AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Damn.”
“Yeah,” I sigh as I lean my chin against the side of the bathtub. “Are you joining me or…?”
“Oh, yeah.” He shakes his head as if to remove whatever emotion he was experiencing. He sets the bottle along with the glasses on the small bamboo table nestled against the side of the tub, then slides in behind me with little concern for the change in temperature.
He reaches for the bottle of champagne and expertly uncorks it, the pop echoing throughout the room. Bubbles race to the top of the bottle as he pours it into the two tall champagne flutes. I accept my glass, feeling its chill on my fingertips. We sit in silence for a while, the bubbles in the bath tickling my skin. Liam’s strong arm wraps around my shoulders, and we silently lay together in the warm embrace of the swirling water. His face nestles into my neck, the rhythm of his breathing bringing me solace. Every muscle in my body releases its tension as my mind slowly starts to drift away.
“You made the right choice, Hannah.”
“What?” My foggy state doesn’t give me even the slightest inclination of what he’s talking about.
“Going to school for theater. You made the right call,” Liam mumbles as he presses his lips to my temple. “However misguided they were, I understand your parents wanting something stable for you. But they were still wrong. You’re incredible as a performer. I know it hasn’t panned out yet, but it’s going to. I honestly think that they expected you to cower at the daunting future in front of you and run back to them, probably major in some bullshit like accounting. But you didn’t…know what that makes you?”
“What does that make me?”
“A fucking badass who knew that her life was meant for far more than working at Baker & Park, then retiring with a 401K and a picket fence in the suburbs.”
Despite the smile spread across my lips, a dampness begins to pool below my eyes.
I don’t understand how Liam manages to know exactly what I need to hear despite spending years keeping me at arm’s length.
His arms tighten around me, the water between us sloshing out with reckless abandon. As his lips linger at my temple, I melt into him further, allowing myself a moment of relaxation from the chaos of my life, resting in the arms of the man that I love.
My toes and fingers are pruned as I look around in the water and see that the bubbles are starting to dissipate.
“Do you want to get out?” I mumble in my sleepy, sated state.
“Yeah,” Liam says through a yawn.
We step out of the steaming bath, and before Liam reaches for his towel, he tenderly swaddles me in a soft, plush one, hislarge hands gently rubbing my arms and back. I bask in the towel’s warmth and the security of his embrace.
As we step into the bedroom, Liam drops his towel over the dark wood desk chair pushed up against the wall. He crawls onto the white-sheeted bed, holding out his arm for me to join him. I feel his warmth as I snuggle up beside him and he reaches over to switch off the antique brass lamp on the bedside table. The room falls into a soothing darkness.
My face rests against his chest, the peppering of hair tickling my jaw, but not so much that I want to pull away. We lay in silence for a moment before his voice cuts through the black.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Yeah, what’s up?” I yawn out my words.
“Why did you hate me so much?” I don’t miss the way he says it in past tense, a warmth blooming in my stomach before dropping at the memory his question evokes.
I pause for a moment, composing my thoughts. “Do you remember when we…the first time?” I wave my hand between our bodies, attempting to get the point across without going into too much detail in case he really doesn’t remember.
“Of course…” His brows pull together, but he doesn’t say much else.
“I was a virgin.”
THIRTY-THREE
NINE YEARS AGO
HANNAH
I taste Bud Light on his tongue, and it should be gross, but it has the opposite effect—it’s intoxicating. Maybe I could learn to like beer.
Liam presses me against the dryer, his body flush with my own.
The clean, fresh scent of the laundry room only eggs me on further as it successfully takes me out of my element. We’re not at a party at the beach house; there aren’t close to fifty people outside of that door right now throwing ping pong balls and shotgunning shitty beer. I’m completely consumed in a way that I’ve never felt.
