ME: Can’t you pretend you do?
At the very least, he’d enjoy reflecting on how I’d gotten him to stay at my place.
I waited for a reply, but none came. Had I scared him off by pressing?
I keyed into my phone:I’m just kidding. I knew you wouldn’t.But before I could send it, a pic popped up in our chat thread.
I clicked on it, and it was a picture of him, his headboard behind him. He was smiling ever so subtly, his expression just as I would have imagined if he were looking at me. I rolled my face toward the blanket beneath me, getting another sniff as I enjoyed seeing his image once again.
LIAM: Now give me my smiling pic. :-/
I laughed out loud at his request—or really,demand.
I lounged on my back and snapped one, offering the smile he wanted before sending. Then I basked in the pleasure of having my very own photo of him, and that he’d offered it to me willingly.
I wondered if Liam knew just what he’d offered with that pic. It was so much more than the image—a reminder that I wasn’t making any of this up in my head, that even though he resisted, it was all for show.
He wanted me too.
I could feel it to the very core of all that I was.
He could fight all he wanted, but something deep within me assured me that someway, somehow, I would break through to the other side of whatever barrier he’d put between us. If not by fate, then through sheer will.
As I gazed at his beautiful face, thinking about what it felt like when he was around, what it felt like to have a chat with him, I was overcome with a power that radiated through me, stirring desire within me with an acute ache.
“You’re mine,” I whispered, though despite how much I wanted it—wished it were the case—doubt remained, and I could hear it in the anguish in my voice when I spoke the words.
Maybe it was all just in my head.
Maybe this was a crush unlike any I’d ever experienced before.
What if I was just another in a long line of dumb kids to get totally enamored with him? What if I was wrong about everything that felt so right and true within me when he was around?
No, I told myself. I couldn’t fall prey to that sort of thinking.
I had lived my life confused about how I felt about so many things, especially what I desired. But there was nothing confusing about what I felt for Liam. I wanted to know him, everything about him, and that he kept so many secrets only made my craving that much more intense.
We continued messaging leading up to my trip, still about superfluous subjects. At a few more requests, he’d sent me pics throughout his day, and I responded with some to him. When I finally landed at O’Hare, a sense of ease washed through me as I headed to baggage claim. I grabbed my things, then headed out to the Kiss ‘n’ Fly, calling him as he’d instructed me to do.
The two brief rings felt like so fucking long before I heard that voice again. “Hey, Pretty Thing.”
My smile broadened, my heart raced, my flesh prickled with excitement.
I directed him to where he could find me, searching the passing cars before he pulled up in his Tesla.
A Tesla? Holy fucking shit.
We gazed into each other’s eyes the way we had before, including that very first time. He parked, got out of the car, and helped me load my bag into the trunk. Then he offered a hug, more than the way he usually did. It felt more intimate as he rubbed my back softly. I took a deep breath, inhaling the potent fragrance of him. I didn’t even have to sneak my usual rub against his face, because he was so close that he did it as he pulled away, offering a warm smile. “You have a good flight?”
“Yeah, it was fine. There was this kid on the plane who didn’t seem too fond of it, though. So I’m practically deaf from turning the audio on my screen up to the max.”
The sound of his laugh hit my ear so pleasantly as I enjoyed the expression he made, knowing this would be the first of many laughs shared throughout my stay.
