AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I do as he asks, setting the exact same transcript he’d been inspecting in front of him, except it includes the missing block of text that he had been talking about.
“This is perfect, thank you.” He is being weirdly kind today, but I’d like to attribute that to a night filled with multiple orgasms. However, the same great night has also led to us both being utterly exhausted today.
Stepping behind his chair, I place my hands on his shoulders, applying pressure against the back of his shoulders with my thumbs. He groans, leaning back from the desk, allowing my touch to consume his attention. As my fingers knead into his skin, I can almost see the tensionmelting off him. I want to take credit for that, want it to be because of my touch, but I’m sure his body would react just the same if any other person were to massage his shoulders.
I don’t know why, but that thought stings… I like the idea of me being a factor in his comfort.
My fingers continue to push into his flesh, and the more pressure I apply, the louder his groans—both of pain and pleasure—seep into the air.
“Hannah.” The way he says my name is like a symphony, so intoxicating that I think he could convince me of anything in this moment.
“Yes?”
“Come here.” His hand lands against his leg, inviting me forward.
I do as he requests and sit on his lap, facing inward with my legs between his so I can look at him.
“Thank you.”
“It’s just a massage.”
“That’s not what I mean, Hannah.” His eyes lock on mine as he speaks, but I shuffle through my thoughts at lightning speed, searching for why he would be expressing gratitude at all.
“For what, then?”
He sighs as he looks down at my exposed shoulder, my pale pink blouse pressed up to expose my flesh. “I don’t think you realize how much you’ve helped me recently. I know you see this as just sex, but even if that’s so, it’s been what I’ve needed.”
Liam’s vulnerability nearly throws me off my axis. I’ve only seen him be this exposed one other time in our lives, so the weight of it sets in and doesn’t relent. Something he says sticks in my mind.
Yousee this as just sex.
Is he implying that he doesn’t?
I want to ask; I want to delve into it further. I want to crack open his head like a coconut and peer inside to get the answers to every question I’ve ever wanted to know.
I settle for honesty, my voice barely a whisper. “I don’t see this as just sex.”
Liam nods for a moment before pressing his lips to my shoulder. He doesn’t reassure me that he feels the same, doesn’t try to pry into what I mean. His lips linger against my skin, a tether between the two of us.
The knowledge that this isn’t just sex for either of us should bring me solace, but I quickly remember that I thought that last time, too. This isn’t the first time Liam and I have given into our desires and my heart got mangled in the process. I can’t rely simply on implication this time around because my compass when it comes to Liam’s psyche is, and has always been, skewed.
“Liam, how do you feel about me?”
At first, I think that he doesn’t hear me, and I’m prepared to repeat myself, but then he quietly speaks. “I feel how you feel about me. We don’t need to unpack that right now.”
His lack of dedication to a solid answer makes my stomach plummet, but the hope that it ignites leaves me somewhere in the middle.
“Stay with me tonight,” Liam mumbles against my skin as his arms wrap tighter around my middle. Us staying at each other’s place has become increasingly commonplace, and while I want to merely exist in the feeling it gives me, I struggle to tamp down the fears that very same concept ignites inside my gut.
My trust in him has been misguided before, and while Iknow with everything in me that I shouldn’t allow him to invade my heart again, I worry that he already has.
Reaching up, I intertwine my fingers with his. My eyes linger on his lips resting against my skin, the sensation a direct arrow to my heart.
“Okay.”
THIRTY
LIAM
