Chapter 20
20
Liam
Me: Yo, Wy, you ever going to text me back? I’ve got real stuff happening.
Me: I need some advice. How do you tell a woman you’re sorry?
Me: Asking for a friend.
Me: Also I might be in Calico Cove.
Me: Or somewhere else entirely.
M y brother discovered hockey first. He discovered everything first. But I followed wherever he led. And listen, the whole world is full of stories of how big brothers push aside little brothers. How they don’t want them tagging along. No one would have blamed Wyatt for trying to ditch me. I was a royal pain in the ass. Total attention hog. But he never did. Not once.
When shit went south with Mom, I knew Wyatt would figure us out. He’d take me with him wherever he was going. Practice, friend’s house, tournaments. Shinny at the community center. He took care of me. Sometimes the way he took care of me was telling me no.
Telling me to wait. Telling me to be patient.
I shouldn’t take the carpool ride just because I liked the kid. Wyatt knew the dad was a flake and I wouldn’t get to practices on time. I could wait for new skates until the end of the season when the prices dropped on used equipment.
He taught me when I should stick up for myself and when I should keep my mouth shut.
Patience.
Wyatt was always pretty good at it.
I wasn’t good at it at all. I can’t imagine any kid is. But I loved my brother. He was the rock-solid constant in my life, so I calmed myself down and did what he said.
Most of the time, I could thank him for it. I owed my career to him. This last Stanley Cup. That unbelievable endorsement deal he told me to hold out for. But tonight, lying in the comfortable bed under the eaves wondering if Kit was going to get up the courage to come for me – I wanted to punch my brother out.
Bullshit advice, honestly.
Why would anyone on the planet take that man’s advice about women? He was practically a mountain man virgin. I’d never seen a guy turn away so many interested women. Of course, now he was married to Sydney Malloy, so maybe he was getting the last laugh.
I had no idea what was happening there. He wasn’t answering any of my texts.
Maybe that told its own story though. Maybe he was pre-occupied with other things up in his cabin in the woods with Sydney.
One thing I was sure of. Kit wanted me. It was as obvious as the Voyagers’ gap in their defense last year. She’d built walls around herself for a reason. Of course she had.
How in the world was she supposed to trust me when the one person she was supposed to trust the most – the only person she could trust, her father – had screwed her over so royally?
And yes, of course I understood that this was how I showed her she could trust me. I got it. I could give her all the power. Put every ball in her court. But I could also kiss the doubt right out of her and that would speed the process up. It’s not like we had buckets of time. This beach vacation was over in a week.
I should go down to her, I thought. Just see if she was okay. Maybe see if she wanted…
The door to my room creaked open.
My heart jacked up into my throat.
I knew it wasn’t Tess, once that kid went to bed nothing woke her up until the sun.
The door eased open all the way, and standing in the hallway wearing a long t-shirt, looking about as nervous as a woman could look, was Kit.
She did it. Brave girl.
“Hi,” she said and lifted her hand like we were meeting at the grocery store.
“Hi,” I said, smiling at her because I couldn’t help myself.
Nervously she tugged on her shirt and it took me a second to recognize the character on the front.
“Is that…Shrek?” I asked.
“He’s my favorite,” she said after a shaky breath.
It was just so fucking cute. Endearing. My prickly princess wore a Shrek shirt up to my bedroom because Shrek was her favorite. I couldn’t control myself.
I laughed.
Obviously, I knew it was a mistake.
She went red and whirled on her heel and I tore out of my bed to catch her in the hallway.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“What’s so funny?” she snapped.
“Well,” I winced. “Your shirt for one.”
“It’s just a shirt,” she said, her chin up.
“But he’s your favorite.”
“Lots of people like Shrek. Mike Meyers is genius.”
I forced myself not to smile. To swallow the laugh of joy I felt itching to explode out of my throat.
“It’s a first for me,” I said. I pulled the hem of her shirt taut so Shrek and Donkey and Princess Fiona were all looking at me. “Is all.”
She took a deep breath and seemed to relax.
“You’re saying most women don’t come to your bedroom door in a Shrek shirt?” she asked.
“You are the first,” I said. “Completely original.”
Her tentative smile told me it was safe to wrap my arms around her. “I look forward to taking him off of you,” I whispered in her ear.
“I’m not here for that,” she said. And leaned back, her face in serious lines. “There’s a moth. The size of my hand, and it’s clawing its way through the screen in my bedroom window.”
I pulled my hands back. “Are you serious?”
“I’m very serious about moths.”
“Ummm,” I rubbed my forehead and tried to get the blood to drain from my cock. “Okay. I can…”
Shit. Could I Instacart a moth killer to the house?
“I’m fucking with you,” she said, and now she was laughing. “You should see your face.”
This was easily the weirdest maybe about to have sex situation I’d ever been in. I growled in my throat and put my shoulder in her stomach like I was blocking Wyatt from getting to the goal, and hoisted her over my shoulder only to drop her, laughing, onto my bed.
Her dark hair spread out across my white pillowcases and Shrek got bunched up over her waist revealing a navy blue pair of panties. Her stomach was taut and her thighs were muscled and tan from the sun. Her quicksilver eyes looked at me without fear or hesitation.
“You’re beautiful,” I said.
I watched her wrestle with her reaction. I could see the way she wanted to make a joke, or deny my compliment, but in the end she smiled and said; “Thank you. So are you.”
“You’re not even getting my best side,” I said, turning and popping out my ass which absolutely made her laugh.
“I need to tell you something,” she said, sobering up. She pulled Shrek down over that stomach, hiding those panties, and sat up against the wrought iron headboard.
“Okay.” I sat down on the edge of the bed and felt in my gut what we were about to talk about.
“When I said I don’t do this a lot, I meant it. You’ve had this idea in your head for a long time that I was some seductress charming young men out of their money. The kind of woman who would go back to your hotel room after just one night of getting to know each other.”
“It was a hell of a night,” I reminded her. “We had a lot of fun.”
She smiled. “We did. But that night was different for me. I just don’t want you to expect…I don’t know. Whatever you might expect from your legions of women.”
“Okay, in my defense, there haven’t been legions.”
She lifted a shoulder and licked her lips. I tried to tell my cock to calm down as she was clearly working her way up to something. But the way she licked those lips like she was getting them wet for me made me real fucking hard. “I’m just saying this because you’re probably used to someone who might be more…experienced? Or has…moves?”
Do not laugh.
“Moves?” I said, just to be clear.
“You know…” she rocked her hips side to side.
“That’s not usually how it’s done,” I said, repeating her gesture side to side.
“Liam!” she cried. “I’m serious. I have no idea what to do…” she waved her hand towards my lap, where, thankfully, my hard on was hidden by my leg and the folds of my pajama pants. “With it.”
Oh man. There were a million things I could say that would be wrong. It was like trying to walk through a land mine. I could say, don’t worry, I do. I could say, you don’t have to do much. Just bite your lip and show me your panties again.
In the end, I was silent too long and she pulled her knees up to her chest and stretched her shirt over them so Shrek was glaring at me from her knee cap. “I’m just saying this so you’re not disappointed.”
“Impossible,” I said.
“Liam,” she said, giving me her cut the crap look.
“You being here,” I said honestly. “Wearing a Shrek shirt, is already the second hottest night in my life.”
“Second?”
“The first was that night with you.”
“Liam!” She cried, laughing with disbelief. Fuck it, I thought. I was terrible with words. I got them wrong all the time. You know what I was good at? My body. I got up on my knees, and grabbed her feet, pulling them down straight and then crawling up her body until we were face to face.
“I’m serious,” I said. “I’ve been lusting after you for five years, Kit. You were the hottest woman I’d ever seen that night in Nashville, and swear to God, you are still the hottest woman I’ve ever seen. Now, you going to kiss me or-?”
She flung her arms around my neck and kissed me like our time was running out. It was aggressive and hard. I wrapped my arms around her back and toppled us onto the bed.
She laughed into my mouth and I squeezed her tighter. She hiked her thigh up over my hip and I lifted my knee right up against the heat of her pussy. Fuck. She was hot. I pressed tighter against her, and she moaned, grinding herself in tiny pulses against me. I licked my way into her mouth, and she met my tongue with her own. Kissing me like we’d been doing it forever. Kissing me like it was Nashville all over again.
I leaned back, kissing the corner of her lips. Her cheek, the tender place just under her jaw. Her neck. She moaned in her throat like a cat purring, and I smiled against her skin. Stroking my hand down her back to the curve of her ass and to the bare skin of her thigh and back up again.
I was going slow. Playing it cool. “You’ll say something if you don’t like what I’m doing?” I said.
“I like what you’re doing right now.” She breathed, her voice thick and raspy. “A lot.”
I sucked skin into my mouth, making her groan. I pulled the neck of her t-shirt to the side and kissed her strong shoulder, using my teeth to see if she liked it.
She did. Between her legs she wasn’t just hot. She was wet.
I was so hard I hurt, and we hadn’t even started yet. Or maybe we’d been doing this for days. Years. Since Nashville.
“You feel so good,” I said, kissing my way from her shoulder across her chest, over Shrek. I made direct eye-contact and eased back. “I’m sorry, babe. We gotta lose Shrek. He’s throwing me off. I feel like he’s judging me.”
“Oh, don’t worry. He is,” she joked, and I lifted the over-sized shirt from her thigh up her stomach and she didn’t stop me. I lifted Shrek over her head and tossed him on the floor next to the bed. And then I just…stared.
“Holy. Shit,” I breathed.
“Stop it,” she said, reaching for me. I caught her hands in mine and pressed them down to the mattress.
“You stop it,” I said, honestly. “You’re perfect.” Those breasts of hers were delightful handfuls topped with hard, brown nipples just begging for attention. I leaned down and kissed one, then the other. Pulling a nipple into my mouth, licking my way between them. Her skin was soft and they were natural in my hands. Fuck. I could die on these breasts. I eased my body down on hers, cradled by the lush heat between her legs. Her knees bent at my waist.
“These are the most amazing breasts in the world,” I said, mesmerized. “Someone should be sculpting your tits out of marble right now.”
“You’re very dressed,” she said, and I let go of her hands so she could lift my shirt up over my back and off my head. Once my shirt was gone I fell back onto her body. I cupped her tits in my hands, running my thumbs over the nipples. Pressing each of them up to my lips.
She ran her hands over my back and shoulders and around again, slipping her fingertips into the tops of my pants in the back. Her fingertips scraping my skin, the top of my ass. I groaned against her skin and arched myself into the mattress, searching for some relief and some control.
“Liam,” she whispered, her legs restless against my sides.
“I got you,” I said, and kissed each of her tits goodbye and made my way down her stomach. Also perfect. Honestly, she had a soft curvy body, underpinned by muscle.
“Were you an athlete?” I asked, licking her belly button and making her jump.
“I ran… cross country at boarding school. Swam too.”
“Hmmm… was this an all girl’s school?”
“Yes,” she moaned. “Why does that matter?”
“I want to know if there were uniforms involved,” I said wickedly.
“We’re not talking about boarding school right now!” She snapped and I laughed, kissing her stomach again, easing further down her body. I got to the top of her blue panties. They were subtly sexy. A no nonsense cotton with a touch of lace and it was so like Kit I couldn’t stand it.
“This…um…is new,” she said, and I looked up her body to meet her worried eyes. “What you’re about to do. If you…are about to do what I think you’re going to do. I’ve never…”
“No man has gone down on you?” I thought of her boarding school. “Or woman?”
“No,” she said. “It seems really…personal.”
“Oh,” I laughed, every primal competitive instinct I had firing to life. “It’s personal.”
“Excessive, I mean,” she said, and I tilted my head, really looking at her.
“You’ve made yourself come before, haven’t you?”
“Of course,” she said. “I’m awesome at it.”
I smiled and kissed her hip bone. I would be asking her to show me later. “Has anyone else ever made you come? Besides me.”
It took her a second and finally she shook her head. She didn’t have to say it, I could see it. I could just tell. It was one of the things she wasn’t entirely sure she deserved. This girl had been punishing herself for too long.
“Sit back, sweetheart,” I said, easing myself to a perfect spot between her legs. “I’m about to get real personal.”
I pressed my mouth to the damp spot between her legs and felt her startle against me. I breathed her in, the tangy sweet scent of her arousal. I could taste her through the cotton, and I reached down to adjust myself. The touch of my own hand was almost too much, but I pulled back and focused on her.
“You’re so pretty. So soft,” I said, stroking that wet spot with my thumb, watching it as it grew. “Yes, honey. You love this, don’t you? You don’t know how much you love it, but I’m going to show you.”
I licked her through the panties, and she jerked and moaned. Her hand clutching my shoulder. I couldn’t stop my muscles from twitching, my body from arching into her.
“Spread your legs, Kit,” I said. And she did, pulling her knees away from my skin. I felt the lack immediately, but it opened her pussy up to me in every way. I eased aside the thin crotch and groaned when I saw how pink she was. How wet. I curled my arms under her thighs, hoisting her ass up in the air, and licked her. All of her. Mapping her. Her asshole, which she flinched from even as she swallowed a scream. The entrance to her pussy, dark and sweet, the hard ridge of her clit which made her flinch even more.
“You’re perfect,” I said.
“Liam,” she whispered, her fingers clutching my hair. “More.”
“Where?” I asked, teasing her. Kissing her and nipping her with my lips. She moaned and shook. That she hadn’t felt this pleasure before felt like the worst kind of crime. She was built for this pleasure.
I pulled the underwear off her body, bending her leg to get them out of my way.
“Here?” I whispered and sucked her clit into my mouth. She practically shot off the bed. Her hands pulled my hair hard enough to hurt. I worked her until she was twitching, throbbing. Pushing her pussy against my face trying to chase down her orgasm.
“So greedy, honey,” I said, easing away from her so I could see her body. The flush on those tits, the wild-eyed wonder on her face. “You want it so bad. Look at you.”
I brushed my thumb over her clit, and she shuddered.
“Liam,” she whispered. “Please.”
I thought of how I used to want her to beg. How I’d dreamt of it. I’d never imagined this. Couldn’t have. But this, begging for pleasure, was infinitely better than begging for forgiveness.
“Is this what you want?” I asked, watching her as I slipped a finger inside of her pussy.
“Oh my God,” she cried out at the ceiling. I could see it building in her. The flush spreading across her body. The twitches she couldn’t control. Her pussy squeezed my finger. Not enough for an orgasm, but it was starting.
I suddenly lost interest in playing with her. In ruining her for other men. I didn’t have the willpower to hold myself away from her pleasure like that. I wanted to be in it with her.
“You were made for this,” I said and added another finger. I pressed my thumb against her clit, rubbing it back and forth until she was screaming.
“Shhhhh,” I said, and leaned up to put my hand over her mouth. Her wild eyes met mine. “We’re not alone in this house,” I said.
She nodded and I lifted my hand. She bit her lips and closed her eyes, meeting me halfway with this orgasm I was giving her. “Liam,” she whispered. And then she said it again. Each whisper quieter than the last, until she was barely breathing my name. I reached up and cupped her chin in my hand.
“Look at me,” I said, needing to see her eyes. Needing her to see how much I loved doing this to her. Personal? Fuck. I was going to know her body inside and out by the time this vacation was over. “You want to come?” I asked and she nodded. Her hips fucking down onto my fingers. She clutched my hand between her legs, holding me so close I could feel her pubic bones. “Come for me, Kit,” I said into her ear. “Come for me.”
I felt the clench of every muscle in her pussy. She flung her arms out wide, clutching the bed like she was in danger of being flung off. The muscles in her stomach coiled and released and my fingers, when I eased them from her body, were wet up to my wrist.
I stroked her, pet her, helping her come down from that orgasm until she opened her eyes and looked at me. Blurry-eyed and pleasure drunk.
“That…that can’t be normal,” she gasped. I laughed and kissed her breast. Pulled her nipple into my mouth. She sighed and lifted her hand to the back of my head, like she might hold me there. Like she wanted more.
I smiled against her skin and eased my fingers back between her legs. Careful not to get too close to her clit which was probably sensitive, I lazily circled the rim of her pussy.
Don’t mind me, I thought with a devilish smile I hid in the curve of her neck.
She sighed and turned her head my way, her lips finding mine. She licked me, her hand against the nape of my neck. And I smiled against her mouth. Oh, this girl.
She was right. There was nothing normal about this.
This was special.
I slid my finger deeper between her legs to the puckered knot of her asshole.
Her eyes fluttered open. “What are you doing?” she asked with interest. and just a little fear. The right attitude to have if no one had touched your asshole before.
Ruining you for anyone else , was what I thought. But what I said was “I want you to come again,” I said.
“I just had the best orgasm of my life. I don’t think-” I brushed her clit and she arched back into the bed. My fingers drenched in her come. She was swollen between her legs and I got distracted by the idea of pressing my cock inside of her. How tight it would be. How hot. But this was about her. I could control myself through another one of her orgasms. Showing her how much pleasure she could take was now my life’s mission.
“This is…” she gasped, her head thrown back on my pillow, black hair tangled and damp with sweat. “Too much.”
“You should be coming like this all the time,” I said, kissing my way down her body. Her perfect tits. Her sweet stomach. That delicious bit of skin on her hip bones. The top of her thigh. The sight of my fingers inside her was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. The taut pink skin. Everything all wet and drippy. I licked her, twisted my fingers.
I found her clit with my tongue and my lips and made the filthiest love to it. I worked her until she had a hand over her mouth. When that wasn’t enough, she picked up a pillow and buried her face in it. I smiled listening to her muffled screams.
My cock so hard I was in danger of coming in my pants.
She grabbed my head in her hands, her fingers clutching my hair so hard it hurt. But we rode it out together. Her coming. Me wincing. Until she was replete on the bed. Her body soaked with sweat. Everything flushed and pink. I slipped my fingers out of her and she couldn’t hide her wince.
Hmmm, I thought, collapsing beside her on the bed. I might have over done it.
“That was…” she gasped and stopped like the right word wasn’t coming to her.
“Amazing?” I asked, brushing damp hair from her head. “Life-changing? Better than you ever imagined?”
“Excessive.”
“The Bruisers have a mindset coach, Rashma, and you know what she would say about that?”
“I would hope Rashma would keep her opinions about my orgasms to herself.”
“Rashma would say you have a scarcity mind set,” I said, pressing up against her side. I hissed as my cock felt the pressure of her hip. Honest to God, I was barely holding on. I thought some more about Rashma and how she said I was only pretending to have a Peter Pan complex due to the trauma of my childhood. Whatever. Joke’s on her, I didn’t even know what a Peter Pan complex was.
Kit rolled onto her side to face me, squishing her breasts to my chest. She stroked my face and my shoulder. Her fingers curved over my chest and down to my belly. Where they hovered over the waistband of my pajama pants. A waistband distorted by the head of my cock caught between my stomach and the elastic of my pants.
Her thumb glanced over the dripping head of my cock and I hissed. Reflexively I grabbed her hand.
“What?” she asked, wide-eyed with panic. “Not good-”
I leaned forward and kissed her mouth. Licked her lips. “I’m so hard, it hurts,” I told her. I took a deep breath and so did she. She blinked and so did I. Looking into those eyes, soft now, like the color of the sky in the east, at my home growing up in Vermont, before the sun came up.
“Let me,” she whispered, and I kissed her again, because I couldn’t help it. This prickly woman with no defenses was the most kissable woman I’d ever known. Her fingers slid into the top of my pants, her fingers curling around my cock. I counted to ten, thought of Harrison’s disgusting feet, wondered what my brother was doing, but none of it distracted me.
Her fingers were warm and firm. I could feel the rough scrape of the callouses on her palm as she cupped her hand around the head of my cock. I was wet with precum, but not enough, and I grabbed her hand and pressed it between her legs.
“Get your hand wet for me,” I breathed into her mouth, still kissing her.
She made a growling sexy noise in her throat as she put her hand between her legs, getting her fingers slick with her cum. When her hand came back around me, it was perfect. Warm and wet. I curled her hand around my cock, showing her the pressure I needed. How to jack me, all the way to the bottom, and up to the top.
I dropped my hand and she did it herself.
“Like this?” she whispered.
“So good,” I managed to say.
“Tell me,” she said and my eyes met hers. She was heavy lidded and lush, right in front of me.
“Tell you what?” I asked.
“How you like it. How good I am. Tell me…”
That was fucking it. I dared anyone to control themselves while Kit Barrington asked you to talk dirty to her.
Nonsense poured out of my mouth. I told her she was so fucking good. So fucking hot. I couldn’t wait to get my cock so deep inside of her wet, greedy pussy.
She moaned and jacked me harder, her lips between her teeth.
“You like that,” I said to her. “You fucking love it. Kit Barrington is so fucking filthy for me. What are you going to let me do to you? Huh? What can I do to you, Kit?”
“Anything,” she whispered, her eyes meeting mine, and I came so hard in her hand it felt like my heart stopped. It felt like I was dying. I felt cum shooting up over my chest, my stomach. Her hand was probably covered in it. Her belly too.
Fuck, I thought, with my eyes closed. My brain was broken. My body in pieces. I hadn’t even been inside of her and it was the hottest thing I’d ever been a part of.
I’m never going to survive this. I don’t know where to go from here. I was the one with all the experience and I felt embarrassed and giddy.
When I could finally open my eyes, she was smiling at me.
“That was,” she said with a bright smile. The brightest smile I’d ever seen from her. Like she’d been cut loose from something. Set free. Like she was only giddy, never embarrassed. “So hot.”
Exhausted, I smiled. “Agreed,” I said. I grabbed the closest thing my hand could reach and used it to wipe up our bodies.
“Sorry, Shrek,” I said.
“You’ve desecrated Shrek!”
“He’ll recover.”
We laughed and I curled my arm around her, my eyelids fighting to stay open. “Gimme a second,” I said. “And I’ll let you rock my world again.”
Her head was tucked into my chest. I could feel how all over fucking relaxed I was.
“Liam?” she asked tentatively.
“Hmm?”
“I want you to know that I understand what this is. Okay? I know what we are and what we’re not. So don’t pretend.”
“I’m not,” I said.
She patted my cheek. “You’re doing it right now. You can’t help yourself. I’m not going to be one of your girls. Your ex-girl’s. I’m not going to be someone you give a job to. Okay? That’s…I don’t want that.”
“Okay,” I agreed. But really I thought everyone was making too big a deal out of me helping people I liked.
“I need you to say it,” she said. “Exactly what this is.”
“This is an affair,” I said. “That’s it. We leave Calico Cove and this is over. I won’t even friend you on Instagram. That’s what you want?”
She took a deep breath. “That’s what I want.”
Part of me felt like howling. Mourning. But a week is a long time and I was pretty sure I could convince her we could be friends when this was over. What was wrong with that?
“Well, then, if our time is limited,” I said and rolled over her, pressing my weight between her legs. “I better rock your world one more time.”
“You better,” she said.
So I did.