Chapter 14 #2
“Good at what?” he asked, running his lips lightly across my cheek, down to my jaw and then beyond, brushing over the sensitive skin of my neck, making me shiver.
“That,” I gasped. “The kissing.”
He looked up, eyes glinting with both mirth and lust. “Sweetheart, I haven’t even begun to show you how good my kisses can be.”
Oh, God. Just like that, the rasp of his confident, wicked voice in my ear, and I was done for.
My entire body seemed to burst into flames, achy need settling deep in my center.
And still Liam continued to torture me with the gentle, teasing kisses across my neck and jaw. I wanted more. I wanted everything.
Thank God Liam seemed to be on the same page. His arms came up around me, pulling me close, and I melted against his chest as our lips met once more. I could kiss this man all night.
When I felt the coaxing press of his tongue against my lips, I couldn’t hold in the moan. He took advantage of the brief opening of my mouth to slide his tongue inside, the hot sweep of it against my own making my knees weak.
Liam’s wicked tongue was greedy, tangling with mine, and so were his hands as they ran up and down over my sides, my back. My skin erupted in goosebumps everywhere those huge, warm palms touched me and I couldn’t help but shiver when his fingers made their way up to the sensitive skin of my neck.
“I love it when you wear your hair up,” he murmured into my mouth, dragging his fingertips up and down over my nape.
“Can’t tell you how many times I sat there in my kitchen while you were explaining some equation, aching and hard, wondering what it would feel like to taste the skin right here on your neck. ”
I was reeling from his words, from the idea that I had ever made him hard during those study sessions, that I had ever affected him at all.
But then his lips drifted over to my earlobe, which he nipped gently with his teeth, and I gasped.
As he moved back to my neck, he pressed open mouthed kisses along my skin, his mouth and his tongue so hot and wet.
I was having trouble breathing, having trouble standing up.
I was pretty sure my legs were about three seconds away from going on strike and sending me into an honest-to-god swoon right there on my living room floor.
As if sensing how unsteady he was making me, Liam’s hands tightened on my waist, supporting me.
My breasts had become heavy and aching and I pressed myself closer to him, hands clutching at his shoulders.
He moaned at the contact as my breasts pressed against his chest and the sound sent a shot of crazy lust straight to my core.
Before I realized what was happening, Liam had hoisted me up off the floor, lifting me easily as he strode towards the couch. He sat, settling me on his lap, never once moving his lips from their assault on my neck.
“You feel so good, Gracie,” he rasped out against my skin. “I need you closer, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart. Every time he said that to me it lit up a hidden corner of my heart. There was so much tenderness in his voice, so much adoration. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that this was happening, that I was the woman he was calling sweetheart as he pressed his hungry lips against me.
“Please,” I whispered, not even knowing what I was begging for, only knowing that I needed more. “Please, Liam.”
Apparently, Liam knew exactly what I was asking for, even if I didn’t. His fingers found the hem of my shirt and he finally moved away from my neck long enough to meet my eyes, a question in his gaze. Is this okay? I nodded and he immediately had the soft material up and over my head.
I am shirtless on my couch in Liam O’Conner’s lap. Holy shit.
I was distracted from the unlikeliness of that revelation when I caught sight of his face. Liam was staring at my chest, eyes wide and hungry, something like awe in his expression.
“You’re so beautiful.” His fingertips ran over the swells of my breasts, just above the lace of my bra, so gentle, almost reverently. He swallowed, his voice suddenly thick. “Gracie, I…”
I felt a rush of tenderness for him. He seemed so overwhelmed in that moment, and his vulnerability chased away any possible insecurity about being half-naked in the arms of the most attractive man I’d ever known.
I reached for his face, tilting his chin up to look at me.
The emotion in his eyes made my core clench, the need and anticipation I was feeling reflected right back at me.
It was that expression that had me reaching behind my back, making me feel bold and self-assured as I unclasped my bra, letting the straps fall away from my shoulders.
Liam groaned again as he brought his face down to my chest, nosing along my collarbone before taking one already hardened nipple into his mouth.
“Fuck,” I gasped, clutching at the sides of his head. He made an approving sound deep in his chest, the vibration against my sensitive peak making my breath catch. “Liam.”
He sucked the tip harder into his mouth, his hand landing on my other breast, kneading the flesh.
It felt amazing, my entire body on fire for him, but it still wasn’t enough.
I needed to feel his skin against mine, needed to touch him.
I tugged on his shirt, trying to pull it over his head, but he refused to move from my breast.
“Liam,” I begged, tugging harder. It was no use. He lavished my tight, aching nipple with his tongue, his fingers tugging at the other, until I was crying out, arching into his mouth, wondering if I could come from this alone.
“Please,” I begged again, certain I couldn’t take any more of his erotic assault.
I had never felt anything like this, not with any other guy.
There was something magic in Liam’s possessive touch, his demanding lips and tongue lighting me up from the inside.
I shifted in his lap, desperate for some friction in my aching center.
He finally released my nipple with a loud, wet popping sound and he grinned up at me, his eyes dark and flashing. “You taste even better than I imagined.”
“Let me take your damn shirt off,” I growled, and his grin grew wider.
“So impatient.”
“Liam,” I groaned, and he relented at last, pulling his shirt over his head.
And then I was staring at a broad expanse of muscle.
The skin of his chest was smooth and tanned, bringing to mind images of him playing and working outside in the summer.
There was a scattering of golden hair between his pecs, running down over mouthwatering abs, darkening slightly as it disappeared into the waistband of his jeans in a trail I longed to follow with my fingers.
“Gracie,” he said, his voice full of smug enjoyment. “You’re staring, sweetheart.” I snapped my eyes up to his face to see his smirk. “See something you like?”
I didn’t even care that he was teasing me. “Your body is unbelievable,” I told him plainly.
A sudden wave of insecurity hit me right in the gut and I moved my hands to cover my breasts without even thinking. What on earth was a guy like him doing with me?
“Hey.” All the laughter slid from his face as he reached for me, taking my hands in his much larger ones. “Don’t hide yourself from me, Gracie. You’re beautiful.”
I tried to push the self-doubt away. Body insecurity was something that I had struggled with as a teenager.
I never felt quite comfortable in my own skin, never felt like I measured up to the girls I would see fluttering around Liam in the hallways at school, the girls who would hang around the hockey arena hoping to get a shot at my brother.
When I reached my twenties, particularly after moving to Austin and developing my first real female friendships, I had made an effort to love my body just the way it was.
Did I sometimes wish my hips weren’t so wide, to be delicate like Rosa?
Sure. Would it have been nice to be leggy and tall, like Peyton?
Of course. But I had been determined to give up the constant comparing of myself to others, hiding behind baggy clothes, wearing my shyness as a suit of armor.
It was a hard-fought battle to get to the mostly healthy place I was in now, and I hated the idea that I might revert back to my old ways. But I had never been with a guy like Liam before, and the contrast between us had wedged into my chest with a stinging ache.
Liam squeezed my hands in his, looking right into my eyes. “You were everything I wanted back then and you’re everything I want now.”
I swallowed, overwhelmed. It absolutely blew my mind to hear him talk about wanting me back then—I still wasn’t quite sure I believed it.
But one look into his eyes made it clear he wasn’t lying about wanting me now.
I didn’t think any man had ever looked at me with so much desire, so much pure, unapologetic need.
I took a deep breath, reminding myself that my self-worth didn’t come from a guy like him desiring me. It came from a place deep inside me. I may have been making out with a flawless hockey god, but I wasn’t about to let doubts or comparisons ruin this.
I took his face between my hands and kissed him again, relishing the sound of his moan when my tongue pressed against his.
He let me take charge of the kiss for a few moments before his hands tightened on my waist and I knew his restraint was reaching its limit.
Liam was not a man to give up control for long.
“I want to touch you,” he rasped. I was confused for a moment—his hands already seemed to be everywhere, caressing and squeezing my hips and thighs and breasts. But then he moved one hand up my leg, brushing the hem of my skirt, fingers tentative as his eyes searched mine for permission.
I didn’t have to think twice. I nodded quickly, burying my head against his shoulder, and trying not to shiver too much when his strong hands pushed under the material of my skirt.
He didn’t waste any more time teasing, going straight to the edge of my panties and pushing them aside, his fingers exactly where I needed him most.
We both moaned when his thumb ran up across my slit. “You’re so wet for me,” he ground out, sounding desperate. “Fuck, Gracie.”
“Please touch me,” I whispered into his shoulder, too consumed by my desire to feel embarrassed by the needy words.
“I couldn’t not touch you,” he growled, pressing his thumb against my clit, making me writhe on his lap.
“You feel so good. So hot and wet and perfect.” A finger slipped inside, pushing slowly, and the noise Liam made was possibly the hottest thing I’d ever heard in my life.
“I’ve imagined this so many times but your pussy feels better than I ever dreamed of.
I want to feel it wrapped around my cock. ”
His words sent a shudder of surprised desire through me. Liam O’Conner had a dirty mouth. And I loved it.
He slipped another finger inside and began to pump them, slow at first then picking up speed. All the while his thumb circled and teased my clit, hot throbs of desire and pleasure wracking through me.
“Look at me,” he demanded, his free hand slipping under my chin to force me away from his shoulder.
His eyes were so dark, so intense and filled with satisfaction and lust. I felt like I might implode if I looked at him for a second longer so I pressed my lips against his again, needing something to distract me from how good this felt, how completely overwhelming it all was.
But there was no distraction in his kiss. His tongue thrust into my mouth, mirroring the motions of his fingers between my legs, and the noises he made were enough to light me on fire. He sounded completely lost in this, the same way I was. Desperate and held hostage by all-encompassing desire.
“Want you, Gracie,” he panted into my mouth, thrusting his fingers faster. “Fuck, I’ve always wanted you. Come for me, sweetheart.”
As if my body had been waiting for permission, I felt my core tightening at his words, heat gathering low in my spine and spreading out into my limbs.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight.
All I knew was the hot rush of pleasure and the way everything inside me seemed to grow impossibly taut before finally breaking open in a rush of white-hot light and relief.
My entire body shook with the climax, my eyes squeezed shut tightly against the onslaught of pleasure. It was a long moment before I finally registered the word Liam was whispering in my ear, over and over again.
“Perfect,” he rasped, sounding awed. “So fucking perfect.”