Chapter Twenty-Seven LIAM
Chapter Twenty-Seven
L IAM
The books stayed in my car.
She turned, her back braced against the door leading into the house, and I caged her there, slotting my mouth over hers. Her hands were greedy, sliding over my chest and stomach and shoulders. Her tongue, slick and hot, licked delicately at mine.
My whole body shook, and I worried for the thousandth time that I’d be too much for her.
Too turned on.
Too intense.
Grip her too tightly, put my hands on her body too hard, kiss her too deeply because I couldn’t fucking believe that she was mine.
I palmed her ass underneath that skirt and boosted her up, her legs immediately locking around my waist. When she sucked my tongue, a groan wrenched from my chest, and goose bumps tugged along my arms and back and neck.
“No sex against the door.” I spoke into her mouth. “I get you in a bed, Valentine.”
“Here is fine,” she begged, practically climbing my body. “Any hard surface is great.”
But I shoved at the doorknob, and when the door gave, I swept it open, kicking it shut behind us with a room-shaking slam.
Depositing her on the island, I dived back into the kiss, sliding my hands over every inch of her that I could touch.
Her back arched, the heat of her core pressed tight against my stomach, and I yanked at her top where it was tucked into the waist of that skirt.
Someday, I’d take her while she was wearing my favorite parts of this outfit. Just the skirt and her heels.
When the shirt cleared her head, all those glorious curls fell around her shoulders, and I pulled back to take her in.
“Perfect,” I breathed. “You’re so bloody perfect.”
The lines of her tits in that bra had my mouth watering, and I ducked my head down, trailing my tongue along the lace edges.
She clutched my head to her chest and moaned my name.
There was an urgency that I couldn’t fight—a debilitating crack of lust coursing through my body—no matter how badly I wanted to take this slow.
No matter how badly I wanted to luxuriate in every inch of her body.
We’d effectively lit the fire, and there was no putting it out now. Every time her fingers swept over my skin, I burned, and it was impossible to grasp how we didn’t incinerate everything around us.
For months, for years, this thing building between us had been set to a low-level simmer, unnoticeable if you weren’t looking for it.
And maybe that’s how real desire was built and sustained—with careful tending and patience.
She squirmed on the island, and I shoved at her skirt until I caught my first glimpse of that flimsy black lace covering her backside.
My muscles screamed raw, wanting to rip it off her, but I sucked in a quick breath through gritted teeth, mouthing the lace that covered her breasts.
The room spun when I tugged her bra to the side and used the flat of my tongue against her tight skin.
She cried out, gripping my head while I licked and sucked across her chest.
I wanted to gorge on every inch of her. Inhale all that decadence and see if I could eat my fill of what I found underneath the gauzy protection of her clothes.
Zoe tugged at the back of her bra and ripped it off. I palmed her breasts, pushing them together so I could lick across the lush mounds.
The tips were hard as diamonds.
“You still hungry, love?” I asked. Then I kissed her gently there, blowing a soft stream of air over the wet skin that I’d left behind.
Zoe tugged my face up toward hers. Her eyes were on fire. “Ice cream can wait,” she gasped, then kissed me. She sighed when I sucked on her lower lip. “Take me to bed,” she begged against my mouth.
It took every shred of self-control for me not to rip open the zipper of my pants and take her just like that, with her skirt rucked up around her waist and her breasts shiny wet from my mouth.
I cupped her face in my hands, dragging my thumb over her plump lower lip. “You want me?” I asked, voice a hoarse whisper. “You’re ready to take me, darling?”
She kissed me with a helpless moan. “I have never wanted anyone like this, Liam.”
Somewhere deep in my chest, a rumbling roar of possession shot off like a racing pulse. I’d get high off those words of hers. An addiction that I’d never be free of.
With my hands under her ass, her mouth fixed firmly on mine, I carried her up the stairs, stopping only once, when she rolled her hips against my aching hard-on.
“No sex on the stairs,” I said through gritted teeth.
She laughed in delight, and I wanted to live on that fucking sound for the rest of my life.
I’d do anything to hear it. Maybe I’d quit football, stop doing everything to devote my entire life to making her smile and making her laugh.
When we cleared the doorway, she started tearing at the buttons on my shirt, and it was halfway off when I dropped her in the middle of the king-size bed.
She bit down on her bottom lip as I tore the shirt off and tossed it to the floor.
Topless, hair wild, and her skirt wrinkled up around her waist, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
And somehow—impossibly, inexplicably—she’d given me her heart.
The thought slowed my movements as I unbuckled my belt.
She lifted her hips and pushed the skirt down, kicking it off onto the floor.
When Zoe hooked her thumbs in the edge of the black lace left behind, I shook my head. “Leave that for me.”
She exhaled shakily, sliding her hands up into her hair before she sat up on the bed.
What I didn’t need was her hands on me when I was this close to the edge. But I closed my eyes and let her push down my pants and boxer briefs. Once I stepped out of them, she slid her hands up the front of my thighs.
At the first touch of her soft tongue against me, I wove my hands into her hair and tugged. She tilted her head up and stared at me.
“No?” she asked.
“Later,” I managed.
I pushed her back with a hand in the center of her chest and prowled over her when she split her legs open.
Only a thin scrap of black lace separated us, and for a moment, I made slow rolling motions against her while we kissed deeply.
Filthy kisses too, where my tongue mimicked exactly how I wanted to feast off her, how I’d take her in slow, decadent waves. And she shuddered like I was too. Her hands carded through my hair, and she whimpered when I rolled my thumb over her chest again.
This was the version of Zoe I wanted, why I’d made us wait through an entire interminable day of torture.
She was riding that knife-edge of pleasure, and there was something borderline painful in how much we wanted each other.
Frantic need would ebb as we got used to being able to touch and kiss each other. But in its place, we’d have familiarity. And in order to get to the second, there was no choice but to stoke the flames of the first.
That need came from hours of doing nothing but imagining it. Despite the desperation in the way we touched, there’d been no rushing into this moment, so there was no chance that we’d second-guess it later. That there’d be even the slightest shred of regret.
I moved down her body, worshipping every freckle, every curve.
She rolled her body, lifting her hips when I tugged at the black lace covering those last bits of skin.
“One to take the edge off,” I told her, placing sucking kisses against the insides of her thighs as they trembled on either side of my shoulders.
“What about you?” she said breathlessly.
I slid my hand between her legs, and she moaned, arching her back when I grinned at exactly how badly she wanted me.
“Darling,” I said, tutting my tongue, “I showered twice today and thought about this.” I kissed her hip bone. “And this.”
Then I shifted down, held her legs open, and showed her exactly what I wanted for my dessert. The taste of her on my tongue was sinful, and I’d have died happily in that moment, knowing what she sounded like when she moaned my name, how she gripped my hair in her fists and rolled her hips against my mouth. “And this,” I said, when I dived back in with a fierce, sucking kiss.
She broke on a helpless, sharp cry, her stomach trembling under my spread hand, and I’d remember it for the rest of my fucking life.
I pushed back up and covered her with the weight of my body, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand before I kissed her deeply.
Zoe was still gasping for breath when I took myself in hand and pushed in. Then pulled back.
In farther.
A painstaking retreat again, and my teeth clenched, because even with that, I was ready to shove forward with no finesse. Even if it hurt. Even if it was over that quick.
Forcing that methodical easing inside was the only thing I could focus on, allowing her a moment to adjust while her face briefly pinched with the next harder, deeper thrust.
Once more, and I curled my hips, gathered her tight against me, and let the sensation of her surrounding me settle into my bones, scream through my veins.
“Holy bloody hell, Zoe,” I said. “Nothing, nothing feels this good, love.”
She was perfect.
My eyes about rolled back in my head when she wiggled her hips to accommodate my next thrust.
Another ... sharper, harder, and I swallowed her moan with my mouth.
Harder again.
I wanted all her noises. I wanted my hands tight in her curls, her legs shaking against my sides because of the things I could wring from her body.
I pulled back, rolling my forehead against hers. “I’m so fucking in love with you,” I whispered. “It’s always been you.”
A tear streaked down her temple as she arched again, her eyes looking so deeply into mine that I had my first moment of wondering what she saw. It didn’t seem possible she could feel anything like I was.
Didn’t seem possible that she might love me in the way I loved her.
“I love you too,” she said, her lips seeking mine as I snapped my hips forward.
There were no coherent words after that.
It was hands filled with flesh, sucking kisses with tongue and teeth, and sweat soaking my back as I drove my hips forward. The headboard hit the wall, and I braced my weight on my elbows, curling my hands around her shoulders to hold her firm while we both gasped words of love and want and sex.
My muscles screamed while I purged years of wanting her, glorying in the reality of what we were like together.
Our kisses were fierce and hard. There were gasping breaths when I tucked my head into the curve of her shoulder and told her I wanted to live like this for the rest of my life—inside her and over her and under her. That I wanted her in a million different ways, and I’d never, ever not want her.
I slicked my hand between us, and she tucked her leg up against my side, digging her teeth into the meat of my shoulder.
She sobbed through the first waves of her pleasure, a chorus of “Yes” and “It’s so good” and my name that I’d hear for the rest of my life when I closed my eyes.
I felt the moment she toppled over the edge again. The tight grip of her flesh over mine had bursts of light zipping along my skin, and I shouted her name into the skin of her shoulder.
It was an exorcism. The release of something that had bubbled dangerously under the surface for so long.
My movements slowed, but I didn’t stop, milking what was left of her release as she tilted her head back. Her exposed neck was too delectable to ignore, and I licked a long line up to her jaw, sucking at the salty skin there.
Zoe sighed happily, turning in my arms when I shifted to the side so that her legs were slung over top of mine. “Bloody hell,” she whispered with her lips against mine.
I laughed. “Worth the wait?” I asked, brushing her curls out of her face. “And feel free to give details.”
She grinned. “Yeah right. Your ego is big enough already after the last twenty-four hours.”
I studied her face, memorizing everything that I saw there. This was blissed-out exhaustion, a complete mess because of hard kisses and greedy hands.
“You,” I said quietly, “are a weapon of mass destruction, love.”
“Yeah?”
I hummed, sliding my hand down the line of her waist and hip, then back up to curve my palm over her ribs. “Death by Zoe Valentine’s—”
She cut me off with a hard kiss, then pulled back. “You’re not going anywhere,” she said. Her eyes were so full of love. “I forbid it.”
Fuck, but she made my chest hurt when she looked at me like that. I wrapped her in my arms and sighed. “I’m not going anywhere.”
We kissed again, our hands wandering over each other’s skin.
She stopped after a few minutes and set her chin on my chest. “Do I still get my ice cream for dinner?”
I hummed, leaning up for another kiss. “As long as I get to try some too.”
Her eyebrow arched. “I think you might have earned some,” she said breezily. “At least one scoop.”
“One? You got off twice, love. That should give me two scoops.”
She sat up and stretched with a groan. “I suppose.”
Zoe stood up off the bed, and I wedged a hand behind my head, enjoying the view of her walking naked as a jaybird through the room.
Didn’t take long before another part of my body was noticing too.
She nodded at my lap. “After I eat,” she said meaningfully.
With a growl, I got out of bed and tugged my boxer briefs on. She pulled my shirt over her head and closed the two middle buttons.
Just before she opened the door, I tugged on the back of the shirt and turned her in place, sliding my hands up underneath the shirt while I pressed her against the wall.
Zoe laughed into the kisses. “It’s gonna take us a while to get anything done at this rate.”
“What do you expect?” I asked. “Walking around in my shirt and thinking I’d keep my hands off you?”
Another happy sigh escaped her mouth while I snogged her senseless, and eventually, I managed to pull away before we fell straight back into bed.
We fed each other ice cream while she sat on the island and I stood between her legs. It took us longer than normal because I was obsessed with the taste of it on her tongue when we kissed, which we did between most bites.
We talked about training camp, and when I told her I’d already added her name to the list, she smirked.
“So you did want me there,” she said. “You never asked.”
“I would’ve.” I scraped some stray chocolate off her lip and sucked my thumb into my mouth. “I always wanted you around, even if I never said so.”
Her eyes fucking sparkled when I said shit like that, so I made a mental note to do it every single day for the rest of my bleedin’ life.
She glanced at the time. “We have about an hour before Rosa brings her back.” She took another bite. “What should we do?”
“Am I sleeping in your bed tonight, Goldilocks?” I asked. Leaning in closer, I let my lips hover over hers, humming contentedly when she pressed forward to snatch another kiss.
Zoe traced her thumb along my bottom lip. “Yeah.”
I set my bowl down and wrapped her up in my arms. We sat there for a few minutes, and I didn’t fight the feeling of warmth and contentment. Didn’t guilt it away or tell myself that I didn’t deserve it. Didn’t question why we were here or what we’d had to lose in order to have this.
I simply closed my eyes and let the moment be what it was.
Fucking heaven .
I pulled back, sliding a hand over her cheek, cradling her jaw while we kissed again. Zoe was smiling when I rolled my forehead against hers.
“Let’s go get our girl,” I said. “Doesn’t feel right here without her.”
Zoe’s smile widened. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
When we were dressed, I waited for her by the front door. It was still bright outside, and that light felt harsh after the time we’d just spent indoors, wrapped up in each other.
She squinted into the sun, tilting her face up to its warmth. We made the walk across the street slowly, our fingers intertwined.
Rosa met us at the door with a knowing grin on her face. “Have fun?” she asked.
Zoe’s face flushed a becoming shade of pink, and she turned her face into my shoulder. I wrapped an arm around her with a laugh.
Rosa’s eyebrow arched. “I’ve never seen you smile before.”
Before I could respond, Mira came tearing down the hallway toward us, messy curls flying, a smile so big on her face that my heart damn near burst from the sight of it.
“You’re back!” she yelled. I swept her up in my arms and tossed her just high enough that she shrieked. When I settled her on my hip, Zoe leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.
“Did you have fun with Rosa?” she asked.
Mira nodded, then smiled at me. She honked my nose, and I growled. She wrapped her arms tight around my neck and squeezed.
“I missed you,” she whispered loudly in my ear.
“Missed you too, duck.”
Rosa cleared her throat, and I caught her swiping her thumb underneath her eye. When I narrowed my gaze, she waved me away. “Just got some dust in my eye. You three go enjoy your night, okay?”
“Thank you, Rosa,” I told her.
She winked as Zoe leaned in for a hug. “Anytime,” she told me.
“You want to walk?” I asked Mira.
She shook her head. “You carry me.”
Zoe smiled. “Pushover,” she whispered.
I held out my hand, and Zoe wound her fingers through mine as we walked back home.
“Now what should we do?” she asked.
The sun was warm on our backs as we approached the house. I paused, taking in the bricks and windows and doors, the place where our life had changed irrevocably.
I’d never believed in fairy tales and happily-ever-afters. But damned if it didn’t feel a lot like those now.
I leaned down and placed a soft kiss on Zoe’s lips.
“Now we live,” I whispered.