Chapter Forty-Five
Liam’s bedroom was cloaked in darkness. The shadows surprised Chelsea, and she blinked to focus in the dark, fumbling for a lamp. Instead, she knocked something off the nightstand, maybe a metal water bottle. The metallic clang hung in the air like a gong.
The bedroom door cracked open, and the hallway light fell over the bed. “You’re awake?”
She winced as the memory of her morning came back. “How long have I been asleep?”
“A while.”
She was still wearing her pantsuit but without the jacket, and the last she recalled, the couch had beckoned her to take a self-pitying nap. “When did I come in here?”
“I moved you.”
“Ah.” She’d called Liam to pick her up earlier than they’d planned and spent the entire ride back to his apartment volleying between righteous fury that made her want to scream and shock over her partner’s disloyalty. But now? Even though she’d slept much longer than she planned, she was spent.
“Feeling better?” He picked up the water bottle and offered it to her.
She uncapped the lid and took a long drink then a longer breath. “Yeah. I think so.”
He moved to the side of the bed and took the bottle, screwed the lid on, and returned it to the spot she’d knocked it from. “Can I sit?”
“Of course.” She scooted from the edge. “I can’t believe I slept the day away.”
“I can after that kind of shit show.”
She quietly snort-laughed.
“What would make it a better day? Chocolate? Booze? Vegging in front of the TV?”
She fell back onto the pillows and barely shook her head. Nothing could make the day any less ugly than it was. Her fingers found his, and he ran his thumb over each one, across her knuckles, then started the design again.
“You,” she answered.
“Me what?”
“You’d make my day better.”
His hand squeezed hers, and he held her eyes.
“You always do,” she whispered.
“I think I can manage to lay down with you.” He let her burrow against him then cocooned her in his arms.
Chelsea listened to his heart beat. She skimmed her hand over the soft hair on his forearm and the rigid cords of his muscles. His breathing deepened, and Liam rubbed her back in a hypnotic pattern.
“Thank you,” she said.
“For what?”
“Everything and then so much more.”
He quietly laughed. “Do you want to get up? Are you hungry?”
“Hmm.” Hungry maybe, but more than that, she didn’t want to let him go. “In a bit.”
“How about I distract you?” Liam unbuttoned the top of her blouse. With every button he undid, he teased and caressed as light as air for only the slightest breeze of a moment before he unfastened another button and then another. “How am I doing?”
She hummed. “I think it’s working.”
He slid down lower, taking away her pants until nothing but a thin layer of lace and silk covered her breasts and sex. “I think so too.”
Then she recalled a low point from the meeting and whispered, “I did something today. I mean, I said something.”
His knuckles trailed to her jawbone then her chin. The tips of his fingers ran down her throat to the valley between her breasts. Liam skimmed over her stomach and deftly slid below her lace underwear and curled his fingers against her mound. “What’s that?”
She squirmed. “I said you were mine.”
“Good. I am.” He tore off his shirt and kneeled between her thighs.
“My day’s turning around.” She unfastened the button and zippers on his pants, and he stripped.
“I’m happy to do my part.”
Her sex clenched when he tossed the last of their clothes onto the floor.
Liam’s thick erection hung heavily, and she needed him to obliterate the day until there was nothing left to remember except his weight, the sheen of their sweat, and the knowledge that he’d come deep inside her.
His fingers stroked expertly until her eyes slipped shut and his lips met hers. Two thick fingers breached her ready entrance. “All yours.” His mouth took hers, harsh and hungry. It mirrored the motion of his hand, spearing her again and again until the intensity became all-consuming.
He sucked her tongue and bit her lip, and she moaned. They were feverish and wild. Her words pleaded and became a tangle of yeses, until she begged him to be inside her. “I need you now.”
The thick head of his erection nudged, and he speared his tongue into her mouth when he thrust.
She hadn’t realized how much she needed his body. He worked his shaft inside her clenching muscles. Inch by inch, he powered between her thighs, and her nails dug into the sinewy muscles in his back. “I need this. You.”
His eyes shone like he understood, then he slowed until she almost screamed. The intensity was blinding. She gasped and rocked, desperate for the hot flames that were splitting her apart. He thrust again, seated deep, then stilled.
She trembled. “Please.”
Then, wild and hot, Liam took her mouth and withdrew his shaft. He drove in again and out, offering hungry, beautiful, painstaking bliss.
Hips writhed against hips. Mouths dueled for kisses and cries. She lost her mind with the rhythmic rapture, teasing and torturing, giving her whirling sensations of complete ecstasy.
Her raspy voice called his name over and over again. A spiral of pleasure drew deeper, and Chelsea bucked, clinging to him for every single maddening, orgasm-swelling stroke.
“Liam!” God! Chelsea arched as a volcano of color exploded behind her closed eyes and pleasure as hot as lava ran through her veins.
He didn’t slow, driving her higher and higher. Chelsea bit his shoulder, and she came again, cursing and crying.
He wrapped her to his chest, rolling on the bed until he lay on his back, and she draped limply over him. His hands massaged her hips then grabbed her ass as he slowed down, easing in and out with lackadaisical moves as she caught her breath.
The room stopped spinning and her lungs found a normal pattern. She eased up, sitting on his erection, overwhelmed by how his length and thickness filled her. Liam’s powerful hands caressed her thighs and slid to her hips as she rocked on him.
His fingers bit into her sides. She wanted nothing more than to hear his pleasure again. She rose and eased down. Violent need clouded her mind.
His hips jerked, and she braced her hands on his shoulders. Liam pounded into her body, and she gasped, losing her breath, her mind, her everything as the wildfire of another orgasm loomed so close.
“Fuck.” Liam’s rough voice was pinched with brutal need.
That was what she wanted. His orgasm. His cum. She wanted to feel him release inside her.
He thundered into her, wrapping her to his chest and came.
His arms tightened until she almost couldn’t breathe, and their bodies spasmed together.
Limp, their breaths seesawed. He stayed inside her. Her hair covered his neck and her face, but they didn’t have enough strength between them to move it.
Finally, she slipped her eyes open and pressed a soft kiss to his shoulder. Liam moved from her and rolled them on their sides, spooning around her body.
“Boyfriend,” she whispered. “That’s what I said.”
He kissed the back of her head.
It didn’t matter what he would’ve said or what she had called him. After she tucked into the crook of his arm, using his muscles as a pillow, she let herself drift to sleep again, knowing only one thing with certainty. Liam owned her soul.