Chapter 19 #3
I could barely breathe, but I managed, “Fuck. I think… I think about you too. All the time.” I managed a semi-drunken laugh. “Surprised I haven’t given myself tennis elbow.”
Liam’s laugh was soft, a warm breath across my neck just before he kissed beneath my jaw. “Do you want that? You want me to ride you until I blow my load?”
I shuddered hard from both his dirty mouth and the thought of him making good on his filthy suggestion. “God, yes.”
“Yeah?” He tightened his grip and pumped me a little faster. “Jesus, fucking Christ, I want… I don’t have it in me tonight, but my God, I want to fuck you, Garrett.”
Whimpering, I squeezed my eyes shut, on the verge of losing my mind as he stroked me and whispered about one of the hottest fantasies I’d ever had.
“You’d feel so damn good,” he purred. “Been a long time since I had someone like that.” He brushed his lips along the side of my throat. “Probably come after three strokes the first time, but the second time….”
A choked sound escaped my lips. “Please, yes.”
“Mmm, baby, when I can move?” He groaned as he added a twist to his strokes. “Fuck, I’m so going to ride that gorgeous ass until I come in you.”
Just the thought of that—of him buried inside me and letting go, the sounds he’d make and the way he’d shudder and tremble while he drove us both over the edge—finished everything his hand was doing. My hips bucked off the bed, and I shouted as I came on both of us.
“Oh, yeah, that’s perfect,” he breathed as I lost it. “Come for me, baby. God, yeah.”
I sank back onto the bed, shaking all over. I was breathless, but I managed to pant, “You have… You have the dirtiest mouth.”
Liam grinned. “Uh-huh. I do.”
I laughed as I drew him closer. “Shameless, too.”
“Absolutely.” He was still grinning when our lips met, but only for a second. He drew out a long, lazy kiss. When he came up for air, he glanced down at us. “We should probably clean up.”
“Probably, yeah.”
We exchanged smiles. Then he kissed me once more, and this time his expression was soft and a little apologetic. “Sorry we couldn’t do more tonight.”
“More?” I laughed, sliding my hand down over his ass just because I could. “You don’t think I’m satisfied?”
“Well, I mean…” He blushed as he broke eye contact. “I wasn’t really running at a hundred percent, and—”
“Liam.” I tipped up his chin and kissed him lightly. “You talked dirty to me while you jerked me off. And that was after I got to spend half the night going down on you.” I shook my head. “I have zero complaints.”
He shivered, biting his lip, and some of that heat from earlier still gleamed in his eyes. “I do want to do more, though. Even if we can’t do it tonight.”
I could barely breathe, but I managed, “Me too.”
We held each other’s gazes, and the piece clicked into place.
There were things we wanted to do that we couldn’t do right now… but we still wanted to do them. In the future. On another night. Together.
I swallowed. “You want to do this again.”
Liam searched my eyes. Then, subtly, he nodded. “Yeah. I do.”
“Me too.” I kissed him softly. “I don’t know if we should. I mean—I know we probably shouldn’t. But…” I dragged my lips across his. “I think we both know we’re going to.”
He shivered against me. “Yeah. We definitely are.”
I pulled him in closer and lost myself in a long, perfect kiss.
There were still reasons we shouldn’t have been here in the first place. Reasons we shouldn’t consider doing it again.
But I just couldn’t help myself—I wanted this man too much.
If Liam had been in any pain while we’d been messing around, he hadn’t let it show.
On the way back to bed after our shower, though…
The hitch in his step was impossible to miss. So was the way he rubbed his lower back as he eased into bed. It also seemed to take him a moment to get comfortable, his lips twisting slightly as he searched for the best position.
Concern zipped through me. It would be one thing if we’d just had wild, acrobatic sex; we’d probably both be wincing a little, even though it would be totally worth it.
But we hadn’t been rough at all. We hadn’t done all that much, honestly.
Studying him, I ran my hand up his side. “You all right? You seem kind of sore.”
He laughed almost soundlessly. “I’m always sore.”
“Always?”
Liam pursed his lips, then half-shrugged, and even that gesture seemed painful. “I’ve been putting my body through the wringer since I was a kid. It adds up after a while, you know?”
“I suppose it does. But you’re okay?”
“I’m fine.” He cuddled closer to me and brushed a kiss across my lips. “Just comes with the job.”
“Fair enough.” I held him against me and stroked his damp hair, loving the way it felt to be this close to someone’s hot, naked body.
It had been way, way too long. Since I’d had sex, sure, but also since I’d had this.
I’d known for a while that I was touch-starved and needed to start putting myself out there again, but I hadn’t realized just how touch-starved I was until now.
Closing my eyes, I sighed. How had I gone this long without? No idea, but I was glad that dry spell was over, even if this did end up being a one-time thing.
Liam shifted a little and winced. Then he loosened his embrace and rolled onto his back. “Ugh. Sorry. My hip is…” He grimaced as he bent and straightened his leg. “Stupid carcass.”
I snorted, scooting a little closer to him and resting my hand on his chest. “Yeah, they’re not the best, are they?”
“Ugh. No.” He rolled his eyes. “Like, what’s your problem, body? Just because I skate a million miles a night and sometimes get thrown into the boards…”
I cocked a brow. “Sometimes?”
That prompted another eyeroll, and he elbowed me, but he was grinning. “Dick.”
Chuckling, I kissed his temple. I wasn’t surprised he had so many aches and pains. He was in peak physical condition, but hockey was hard on the body. It wasn’t for nothing my ex-wife and I had worried aloud more than once about Chris’s long-term health as he pursued hockey.
And thinking about that reminded me of why I was in Pittsburgh in the first place, not to mention why Liam and I had held off the other night.
Sighing, I watched my fingertips trailing along his powerful arm.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Just…” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “I like this. A lot. But… there’s a reason we ended up meeting, you know?”
His brow pinched as he studied me. After a second, though, the piece seemed to click into place, and he deflated. “Because I’m your son’s teammate.”
“Exactly. And like, I don’t want to stop. But…” I shook my head. “I don’t like keeping things from him.”
“I get that. But we’re also—I mean, whatever this is, we just started.
” He moistened his lips. “Look, I don’t know what we’re doing.
I don’t know what I want us to be doing.
I just know I wanted you to come over tonight, and we ended up exactly where I hoped we would.
” With a subtle half-shrug, he added, “That’s enough for me for right now, but it’s also—no one needs to know at this point, right? ”
I thought about it. “True. Nothing needs a name yet. I still… I won’t lie—I do feel weird about it. Obviously I’m not going to tell my son if I’m hooking up with someone.” I grimaced. “No one needs to know that about their dad.”
Liam chuckled. “No, no, they do not.”
“Right? But at the same time, you’re his teammate. And it feels weird to keep it a secret.”
Sobering, he nodded. “I get that.” He trailed his fingertips down my chest. “But this is the first night we’ve done anything.” Beat. “Well, okay, not the first, but—you know what I mean.”
“I do, yeah.”
“Right. So I think we can be forgiven for taking a little time to figure out what we’re doing before we tell anyone. Because right now, I mean—what would we even say? We hooked up once and probably will again?”
With a nervous laugh, I shrugged. “Okay, when you put it like that…”
He chuckled, sounding relieved. “Exactly. So keep it between us for now. Down the line…”
“Makes sense.” I smoothed his damp and slightly unruly hair. “See what happens, and if it looks like we’re doing more than hooking up, I’ll talk to Chris.”
Liam nodded. “Sounds perfect to me.”
“Me too.” With that, I drew him back into my arms, and I found those perfect, soft lips with mine. I’d always loved kissing, and he clearly did too.
Renewed arousal stirred in me—that was inevitable when I was this close to someone—but nothing down south was coming to life with much enthusiasm.
Had I been twenty years younger, I was pretty sure I’d have been ready for a second round by now.
Hell, I probably could’ve been done with that round by this point.
This close to fifty? Well…
I broke the kiss and met Liam’s gaze. “Listen, um…” Heat rose in my face. “I, uh… I can’t guarantee a second round most nights.”
He smiled, trailing his fingertips down my cheek. “Can you guarantee just lying here naked and making out until we’re both too tired to stay awake?”
Just thinking about that made my toes curl, and I couldn’t help shivering. My words came out breathless: “Pretty sure I can do that.”
“Well, then.” He curved his hand behind my neck and drew me down. “I think we’ll do just fine.”
As it turned out… he was right.