AllFreeNovel
Share Us
So back at her house, she made shitty cocktails and dressed me in clothes that belonged to Jenna, that she’d long ago “borrowed and chose not to return.” And by 9PM, I was properly drunk and strutting out her door in shredded denim shorts and a distressed, black tee cut just above my navel, with a cracked, old Guinness logo slapped across the chest. I successfully refused the four-inch stilettos, making it out in my own high top Converses, but the outfit still made me feel as bold as I had the night before at Liam’s gym. My relationship with that feeling was new and fragile and truthfully, something I didn’t want to lose. Especially not to Ethan. Seeing him again had made me promptly shrivel up inside and feel small. But thankfully, a few drinks and a borderline trashy outfit was enough to salvage the boldness, which was coming quite in handy as I made my way to Liam – to the six feet and three inches of human sex god leaning over green felt to line up his shot, his shoulders nearly bursting the seams of his charcoal V-neck.
The second I returned Max’s hello nod, a girly whisper pierced my ear. “Ugh. Cockblock alert.”
My eyebrow hitched just as Liam sank a loud shot. Silence hung in the air. It seemed everyone had heard considering how suddenly it fell quiet.
“Sorry?”
Shit. I hadn’t meant to respond but apparently, Trashy Sasha had taken the reigns for the night. Suddenly, all eyes were on me as I tilted my head at the brunette. She wore a strappy leather bra, hot shorts and far more lip liner than she had lips. Damn. Out-trashed on arrival.
“Eavesdrop much?” she snorted. Tossing her mass of black hair, she peered at her friends. “Fucking creepy if you ask me.”
“Easy,” Max warned.
Lips cast a cute look at him before hoisting herself up on the pool table. “No, babe. Easy is this poor girl who stalks you boys into this place every week. I swear I see her in here whenever you guys are. Every week and no one ever takes her home. But she keeps coming, she just keeps on coming. Tell me that bitch isn’t easy!” she squealed, gasping to her girls as if to say, there, I said it!
While jaws tightened around the pool table, mine stayed fairly relaxed. I lifted my eyes to Liam, wondering if he was g
oing to jump to my defense or stay mad at me. If whatever we had was a relationship, this was our first true test.
Max finally laughed. “Yeah… anyone gonna tell her?” he finally broke the silence.
“Do it! Tell her!” Lips urged.
Liam cut in. “He means you.”
A tingle rushed under my skin as I felt Liam and his boys coming together for me. Lips still had no idea. Twirling her hair, she seemed to enjoy the attention – especially that of Liam’s. He smirked as he stalked closer to her, till he leaned right next to wear she sat. “You got something to tell me, Cage King?” she asked, tracing the logo of his gym on his T-shirt.
“Yeah.” Liam wet his lips in a way that made me wet mine.
“Well then go on, Green Eyes. Tell me,” Lips murmured.
“Alright, well… that girl over there that you just called an easy bitch?” he nodded at me, prompting Lips to bite her fingernail and giggle. Liam returned her clueless smile, practically mocking her without her knowledge. “Yeah, she’s mine.”
“Uh.” The girl blinked. She tried laughing but it came off as nervous. “You mean that’s your girlfriend?” She jabbed an incredulous thumb at me. Liam was stoic.
“As far as you’re concerned, she’s my wife,” he said, finally locking his eyes upon mine. They drew me in with ease. I had hardly felt it but my feet had walked me to him – close enough that he could touch me if he wanted. From the corner of my eyes, I saw his boys grinning around us, starting to whistle and hoot as Liam grabbed me by the top of my shorts and pulled me into him.
“Come on, Liam. Kiss wifey!” one of them hooted.
I broke into a grin just before Liam pulled me into a kiss, his boys wild and rowdy around us, laughing as Lips snatched her purse off the table and stomped off cursing, yanking her gaping friends away with her.
With them gone, I kissed Liam back, melting into the heat of his body and letting him wrap his arms completely around me. Heat buzzed under my skin as I tasted the bourbon on his breath – as I felt his rock solid muscle beneath my fingertips. They curled against him, scratching his chest as he kissed me harder by the second, sweeping his tongue through my mouth and pressing his palms down my back. He was shameless in front of his boys and the bar, his hands on my ass, squeezing hard and claiming me in the same greedy way his mouth did.
When I felt his lips curve in a smile, I giggled against them. There was whistling and cheering around us. It sounded like New Years Eve. Of course, it wasn’t. It was just me and Liam together the way I wish we always could be.
When he pulled away, I was dizzy. I peeked sheepishly around the bar to confirm that everyone had been watching. Yep – even Lips and her friends, who were apparently gluttons for punishment. Next to them at the bar, Aria hung on A.J’s neck, pointing at me and cheering like I just hit a walk-off homer at the World Series. Covering my face, I turned back to Liam, who laughed as he told his boys to go back to pool.
“Liam,” I exhaled, resting my forehead on his.
“Sash.” There was a solemn look on his face that made me pout and tilt my head at him. “Twice now,” he murmured.
“Twice what?”
“Twice now that I told you not to run from me.” Liam cupped my jaw so I couldn’t look anywhere but his eyes. “I know you’re hiding something from me, Sash, and I hate it. I know you’d only hide something if it was serious and you thought I’d get angry. And I can’t promise you I won’t, but whatever it is, I need you to tell me.” He brushed a strand of hair from my eyes. Even in the din of the bar, his soft murmur sunk deep in my skin. I swallowed hard as his green eyes gazed deep into mine. “I tried all day to leave it alone. Maybe pull away from you and care a little bit less.”
I dropped my gaze to the floor, sudden tears in my eyes. Fuck. Liam had spent the day trying to erase what he felt for me and I hadn’t even known. I knew what he was about to say – that he didn’t succeed. That he couldn’t stop thinking about me like I couldn’t stop thinking about him. But the mere thought of losing him made my heart sink like a brick to my stomach. I watched a teardrop fall to the floor just before Liam tipped my chin again.
“Sasha, stop. You know I couldn’t ever care any less about you. I’ve loved you since the day I met you. I’ve always known that I’d do anything for you. Anything. And it was always a strange feeling to wrestle with because I knew the way I felt about you wasn’t in any way right. In fact, it was fucking wrong as hell. And suppressing that was harder than anything in the world – any job I’ve ever had, any fight I’ve ever trained for. But then you pulled your little stunt last week and you dug that feeling out of me and now I’m all in, Sasha. I’m yours if you want because in my eyes, you’ve always been mine.”
