7. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Taylor
T he pancakes are forgotten the moment Liam bends toward me, his masculine scent and the blazing heat of his gaze rendering me powerless to resist. Logically, I’m aware I should put a stop to this before it can go any further. Put a definitive end to whatever this is.
My heart and body wage an all-out war against the voice of reason that grows fainter with every passing second. I don't just want to kiss him. I need to.
The pull toward him is irresistible, a tug that has me swaying into his orbit. It makes no sense. I'm not the kind of woman who throws herself at a man so recklessly. I've always maintained a certain measure of control, of restraint.
But Liam...Liam is different. Every cell in my body reaches for him, seeking out the solace and pleasure his embrace promises.
Perhaps it's because, for so long, I've been plagued by an ingrained exhaustion that left no room for anything beyond existing, for feeling anything more than the relentless march toward oblivion. Even in the wake of that strange, vivid dream, a vitality I'd forgotten hums through my veins.
When his mouth slants over mine, I don't fight it, can't even fathom mustering the willpower to pull away. I surrender to the searing heat of his kiss, losing myself in the velvet glide of his lips and the heady sweep of his tongue.
He angles his head, deepening the kiss until every nerve ending blazes with an inferno of pure want. My fingers twist in the soft fabric of his shirt, clinging to him as desire and searing arousal crash over me.
It's intense, so all-consuming, that I can't help but wonder if I'm somehow experiencing his desire as well as my own because this yearning, this ache, that has me trembling in his arms feels too vast, too infinite to be contained within the confines of a single body.
Even as the thought surfaces, even as confusion laces through the haze of need, Liam is pulling back with a ragged gasp. His eyes blaze with naked longing, with a palpable strain.
His hands are shaking where they cup my face, his touch achingly gentle despite the undercurrent of barely restrained hunger thrumming between us. When he finally finds his voice, the words are little more than a low, guttural rasp. “I want you, Taylor. More than I've ever wanted anything in this life or the next. Will you... will you make love with me?”
The request hangs there, heavy with promise and simmering with the same scorching undercurrent that had laced his kiss. There's no demand, no expectation. Only an earnest plea and the certainty that he would never force himself upon me, no matter how much his body craves mine.
“This is your decision. Fully, but Goddess I want you. I…I need you, Taylor,” he rasps.
Despite the voice of self-preservation still whispering at the back of my mind, despite the litany of reasons I shouldn’t do this... I…I can't. I…won’t.
I can't deny the burning need incinerating me, the aching throb of desire that pulses through me at the thought of being intimate with him, even if it's just this one time. I don't question why he wants me so badly when my body is withering away before his eyes. I'm consumed by the memory of his passionate kiss, by the undeniable evidence of his arousal grinding against me.
He's a grown man who has outright told me what he wants, giving me the choice without dressing it up in flowery language. He knows I'm sick and will not recover, yet he still craves me with an urgency matching my own, despite how fleeting this could be. There’s something about me he finds desirable. Why am I even questioning that? We’re both adults, able to make our own decisions. If he desires me, then who am I to deny him that right?
The last few months have been about dying. About settling my life for my premature end.
I’m not dead yet. Why shouldn’t I actually live for a few hours while it’s still an option?
“Yes please, Liam. I want to make love with you.” Maybe it's selfish. Maybe I'll regret it when the haze of lust clears, but in this moment, with the promise of his touch setting my soul on fire, I can't bring myself to care about anything except satisfying this consuming hunger.
I'll burn these memories into my mind, savoring every caress until they're all I have left when the world fades away. I'll let them sustain me through the darkest nights, through the agonizing inevitability I can't outrun forever.
Until my last breath, I'll remember what it feels like to be alive in his arms.
His guttural groan vibrates against my lips as he gathers me against him. Then he's lifting me, cradling me as his mouth slants over mine in a searing kiss that has me arching with a desperate whimper.
I'm vaguely aware of him carrying me down the hall, the dull thud as he shoulders open my door and kicks it closed behind us, but it all fades away as we tumble onto the plush mattress and I finally surrender to the raging desire between us.
This is madness, I know. A feverish delusion that can only lead to heartbreak.
But with Liam's weight settling over me, his hands and lips mapping every inch of my body, I can't think about anything except quenching this desperate thirst for him before my end.
Liam's hands slide under the hem of my shirt, his fingers skimming over the sensitive skin of my stomach. “Can I take this off?” he murmurs, his voice low and rough with desire.
I nod, helping him lift the garment over my head and tossing it aside with shaking hands. Then his lips blaze a trail down the column of my throat, his mouth hot and urgent as he finds my aching nipple through the thin lace of my bra.
“Please,” I gasp, arching into his touch with a desperate whimper. “Take it off, I need to feel you...”
He complies with a low growl, unclasping the hooks and sliding the straps down my arms until I'm bare before him. Then he suckles my breast into the wet heat of his mouth, his hand kneading and massaging the other globe until I writhe beneath him in mindless pleasure.
As Liam's mouth blazes a fiery trail over my skin, something strange and exhilarating blossoms between us. Every touch, every kiss is magnified with each passing second. Pleasure ricochets between us in an endless feedback loop until I'm drowning in sensation.
It’s too much. Not enough. Need more.
I gasp as his teeth graze my nipple, the sharp sting immediately soothed by the hot swirl of his tongue but beneath the physical sensations, there's something else. A pulsing, electric current flows from his body into mine, carrying with it a storm of emotions.
Desire, hot and urgent, licks through my veins. Powerful. Consuming. I imagine it's not just my own arousal I'm feeling. It's his, too, a raging inferno of lust and longing that threatens to incinerate us both. I can feel the way it burns through him.
Beneath that scorching need, there's something else… a sense of awe, of disbelief, as if he can't quite believe this is really happening. It's as if he's been waiting for this moment, longing for it with every fiber of his being, and now that it's finally here, he's overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of it all.
I catch flashes of words, fragmented thoughts that drift through my mind like ghostly whispers. “Mate,” he breathes against my skin, the word imbued with a significance I can't even begin to grasp. “Mine. Forever.”
That…can’t be right. My mind is warring between fantasy and reality. I want him to desire me so much I’m making things up but, as Liam's hands skim over my body, mapping every curve and hollow with a desperate sort of hunger, my thoughts dissolve and all I can do is feel.
My fingers tangle in his hair, tugging him closer as I arch into his touch. I nip at his jaw, soothing the sting with my tongue before trailing hot, open-mouthed kisses down the column of his throat. The rumble of his growl vibrates against my lips. His pulse leaps and races beneath my touch.
I slip into a feedback loop of sensation again, every caress and kiss and lick amplified. The air around me is charged. I don’t understand why I’m feeling this way, thinking these things, but then Liam's hand slips between my thighs, his fingers delving into the slick heat of my core and I'm lost. He presses his thumb against my throbbing clit over the seam of my jeans. One touch is all it takes. Pleasure explodes and I toss my head back with a wordless cry of ecstasy.
“Please. More. I need you to touch me.” With trembling fingers I fumble with the button, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps. He doesn't hesitate, his hands joining mine as we work together to slide the denim down my legs, taking my underwear with it. The cool air kisses my overheated skin, but it's nothing compared to the inferno of Liam's touch as he skims his palms up my calves, over my knees, along the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs.
I can't get enough of him. I need more, need to feel every inch of his skin against mine.
“Please, Liam, I need…need…”
More.
Him .
Need. Want. Burn.
A deep growl rumbles up from his chest, the sound sending shivers racing down my spine. Liam settles between my parted thighs, his breath scorching against my sensitive flesh as he lowers his head to taste me. He swipes his tongue along the length of my aching core, and oh God, the hot, velvet slide against my most sensitive flesh draws a keening cry from my throat.
The second swipe has me arching off the bed, my fingers tangling in his hair as he laps at my aching clit. He teases the swollen bud with fleeting, featherlight strokes, igniting sparks of pleasure that dance along my nerve endings like wildfire. But it's still not enough. I need more, need to feel him deeper, harder.
Need, need, need.
His cock. His tongue. His soul.
As if sensing my desperation, Liam growls against my slick folds, the vibration sending shockwaves of sensation ricocheting through my core. Then his tongue plunges inside me, thrusting in and out in a wicked mimicry of what's to come.
I'm lost to the exquisite torment as he fucks me with his mouth. Even that isn't enough to quench the inferno raging inside me. I need to be filled, stretched.
Claimed.
The word comes from nowhere. It doesn't make sense but then Liam's fingers pump deep as his lips close around my clit. He suckles the sensitive nub, flicking his tongue over it again and again until I hover on the knife's edge of climax. I spiral, fly and imagine his own dark, drunken urgency, his desperate need to see me come apart for him. It's enough to send me hurtling into the abyss with a hoarse cry.
Through the haze of my release, I watch as Liam straightens to his full height, his powerful body towering over mine. He strips away his clothing, revealing a physique that’s chiseled from stone. Corded muscle ripples beneath sun-kissed skin, his broad chest tapering to a narrow waist and lean hips. The thick length of his cock juts out from a nest of dark curls, pulsing with every breath he takes.
He fists his cock, long fingers wrapping around his solid length and pumping. The sight has my mouth watering, my core clenching with a fresh surge of need. Liam's scent surrounds me, a heady mix of cedar and musk and pure, unadulterated male.
“Please,” I breathe, reaching for him with trembling hands. “I need you...”
In a heartbeat, he's there, his solid weight pressing me into the mattress as he notches the broad head of his cock at my entrance. Barely leashed power thrums through him. His arms tremble with the effort of holding back and his eyes blaze down at me, dark with a hunger that makes my blood burn.
Then his mouth is on mine once more, his tongue delving deep as he rocks his hips in a slow, tortuous grind. The slick length of him slides through my folds, coating himself in my arousal, but it's not enough. I need him inside me, need to feel every thick, pulsing inch of him claiming me as his own.
“Liam, please,” I moan against his lips, my nails scoring down the flexing muscles of his back. “I can't wait any longer...”
With a guttural growl, he surges forward, sheathing himself to the hilt in one powerful thrust. The breath leaves my lungs in a rush, my body stretching to accommodate his impressive girth. For a moment, we're both still, lost in the exquisite sensation.
“Goddess, Taylor. You’re perfect. So perfect,” he whispers against my lips.
Goddess? Then he starts to move, withdrawing almost completely before slamming back in with a force that has stars exploding behind my eyelids. He sets a punishing rhythm, each deep, driving thrust angled to hit that spot inside that has me seeing galaxies. The sounds of our joining fill the air, mingling with our ragged breaths and wordless cries of pleasure.
A force builds between us, as though our souls reach for each other. Each roll of Liam's hips, each slide of his sweat-slicked skin against mine, intensifies powerful, foreign emotions I know can’t be mine but then I lose myself to the sensations, to the feeling of Liam moving inside me. He's everywhere at once, filling every part of me until there's no room for anything else. The coil of tension low in my belly winds tighter, my inner muscles fluttering around his length as I climb higher toward the peak.
With a blinding flash of ecstasy, I fly apart in his arms, my body convulsing with the force of my release. Liam's roar echoes through the room as he finds his own completion, his cock jerking and pulsing as he spills himself deep inside me. The heat of his seed triggers another wave of pleasure, prolonging my climax until I'm shaking and boneless beneath him.
In the aftermath, as we lie tangled together, I swear I can feel the very essence of him twining with mine. I feel his awe and gratitude. Devotion.
Love.
The word shouts through my mind, terrifying in its intensity.
No matter what my brain conjures, this isn’t real.
The reality is, I’ve just made love with a man who wants me. A man who managed to slip under my tighter-than-tight defenses. What I’m imagining is just a product of my lonely, desperate heart latching onto someone who has shown me kindness.
I’m unsettled, that’s all. Liam knows the reality. He’s an adult and a doctor who understands my prognosis. Both he and I made a choice. Liam's arms tighten around me, his breath warm against my neck. I want to believe in the impossible but I can't afford to indulge in fantasies. With a heavy heart, I close my eyes and will myself to sleep, trying to ignore the ache in my chest that whispers of a reality I can never truly have.