Chapter 24
LONDON
All night long, I’d worked hard to control my thoughts when it came to Liam, but I wanted him to want me.
That night on the yacht, I’d been the one half-crazed with lust and he hadn’t done a damn thing to sate it, but on the other hand, we hadn’t touched each other that night the way we were right now.
His strong hands were all over me, his thigh between my legs, and those eyes blazing with a heated intensity that never moved away from mine—and I really liked it. I liked being this close to him. I liked seeing that tension knitting his features, begging me to break it.
As much as I was trying to hold off, knowing where the other night had led when we’d let it, that same pull was already there, buzzing under our skins, daring us to get closer.
Liam wanted me tonight, and as the hours sped by, I started giving up on the notion that things weren’t going to lead exactly to where they had before.
Mostly because I knew neither of us cared right now. Both of us wanted things to lead back there and we would figure the rest out tomorrow. I slid my hands around his shoulders, feeling the strength in them and tracing my fingers along the ropes of muscles in his back.
All the while, the rough denim of his jeans gave this infuriating friction where it really shouldn’t have been in public. I was soaked. My pulse was out of control and I wasn’t even breathing right anymore.
Liam was definitely feeling it too, his heart hammering under my palm whenever I touched his chest and a definite hard bulge against my belly as I leaned into him. Neither of us called it, though. Not until an announcement was made that the club was closing and that Ubers were lined up outside.
Without a word, he took my hand in a firm grip, keeping me close as we wound our way to the exit. All around us, people were laughing and talking, some staggering and swaying a little on their feet, but their friends were helping them to cars.
Finally in the backseat of one of our own, he slid his arm around my shoulders, his fingers drawing tantalizing circles on my bare skin. He moved his mouth to my ear. “I had a great night with you, London. You’re beautiful and you’re so smart, but you’re also a really fucking good time.”
I dipped my head back and turned it to face him, our mouths once again only inches apart. My lips curved into a slight smirk as I held his gaze, keeping my voice down so the driver wouldn’t overhear us.
“Nothing is happening tonight, huh?”
“Absolutely nothing.” Those eyes dropped to my lips and a soft groan rumbled through him, his voice husky as his muscles tensed against me. “You’ll remember that we have guests in the house tonight.”
“Will I?” My stomach clenched with desire at the hint of authority underscoring his tone. “I’m not the only one who’s forgotten about them a few times tonight.”
“No, you’re not, but you’re going to have to keep it down.”
“Keep what down? The snoring? I don’t snore.”
“I know.” A slow, stupidly hot smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. “I didn’t say that’s what you had to keep down, did I?”
Everything in me fluttered, my heart, my muscles, and hell, even my toes.
The guy was insanely good at turning me on, that was for sure.
When we got home, I knew I needed to pretend like nothing was, in fact, happening, but instead of stripping since I remembered about said house guests, I walked across the hall to my room.
Liam went to his door, opening it before he paused. Just as I was to enter my bedroom, I heard a whispered, “Psstt.”
I smiled. I knew it.
Dropping my heels right inside my door, I sneaked across to his room. He pulled me right into his arms without a second’s hesitation. In the back of my mind, I was aware of the dull, quiet click of his door shutting and locking, but his lips crashed into mine and my brain broke.
Liam groaned quietly into my mouth, one arm banded around my hips and the other catching my cheek in his palm. He kissed me hard and deep, insistent and hungry as he walked me backward to his bed.
We toppled onto it together, making out furiously. Our hands started clawing at each other’s clothes. My panties vanished in a heartbeat and it didn’t take me much longer to rid him of his shirt. I didn’t even bother with the buttons, just grabbing the hem and pulling it over his head.
As he lifted himself up to allow me to slide the shirt off, those eyes caught on mine and our gazes locked, our heavy breathing the only sound in the room. “I want you, London.”
“I know. I want you too. That’s why I’m taking your clothes off.” I tossed the shirt away and pushed my hands between our bodies, furiously working on his belt. He pulled the top of my dress down to expose my bra.
“I don’t just mean tonight,” he whispered harshly, reaching behind my back to undo the hook and groaning when my breasts spilled free.
I had his belt open and I was working on his fly when I finally managed to process what he’d said. I paused and felt both my eyebrows shooting up. “What do you mean?”
“Relax.” He bent over and caught one of my nipples between his teeth, the scrape of them rough and divine on my sensitive skin. “I’m not proposing, Walker. All I’m asking is if you’d like to add some benefits to this friendship.”
He said all of this around my breast, his mouth moving to the other as his fingers took over from his teeth on the first. “What do you think?”
“Yes!” I gasped, arching into him. I pushed his pants down and his legs moved when he kicked his shoes off. Then he was naked and I was practically purring underneath him. “If these are the kinds of benefits you’re offering, I think yes.”
He chuckled and nipped at me again, running his hands down my sides to bunch my dress in his fists. “You’re sure? No more of that it can’t happen again bullshit?”
I lifted my butt for the dress to pass behind it. After he’d slid the garment over my head, I sat up and pressed a hot kiss to his lips. “Fine, but there have to be rules.”
He groaned into my mouth, pressing me flat down on my back with his hard body and then covering me with it, allowing me to feel every defined edge and ridge of him against me. “Rules? Why?”
“We have to stay just friends,” I breathed between kisses when he claimed my lips again, the taste of him so intoxicating that I had to bite back a moan. “We’d never work out as more than that, Liam. We both know it.”
“Okay.” I felt him reach past me for his nightstand, reveling in each of the sensations of his body moving above my own in the darkness of his room.
I felt the flexing and releasing of his muscles, the slight stretching when he went for a condom.
“Let’s say I agree with you that we could never work out.
We’re already friends. Obviously, it’ll stay that way. ”
The soft rip of foil broke through the silence. He rose up on his knees between my own, very slowly and deliberately rolling the condom on. I dropped my gaze to his forearms, unashamedly staring at the rippling as he worked the latex onto himself.
“London?” He was smirking when I forced my gaze back to his, the entire scene feeling somehow unreal and ethereal with only moonlight illuminating the room and both of us speaking in breathy, needy whispers. “Why would we not stay friends?”
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t.” I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his hips, pressing my heels into his ass to make him fall toward me.
Laughing softly as he caught himself on his palms, he hovered above me, the tip of him right at my entrance and yet, he wasn’t moving. “Say it, Walker. Spit it out and I’ll make you come.”
“We’re friends first.” I folded my hands around his shoulders and stared intently into his eyes. “Even with benefits, we’re always going to prioritize our friendship. Oh, and no one can know.”
He chuckled, finally letting his hips roll forward to sink slowly into me. “Deal. It’ll be our little secret.”
As the words left him, I pulled him to me, moaning into his mouth. He buried himself to the hilt inside me. Pleasure sparked through to the very deepest recesses of my being, and I knew then that I hadn’t been imagining things about the other night.
Liam was the perfect fit for me physically, and as we rolled around like we were in heat, neither of us running out of steam or stamina until every last need was sated, I was suddenly so damn excited about having those benefits he’d offered on tap.
Things were about to get so much hotter in Miami and I could hardly wait until we had the house to ourselves again so we could really start getting creative.