A tall good-looking man who looked like he’d been born to wear a suit smirked down at a red-faced Layla. Her mother had disappeared, but Layla didn’t look pleased with the fact. In fact, if I’d learned anything being raised with sisters, it was how to detect a full-on female rage fest.
“Let me guess,” I said as I turned back to her. “That’s the infamous Dash?”
Charlie sighed and one side of her mouth curled up. I couldn’t tell if she was more amused or resigned. “I should probably go save her. Ember must have distracted her mom.”
Before she could slip out of my grasp, I snagged her elbow with my hand. “After you save Layla, do you think we can get out of here?”
Her eyes widened slightly, then heated. She had to clear her throat twice before she could talk. “Yeah, um, just let me take care of this and then we can go.”
With my hand on her arm, I pulled her closer. “I think we need to finish what we started yesterday.”
Chapter Seventeen
Charlie
It didn’t takeme long to reach Layla’s side and tug her away from Dash with a murmured excuse. I don’t remember what I said or even if it made sense. All I could think about was Liam’s words and getting back to his place. I dropped Layla off with Ember and ignored both of their knowing looks as I sped back to Liam’s side. Butterflies were having a rave in my stomach.
“Ready?” he asked as he took my hand and tugged me through the crowd.
I couldn’t answer. I let him pull me along until we were back in his truck and heading away from the restaurant. The ride home was a blur. My hands were trapped beneath my thighs because otherwise I’d have them all over Liam’s body. Causing a crash would severely wreck my plans for the evening so I kept them to myself.
When he slammed the truck in park with more force than necessary, I couldn’t wait anymore and unbuckled to slither across the seat to his lap.
He hissed out a breath a second before my mouth closed over his. All I could hear was how he was applying to schools everywhere. I knew it in the back of my mind that he’d be leaving, that we both would eventually be busy, but it didn’t hit me until tonight. It made me wonder why I had fought so hard to keep from having this with him?
After all, I should know better than anyone that life was short.
His mouth opened under mine and any doubts I may have had washed away as he gripped my hips to keep me close. “I want you,” I said against his lips when I could catch a breath. Desperation had me pulling at the collar of his shirt. “Please.”
“Jesus, Charlie. Let’s get inside before I take you right here.”
Somehow we made it out of the truck and to the front door. We slammed against it as I wrapped myself around him. He cursed under his breath as my lips attacked his throat. I moaned as the flavor of him bathed my tongue. It took longer than usual for him to unlock the door because he dropped the keys twice and pushed me against the wall for a kiss that was borderline violent.
We stumbled into the darkened house blind. It was only by pure luck we didn’t fall into a heap on the floor. His hands found my hips like they were meant to be there. They slipped around my waist and guided me back down the hall, almost like a dance. My body followed his instinctively, unquestioningly. Somehow, I knew he wouldn’t let me fall.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked as we reached the door to his room. “You can walk away right now. Go to your room and get some sleep. You’ve had a very hard week and aren’t thinking clearly. You’ll regret this in the morning.”
I didn’t know if he was warning me, or himself.
It didn’t matter, because neither of us listened.
“I can tell you one thing for sure,” he said as his lips grew even closer to mine. “The last thing I’d ever regret is being with you.”
If I’d had any doubts, his words erased them. I wanted this, I wanted him. “I regret a lot of things, but this would never be one of them.”
I didn’t want to be alone anymore. I didn’t want to keep pushing away the one good thing in my life when life itself was so short. My hands clung to the lapels of his shirt like he would somehow slip through my fingers. With exquisite care, he peeled my fingers away and pressed them against his chest as he led us back into the shadowed recess of his room. Beneath my hands, his heart thudded in a slow and steady rhythm. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to the triangle of skin bared by the opening of his button-up shirt.
Liam’s hands went to grip my biceps, not to push me away or pull me closer, but as a reminder he wasn’t quite ready to let me go. Reassured, if only for now, I lifted my fingers to his buttons and slowly unsnapped them, even though I wanted to rip them open. I bit back a moan of impatience as inch by inch of his tanned throat was revealed.
My fingers dipped beneath the folds of material and I pushed the shirt off his shoulders and down his arms until it fell at his feet. I glanced up at his face to make sure he was still okay and the heat from his gaze made my breath catch in my throat. Determined to keep going, I slid my hands from where they’d stopped at his wrists to the glint of dark blonde hair that lined his abdomen. The moment I touched him, his muscles contracted beneath my hands and he sucked in a breath.
“Don’t stop,” Liam said through gritted teeth. “Take them off.”
As if that was a choice.
Instead of delving into the waistband of his pants like I knew we both wanted me to, I teased us both and slid my hands up his chest and paused at the darker skin of his nipples. My head tilted to the side, and I watched as my thumbs flicked over the sensitive flesh. I glanced up as his face darkened with a flash of need so intense, it was mirrored in my body. My thighs clenched from the emptiness of needing him, but something told me to draw the sweet ache out, make it last.
So I took my time instead. I studied all the parts of his body I’d never given thought to exploring. The dips above his collarbones. The sensitive skin just behind his ears. I covered each discovered spot with kisses and little nips.
