Chapter 13 #2
Liam wasn’t at the front desk when I arrived, so I sauntered further in until I saw him working a bag near the back. His shoulders rotated and muscles bunched, pulsing with each thrust of his arm against the bag.
Holy shit.
His punch moved the bag so far back that I thought it might break.
“See, that’s how you know it’s too light of a bag. You don’t want to use that heavy of a punch on these bags. You would be better off reserving your energy,” he yelled over the music, explaining all this to some teenager.
I was standing off to the side, behind him, when the kid turned and caught sight of me. He shifted on his feet and did a double-take, his face turning red.
Liam watched the kid’s reaction, then glanced at me.
“Eyes here.” he scolded, shoving him until he was facing the bag again.
“Haley, go start stretching, I’ll be there in a second,” Liam directed.
I nodded and moved over to the mats and fell into the few stretches we’d done the day before.
Within a few minutes Liam was walking over.
He wore a dark tank top that gaped on the sides, showing his defined torso and all that ink covering him.
His heated eyes fell on me, and I already knew it was a mistake to ask him to meet me when the gym opened.
His gaze lit me on fire, and after last night, all I wanted was to step forward and kiss him.
Instead of saying anything to me, he started stretching with me.
A few of the guys around the room rotated, moving to speed training bags. A few others swapped partners, boxing each other in the elevated rings.
Within minutes, we were falling into a routine where he began to show me different techniques for evading, and where to put my hands and arms. Unfortunately, the music was so loud it was difficult to follow along with anything he was saying, not to mention the yelling and jeering from the guys sparring in the different rings.
Eventually Liam realized I was getting frustrated by not being able to hear him and because someone was coming by every five minutes and interrupting.
Finally, I just moved to a heavy bag and did the drills he told me to do.
Once I was done, I headed into the locker room, feeling a sense of routine now.
Honestly, just hitting the bag was pretty nice, and even if I couldn’t do the self-defense with Liam, I wouldn’t mind coming in every day to work the bag.
Once inside the locker room, I took my time undressing and wrapping a towel around me, and by the time I was headed into the shower stall, Liam was walking in behind me, locking us inside.
“You still want to start lessons when the gym is open?” He smiled, pulling me into his chest.
I let out a sigh and threw my hands around his neck. “Fine, you win. Today sucked.”
His nose was in my neck a second later, his hand fisting my towel.
“I know, and that kid I was training is eighteen, which I realized is closer in age to you than I am. Do you have any idea how stupid it made me feel to be jealous of that pimply kid?”
“Jealous?” I tilted my head back, raising my brow, “I thought you didn’t get jealous.”
His hands came around me until he was cupping my ass.
“I said I didn’t give a shit about Jeffery Akers, which I don’t, but when there are guys more suitable for you to date that are closer to your age, I get insecure. Jeffery is an old fuck, just like me.”
“Too bad I seem to like you, and drool over your old man strength and old man muscles, and your super old man tattoos.”
His grunt told me I’d done my job and gotten to him.
“Now you’re going to make me show you how young I still am.”
“You showed me last night, and aren’t those guys going to need you again soon? They kept bugging us every few minutes. Where did they all come from anyway?”
Liam exhaled, nipping at my neck. “It’s the weekend crew. A few guys drive down and train here. They stay at one of the cabins at the lodge, I think. Do the whole weekend thing then go back to Portland.”
“Liam, that’s amazing. You’re big enough of a name to draw people from a different part of the state. That’s a huge deal.”
His eyes closed off, his head turning away like he didn’t want to hear the praise.
“Yeah, it’s nice. Just isn’t nice enough to make a difference on my books, or to investors to take a chance on backing me.”
“You’re looking for investors?”
I knew the second the words left my mouth he was going to completely shut down, and like an idiot, I said them anyway.
“No.” It was firm, flat, with no room for questions.
Suddenly he ripped my towel away and starkly demanded, “Sit on the bench.”
For some reason I did exactly as he said, sitting naked on the small bench inside the stall. Meanwhile, he watched, lowering his shorts and boxers.
“Good girl.”
His thumb swiped over my nipple, making me arch my back and then he traced my lips, shoving his thumb inside my mouth.
“For too many fucking nights, I fisted myself, just thinking about this mouth, wondering how well you’d take my cock, then I finally had you and we didn’t even find out. Now all I can think about is having you again.” He trailed my lips ever so softly, his eyes heating.
“Miss me, Liam?”
I opened for him, letting his fingers invade my mouth while my eyes stayed on his.
“Open up and find out.”
He stepped back, fisting his erection and led it to my mouth. I unlocked my jaw and tilted my eyes.
“Spread your thighs. Touch yourself.”
I did as he said. Taking his cock into my mouth, I began to suck, while circling my clit with two of my fingers.
He pumped forward, holding my jaw while I sucked him off.
My core heated at the idea of him fucking me again.
“Having your pussy was perfect, but this…having your mouth, that’s…fuck.”
I sucked harder, hollowing my cheeks.
“I thought of filthy, dirty things last night, Haley. Things that would make you blush. Things that might even scare you.”
Oh God. I wanted him to tell me. I wanted him to show me.
“I thought I’d last doing this, but I need you,” he confessed, and then I was being pulled into his lap while he sat on the bench, his back against the wall.
“Spread for me.” He touched my pussy and widened his legs, so my thighs spread further apart.
There was a nudge at my entrance, a slick pressure as he rubbed his cock along my slit and then he was hissing, pressing the back of his head into the wall.
I held him by the root as I adjusted myself, sinking down along his length, loving the feel of him going deeper and deeper.
“Fuck, you have all of me,” Liam said through clenched teeth.
My head fell back, my hair touching his thighs as I pushed my hips forward.
His hand gripped my ponytail as he thrust up into me, muttering about how badly he needed me.
We stayed like that, the two of us moving like a greedy wave clamoring to beat against the sand.
He held my hair tighter in his fist as he growled into my neck.
His lips marked me there, then his teeth, sinking into my shoulder as he sucked.
The sound of our skin slapping together filled the empty room as we fucked on the bench, my knees pressed into the wood as I rode him, taking everything I wanted, insatiably chasing another orgasm.
Suddenly his thumb pulled my bottom lip down, tilting my head, and my eyes were on his.
That silver burned and heated as he stared at me, his hips rocking, his arm a band around my back, then he ordered, “Come for me, Haley.”
Right as he said it, he squeezed my nipple, then leaned forward to lap at it. I squeezed my thighs tight and ground down on his throbbing length and fell apart.
“That’s it, yes,” he rasped, keeping me close to his chest as he found his release. A deep groan filled the room as he continued to pump into me, and then our heavy breathing filled the empty space, our heads tipped softly against one another, his lips were on mine.
“I know what we said about keeping this private, but I don’t want to be away from you.”
His confession pried my chest open, gently cradling the terrified organ inside, coaxing it to believe him.
I closed my eyes and leaned into the crook of his neck, so he didn’t have to see my hesitation.
Handing my heart over to people always came too easy to me.
I trusted blindly, believed the best, and then they’d walk away.
Most of the time they didn’t even offer my heart back before they left.
So I shuddered against him and whispered in return, “Me either.”
“Then stay with me tonight,” he said, helping me off his lap.
I nodded then pressed a kiss against his lips.
Once he left, I thought over his refusal for help and realized it was still bugging me.
I could feel Liam’s stress, and his fear over losing this place…
the way he said no meant he already knew about me.
Probably from Cole. Was he really that prideful that he wouldn’t even entertain the idea of me backing him?
It wouldn’t work. I hated pride…and stubborn men.
Liam Croft just became a challenge, and if there was one thing I was professionally good at, it was accepting them.