Chapter 12 Liam #2
Then I was in front of her. Her eyes were closed, so she didn’t even know I was there.
Like this, I could see the flecks of gold on her eyelids, and how thick her lashes were.
How her pink lips were glossy and plump.
All I wanted to do was kiss her. I wanted to take her out of here and tuck her into my bed.
I also wanted to fuck her rough and smack her ass for coming on this date with Jeffery.
She may not realize that’s what it is, but Jeffery sure as fuck thought so.
“Hey, Liam! Everything good, man?” Jeffery yelled at me like we were friends.
I didn’t even know the idiot. I didn’t miss how his arm wrapped around Haley’s stomach possessively, tugging her back into his chest. He’d fucked up, though, because as soon as she heard my name, Haley’s eyes popped open, and she was clawing at Jeffery’s wrist.
“Liam?”
Everything in my head went quiet.
She belonged with me, and I had never been surer of anything in my entire life.
I pulled her out of his arms, until she was flush against me, my lips at her ear.
“This isn’t working.”
Her eyes rounded, all large and worried. Jeffery was yelling at me, his arms wide like he wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on.
“What’s not working?” she yelled back, her palms going flat on my chest.
“You with him. You taking it slow, or whatever the fuck it is you think you’re doing.”
I tangled my fingers with hers and pulled her away from the floor, through the couples until we were outside. Jeffery was on our heels, peppering us both with questions that we ignored.
“What’s going on?” he asked once we’d pushed outside, his eyes wide and shocked.
“Go back inside,” I demanded, pulling Haley behind me.
She pushed at my back, trying to move me, but it wasn’t going to happen.
“Haley, are you okay with this?” Jeffery tried to look past me.
I shoved him back a few feet.
“What the fuck, man?” he yelled.
“Liam, what the hell? You need to chill,” Haley said at my back, pulling my arm.
I gripped her hip by twisting my arm back, holding her in place.
“We’re leaving.”
Jeffery muttered something under his breath. He really had no idea how much self-restraint I was showing.
“Haley, you don’t have to go with him. This is exactly what I was talking about. Dude is fucking crazy!” Jeffery roared from behind me.
I had turned and was watching Haley, her green eyes narrowed on Jeffery. Something on her face transformed when he said that. She went from fighting me to holding my hand.
“I drove here,” she said quietly.
Not wanting to waste another second, I pulled her behind me. “We’ll come back for it.”
Jeffery could go fuck himself.
I helped Haley settle into the passenger seat of my truck and then we took off.
“Your place or mine?” I asked, revving the engine with more intensity than needed, but I really wanted to punch that mother fucker.
“Where are the girls?” Haley asked, watching the windshield as we drove aimlessly.
“Colson’s.”
She hummed, and then let out a sigh.
“My house. But Liam, we need to talk.”
I drove to her house but parked a few houses down. Haley noticed and chuckled under her breath.
“Probably best, right?”
I gave a small grunt. “Colson already warned me away from you.”
“Of course he did.” She let out a sigh.
We walked in silence down the sidewalk, our breath clouding in front of us. Haley kept her arms tucked in tight, her hands hidden. I wanted to hold her, touch her. But walking with her to her house was enough for now.
“Here, let me go in and turn off the porch light.” Haley rushed ahead of me, up the steps, shoving her key into the lock all while I stayed in the shadows. Once the porch light flicked off, I ensured Colson’s house was still dark and then I ran up the steps into her house.
“Holy shit, it’s freezing in here,” I rasped, flipping the deadbolt.
I slid my boots off, then my jacket, and carried them in my arms as Haley blew air into her palms.
“There’s no heat in this area without starting the fire. I usually just go into my room and stay there unless I need food or water.”
“Lead the way.”
Haley nodded and walked down the hall, taking the first right into a smaller guest room. There was a queen-sized bed inside with a dresser against the wall, and a small desk sat under the window. Thick blinds blocked the light from exiting, or any from coming inside.
“This is…smaller than I expected.” I shut her bedroom door and set my things down next to it.
She laughed and tugged her coat off, setting it on the back of her desk chair. I finally noticed all the boxes she’d had in the back of her car were now all piled half inside the closet.
“I’m currently apartment hunting.”
That seemed like a waste of time.
“You could just move in with us.”
Haley burst out laughing and then sat down on the edge of her bed.
“It’s late. Are the girls spending the night at Colson’s?”
I shifted, uneasy all the sudden. Why did she laugh at that offer? I was dead serious.
“Yeah.”
She hummed to herself, tossing her cell behind her on the bed and letting out a loud sigh.
“So, did you want to…” She hesitated, her face flushing pink. “Did you want to stay for a bit then head home, or…?”
My brows caved, finally realizing what she was asking.
“I’m staying the night.”
She stood.
“Okay, well, I need to change, so if you want to look away or whatever?”
“Since you posed it as a question, then I’m good where I am. Thanks.”
She watched me, her arms a tight band across her chest. That tank she was wearing had raised and pushed her cleavage together. I tugged my shirt off to make things less awkward.
“You can stay, but we aren’t doing anything. We have to talk. What you did…it sucked, Liam.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, feeling confused as I watched her shift on her feet.
She let out one of those heavy sighs as her arms crossed, her fingers digging into the bottom hem of her shirt until it was being pulled over her head, revealing a strapless bra that pushed her tits up. My mouth went dry.
“I’m talking about the fact that you only seem to want me if Jeffery is involved somehow.”
Wait—that’s not—
She dipped her head, then her fingers were at the waist of her jeans, tugging on the copper button and pushing them down her legs, revealing a pair of black boy short underwear.
“So you wear a thong when you come to learn self-defense, but when you go out drinking with Jeffery fucking Akers, you wear shorts?”
Her face flushed pink as she tossed her jeans over her desk chair.
“Well, I wasn’t planning on getting naked with Jeffery—” She turned her back toward her closet but as soon as she said that she spun on her toes, her face pink and blotches scattered over her chest.
“Not that I was planning on getting naked with you at the gym either. I just mean, I wasn’t purposely trying to be sexy tonight. My gym leggings are the kind that will show underwear lines, that’s why I wear a thong in our lessons. Not because I had some plan to…”
I loved her like this. Flustered and blushing, suddenly shy and toying with the ends of her hair. She did that a lot—tugged, braided, curled around her finger.
“For the record, I don’t give a flying fuck about him. I wanted you before he was involved. I want you regardless of your relationship with him, but the fact that you weren’t wearing fuck-me underwear, or even a matching set, tells me everything I need to know about where he stands with you.”
I slid my jeans off and then my socks, until I was in my boxer briefs.
“That seems a little presumptuous, don’t you think?” she joked, heading into her closet.
When Haley returned, she had a loose T-shirt on that went to her thighs. It was cute that she thought she’d be wearing that tonight.
“Your sports bra was black, it matched your black thong. There was a pink tag in the middle, where the bra zips. That tag was on the strap at your hip. You wore a matching set to the gym when we trained.”
She paused mid-step, her eyes going wide, her lips parting. It was either the truth I just dropped on her, or the fact that I was in just my boxers now. I smirked and pulled the covers back and slid into her bed.
She hesitated for only a second then walked over to the door and turned off the overhead lights. Padding back to the side of her bed, she clicked on the small lamp.
“I have a whole face routine, and my teeth…”
Stretching, pulling my arms back behind my head, I said, “Skip it tonight.”
Her fingers curled into the fabric of her T-shirt.
“My breath, it’s bad. Let me just—”
I tugged at her shirt and pulled her into the bed.
“I don’t believe you, let me smell.” My nose was in her neck, my fingers brushing her hair back. She laughed, trying to pull away.
“No, gross! Liam, I am not letting you smell my breath.”
I shifted until my lips were hovering over hers. “Then just let me taste you.”
She relaxed into me, but kept her face turned away.
“We shouldn’t…”
Cradling her jaw, I forced her to look at me.
“Why shouldn’t we?”
Her mouth was half parted, so I advanced and slowly licked along her bottom lip.
Her tiny gasp encouraged me to trace the top as well.
“Things are complicated. We should think about it. Take it slow.”
“Okay.”
She reared back in surprise. “Really?”
“Sure, we’ll take things slow.”
My mouth covered hers, sliding my tongue in between her lips, swiping inside until I felt her open up for me, and then she moved hungrily against me. Her hand went to the back of my neck, and her fingers slid up and sunk into my hair, holding me to her.
“I’ll slowly kiss you…” I muttered against her lips.
My hands went to her hips, my thumbs rubbing circles into her skin as we shifted.
“Slowly touch you,” I whispered, still kissing her and grabbing a handful of her ass, but as my fingers skimmed the fabric around her hips, I paused and pulled my mouth away from hers.
“You changed into a thong?”