“I know you have a date in an hour, but I needed to get something off my chest first.” He closes the bedroom door, and I’m silently freaking out, wondering what he’s doing—why he just closed us in my room, and ... he’s halfnaked.
“You had condoms on yourchest?”
As per his usual behavior, he ignores my attempt at humor and continues toward me. How big is this room? Because if feels like he’s been walking forward in slow motion for twentyminutes.
I stand up so I don’t feel so inferior to his tall height compared to mine, and I cross my arms over my chest in defense against whatever he’s planning. “First, I’m sorry. I was wrong.” He’s sorry? He has real emotions and feelings? I didn’t see this coming. “Second, I do like you ... I like picking on you, I should say. As soon as I got a little insight into your life today, thelikefactor might have gone up a smidgen.” He wasn’t hiding this fact. I might not have a great track record with relationships, but I do know how a hot guy flirts. I have notes jotted down on it in my writing scrapbook. “Third—” He’s in my space, breaking through my bubble, and intruding on the air that’s mine to breathe. He’s stolen my air. I can’t breathe at all. He smells like sexy man soap mixed with some form of Old Spice variant that doesn’t turn me off,surprisingly.
“Third?” I ask withtrepidation.
He’s staring down at me with those emerald eyes that could put Ireland’s greenery to shame. He’s studying me like he’s trying to read my thoughts, but I don’t have any thoughts because my mind is blank and confused. I’m fighting against rules I’ve made for myself to keep—rules that should not be broken because I’ll never be able to write my book if I don’t eventually learn mylesson.
I try to swallow, but it’s impossible as his fingertips feather over my cheek, slowly skating back into my hair. I could stop him. I shouldstophim.
I have to tell Liam to get out of my room, and I would if I could figure out how to breathe while he’s touching me, but screw it, what’s the point? I’ve felt like shit all day and right now, I feel nothing but my heart racing inside of mychest.
“Three, I’m not gentle like I’m leading you to believe right now.” Yup, I think my heart has burst upward and might be sitting in my throat. My voice won’t even work. I’m trying to sayshow me, but instead, I’m just standing here like a moron waiting to see what he means by this. I have no restraint against hot men, and I’m obviously a failure at being a strongwoman.
He lifts me up—literally sweeps me off my feet, and he was right, it isn’t gently. One arm is under my ass, and the other is around my back, and he throws me onto my bed. “If you’re going to be a writer, and you need some life experience, I can help you with that. Plus, the house is empty. They went out for dinner.” I have no idea what he just said because I don’t think I can put words together in a sentence to make any sort ofsense.
I’m lying beneath him with my arms pinned above my head by one of his large hands, ready for ... yeah, I’ll pretty much do whatever he suggests at this point because he’s hovering over me with a look I’ve never seen in any man’s eyes. Hot or not, holy shit, I don’t think I can say no to this. This is like a dirty-dream fantasy with a man I would just never get with. That’s the fantasy part. He’s an asshole, though, and here I am again. I might as well just take my heart out and—oh, okay, yeah, those are his lips, they’re a half inch from mine. He smells like mint, and I’m swallowing minty air while looking at up him with a wide gaze questioning what is happening. “Liam ...” I have nothing to follow that. His name just sort of rolled off mytongue.
“I’m a big believer in showing instead of telling,” he mutters before devouring my lips within his. I’ve always enjoyed the art of kissing, especially in the form of showing and not telling. It’s the first rule I learned in journalism.Always show whatyoufeel.
I had a log of notes about guys I’ve kissed—who sucked, who was okay, and who was good for a second kiss. None of the descriptions I wrote would ever make me go back for a second kiss, but I can already feel the description of this one blooming into words that are floating throughmymind.
I have avoided looking at Liam’s mouth, knowing how perfectly kissable his lips are, but it isn’t just his lips that have me convinced I don’t need air to breathe. It’s the way he’s moving his lips, the perfect pressure, the way he pauses to look at me briefly as if he needs to gauge his progress by the look on my face, the flushness in my cheeks and the loss of breath. Every time he dips back in, his lips fall on mine, perfectly centered without lingering anywhere else. The movements evolve from slow and gentle to wild, erratic, and rough to the peak where pleasure could be confused with pain as if he were hungry and I was the last piece of food left onearth.
I gasp for air as his cock presses into my hip, and ...thatis a boner. Holy shit. He clutches my chin within his palm as I’m mentally picturing the beast in his pants. His hand releases into a gentle grasp as his lips press against mine once more before dragging the tip of his tongue along the rim of my bottom lip, causing a tremor between my legs, and I strongly suspect he knows exactly what he’s doing to me. “You needed to know the difference before you go outtonight.”
“Difference?” I say through a wheezybreath.
A cocky smile that enhances his chiseled jaw takes over his face. “I don’t think I need to clarify.” He doesn’t need to clarify, not even a little. That was a kiss worth writing about, reading about, re-reading, dreaming, and feeling instead of just seeing a bunch of words describing lipsonlips.
“I’m going to need my ... um ... that thing you stole from mebecause...”
He reaches into his back pocket and tosses it onto the pillow beside me. “Music to my ears,” Liam says, hopping up as he shakes around the waistband of his pants, probably to conceal his massiveness that might or might not still be standing at attention. “Enjoy yourpizza.”
He turns his back to me and slowly makes his way to the bedroom door, grabbing the bowl of condoms on thewayout.
Did that just happen? I turn my head to the right, finding my Shermanator. I grab it and quickly tug at my shorts quickly. There’s no way I can go out tonight feeling the way I do withoutrelief.
Once in place, I hit the little switch to turniton.
Again, I hit the little switch to turniton.
I shake it around alittle.
It’sdead.
I remove my little red friend and unscrew the back to find the goddamn batteriesmissing.
This is why I’m writing a book about the hot assholes in theworld.
“He totally sabotaged my date, Jade.”I switch the phone to my other ear as I pull out onto thehighway.
“I can’t believe this. Holy cannoli, Liam Hollow kissed you?” she asks with shock, using his last name as if he were the big bad quarterback for our high school football team. “When I said he’d come around, I didn’t mean that much.” I want to tell her there was no one cominganywhere.
“He’s been teasing me for days, more like torturing me. I got the hints he was sending, but I was almost positive he was just messing with me more thananythingelse.”
