Chapter Twenty
“Y ou forgot your jack—”
That was all I got out before his mouth landed on mine and I was pushed against the wall as he kicked the door shut.
I clutched his shoulders, delighted with the warm skin and firm muscles beneath my fingertips. He peeled the leather jacket off me and threw it on the floor like it offended him. His mouth was running up and down the side of my neck and I arched to make it easier for him.
“Probably, we should talk,” he said, his words muted as he spoke against my skin. He pressed into me, and I felt his erection beneath his pajamas and had to suck in a gulp of air to make sure my brain didn’t short circuit from lack of oxygen.
“Later.” I panted. “Plenty of time later.”
I felt him grin against my skin when he kissed my shoulder. He grabbed my hips and hoisted me up. I instinctively wrapped my legs around his waist, and he cupped my bottom as he turned and carried me upstairs. When we reached the landing, he wasn’t even breathing hard, nor did he slow down.
An enormous bed filled the sparsely decorated room, and this was where we landed, sitting in a tangle of arms and legs. I kicked off my running shoes while he pulled my top over my head and dragged my yoga pants down, tossing them onto the floor.
“Still no time for laundry?” he asked, noting my lack of underwear with a grin.
I shrugged. “I’ve had other things on my mind.”
“Such as?” he asked.
“You,” I said. It came out on an exhale, making it all breathy. His grin deepened.
With one hand on his chest, I pushed him down until he reclined on the bed. I pulled off the plaid pajama bottoms and sent them to the floor with the rest of our clothes. With a long lingering look at his seriously hard cock, I pulled the hair tie out of my hair and let my long curls run wild. I swear the man got even harder. A glance at Liam’s face and I saw him swallow as if nervous or excited or both.
“About the other ni—”
“Shh.” I straddled him and grabbed his hands, pushing them back against the bedspread by his head. Then, I kissed him. It was a long, slow, exploratory sort of kiss, where my mouth molded to his while my tongue played peekaboo, darting back and forth, getting the taste and the feel of him. It was the sort of kiss shared by new lovers who are learning everything they can about their partner through taste and touch.
Although I remembered most of our misspent youth, it was nice to get a refresher course. I cataloged what made him groan, what made him half rise up and try to take over, and what made him buck his hips beneath me. This enthusiastic response happened when I plunged my tongue into his mouth in the most blatantly sexual way I could manage. I had to try it three or four times to be sure. Yeah, it never failed.
This was an exquisite way to learn things about this man. I could feel my own desire spike with each new revelation of what made this guy hot. Liam and I were hardly new to one another, yet I felt like this was a new time for us. We were different than the teenagers we’d once been. Different than the estranged lovers who had come together in a frenzy just recently. Life had hardened us, given us new and different experiences, but still, the one true thing was the combustible chemistry that never seemed to fade between us.
One more plunge with my tongue, and Liam broke my hold and rolled me over onto my back. Then he took over the kiss until I was arching up against him, trying to nudge him into action.
He didn’t take the hint, but instead ran his hands down my sides pausing at my breasts to let his fingers tease and taunt my nipples into stiffened peaks that yearned for his mouth. When he finally sucked one in between his lips and gently bit down, I was pretty sure I was done for and any semblance of dignity was gone, baby, gone. I proceeded to beg.
“Liam, please,” I moaned.
“Please what?” he asked. He licked me like an ice cream cone until I was just as wet and melty. He pulled back a bit. A furrow appeared in his brow. “Maybe we should talk, clear the air before we keep going.”
Yeah, that would be the smart thing to do; mature, logical, responsible, yada, yada, yada. The problem was when it came to this man I was as dumb as a bag of hammers.
“Can’t talk. Need you,” I said.
“Need me for what?” He tried to sound innocent, the big faker. I knew exactly what he was trying to do, get me to talk dirty to him. Well, all righty then.
I ran my fingers into his thick dark hair and forced his warm brown gaze to meet mine. In a lust filled voice I barely recognized as mine, I said, “I need you to fuck me. Hard. Like you mean it.”
The man went perfectly still for the space of a heartbeat and then he was delightfully, deliciously, deliriously crazed. Well, okay then. His mouth moved over my skin as if he fully intended to kiss every bare inch of it. Oh, my!
I ran my hands over his shoulders, his chest, his abs. I felt him clench wherever my fingers touched, and his response kicked my own desire up a notch. I arched and kissed him while his fingers blazed a trail down between my legs, finding my sweet spot and moving in relentless gentle circles until I started to push against him, longing for more. He ignored me.
His fingers kept moving in the tenderly insistent caress that didn’t stop but didn’t go further and it was slowly driving me mad. When I glanced up at him from beneath my lashes, his lips were turned up in a look that could only be described as wicked. The boy knew exactly what he was doing to me, and was utterly unrepentant. So, he wanted to play. Fine.
I circled his erection with my fist and gave a gentle tug. He let out a huff of breath and I laughed. Then I moved my other hand so that it cupped the boys below. This time he growled. I worked him over firmly but gently using both hands until I saw a sheen of sweat bead up on his skin. If this was a game, I was playing to win, and I was, right up until he put his lips back on my breast. He gently bit down and the rhythm I’d maintained stuttered as I arched my back and gasped. This time, he laughed.
He pushed my hands away and settled himself between my legs. Now I was trapped with him right there, so close to where I wanted him to be, and yet, he didn’t commit, he didn’t slide into me, and I was left with an aching, throbbing need that was making me thrash in a decidedly unfeminine way against him.
“Liam,” I panted his name.
“Yes, Jules,” he said.
He sounded so calm and reasonable I wanted to hit him. His devious grin was firmly in place as he lowered his mouth to my other breast, taking the tip between his lips and sucking hard until I felt the corresponding zap of desire between my legs.
“Why are you torturing me?” My voice came out needy and whiny. I could tell how far gone I was that I didn’t even care.
“Because we need to get some things straight,” he said.
My heart plummeted. Oh, man, we were going to talk now ? I didn’t want to, talking only made things tricky and weird and there were too many secrets and so much pain. My desire began to flat line at the imagined fall out.
He must have sensed my lust dissipating because he let his full weight come down on me with his thighs in between mine and his firm boy parts pressing insistently into my soft girl parts. I was pretty sure I saw stars as my desire ratcheted right back up to the level of why aren’t we doing it right now ?
He wagged his eyebrows at me, and I clamped my lips together to keep from begging for more. We were at an impasse, but then he kissed me. He dug his hands into my hair to angle my head so he could plant a lip lock on me that stole my breath, hell, I was pretty sure it stole my soul. When he pulled back, his gaze met mine and the intensity made me shiver.
“I need to be clear that if we do this right now then we’re a thing,” he said.
My eyes went wide. “A thing ? Please define “thing.” Do you mean as in a romantic couple or a freak show at a circus?”
His stare intensified even as his mouth twitched. “As in a couple, a pair, a twosome, although if you want to get freaky...”
My heart started to hammer in my chest, as if trying to get my attention to let me know how it was voting. It was an ay. Shocker, I know.
“But what about—”
“Done. Over. History,” he said.
“Oh.” I had a million questions but sensed, as he shifted against me and I got distracted, that this was not the time. Still, shouldn’t I find out what happened? What if, oh horror, she broke up with him and he was on the rebound and I was just his transition woman?
He stared at me and then nudged me, again, with a not-so-subtle thrust of his hips which got my attention back where it belonged. Transition smansition. It was details, who needed details? I blinked and nodded my head.
“A thing then, definitely, a thing,” I said. I grinned at him, and he blinked in return.
“Thank fuck!” he muttered right before he pulled me up tight against him and kissed me.
The kiss was tender and fierce, and we clung to each other which made his attempt to put on a condom a bit tricky, but once he was ready, I grabbed him by the hips and pulled him in. No hesitation. No waiting. I wanted him to belong to me completely.
We both gasped as he entered. He was hard and I was wet, but the fit was tight and the friction intense. As my body relaxed around his to let him in and then clenched to pull him in even deeper, I glanced up at his face and saw such tenderness that my throat burned and tears stung my eyes.
How had I walked away from this man all those years ago? How much time had we lost that could have been ours? Regret made me hug him close. He was mine right now and I had no plan to let him go ever again.
“Hey, new boy.” My voice was just a whisper, but I had to tell him. I had to say it.
“What is it, surfer girl?” He leaned in close and kissed me quick and then put his ear near my lips as if he knew I could barely get the words out.
My lips brushed his ear, causing him to shiver, as I said, “I am so sorry that I left you, so very sorry.”
The tears that had been threatening spilled now. He pulled back and followed their trails with his lips, catching them on the tip of my chin before putting his mouth back to mine in a kiss that tasted of tears.
“It’s okay,” he whispered. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”
Our gazes met in perfect understanding. We had a choice to let the past destroy the present or to move on from it. There was much more to be said, we both knew it, but for now, right in this moment, we understood each other, and we were okay.
He began to move, slow at first as if he was determined to savor every second of our coming together. I matched him, moving with him, wanting the same but it wasn’t long before my desire to feel wholly consumed by him overrode the savoring.
I twisted up in his arms, forcing him back until I was on top, and Liam was reclined across the bed. I loved having him laid out before me; I straddled him and splayed my hands on his chest like a kitten kneading a blanket. The muscles in his arms bunched, his thick brown hair was mussed, and the look on his face was one of awe mixed with scorching desire—for me! He was simply glorious.
I started to control the rhythm, going faster and deeper. He gripped my hips in his hands and slowed me down when I would have sent us both, okay, mostly me, right over the finish line. I was no match for his upper body strength so when he caught me and held me up, not allowing me to move, I realized any control I thought I had was just an illusion.
This was clearly Liam’s show, and I was merely a player. His eyes were half closed as he glanced up at me and slowly moved his hips up, not allowing me to grind down. I could feel my nostrils flare and his wicked grin returned. I was beginning to think the man was a sadist.
He watched me as he moved, no doubt noticing how I tried to break his hold. It occurred to me that much like the waves we liked to play in, I would do better to go with the tide than against it, which was why when he went to slide back in, I moved in the same direction which took me away from him, thwarting him. When he moved, I moved. Two more times until he got it. Heat flashed in his eyes as he caught on pretty quick to my sexual shenanigans.
“You’re in trouble now!” With a laugh, he grabbed me around the middle and rolled until I was underneath him.
He lifted my legs up around his waist and this time there was no teasing. He pushed all the way in, deeper than I thought was possible, until I actually felt impaled by him. It was almost enough. Then he did it again, and it was enough.
The orgasm when it hit was one for the scrapbooks, you know, if one was to take pictures of this sort of life moment. Much like getting rolled by a wave, I felt completely disoriented; I didn’t know which way was up as my entire body convulsed in spasms of pleasure that made me cry his name even as he held me tight and rode out his own orgasm.
Spent, we stayed entwined waiting out the slowing of our heartbeats and allowing the sweat to dry on our bodies. It was the sweet surrender I had longed for the last time we were together, but I’d take it now. It had so been worth the wait.