“Wow,” I breathe, taking it in, the scene in the elevator vanished from my mind.
Liam moves to my side, one hand still on my hip, his arm now wrapped around my waist. “Damn. This is nice.”
Pulling my phone out of my clutch, I start taking pictures from every angle before I start a video, moving the phone back and forth slowly to take in all of the glitz and glamor.
“Coming to you from the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas where the views are spectacular and the company is even better,” I say for the camera as I move it around, training thevideo on Liam after panning across the skyline.
“Aw shucks,” he responds, pushing a fist across his own chin, acting like he’s bashful when we both know that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Then he waves a finger at the camera, giving it his signature grin. “And don’t you forget it.”
It makes me laugh. Humble doesn’t exist in Liam’s vocabulary and I love that about him. “I promise I won’t.” Ending the video, I flip the camera around. “Take a selfie with me. We need to commemorate this with a picture.”
Liam isn’t the type of guy that shies away from a camera or a picture. He’s always the first one to get in there and ham it up, and it’s no different tonight as we both turn around with our backs to the lights down below. I raise my phone, trying to get a good angle when he takes it from me and holds it out with his longer arms, giving us an even better picture than I could have.
“Smile,” he whispers in my ear, standing behind me again with his face next to mine.
We both put on our best smiles for the camera before he tells me to make a silly face. I cross my eyes and stick out my tongue, wondering what kind of face he’s making for the camera.
“Hey, hey, look,” he exclaims, bringing the camera down before turning around.
Rotating, I follow his gaze. Down below, at street level, the fountains of the Bellagio are dancing, lighting up the water in all kinds of patterns and waves. There’s no music to accompany it from this far up, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t dazzling.
“Oh my god,” I murmur, a smile radiating from ear to ear as we watch. “I didn’t realize you’d be able to see the fountains from here.”
For a few minutes, we’re both silent, taking the sight in, but the longer we stand there, the windier it gets, until I’m shiveringin my spot. Apparently a strapless minidress isn’t the attire one should wear at the top of the tower. I don’t want to leave, though, completely captivated by the show below.
Liam must feel my body shaking because he moves behind me without a word, wrapping his strong arms around me, covering me with as much of his chest as he can. This isn’t like the elevator. There’s no sexual innuendo; no hard bulge pressing against my ass. This is just him being the type of guy I know he is. There for a friend when they need it.
He’s my comfort. He’s been my comfort for months. Years. All the times I sat at the bar under the guise that I was there telling my brother everything about Paul, it was really Liam that I went to. It was never Nate’s arm around me. It couldn’t be. Nate was behind the bar. Liam was the one sitting next to me, drinking and commiserating with me.
Going down to the lobby bar tonight, I knew Liam would be the first one there. He was the one I wanted attention from, and I’ve gotten more than I ever expected.
The back of my head tingles as the memory of him with his hand in my hair flashes in my mind. It was rough but gentle, and it sent shivers up and down my spine. And the dance? The way he looked at me the entire time, like he couldn’t stop drinking me in, waiting to feast from every inch of my body? My panties were on fire strictly from the way his eyes darkened, and his tongue ran along his lips. If it was possible to come from the way a man looked at me, Liam would have had me hitting orgasmic levels over and over.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I ask, mostly to interrupt myself. I need to stop this train of thought. Need to stop thinking that we’re going to end up in bed together, no matter how much I’m starting to admit to myself that I want it.
“Perfect,” he responds, his voice so low that my head whips around.
He’s not staring down at the fountains. In fact, I have a sense that he hasn’t been looking at them for a while. His eyes are trained on me, currently flicking between my eyes and my lips, before settling on my crystal blues.
Emotions war within him, plain as day in his honey brown eyes. The loyalty to his best friend against what he’s feeling for me. I know the battle because I’m in the same one. Yet I realize that this is never going to change. The battle is going to rage on until one of us does something about it. There’s always going to be this push and pull. Maybe, just maybe, if we scratch the itch, it’ll go away.
“Fucking perfect,” he repeats, and he’s not talking about the view.
I bite my lip, glancing down at his mouth as my body moves on its own accord, turning in his arms. “Liam…”
“I know.”
We both know. But I can’t find it in myself to care. I love my brother with every fiber of my being. I respect the hell out of him, and I respect this one rule he put in place back in high school because I know what it cost him the last time around. But tonight I can’t pull my allegiance for my brother to the front and center. I can only see the allegiance to myself, and what I want.
I want Liam.
Fingertips touch my jaw. Gentler than earlier. Tender. Unsure but curious. His eyes move back to my lips, taking them in, memorizing them if I had to guess. It pulls me in, my head tilting up to him, begging him without words, to kiss me. His fingers slide along the length of my jaw, pushing back into my hair, his eyes flipping back to mine where I can still see the war within him. He wants this just as badly as I do, but I understand the hesitation, and Idon’t fault him for it. I wouldn’t fault him if he took a giant step backwards instead of the leap of faith forward that I want him to take.
“Fuck it.”
The words have barely left his lips before he’s claiming me, his choice made. Given his hand in my hair, I thought his lips would be gentle. They’re anything but. Fast and hard, he takes my mouth, his body pressing me against the cage of the tower, the railing digging into my lower back. I don’t care though. Not with his lips on me, moving over mine, demanding and taking, making me dizzy with need.
A kiss isn’t going to be enough. It was never going to be enough.
