AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Finally realizing these things, he grabbed Avril’s gifts, eschewing bringing over the other three women’s gifts until a little later, and marched his ass back over to the finest ass in the city.
The balmy smile he received upon his return made quick work of the cold that he’d accrued during the walk over. Slow as the rest of the afternoon progressed, he had no complaints about who he was allowed to spend it with. And during a few ebbs in her preparation, or when they completed a task and had some time to spare before the next undertaking, reignited lust led their lips back together.
“You’re going to be able to keep this under control once the others are here, right?” Tess cooed, rubbing his erection over his pants. “You never seem to be fully sated for very long.”
“That’s on you,” he replied, urgently quivering as she felt him up. “But I can be good… for a little while.”
He hoped.
Days ago, at the Avril-sponsored card night at her and Anna’s apartment, he’d been understandably wowed by the presence of four of the most beautiful women on the planet in one enclosed space. He didn’t think he’d be any more desensitized to their alluring looks tonight than he’d been then. Especially now that he was physically intimate with two of them.
Aware of at least some of his musings, Tess smiled and kissed him. “You just need to keep it up until the party ends. After that, I’ll give you one more present once they’re all gone.”
“Interesting choice of words,” he noted.
“Yes, I heard it the moment after they left my mouth,” Tess said. She glanced at the part of him currently “kept up,” momentarily mulling over some options. Based on how she chewed on her lower lip, Liam speculated that she was considering if it would only be her gaze that lowered itself.
The trill of one of their phones receiving a message stalled that decision. The contents on it crushed it.
“Victoria is on her way over to help with the prep,” Tess said, staring at her phone. “Her neighborhood finally cleared its roads about an hour ago, so she wants to get out of her house. She’s been cooped up there for days.”
There was an apology in her voice, but Liam shook his head.
“It’s all good. Tonight, right? After everyone’s gone?”
The dimming spark within Tess’s eyes relit. She beamed at him. “After everyone is gone.”
Chapter Seventeen
Thawing
If Liam had polled a hundred straight men on if a chance to see Victoria Moreno was worth the risk—the guarantee, even—of her icy glare, he would have fully expected to receive one hundred affirmative responses. The idea of finding an anomalous “no” mixed into the results seemed as far-fetched as a blind man earning a pilot’s license.
Yet, given the circumstances, Liam found himself in a very unusual situation where he might have needed a few moments to consider a few things before answering. Starting with his knowledge that Victoria staunchly opposed the scheme that Tess and Avril had put into motion to pair him and Anna up. Based on his judgment of the strikingly beautiful woman, which only pulled from two meetings, one of which had been infinitesimally short, Victoria was a principled and scrupulous person.
So, pretty much the opposite of Avril.
On the day that all five of them had gathered to play cards, he’d also learned that she and Avril’s older brother had been engaged years ago, though Victoria had broken things off after “wising up”—how Avril had put it—to her brother’s immaturity. Those were the broad strokes that he knew about, plus one more.
It was Victoria and Avril, whose tight-knit bond—also Avril’s words—had survived the romantic drama that had ensued from the above-mentioned event, who were why the group of four had become so close. Avril and Anna were best friends, and Tess and Victoria seemed to have a similar relationship, alongside being colleagues at Bellmore. Still, it was through Avril and Victoria’s persisting friendship that they’d all come to know one another.
Even if he still didn’t quite know how their friendship—the two women were as unalike as brimstone and clear skies—had gotten so strong. But he did know that Victoria and Tess were quite close, the former having helped in the aftermath of the latter’s divorce. They apparently had a weekly movie night, as well, which was when they’d met. And while she might not be as close to Anna, they seemed on good enough terms that Victoria had been made aware of Avril and Tess’s “Find Anna a Man” plan.
Comparatively, Liam was secretly in an intimate—if somewhat undefined—relationship with Avril. Liam was secretly in an intimate—and growing more defined by the day—relationship with Tess. And to top it all off, Liam was pretending to be interested in dating Anna.
In essence, he was uniquely qualified to earn Victoria’s enmity threefold. He had already collected it regarding his faux relationship with Anna. And deep down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold onto the rest of his secrets forever.
Briefly, he considered heading back to his house to avoid that risk until later, when Avril and Anna would also be here. Quickly enough, he scowled at that downright cowardly idea.Hewas Tess’s next-door neighbor, not her. Finding him here, helping some with Tess’s preparation for the ensuing party, shouldn’t surprise anyone.
Which was exactly how she found him once she arrived. With the early prep in the kitchen completed, he and Tess had shifted to some final decorations. Although the outdoor decorations remained mostly suffocated under the blizzard’s plentiful remnants, and she’d already put up and decorated her Christmas tree, as well as some nameless stockings hanging from her mantle, there were a few more things they could do. Such as adding some snow globes, garland, and a few other festive decorations to the first-floor rooms and hallways. However, at the tail end of their decorating, Tess had suddenly excused herself and departed upstairs. It wasn’t long before Liam learned why.
“Don’t forget about this,” Tess said, coming down the stairs with an iconic decoration, yet one he’d never seen used for its more contemporary purpose.
That was about to change.
“Where do you want to hang it?” Liam asked, eyes fixed upon the rustic mistletoe decoration she carried with her.
“The traditional location is right at the entryway,” she said, nodding right by him toward her front door. “That way, everyone who enters the threshold and passes under it can obtain its supposed good luck.”
