact he even asked sent a thrill through me. We could be together at the hockey house if we wanted.
But… “Mine’s closer.”
“Yours it is.”
We barely made it through my apartment door before his mouth was on mine.
The kiss was hungry—all the restrained tension from dinner finally breaking free. His hands found my hips and walked me backward until my shoulders hit the wall, and I gasped into his mouth at the sudden contact.
“Do you have any idea,” he said between kisses, “what it did to me, sitting with you all night after learning you had nothing on under this dress?”
“I have some idea.” I rolled my hips against him, feeling how hard he was already. “Seemed like you were struggling.”
“Struggling is an understatement.” His hands slid down to cup my ass, lifting me until my legs wrapped around his waist. “I’ve been thinking about getting you alone since you opened your door.”
He carried me toward my bedroom like I weighed nothing, his mouth never leaving mine. When he laid me down on the bed, he pulled back just far enough to look at me, and the tender expression on his face made my heart stutter.
“What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious.
“Nothing. Just…” He shook his head, a soft smile playing at his lips. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up. That this isn’t real.”
“It’s real.” I reached up to cup his face, pulling him down for a gentler kiss. “You’re mine.”
He made an approving sound low in his throat and then he was kissing me again. But slower this time. Deeper, like he couldn’t get close enough.
His hands found the zipper at the back of my dress, sliding it down with aching slowness.
He pulled the dress off my body, leaving me bare beneath him, and Liam pulled back to look at me.
I’d been naked in front of guys before and never thought twice about it.
But the way Liam looked at me—like he couldn’t quite believe I was real—made me feel more wanted than any words could.
“God, Ava.” His voice was rough. “Every time I see you like this, it hits me all over again.”
“What does?”
“How lucky I am.” He pressed a kiss to my collarbone, then to the swell of my breast. “How fucking lucky I am that you’re mine.”
The words sent warmth spreading through my chest. Not just heat—though there was plenty of that—but the feeling of being truly cherished.
No one had ever made me feel this before.
He pressed kisses to every inch of skin working his way down my body. By the time he’d worked his way back up, I was trembling with need.
“Liam, please—”
“I know what you need.” He settled between my thighs, and I could feel him hard against my center, separated only by the fabric of his pants. “And I’ll always give it to you.”
I tugged at his shirt impatiently, needing to feel his skin against mine. He helped me get his buttons undone and then shucked it, throwing it across the room. Then his chest was pressed against mine, warm and solid and perfect.
“I love you,” he said, the words muffled against my neck. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of saying that.”
“I’ll never get tired of hearing it.”
He kissed me again as his hand slid between us, his fingers finding me already soaked. I moaned into his mouth when he slipped them inside, stroking slowly.
“Fuck, Ava.” He laughed softly against my lips. “I had plans. I was going to take my time. Be romantic.”
“This isn’t romantic?”
“This is me losing my mind because you wore no underwear to dinner.” He curled his fingers and I gasped. “There’s a difference.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
He pulled back to look at me, his fingers stilling. The playfulness in his expression faded into something more serious and vulnerable.
“I want this to be different,” he said quietly. “Not just checking off a list. Not sneaking around. I want—” He stopped, shaking his head like he couldn’t find the words.
But I understood.
I reached up to touch his face. “Then make it different.”
“I want to make love to you.”
Emotion nearly clogged my throat. “What do you think we’ve been doing?”
Because there was a difference and there always had been with Liam. Our sex had always been charged with something more, even when it wasn’t supposed to.
“I don’t want to rush. I want to savor you.”
I kissed him again, lightly nipping his bottom lip before I pulled away. “We have all the time in the world, Li. There is no rush, no matter how you make love to me tonight or tomorrow or a week from now.”
His eyes grew hungrier and then he was kissing me so fiercely, I was lost to him. He pulled back just enough to watch my face as he pushed inside me slowly, inch by inch, and I kept my gaze locked on his the whole time.
I was mesmerized by the way his jaw clenched with restraint, how his pupils dilated as he buried himself so deep I wasn’t sure where he ended and I began.
I watched emotion flit across his face, the same that was probably reflected on mine—wonder, desire, awe, and most of all so much love it was consuming.
And that’s exactly what he did.
He consumed me with just his gaze.
“You feel…” He shook his head, apparently unable to find the words. “Nothing has ever felt like this.”
I knew what he meant. We’d had sex before—plenty of times, in plenty of positions, in plenty of places. But it was different now that there were no walls between us, no hiding or pretending this didn’t mean anything.
This meant everything.
He started to move, and I lost the ability to think.
Each thrust hit deep enough to make me gasp. He kept his forehead pressed to mine, breathing the same air, his eyes never leaving my face.
“I love you,” he said again, punctuating the words with a roll of his hips that made stars burst behind my eyes. “I love you so fucking much.”
“I love you.” The words came out broken, barely audible. “Liam… please—”
“Please what?” He picked up the pace slightly, and I moaned at the change in friction. “Tell me what you need.”
“More. Faster. I need—” I couldn’t finish the sentence. Could only dig my nails into his shoulders and hold on.
He gave me what I needed even without my ability to ask for it.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Liam knew my body better than I did.
His hips snapped against mine, driving deeper, harder, and I wrapped my legs around his waist to pull him closer.
The sounds filling the room were obscene—skin against skin, my desperate moans, his low groans of pleasure.
“That’s it,” he murmured against my ear. “Fuck, Sunshine. So fucking good.”
His hand slipped between us, thumb finding my clit, and I came.
The orgasm tore through me in waves, pulling a cry from my throat that I didn’t even try to muffle. Liam fucked me through it, his pace turning erratic as I clenched around him, and then he was coming too—burying his face in my neck and groaning my name like it was the only word he knew.
We lay there afterward, tangled together, neither of us willing to move.
“Stay,” I whispered against his hair. “Stay the night.”
“Couldn’t leave if I wanted to.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “Which I don’t. Ever.”
I smiled into the darkness, my fingers tracing lazy patterns on his back, then over the tattoos on his arms.
Liam shifted, pulling out carefully and cleaning up with some tissue before he settled back beside me. He tucked me against his chest, one arm wrapped around my waist, his chin resting on top of my head.
“Best first date ever,” he murmured.
I laughed softly. “It was pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” He pinched my hip playfully. “I’m offended.”
“Fine. Best first date ever.” I tilted my head up to kiss his jaw. “Happy?”
“With you?” His arm tightened around me. “Always.”
I fell asleep like that—wrapped in his arms, feeling more content than I had in years.
If I’d known what was coming, I would have held on tighter.