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14
They gorgedthemselves on pizza in front of the TV, making fun of the impossible stunts and cheesy dialog of the action movie they’d chosen for sheer watchability. Halfway through the movie she laid down on the couch and Liam pulled her feet into his lap, his hands resting over the wool socks she’d worn under herboots.
The living room was dark except for the flicker of the TV and the candles Liam had lit while they waited for the food, lulling Nina into a pleasant state of drowsiness that wasn’t quite enough to send her over the edge intosleep.
By the time the credits rolled they’d finished the bottle of wine and there was one piece of pizza left, a credit to Nina since Liam had only eaten two pieces. Liam clicked off the TV, throwing the loft into shadow punctuated by the candlelight shining around theroom.
“What should we do now?” Liam asked from the other end of the sofa. “Begin a game of monopoly, make bread, tell ghost stories, braid each other’shair?”
Nina smiled as she watched his face. Now more than ever, it was so dear toher.
She looked into his eyes. “Let’s go to bed,” shesaid.
He held her gaze. “You’re making it very difficult to take thingsslow.”
Maybe it was seeing Peter the night before, casting off the chains of her marriage and divorce, but she knew what she wanted, and it wasLiam.
His hands and mouth on her skin. His naked body onhers.
She smiled. “Just take me to bed,Liam.”
He slid her feet off his lap, stood, and held out his hand. Pulling her to her feet, he drew her against his body. When he lowered his mouth to hers, his eyes were like moltensapphires.
The kiss was long and slow, his tongue sweeping her mouth in languid strokes, stoking the fire at her center. He pulled away and it seemed right that unlike the first time they made love, he wouldn’t carry her to his bedroom, that this time she would follow him on her own twofeet.
They made their way out of the living room and into the bedroom. Nina waited while he lit the candles. This was Liam’s way: to take his time in all things, the attention he showed her when they spoke the same kind of attention he was about to lavish on her body in a room lit only withcandlelight.
When he was done, light shimmering against the walls and ceiling, he stood in front of her by the side of the bed and took her face in his hands. His eyes were filled with a storm ofemotion.
He rubbed his thumb against her lower lip. “Nina…”
He let his hands slide down her neck, across her shoulders, and down her arms. She lifted her arms when he reached for the hem of hershirt.
He pulled it off her body and tossed it aside, quickly returning his eyes to her face as he slid her bra straps off her shoulders. He lowered his mouth to her bare shoulder, his tongue flicking against her skin as he reached behind her to unhook the bra. It disappeared from between them and she shivered at the sensation of his shirt rubbing against her exposednipples.
He kissed his way toward her neck and she dropped her head to the side, wanting to give him access to every part of her. She slipped her hands under his shirt as his lips marked a path of desire up herneck.
He kissed his way along her jaw, continuing to her ear and pausing to take one of her ear lobes between his teeth. He bit just hard enough to make her sigh withpleasure.
She removed her hands from under his T-shirt and tugged, hoping to give him the hint that she wanted itgone.
He chuckled against her neck. “Don’t rush me, NinaFontaine.”
He lifted his arms and allowed her to pull off the shirt, and she sucked in a breath as she took in his strong chest, muscled not from hours at the gym but from a life spent experiencing the world, documenting it, and helping people along theway.
The lean muscle of his chest gave way to the flat plane of his stomach, his faded jeans low enough that she could see the soft trail of hair leading under hiswaistband.
He dropped kisses along her collarbone and bent his head to continue down her chest, pausing only briefly to kiss each nipple before he knelt at herfeet.
He reached for the button on her jeans. “It’s time for you to be naked,” he said, kissing the swell of herstomach.
She closed her eyes. “I agree. What are you waitingfor?”
He laughed and rested his forehead against her stomach before leaning back on his heels. “I’m trying to be sexy here. You’re harshing myvibe.”
“Naked is sexy,” shesaid.
He unbuttoned her jeans and worked the zipper. “As the ladycommands.”
