Chapter 36Liem
36
Liem
Wandering hands woke me, and as Cody hitched my leg back over his hip, I decided those were the best kinds of hands.
My favorite, perhaps.
I arched my back as my blood rearranged itself in my veins, gasping as Cody took me firmly into his already-slickened palm—somewhere in the back of my mind, I wondered when I’d gotten hard again—and glided his fist along me in long, even strokes.
Wandering, prepared hands. Those were most favored.
His bracelets grazed me in the most enticing way as he worked me over, but it was his eyes that nearly did me in.
Cody’s head was resting on my bicep, facing me, and I couldn’t help but gasp when our gazes met. Those beautiful hazel eyes, with the browns and greens that I’d committed to canvas just this morning, ensnared me. Hooded with sleep and darkened with desire, they watched me with such intensity that I could do nothing but stare down my impending surrender.
But I wouldn’t go without him.
He worked me so beautifully, alternating tender care with brutal and glorious disregard in the pace and grip of his strokes, his brows furrowing and mouth agape every time he transitioned to the latter.
It was stunning. I was stunned.
I reached over with my free hand and offered my open palm to him in invitation that he understood and accepted. Lifting his head off my arm, he ran his tongue from my wrist to the tip of my longest finger twice, and on the third stripe, he swirled his tongue around the tip of my finger and sucked it into his mouth.
“ Cody,” I rasped in prayer and admonishment as my pelvis bucked into his fist. The suction on my finger was so foreign, so mind-numbing compared with the grip of his fist, all of it setting my nerve endings ablaze. He smiled around my finger—not that I could see it, but I certainly felt it—before sucking on it one more time.
His head fell back to my bicep then, a new flush to his cheeks as he smiled, looking entirely pleased with himself.
As he should be.
His hand never faltered in its work toward my pleasure, but my consciousness was spread thin, not sure whether to focus on where he worked me, his face, or my newly tingling extremities.
As a result, my hand remained suspended in the air between us for several long moments as I simply basked in overloaded dysfunction until Cody reached over me, grabbed my wrist, and carefully turned us toward each other.
Then he lowered my hand to his erection.
I gripped him automatically, bundling the experience into a bouquet of memories.
His texture, his passion, his lips as they formed my name.
“ Liem,” he pleaded as I moved my hand along his length. “Just like that.”
The angle wasn’t perfect, but it also was in its intimacy and connection. Each mutual glide brought us closer together until our foreheads touched as we worked each other.
I grasped the back of Cody’s neck and stroked my thumb down his taut muscles, finding his detonation button. He bucked wildly, and then his pace faltered for a second before he upped it with ferocity.
Those tingling nerves inside of me took a breath before they screamed in pleasure, and I found release. Goose bumps rippled across my back and chest as Cody shouted what I felt, his release joining mine and coating the space between us.
Heedless of the mess, Cody rolled on top of me and, with one hand braced on the middle of my chest and the other cupping my face, kissed me.
The kiss was even more ferocious than the ones we’d shared before, but it was somehow more tender too. His thumb stroked my cheekbone as his tongue found its way into my mouth, exploring and insistent, our spent bodies still finding pleasure in proximity.
I wasn’t sure how long the kissing went on, but it wasn’t until Cody’s stomach grumbled loudly that we finally broke apart long enough to pause, to think.
He rolled us back onto our sides and then flopped backward onto the bed, making me bounce. Then he threw his arm over his eyes and exhaled quite dramatically. “You really had your way with me, LL. I’m never going to recover from this.”
I propped my head on my arm and traced a finger along his ribs, smiling as his golden skin puckered. “Do recall that I came here for a date. You were the one who said, and I quote, ‘I can’t do this.’ I was perfectly happy to just enjoy your company.”
He slid his arm over his head and plopped it on the pillow, opening one eye at me as he asked, “And did you?”
I walked my fingers across his abs, which didn’t even have the energy to constrict as they normally would have. “Immensely.”
He closed his eyes, a pleased smile slowly growing on his face.
Pleasure suited him, as did pride.
His body did one of those little convulsions, like when you just remembered something utterly divine or decidedly horrible, before he abruptly sat up and stood from the bed. He regarded me for a long moment, his eyes taking in every inch of me before he scooped me up and carried me to the bathroom.
“No nonsense, Ti Bet,” he warned. “We’re going to clean up, and then I’ll do as I promised.”
“Yeah?” I asked, awed as Cody adjusted the large shower one-handed and then guided us under it.
“Yeah, Liem. Prepare to be wooed.”
“These biscuits are not wooing quality,” Cody said mournfully after a shower filled with nonsense.
He tipped the bowl of dough toward me, and I frowned at the sad, dried crust that had formed on top. “Monny’s nightmare biscuits,” I confirmed with a solemn nod.
“At least I took the cookies out of the oven before you rocked up here and fried my brain,” he said lightly, gesturing to the pan of cookies on top of the stove.
I’d tried to ask him about that before, until Cody’s magnificently dirty mouth had driven it entirely from my mind.
I took the bowl from his hands and set it on the counter, then nuzzled into his bare chest.
We’d changed into minimal clothing after the shower, both of us still running a bit hot after our pre-date activities.
“Thank you for what you did for Dad.” I turned my head and rested the side of my face against his shoulder. “You made what could have been a desperately bad situation entirely good. He called me the day after and wasn’t even upset about the scolding Mom gave him after you left.”
I’d already told him this over the phone during one of our many calls since I’d been in Gulf Shores, but in typical Cody fashion, he’d brushed it off as nothing.
It was the opposite of nothing, the way he’d supported my family when I hadn’t been there. When Vinh hadn’t been there.
It was that same deep caring that’d first drawn me to him, when he’d fretted for Bree—a stranger to me then, but everything to him, then and now—and had sealed his place in my heart, which had been waiting there for if we’d ever get our chance.
So, no, it was not nothing. It was everything. He was everything. And everything had changed but, at its core, was the same.
My shoulders shook as I started to laugh, and Cody looked down at me curiously.
“What’s funny?”
I pulled away, letting the laugh die out. “Nothing. Everything,” I said with a shrug.
He narrowed his eyes and wrapped his arm around me. “Mysterious little minx.”
Everything, everything, everything, my brain repeated as he dragged me closer and hugged me to him tightly before asking, “How about we go wander, see what we see, and find some dinner?” He tipped my chin up and drew me in for a single kiss. “Then we can walk on the beach, and I can show you what I’ve been meaning to. Tell you what I need to tell you.” Another kiss, followed by a smirk. “And then we can come back and desecrate the hot tub.”
At my enthusiastic approval, we parted ways to finish getting dressed, and I took a moment to myself in the bathroom.
A few deep breaths as I took in what had just happened. That Cody had been inside me. That, even though he had nothing to prove when it came to how I saw him, he’d still been utter perfection.
I didn’t have tons of experience with physical intimacy, but the few encounters I’d had were hurried and unfulfilling. I’d never wished to take them further, to let someone else connect with me in such a way.
And I hoped Cody would be the only one I shared this with.
As I freshened up, I wondered what Cody planned to show me, to tell me, all the while not having the slightest clue that when we walked out that door, another change was waiting just around the corner.
I didn’t know that when we stepped outside—hand in hand and Cody with his inscrutable notebook tucked under his arm—and the sun set on our day, the world would tilt before the next sunrise.