Page 103 of Liberating Lily

“I don’t think that roast can be fixed.”

“Screw the roast. There’s plenty more meat in the freezer. But right now, that’s not what I’m thinking about eating.”

Her eyes widened even further and she bit down on her lip. Grasping her around her waist, he lifted her onto the counter.

Yeah, it was dirty, but at this point, she was covered in stuff anyway, so it didn’t matter. Then he pushed himself between her thighs, spreading her legs wide.

“Too much?” he murmured.

“I don’t . . . I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve never really done much of anything.” She glanced away and swallowed heavily. “I mean, I’ve had sex, but it wasn’t . . . I didn’t . . .”

A surge of rage filled him as she hesitated over her words, and he grabbed hold of her chin, tilting her head back so he could stare down into her face.

“Was it Rick? Did he force you?”

Why hadn’t that occurred to him before now? If he’d forced her, he was a dead man.

Why the fuck hadn’t he taken her from him earlier? Had he left her in an abusive relationship? He felt bad enough about leaving her with her mother.

But this might be enough to rip away his control and send him spiraling.

“No! Ew, no, it wasn’t Rick. I hated him touching me. And, honestly, he didn’t seem that interested in me. No, I had boyfriends before Rick. A couple of them. Nothing really lasted that long. They were men that Mother approved of. The relationships were nothing to write home about. Certainly nothing that you see or read about in romance movies or books. But maybe that doesn’t really exist.”

“Oh, it exists, baby,” he said to her. “You just hadn’t found the right man. Before now.”

“That could be true, because the way I feel when you touch me is nothing like when they did.”

“And how is that?” he murmured as he moved his hands. One went up her back toward her head to hold it still. With the other, he grasped hold of her hip.

Her cheeks went bright red. Was she embarrassed? That was super cute.

“Tell me,” he said. “Tell me how it feels when I touch you.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“Sure you can. Tell me. If you want me to make you feel that way again, I need to know how it felt in the first place.”

He loved the way her lower lip dropped. It was wet and slightly swollen from where she’d been biting it.

Oh, they couldn’t have that, could they? He didn’t want her hurting herself. Cupping the side of her face, he ran his thumb over her lower lip. “Don’t bite this again,” he warned.

“What? Why not?”

“Because it hurts you and that’s unacceptable.”

“You’re very overprotective, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, I am. Of you. I’m overprotective, overly possessive, and definitely demanding.”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve seen that,” she said.

“I tried to keep myself under a tight rein in order not to scare you, Mo bhreáthracht. But now that you’ve told me you like me that way, that you need me that way, well, all bets are off.”

“It didn’t take you long to return to your caveman instincts,” she said dryly.

He just grinned. “Oh, it was hard work to keep my hands off you, to stop myself from giving orders. I was basically hiding from you in the end.”

“Hiding from me? What? Why?”