Chapter 25
LIAM
L ondon’s soft hair was spread out over my chest and arms, her body warm and supple against mine. Her eyes were closed, her chest rising and falling evenly and her arm draped over my hips. I held on to her even though I’d been awake for at least ten minutes and I knew I should’ve let her go by now.
How am I supposed to do this without falling completely and utterly in love with this woman? That was the question that had been on my mind as I watched the sky turning bluer and bluer outside.
The only answer I’d come up with so far was that I probably couldn’t do it. Last night, in the heat of the moment and stripped of every inhibition, it’d seemed completely right to tell her I wanted her.
Regularly.
All the time, really. I hadn’t wanted to have to wait again and I definitely hadn’t wanted to have that morning-after talk again.
Friends with benefits. It’d seemed perfect. Simple. Easy.
Now, however, in the bright morning light with birds cawing outside, reality was slowly dawning. I did want London and this was the only way I could have her, but I would also have to figure out a way to keep any feelings out of it.
As impossible as it seemed, I had to just fuck her as a friend. Ha. Right.
Trouble was, if I couldn’t figure out how to do that, I would have to put a stop to it all together and I desperately didn’t want to do that. She was a wild cat between the sheets and she slept right next door. This was the most convenient, most awesome arrangement I’d ever been part of.
But if we went too far and our relationship went to hell in a handbasket, the life I’d worked so hard to build for myself was gone. It was goodbye, Nathan, and hello, Father.
A shudder rolled through me at the thought. We’re going to have to be very, very careful.
Yet regardless of the stakes, I wanted this too badly to try and backpedal now. We were going full steam ahead—and hoping it didn’t hit a wall.
“London!” Lorelei whisper-called outside the door.
Panic snaked through me, and I suddenly felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice over my head. “London, wake up!”
Shit .
Lorelei could not find out about this. Especially not since it had only been a few hours. We couldn’t let our secret get out when it hadn’t even been a full day yet. This wasn’t only a matter of privacy anymore. It was a matter of pride.
I moved my hands up to her shoulders and gently shook her, murmuring quietly and hoping Lori didn’t hear me. “Wake up, Walker. Now. You have to wake up.”
Sleepy, whispered grumbles came out of her and she frowned like a teenager with an attitude, huffing out a breath.
She rolled over dramatically, grabbing the comforter and taking most of it with her.
Without the anxiety and frustration coiling in my gut, I knew I would’ve thought this was hilarious.
“You have to get up and get out,” I whispered, bending over to speak against her ear and shaking her shoulders again. “Lorelei is out there. She’s looking for you.”
As I said it, our friend called out again, a little louder this time. “Come on, London! I know you can hear me. Get that lazy ass out of bed. I thought you wanted to do yoga together this morning.”
Well, it would’ve been nice if she’d mentioned that to me last night. Shit.
London suddenly sat up, the color draining from her cheeks and her eyes going wide when she heard Lori in the hallway. “London? Are you in there?”
She was outside of London’s room, but I knew she’d be checking mine next. London seemed to realize the same thing at the same time, and she suddenly hissed at me, blue eyes bright with panic.
“Open the door and tell her I went for a run.”
My eyes narrowed, the inside corners of my eyebrows hiking up. “She’ll know that’s not true. You don’t run on Saturdays, and also, you’re a level-ten clinger. You’d never go alone.”
Her tiny fist slammed into my bicep. “Now who’s being mean? You wish I was clingy. Now get up and do it.”
She rolled out of bed, blanching when she realized the only clothes she had in here were underwear and her dress from last night.
A slightly evil, slightly playful grin spread on her lips and she yanked at the comforter to wrap it around her, stealing even the last corner I’d been using to cover my junk.
I pursed my lips at her but got up, unhurried and not caring that I could feel her looking. She’d stolen the comforter. She should’ve known I was still naked, and if she didn’t want to see me that way when we weren’t in the heat of the moment, well, tough.
Sauntering over to my dresser, I grabbed a pair of boxers and shoved my legs into them, pulling them up with a soft snap of the waistband. London rolled her eyes at me, but then they darted around the room, evidently looking for a place to hide.
There wasn’t much, though. Short of lying on the floor on the other side of the bed and hoping her friend didn’t see her in the reflection of the windows, there was pretty much only the closet.
She let out a soft groan, obviously having come to the same conclusion since she tightened her grip on the comforter and headed for it.
“London!” Lori called, even louder this time. “Seriously, if you’re in there, just say something. We don’t have to do yoga, but I’m getting worried out here.”
I followed her to the closet and grinned at the sight of her in there, naked and mussed after last night, her makeup smeared and her entire body sandwiched by my clothes. After taking a mental picture I would never erase, I smirked. “I haven’t done anything like this since high school.”
She peeked out at me and frowned. “You hid girls in your closet in high school? I knew you were a ho at heart.”
I chuckled. “Don’t tell me I’m your first.”
Her features dropped into a scowl. “Do I look like the kind of woman who hides in closets? You’re lucky you live with me, or you’d never have seen me again after this.”
“Hey, you’re the one who has a friend looking for you,” I said, motioning at the door. “Be my guest. If you want to let her in on our little secret, then go ahead and do it. Otherwise, shut your trap and let me deal with this.”
“Just go open the freakin’ door already.” She shrunk back until she was completely hidden and I chuckled again, shaking my head as I slid shut the mirrored doors.
After that, I kicked her dress and underwear under the bed and headed over to the door. As I opened it to look out onto the sun-soaked catwalk, Lorelei immediately spun to face me, throwing a hand up to shield her eyes from the bright light now that my bedroom door was open too.
Worry shone from her bloodshot eyes and she frowned. “I don’t think she’s in there, Liam. She did come home with you last night, right?”
“Yeah, of course. I heard her moving around earlier. I’m pretty sure she went for a run.”
Instantly, the worry was gone from her features, replaced by suspicion instead.
She shook her head. “No way she’d have gone without me.
Not only because she’s the one who suggested yoga this morning so we could sweat out the alcohol, but you know how she is about being out in the great, big world alone. She just doesn’t like it.”
I laughed. “I know it’s hard to believe, London Walker being self-sufficient and going out to do something all by herself, but Miami has made her more independent. Miracles can happen.”
I heard quiet grumbles from my closet, but Lorelei’s expression remained unchanged, so I was pretty sure she hadn’t heard it. She looked at my face like she was searching for something and I stared back at her, finally cocking my head and doing a half turn to gesture toward my room.
“Look if you want to. She’s not in there, but she came home with me last night. I tucked her into bed, safe and sound. If she’s not here now, then she just headed out this morning. Who knows? She could come back with coffee and donuts.”
Lori scoffed. “If that happens, I’ll eat my hat.”
“Eat your hat?” I grimaced at her. “What is with you two? What century were you and London born in? Because it sure as hell wasn’t this one.”
Jerry stuck his head out of their bedroom and laughed. “Hey, don’t talk to my fiancée like that. She’s quirky, is all.”
“Maybe we’re just better educated than you two neanderthals.” Lori pumped her eyebrows at me. “Some of us actually paid attention in class.”
“We were in the same class,” I reminded her. “We had the same education.”
She gave me a smug grin. “Did you not hear the part where I said some of us actually paid attention ? You, Jerry, Zach, and Bryce were always whispering about your bromance or planning ways to look up the cheerleaders’ skirts.”
“We didn’t have to plan to do that. They just lifted them for us.” I gave her a smirk and retreated back into my room, glad that the tension seemed to have been diffused. “I’m going back to bed now. See y’all later.”
“If London’s not back in twenty, I’m going out looking,” Lori called as I shut my door and I exhaled a relieved breath that our little stunt had bought us twenty minutes.
I was even more relieved when I heard her giggle before a door slammed. Assuming that she and Jerry had gone back to bed, I strode to the closet, but before I got there, the doors opened and London emerged, the comforter still clutched tightly around her fine body.
“Ah!” I whisper-yelled, throwing my palms up in her direction and pretending to cower a little. “The creature emerges from the closet!”
Bending over, she swiped a pillow off the floor and threw it at my head. “I’m about to lock you in there. See how you like the dark.”
It landed with a harmless oof against my chest and dropped to the floor.
I burst out laughing and so did she, but we were both careful to keep it quiet.
We were in the clear for now, but the way Lorelei had looked at me made me wonder if perhaps she’d heard something last night.
I couldn’t control myself with London. It was possible I’d been too vocal.
Either way, we were going to have to tread lightly while they were staying with us—or else we were going to get the mother of all lectures about why that was a monumentally stupid idea. And neither of us needed to be told that. We already knew.
We were going to go ahead and do it anyway.