Chapter 30 Andrea
Andrea
The light clicked off. He lay next to me, both of us wide awake.
“Night, Andrea.” He sounded as if his back was to me, facing the wall. “It was kind of you to let me sleep here, after … everything.”
“Couldn’t let The Body sleep on the sofa.”
“Pardon?”
“Don’t you mean what?”
We both started laughing again, like we had been all night. Bonnie’s etiquette guide had been far more entertaining than expected. Maybe I owed her one after all.
“Anyway—what?” he said.
“Elle. MacPherson,” I said. “The Body.”
“Oh.” A quiet chuckle. “Of course.”
It was a good name for him, and he seemed to find it funny. Hopefully, it would stick. Seeing Liam like this—normal, unguarded—reminded me of when we first met. Chesty McSweatpants. It still kind of suited him, honestly.
He was only a couple of feet from me. The idea of stacking cushions between us, like he’d suggested earlier—whatever makes you comfortable—had felt ridiculous. We’d seen each other naked; we’d had sex. Why pretend we were strangers accidentally upgraded at a conference?
“I had fun tonight,” I said. “With you.”
“I always have fun with you, Andrea.”
A thin wash of light slipped through the curtains. I stared at the ceiling, listening to the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing beneath the hum of the air-conditioning.
“Are you asleep?” I whispered.
“Yes. Are you?”
I smiled into the dark. “Out cold … Actually, I’m freezing. Do you mind if I turn the AC down?”
“Of course not. I’ll get it.”
“Why are we whispering?”
“No idea.”
He climbed out, the mattress lifting with his weight, then settled back beside me a moment later.
“Better?”
“Thanks. A little.”
Outside, the rain tapped softly against the window. A sudden clap of thunder overhead made me flinch, followed seconds later by a flash.
“Okay?” he said.
“Yeah.” I’d stupidly only packed a set of tiny silk pajama shorts and a little vest. Trying very hard not to look like I was trying. Was my subconscious really that obvious? I was paying the price now.
The shape of his back rose under the quilt, wide and dark.
“I’m still cold,” I said.
“Want me to find you a blanket?”
“No. Thanks, though.”
I edged closer, feeling the heat from his body under the covers.
I knew he wasn’t close to being asleep, just as surely as I knew his arm was warm, and that I wanted it around me again, like before.
“Liam,” I whispered. “Would it be okay … if we just … I mean, I don’t want you to think—”
“You don’t have to explain, Andrea,” he said. “Come here. I’ve got you.”
I’ve got you.
He slipped his arm over my shoulders and held me, his warmth settling around me through the thin cotton of my vest, the heat of his chest at my back.
I let myself lean into him a little, until the space between us disappeared under the covers.
After a while, our breathing found the same slow rhythm. I don’t remember exactly when I fell asleep. Only that I did, in the quiet, with his arm around me.
*
When I woke, the rain had stopped. I was still wrapped in his arms in the haze of half-sleep, his slow breathing in the back of my head.
I opened my eyes.
Oh God, Liam. He was here, in bed with me.
How had that happened?
As if I hadn’t been thinking of it for weeks …
The gentle rise and fall of his chest against my back told me he was still asleep, his arm heavy over my waist.
I hope we’ve got some time before the alarm. I’d stay here all day if I could …
His body moved behind me, adjusting deeper into the mattress.
And then I felt it—the warm pressure in the small of my back.
Fuck. I knew what that was.
I didn’t move. His upper arm was draped over my torso, his hand nestled against my boob.
Great if Liam was my boyfriend—but he wasn’t.
A picture of him flashed into my mind, pressing into me there like it was looking for something. Holy shit. If I moved slightly, his hand would be on my nipple, his dick just above my bum. Any lower and—
What do I do, ignore it?
I didn’t want to move away, but I didn’t feel like Liam had given me permission to feel his morning boner. He was asleep, after all.
I breathed in and felt it press against me, harder this time. Was that what had woken me, some sort of primal greeting from the part of him I’d been trying to forget existed every time I saw him in his suit, his dinner jacket?
But forgetting that was never going to happen. The best sex of my life, the shuddering, exposing sense of need and want and fulfillment I’d had when he’d touched me and pushed himself inside, over and over …
I stifled a groan and felt myself get wet, my nipples starting to tighten like they had plans that didn’t coincide with my own.
I could reach around now, feel it against my palm, the thick heat of him reaching out for me against the thin fabric of my silk shorts.
He breathed more sharply, as if even in his dreams he knew what I was thinking. Fuck—what was I doing?
I slid away from him across the bed and pressed my face into the pillow.
Today was going to be complicated enough as it was without starting it like that. No matter how much I wanted to.