Chapter Liam #2
“Hmmmm?” She’s taken to tracing my bottom lip with her index finger while her other hand starts playing with the hair at the nape of my neck.
Fuck. I’m suddenly way too hot. My breathing has turned shallow.
My hands automatically go to her waist. Christ. I really, really want to start rocking her over my erection but I force myself to sit as still as possible.
“What’s going on, beauty?” I mean, I have a pretty good idea, but that doesn’t make it any less confusing.
Taryn sits back so her ass lands on my knees, which means she isn’t touching my cock.
Thank God. I have no idea how I’d form a coherent thought if she was pressed against my dick.
Still, it’s standing at attention between us, almost begging her to notice.
To touch. Her eyes are full of lust when she answers simply, “I keep thinking about what happened in the cafeteria earlier this week. I don’t want to beat myself up over that anymore.
I’m wearing your ring. That should come with some benefits. ”
I try to understand what she’s saying, but her fingers continue to play with my hair, and it’s making me crazy.
I take a deep breath. Of course, that doesn’t help because I inhale her sweet scent.
Strawberries. She smells like fucking strawberries, and I want to take a bite so badly my mouth waters.
She leans forward to press her lips against mine. I gasp in a breath and she swipes her tongue against my bottom lip, asking for entry. It’s beyond me to deny her. Not when I want her so badly. Not when I know how sweet she tastes.
She sighs into my mouth and I shudder as her tongue dances with mine. Her nails keep lightly raking the back of my hair and her pace is unhurried. Seductive. Exploratory. The heat of her mouth is consuming.
She whimpers as she tilts her head to deepen the kiss and the needy sound goes straight to my dick. I’m fucking throbbing. Christ—it’s almost painful. A kiss shouldn’t be this good. So fucking hot. Jesus.
I’ve been letting her set the pace because I don’t want to push things too far, but suddenly, my brain isn’t in charge anymore.
I can’t completely hold back. Not when I’m surrounded by her scent, her flavor, her soft sounds.
All the blood has gone south. I grunt as my hands grab her ass to scoot her up my lap, where I need to feel her. Fuck thinking coherently.
The soft apex between her thighs presses against my pulsing length and she gasps at the contact.
Her hands drop to my shoulders and her nails dig into me as she grabs on, her body instinctively pressing down to increase the friction.
All the while, her tongue slides against mine, turning desperate, stealing my breath, owning me. Fucking perfect.
She feels amazing. In the back of my mind, there’s this nagging feeling that we’re going too fast, too soon, but it’s hard to acknowledge my doubts as Taryn’s gorgeous body writhes against mine.
I break our kiss to throw my head back against the couch.
“Fuck.” I need to think. We should talk.
Ensure she understands—once I claim her, she is completely, irrevocably mine.
I won’t want to hear any more thoughts of finding a way out of this relationship.
But instead of stopping her, my hips involuntarily thrust upward when she begins nibbling on the exposed column of my throat.
Her warm breath against my skin. Her sweet smell mixed with the subtle scent of her arousal.
The sharp sting of her teeth followed by the gentle lap of her tongue.
Her soft hair brushing against my skin. It’s too much and yet nowhere near enough.
I’m fucking coming undone and we’re still fully clothed.
Shit. I suddenly need to remedy that. I reach for her crop top, but my fingers decide to take their own path to explore the soft skin of her stomach before I can remove the garment. My hands keep moving north under her shirt. I need to touch her. She’s so soft. Gorgeous.
“Liam, please,” she breathes as I run my thumbs across the lace of her bra, over her hard nipples.
Godfuckingdammit. She’s begging. For me. So fucking beautiful. I need to feel more of her. Christ. I crave feeling her skin against mine. All of her. Every last piece. I want to own her. Possess her. I want her every goddamn thought to be of me.
She’s pressing those beautiful tits farther into my hands, and she pulls her mouth away so she can gaze into my eyes. Her face is flushed. Emerald eyes shining. I’m enthralled. Possessed. I want more.
“Do you have a condom?” Her voice is a rasp.
A condom? Do I have a condom? Wait. I take a deep breath to clear my head.
I always have a condom—I believe luck favors the prepared.
But, no, I most certainly did not bring one tonight.
I need to think. Maybe she has one? Hold on.
Is this moving too fast? Didn’t she hate me just yesterday?
Does she understand what she’s asking for?
This isn’t some one-night stand. This girl is my future. Fuck.
“No, beauty, but we don’t need to rush it,” I tell her, kissing her neck, pressing my tongue to her fluttering pulse. I nip her earlobe. “Let’s wait until we’re ready for that step.” She smells so damn good. Tastes amazing. I continue my open mouth assault on her sweet neck.
She grinds down on me again and I swear the room tilts. “I think we are ready. Very ready,” she breathes as she moves her hips over my aching cock.
Christ. Maybe we are ready. She groans into my mouth. Maybe we can—
“It doesn’t need to mean anything, Liam.”
It’s as if she dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. It doesn’t need to mean anything. It doesn’t need to mean anything. The words are on replay in my head. I can feel my dick begin to deflate. I pull back and place my hands firmly on her waist to stop her motion.
“Yeah, Taryn, it does. It needs to mean something. You’re going to be my wife.”
I refuse to hook up with her, and then tomorrow, pretend like it didn’t happen.
A hurt look crosses her face, but before I can say anything else, the fucking doorbell starts ringing.
I run my fingers through my hair, frustrated.
The bell rings again. And again. Jesus Christ. I lift Taryn from my lap to set her beside me.
I adjust myself in my pants before I stomp down the stairs toward the front door. I can’t believe how quickly things went from perfect to absolute shit. I throw the door open to see Sam Rutherford leaning against the brick.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I spit at him.
“Where is she?”
“She’s busy,” I retort, not hiding my anger. Given my messy hair and swollen lips, I hope he’s getting the picture of just how busy she is.
“Sam?” Taryn’s voice is behind me, her hand on my waist as she tries to peer around me.
“You aren’t returning my texts,” he accuses from the other side of the door. “We need to talk. There’s something I need to tell you.”
He’s been texting her? What in the absolute fuck? Was I not clear before?
“You don’t,” I tell him through gritted teeth. “You don’t need to talk to her ever again. Do you need me to take out a billboard? Spell it out differently somehow?”
He ignores me to look over my shoulder. “You left me on read today. I know you saw my messages.”
Why the fuck hasn’t she blocked him? Yeah. That’s gonna change. “You’re not going to hear from her, asswipe. I’m closing the door.” If I don’t, I may hurt him. I’m good at smiling and blowing off shit that bothers me, but this guy—yeah, I’m not sure I can pull it off with him.
“Liam,” Taryn chastises me. Is she serious? She wants to talk to this asshole? Didn’t we agree that we were done with other people? Wait. Did she ever actually agree?
“Move out of the way,” Sam tells me. “Taryn and I need to talk. There are things I need to tell her.”
I’m about to respond when Taryn answers, “Go home, Sam. This isn’t the time.”
So there will be a time? My jaw hurts from how hard I’m clenching my teeth.
“Really? I’m a bother now?” Sam asks her before he turns his attention to me. “You know she doesn’t want to marry you, right? I thought you, of all people, understood that just because she’s a good fuck doesn’t mean you need to put a ring on it.”
Taryn gasps but I don’t fully register the sound because my fist is moving too fast. The crunching sound is satisfying as I make contact with his face but it’s not enough. Sam has the audacity to sneer at me as blood pours from his nose.
“You made a mistake.” His eyes glisten as he takes a step back. He wipes his face with his forearm. “I came here to warn you,” he snarls at Taryn, “but you can’t even answer a text? Fuck you, Taryn.”
Warn her? I don’t even notice that I’m not wearing shoes as I step out into the snow to meet him. I shove him hard. “Talk to my girl like that again, asshole. Go ahead. Give me a reason.”
“Liam. Stop,” Taryn implores behind me.
Sam shakes his head and backs up a little more.
He must see how absolutely unhinged I’ve become because he’s not smirking now.
But, then, it’s as if he can’t help himself.
“We both know she can’t wait to get away from you.
Shit. I lied. The sex wasn’t even that good,” he says as he turns to walk away.
I lose it. I can’t recall ever having an out-of-body experience before, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening.
I’m watching myself beat Sam Rutherford to a bloody pulp on Taryn’s front lawn.
He gets in a solid punch, but then he falls to the ground with my next hit.
Yet, I can’t seem to stop. The snow is turning red as I land blow after blow.
Before I know what’s happening, I’m pulled off Sam and thrown a few feet. I stumble as I try to find my balance. I’m vaguely aware that my jaw hurts, not only from Sam’s fist but also from how hard I’ve been clenching my teeth.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Liam.” Rowan O’Toole is standing between me and the bloody mess on the ground. “Are you trying to kill him? Here? On campus? What in the absolute fuck?”
I grunt. We both look at Sam, who is in the fetal position in the snow. Rowan sighs. “Go inside. I’ll take care of this.”
“I don’t—”
“For fuck’s sake. At least go put some damn shoes on. You’re going to get frostbite.”
I shake my head to clear the red fog. He’s right. I’m standing in the late January weather in wet socks with no coat, Sam’s blood coating my fists. “Yeah. Okay.”
I turn around and stomp back inside in search of my shoes and jacket. I pull off my soaking socks, willing myself to calm the fuck down, when Taryn touches my arm. I can’t place the look on her face. Disgust? Fear? Concern for me? For Sam?
“I—I don’t know what to say,” she whispers. “Are you okay?”
Am I okay? I flex my fingers in and out of a fist. Gonna need some ice for that. I shake my head as I put on my shoes.
“You still want to talk to Sam?” I ask hoarsely.
“Wh-what?” She seems confused. “No. No, I—”
“I need to go.” I can’t have this conversation. My adrenaline is crashing, and I need to figure out what Rowan is doing here. More importantly, I need to figure out what to do about the mess I created on the lawn. I shrug into my coat.
“Liam—wait.” Taryn sounds desperate. She’s probably worried I’m going to run outside to finish Sam off since I obviously can’t handle that she’s been with other guys. No need. Not happening. I’m beyond done with this night.
I walk around her to step outside. One of Sam’s friends is helping him into the back of a G-Wagon, while Theo fucking Nicopolis is having words with Rowan. He glares at me when he notices that I’ve joined them.
“You shouldn’t have done this,” Theo tells me. He sounds tired, not threatening.
“He shouldn’t have come here, running his mouth about my fiancée.”
Theo shakes his head, but he doesn’t disagree with me. “This is so fucked. You’re right. He shouldn’t have come here.” He glances at Rowan. “None of it needs to be like this.”
Rowan ignores him to put his arm around me. He walks me away from Theo.
“I get why you hit him,” Rowan tells me once the SUV pulls away, “but you need to have more control. You can’t do that shit on campus. There are other ways. We’ll have to smooth this over if the administration finds out. Jesus, Liam, if I hadn’t been here—”
“Why are you here?” Taryn has come outside and is wrapped up in her own coat. “Not that you’re unwelcome—”
“I was, uh…” Rowan stops. Thinks. It’s as if he has forgotten his original purpose in all the excitement. “I was looking for Cole. Was he here?”
“No,” Taryn answers. “He and Steph are probably out somewhere.”
“She’s out with him?” Rowan growls.
Before Taryn can answer, I interrupt. “I’m leaving. Thanks for the help tonight, Row.” I’m suddenly exhausted, and I don’t want to hear about any drama concerning one of his men.
“Liam, wait. Can you please stay?” Taryn’s eyes are pleading.
I sigh and walk over to her. I kiss the top of her head. “I’ll talk to you later.” I don’t look back as I make my way to my car and drive away.