Chapter Eleven
H eat flared inside of me and I grabbed Liam by the shirtfront and pulled him into the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
That was the last move I got to make. Liam had me pressed up against the wall with his mouth on mine, his fists in my hair, his hips locking me in place before I even had a chance to take a breath.
“You look the same, you feel the same, you even smell the same,” he growled in my ear. “After all this time, how is that possible?”
I would have said the same about him, but he didn’t give me a chance as his mouth came back to mine. His lips were fierce as if staking a claim, making my heart thump hard in my chest while I kissed him back. I wanted him to know how much I had missed him, this, us.
“Liam,” I said his name on an exhale that sounded an awful lot like surrender. It was. In those moments, I would have given him anything and judging by the look in his eyes, he knew it.
“Tell me that you want this,” he demanded. He ran his lips down my throat to nuzzle at the neckline of my dress.
I arched up against his mouth, desperately wanting more. I whispered, “I do.”
I felt him smile against my skin as he tugged down the neckline of my dress. His fingers dipped inside and he pinched the already hardened peak of one breast. My head fell back against the wall and I groaned. As if this encouraged him even further, he hooked my bra cup with one finger and yanked it down. He put his mouth on me and it felt as if my nipple was hot-wired to the pulsing throb directly between my legs.
“So good,” I murmured.
He purred against my skin and then he tugged my clothes back into place. I blinked at him, registering the loss of his wet mouth right before he pulled me away from the wall and guided me toward the stairs.
“If we stay here much longer I’m going to take you right here against the wall,” he said. “And that’s not how I pictured this going.”
Oh, my!
On shaky legs, I turned and led the way upstairs. When his hand ran from the small of my back down over the curve of my ass, I stumbled. Liam didn’t let me fall but rather caught me close, putting his arm around my back, pressing his body into my side as his warm palm cupped my hip, keeping me close, as if my hipbone had been shaped specifically for him to hold.
Every cell in my body was hyperaware of him. The hard roped muscles barely restrained by the form-fitting shirt, the scent of sunshine and sea that swirled around him, the feel of his hot gaze on the side of my face as he studied me. I was torn between stripping myself bare in front of him to offer him everything I had, and pushing out of his arms to run as far as fast as I could.
Stripping won.
We reached my room and I pushed the door open, leading the way inside. I supposed if I’d been in my rational mind or even marginally polite, I would have started a conversation or offered him a beverage, but I wasn’t rational or polite. In fact, I was barely in control of the crazy, lust-infused desire I felt for this man, who I had never, not once, stopped loving over the past nine years.
It was a truth I knew I couldn’t share with him or anyone.
Liam followed me inside and then kicked the door shut. He didn’t glance around the room or pause to assess whether I was a good housekeeper or not. No, his focus was solely on me. I didn’t turn on the light, preferring to stay in the shadows. Liam had no such reservations. He snapped on the bedside lamp, casting the room in a soft glow.
He started to walk toward me. I stood my ground right in front of the bed, refusing to back up or look away. I didn’t want him to know how overwhelmed I was by him, by us, by our dramatic past that slithered around us in the shadows just waiting for the first sign of weakness to raise havoc and mayhem between us. I refused to let it.
When he stopped in front of me, I reached for him. Without saying a word, I grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him in. He didn’t fight me. When I twined my arms about his neck and put my mouth on his, he stood completely still as if committing my every move to memory.
I pressed myself into his chest while my arms moved over his shoulders and down, holding him close while I parted my lips and let my tongue trace the seam of his lips. I was gentle, teasing, tasting, drawing his lower lip into my mouth and then nipping it with my teeth. He groaned a low rumble in his throat and opened for me, letting me slowly make love to his mouth, mimicking with my tongue what I was hoping his body would do to mine.
He stood perfectly still while I drank him, wooing him until I felt the telltale hard press of his erection against my pelvis. Yes! I wanted to pump my fist, but I was too busy running my hands across his muscled back and then spreading my hands to cup his butt and bring him in closer.
I thought I was in control of this seduction. I thought I was the one making love to my ex-boyfriend. I thought wrong, so very wrong. He wrenched his mouth away from mine.
“Tell me what you want,” he demanded.
His fingers were at the hem of my dress. He lifted the skirt and put a hand on each of my thighs. His thumbs ran up along the inside. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
“Tell me,” Liam ordered. His hands stilled and I got the feeling that if I didn’t tell him what I wanted he was going to stop, which was not even comprehensible to me at this moment.
“This,” I said. “I want this.”
“Be specific, surfer girl,” he said. His voice was stern. The teenage boy I’d been so in love with had never spoken to me like that. I was alarmed that I found the command in his voice to be incredibly hot. What was wrong with me?
He started to move his hands away. I panicked. I wanted those hands to stay right on course.
“You,” I gasped. “I want you.”
He raised one eyebrow at me and I knew I’d said what he wanted to hear. His hands began to move again, slowly, tracing circles on my skin, back toward the ache that throbbed between my legs. He was so close, so deliciously close, I was sure if he didn’t put his hands on me soon I would die.
I pressed closer to him and dug my hands into his hair to angle his head just the way I liked it so I could fully claim his mouth with mine. And, oh, his fingers were close so close. Given the chance, I would beg, I would absolutely plead, to feel him press his thumb on my clit.
Finally, his fingers were within reach. One thumb slid over the hot, wet part of me that was positively throbbing but as I moaned in sweet relief, he yanked his hand away.
No! I wanted to cry out in protest but I couldn’t even form the word.
“Jesus, Jules, you...you’re not wearing...Christ, you’re bare assed,” he said.
At any other time, I would have taken great pleasure in his surprise but right now I had other needs, specifically, getting us both naked down under.
“Sorry, laundry issues,” I said, my voice breathy and bewildered. “I keep forgetting to run a load so...”
“Do. Not. Apologize.” He punctuated every word with a kiss and the heat in his gaze let me know just how much my inability to maintain my laundry turned him on. “I think you should always forget.”
His hands dove back under my dress and a slow smile curved his lips as his hands moved back up my legs to cup my bare backside. I barely had a chance to register the feel of his callused hands on my skin when he was lifting me and tossing me back onto the bed. He wasted no time but flipped the fabric up so that I was completely bare to him from the waist down.
He hissed a breath and when I would have sat up to pull him down with me, he put a large warm hand right below my breasts and held me still.
“No, don’t move,” he said.
I flopped back against the mattress. I stared up at him and the man before me merged in my mind with the young man who had stood over me just like this. Back then we’d been so young and totally inexperienced but we’d fumbled through it together with laughter and wonder as we’d unlocked the mysteries of each other’s body. Did he remember it like I did?
As if in answer to my unspoken question, he shifted so that he was lying on his stomach in between my thighs. When I glanced down, I could see his sun-browned hand pinning me to the bed while his thick thatch of dark hair tickled the soft skin on the inside of my thighs as he moved closer to my sweet spot.
“This,” he said. His lips parted and his breath puffed against the hot flesh that was pulsing with need. “This is all I have been able to think about.”
“Please,” I begged. “Please, I need...”
I lifted my hips, trying to get closer to him. He held me still with a tsk and then with his other hand he swiped his thumb right over my clit making me lurch up at the jolt of pure sensation that rocketed through me.
“What is it that you want, Jules?” Liam kissed my inner thigh. “My mouth?”
“Yes,” I growled.
“My fingers?” He swiped his thumb over the sensitive flesh again.
“Ah, y...yes.” I panted.
“Or my cock?” His voice was a low growl that made me shiver and sweat at the same time. “Is that what you want, Jules, my cock inside your pussy?”
“God, yes,” I cried. His dirty talk was making me dizzy and for a second I thought I might pass out.
“I’m going to make you come with my mouth,” he said. He opened his mouth and put it right on my girl parts, sliding his tongue across the aching, throbbing folds. I ground my head into the mattress feeling like this was going to be the fastest orgasm I had ever achieved. But he pulled away before I got there and I almost wept with frustration.
“Then I am going to make you come with my fingers,” he said. When he said it, he slid a finger inside of me and my muscles convulsed around him as if they could keep him prisoner. They couldn’t. He withdrew his hand and this time I actually felt the pinprick of tears behind my eyelids.
“And then I am going to fuck you and make you come again and again and again,” he said.
He took his hand off of my middle and put one hand on each thigh, spreading me wide open. I was beyond any shyness or second guesses. All I knew was that I needed him, needed this, and I would give him anything just to make the aching throb go away.
He put his mouth on me and began to work his magic. He sucked, licked, nuzzled and then when I didn’t think I could stand it another second, he used his tongue to go deep while he used his thumb on my clit like it was a trigger. Before I could even register it, I was arching my back and crying out as a wave of bliss burst from beneath his lips and shot out to the edges of my skin in waves of pleasure that had me gasping and panting and swearing.
I collapsed against the bed but Liam wasn’t having any of that. He pulled me up to a seated position, tugged my dress over my head and tossed it into the corner of the room. Clad in only my high-heeled sandals and my bra, I was too blissed out to be self-conscious. In one deft maneuver, Liam had the bra unhooked and it went the way of the dress.
I reached for him, cupping him through his jeans and giving him a gentle squeeze. I wanted to return the favor of one of the best orgasms of my entire life, seriously, I was game to swallow and everything, but he gently moved his hand away.
“Not yet,” he said.
“But I want...”
“Shh,” he said. “It’s still my turn.”
Oh, wow.
He kissed me and I could taste myself on his lips. It made my pulse thrum and I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him, kissing him with everything I had, trying to get him to understand that I had never stopped loving him.
He pulled my arms from around his neck and pushed me back onto the bed. Now that he had full access to my body, he took full advantage. His mouth nipped my more sensitive places, sometimes leaving marks. I didn’t care. I welcomed the evidence that I had him back in my life, in my bed, and in my heart.
The naughty feel of his jean-clad thighs between my bare ones made my insides writhe and twist in the most delicious way. The slow burn of desire churned inside of me, bubbling up to the surface, looking for release. Only Liam could fill me with such longing. In all the years we’d been apart, I’d had only a few relationships—all of which were doomed before the start because nothing and no one had ever compared to Liam Mahony.
Sensing I was close, he slid first one finger inside of me, teasing me by pumping it in and out before adding a second and swirling them together. Again, I was bucking my hips, trying to get him closer, get him deeper, feel him all the way down deep inside my core.
“What do you need, Jules?” He moved his fingers in and out and then leaned down to nip the hardened point of my nipple.
Unable to form a coherent sentence, I moaned. I tried to show him what I needed by grabbing his hand and encouraging it to go faster and deeper. He used his other hand to capture both my wrists, dragging them over my head and holding them down while he kept moving his fingers in and out in a slow leisurely slide that did nothing but make me crazy.
“What do you need, Jules?” he asked again.
“Faster,” I panted. “Deeper.”
His dark eyes met mine and he looked like he wanted to devour me but was holding himself back.
“And who do you need it from?” He lowered his head and put his lips on the sensitive spot right below my ear. His voice was a gruff whisper, making me tremble. “Who, surfer girl, who do you need?”
“You,” I cried out. The sound of his old nickname for me in his gravelly voice made my insides spasm.
“Say my name,” he said. His voice was firm with the demand. “Say my name, Jules.”
He pulled his fingers almost all the way out of me and paused, not moving his hand, and I was desperate to feel his touch. Desperate to feel him fill up the huge emotional void inside of me.
“Liam,” I said.
“Say it again,” he ordered.
“Liam, please,” I cried. “Liam.”
Satisfied, he shoved his fingers in deep again and again and the relief was so great that my body began to shudder and convulse from some sort of epicenter that his touch had tapped. I arched my back and pushed up against his touch as I cried out, “Liam. Liam. Liam.”
I felt as if I’d been blown apart and my pieces had to float down from the ether and fall back into place. Aftershocks hit me, rippling through me as I blinked into awareness. I found Liam standing beside the bed. He had his arms crossed, his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared.
Without saying a word, he grabbed one of my legs and flipped me over onto my stomach. I heard the zipper on his jeans slide down and I went to rise up, but he put his hand on my back and held me in place.
“No, don’t move,” he said.
I stilled. I wasn’t sure what he wanted from me, and I was so undone, I was willing to do whatever he required. I heard the rip of a wrapper and knew he was putting on a condom. Liam was going to do exactly what he said. I should have been sated. I should have been happy to curl into a ball of contentment and sleep for a week, but the thought of him pressing inside me made my insides liquefy and the desire inside of me lifted its big blocky head and roared.
He pushed my thighs apart and without saying a word, he slammed inside of me in one fierce thrust. My body wrapped around him like a tight fist and he leaned over my back, pressing his lips into the nape of my neck.
“So good,” he whispered. “So fucking good.”
The heat inside of me unfurled and when he grabbed my shoulders in his callused palms and held me still while he pounded into me, I fisted the comforter in my hands and arched my back meeting him thrust for thrust. He grunted and swore, and I felt my body tighten around his, clenching him as it climbed back toward orgasm.
“Damn it, not yet,” he said.
He pulled out of me and flipped me over. Without taking off his shirt or his pants, he spread my legs wide and thrust back up inside of me but this time he didn’t move. He held still. There was a dangerous look in his eyes and I knew it didn’t bode well for me. He had said he was going to fuck me for hours, oh my god, and as much as I loved the idea of that I realized he was working awfully hard to maintain control of what was happening between us. Yeah, that didn’t really work for me. In the orgasm department it was great but I wanted him to feel as mindlessly out of control as I did.
I ran a hand through his hair and he shuddered. Then I traced the curve of his lips with my finger before moving my hands to his shirt, which I unbuttoned while he stayed motionless, staring at me as if trying not to be distracted by the feel of my hands on his skin as they slid down his sides to reach into his jeans and gently cup his balls.
“Don’t,” he growled.
He shook his head as if he was trying to shake me off. His hands were locked into fists on either side of my head. It was clear he was keeping himself immobile to try and regain his control. Not if I had anything to say about it.
I arched, pushing myself up against him. His breath hissed out between clenched teeth.
“Jules.” His voice was full of warning.
I ignored him and lifted one leg, sliding it up over his shoulder and then the other. I grabbed the belt loops on the side of his jeans and pulled him in tight.
“Damn it, Jules, stop,” he said.
“Make me,” I said.
I met his gaze and was surprised I didn’t see flames leap up in his irises the look he gave me was that hot. I smiled at him and then I started to clench my inner muscles around his cock, squeezing him tight the same way I had when we were just young teens figuring it out.
“Oh, fuck me,” he said.
He grabbed my hips and began to slide in and out of me, picking up speed, creating the sort of friction that started fires. It sparked inside of me, igniting the embers of my need.
Together, we became a frenzy of heat and desire. I met him thrust for thrust, raising my hips and bringing him deeper inside. Sweat poured off of him, dripping onto my chest and making our skin slick. He let go of one hip and fisted a hand in my hair. He pulled me up to meet his kiss and his tongue dove into my mouth mimicking the possession below until I felt wholly consumed by him.
The orgasm when it started made me catch my breath. Slicing me wide open on the razor edge of pleasure and pain, I cried out into his mouth as I was torn apart by the euphoria that ripped me asunder. My body convulsed around his, causing him to thrust deep inside again and again until his own body went tight, locked with mine, as he came with a shout and a groan and collapsed on top of me in the spent embrace of a lover.
It was the same sound he used to make when he came inside of me and the feel of him holding onto to me as if I was all that grounded him to this place and time, that, too, was poignantly familiar. Again, I was filled with the sense of coming home.
I was half afraid that I was blacking out so intense was my release and I held onto him, trying to get my bearings. Liam was having none of it, however. He pulled my arms from around his neck and pushed away from me. He staggered to his feet, removed the condom and tied it off before tossing it in the trash. He tucked himself back into his jeans and zipped them up.
His shirt was still undone but he didn’t seem to care. Liam stared down at me but instead of the soft gaze of a man becoming reacquainted with the lover of his youth, he looked cold and hard and emotionally removed.
“Well, that’s that then,” he said.
“Excuse me?” I blinked at him not understanding.
“This,” he said. He gestured in between the two of us. “We’re done now. I just needed to get you out of my system.”
“Out of your system?” I repeated. Horror chilled the blood pumping through my veins, making my entire body grow cold. He wasn’t searching to reconnect. He was looking to fuck and forget. The bottom dropped from my stomach.
“You heard me.” Liam didn’t meet my gaze but instead attempted to fasten his shirt buttons. Irritated with his own shaky fingers, he gave up and glared at me. “What did you think this was, Blumer? A reunion? You left me. You left me without saying a word, no goodbye, no note, no nothing, and you took off with my best friend. Surely, you didn’t think there was ever any coming back from that, did you?”
“But there’s so much I—”
“No, there isn’t.” Liam tipped his head to the side and then ran the back of his hand over his mouth. “There is nothing between us. I wanted to fuck you to make sure that what Jessie took away from me all those years ago wasn’t worth having anyway. And guess what? I was right.”