Chapter 24 Henri
Henri
Do you have any tequila?” I ask as I stare at the red Check Admissions Status button in front of me.
My laptop rests on the kitchen island opposite Liam who is typing on his across from me as he finishes filling out the forms Juniper sent his way once he agreed to sign on for the ski event.
“I think I need a shot.” My gaze darts over the kitchen, searching to no avail.
And I didn’t see any alcohol around when we were putting up the groceries either.
“It’s three in the afternoon.” Liam quirks a brow.
“We’re on vacation. It doesn’t count.”
“We can steal some champagne once this is done,” he says and finally looks up from his screen. “I’m ready if you are.”
“Can you just press it?” I start to shove my laptop his way, but he stops me.
“You can do it. It’s just a button.”
A button that will determine the course of the rest of my life. When the hell did we give technology so much power? Take me back to the days when we got thick-ass acceptance letters so I could at least manage my expectations before tearing open a seal.
There’s a quick click from Liam’s keyboard. “See? Easy.”
With a deep inhale, I screw my eyes shut and jam my finger into the trackpad. Cracking an eye open, I groan. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. I have to log in again. I just did that shit.”
Liam rounds the counter and looks over my shoulder at my screen, resting his chin on my shoulder as he does. “I guess your fate is highly sensitive information that needs to be protected at all costs.”
It’s really hard to glare at someone who’s pressed against your back, but still, I make a valiant effort.
His arms band around me. “Fine. Even I have to admit that’s just fucking cruel.”
I type in my login information again and click.
Henrietta Elm,
We are pleased to welcome you into the Master’s of Counselling, Mental Health Concentration.
I scan the rest of the page until I reach the bottom.
“In addition to standard need-based aid, the Psychology department has decided to offer you one of the available assistantship positions, wherein tuition and fees will be waived.” Holy shit.
I never planned for anything beyond the basic need-based aid.
“I did it! I fucking did it!” I spin in Liam’s arms, grab his face, and plant a kiss on him, unable to contain the pure relief washing over me.
“Yeah, you did,” Liam says when I pull away.
“I’m going to need to pay my deposit and register for classes. I need to tell my mom and fuck, I need to call Iris and tell her that she was right, but also, we need to celebrate. And—”
Liam stops me with a finger on my lips. “No, what you need to do is stop and be proud of yourself. Everything else can wait.”
He’s right. I can finally relax as I take the next step toward the stability I crave. And it’s terrifying. There will be classmates I see every week, people who will get to truly know me. But because of the smiling man here with me, I’m finally not overwhelmed at the thought of it.
Because I’m Henrietta Fucking Elm. I work my ass off and make stupid dirty jokes and like clothes more than most people and I have really big feelings for Liam Hughes that I can’t say out loud.
It hits me like a knife piercing through my heart. This is supposed to be just sex. I need it to be just sex and good memories.
My smile fades against his finger.
“What?” he asks, brows pinching in concern.
I shake the thoughts from my head. “Nothing. I’m just happy that I get to be here with you.”
This time when I kiss him I don’t pull back.
I wrap my arms around his neck and hold on to what we have left.
He deepens the kiss, his hot tongue swiping into my mouth.
I rock into him and I swallow the groan that rumbles through him as he hoists me up, hands digging into my ass as he carries me and starts to walk.
“Where are we going?” I ask
“Bedroom,” he rasps
“You’re carrying me up the stairs? You tend to have a hard time with those.”
“Fuck you.”
“I thought that was already the plan,” I say as the easy humor dissolves the ache in my chest.
He doesn’t let me go. He carries me up the stairs and into his room, dropping me onto the mattress so I fall with my legs dangling off the sides. I tear off my shirt and chuck it to the side.
But he just stays there, hovering over me. Hazel eyes devouring every inch of me and that fist around my heart is back squeezing with all its might. I need it gone.
Come on, Henri. You know better. You don’t get the guy. You don’t want the guy. You hang out with them, you listen, you stand with them, and then you fade into a memory. You leave because when people get too close, when you’ve already given parts of yourself to them, they vanish.
That’s how it always goes.
Liam isn’t—can’t be—any different.
“Liam, please. I want you to fuck me.”
He stops again. Damn it.
“Are you sure?”
Can’t he be a little bit of an asshole just once? Would that be too much to ask?
“No, I publicly humiliated you with a box of condoms so we could blow them up like balloons,” I say, but then see the tender look in his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate.”
“Okay.” He kisses me quickly and pushes off the bed.
Opening a drawer in his nightstand, he grabs the box. With a yank, he pulls at the top and the thin cardboard tears, sending a cascade of metallic packaging onto the floor.
A laugh whooshes out of me as I roll off the bed and help him shove the condoms into the drawer, both of us on our hands and knees, wrappers crinkling as we grab them.
“The last one,” I say as I grab the final one from the thin carpet. Liam tries to take it from me, but I pull away. “I want to.”
He nods and gets to his feet. In one swift movement, he pulls off his shirt before working his pants and boxers off.
He’s bare, towering over me, cock at eye level and so fucking hard.
I reach out and stroke him, relishing the feel of his length in my fist. The muscles of his stomach clench and he leans back, bracing himself on the nightstand.
“Shit,” he hisses, eyes on me.
I tear the condom wrapper open with my teeth, something I’ve read about men doing in books, but I like the power that comes from being the one to do it.
Slowly, I roll it over him. The moment my hands are off him, I’m lifted into the air, arms like steel around my waist, his cock pressing against my stomach.
I bounce as I land on the mattress and a giggle erupts out of me.
And I’ll be damned if I let my catastrophizing brain ruin this.
“I’m going to start like this. I want to see every expression you make when I’m inside you,” Liam mutters.
His breath is hot on the skin of my stomach as he pries off my pants and underwear.
He replaces the fabric covering my pussy with hand, rubbing his fingers over my clit as I squirm. “You ready, baby?”
“Yes,” I gasp.
He lines himself up with my entrance and pushes in slowly. God it’s so different than when he fucked me with his fingers. So full. I reach up, needing to grasp something, my fingers find his back, clinging to him. With a final snap of his hips he’s fully seated inside me.
“Taking me so well, like I knew you would,” he praises, starting to roll his body against mine. I clench around him and that spurs him on.
“Tell me what to do,” I say.
“Right now, you’re going to lie there and take everything I give you, and then, if I survive your pussy long enough, I’m going to pull you on top of me and you’re going to ride me until you have everything you need.
” As he speaks, he thrusts. Slow at first, but rapidly turning frenzied.
His eyes pinch shut and something riding the line between utter anguish and pleasure consumes his face.
I claw at his back and my legs wrap around him as I’m pressed into the bed. Behind us, the headboard pounds against the wall.
When he pulls fully out of me, I whimper at the feeling of emptiness, but then I’m flipped around, straddling him.
Need takes hold in the place of nerves and I position myself over him. He grips my hips as I sink onto him.
Without me having to ask he starts to talk me through it, anticipating my over-active brain before I have time to panic.
“Perfect. Now roll your hips.” He gulps and groans as I rock tentatively.
“Use me, Henri. Chase what feels good. I’ll tell you if I need you to change something.
” He takes one of my hands and places it on his chest, where I’m met with his thundering heartbeat.
“Brace yourself against me. You won’t hurt me if you put some weight there. ”
I rock forward and back, testing what works and swallow a moan. “It’s so much more, like this.” Not just him inside me but the stimulation on my clit pressing against him that sends bursts of pleasure streaming through me.
I move faster, taking exactly what I need, embracing the heady rush that blocks everything else out. Just feeling him and me—all that matters.
He shifts, sitting up, arms around me as his mouth crushes against mine.
But I don’t stop moving—I can’t, as he groans against my lips and I drink in the sound.
His pleasure is a euphoric catalyst. The simple knowledge of what I’m doing to him is the final push.
My body quivers as I orgasm, legs locked around him.
With few final jerking thrusts against me, he comes too.
We collapse against the soft flannel sheets of his bed, limbs limp but still touching.
Minutes drift by like lazily floating clouds. We clean up and take turns in the bathroom, but return to bed. Liam trails fingers down my side, as if tracing an outline of me, and I lie against his chest, counting freckles.
“Has it hit you yet?” he asks.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever believe it’s real until I’m in the classroom.”
“It’s all working out.” His chest rises in a sharp inhale that’s not quite a laugh. “Honestly, I didn’t think it would. This article almost didn’t get off the ground.”