The following wave sweeps over me, dragging me from my board, but Liam’s arm is around me before I lose a second of breath. “That was fucking awesome, Jules. I wasn’t even up that long my first timeriding.”
I feel breathless as I press the wet hair out of my face. “Really? I mean, it felt amazing. I loved it until I fell off,” I say, smiling andlaughing.
“You may just be a natural,” he says, kissing me firmly as another wave crushes ustogether.
“We had a deal, girlchacho ... brochacho. You both promised me no guppy mating whileI’mhere.”
Liam throws a splash in Sterling’s direction and turns back to me, stealing another kiss. “Want to go at itagain?”
“Yeah, let’s try it in the backdoor this time,” I tell him, keeping astraightface.
Liam closes his eyes and squeezes his hand around his temples. “You’re not ready for that yet,”hesays.
“You’d be surprised,” I’d tell him. I’d be surprised too. What the hell am I talking about, surfing or taking it upthebutt?
“So maybe we could take a little break from surfing so I can explain to you how to master the backdoor on dry land first?” Liam mutters intomyear.
Uhh. “Something about the dry land part sounds a littlepainful.”
Liam swings me over his back and pushes through the water, out onto the beach. “We’ll catch ya later,” Liam shouts to Sterling, Jared, Cale, andCleary.
We’re running through the sand, and I’m bouncing around Liam’s back. “You are insane,” Ilaugh.
We quickly make it back to the house where it’s empty for the time being. Sam and Daniel took Dylan down to the Fourth of July parade and some other festivities downtown for the morning, so we have the house to ourselves, and thedayoff.
I kind of figured Liam would have put me down about five minutes ago, but he’s hiking up the staircase without breaking a sweat. “Do I not walk fast enough for you?” I ask him, dipping my face over hisshoulder.
“Nope, you’re not fast enough for me.” He closes us into my bedroom and tosses me down on the bed, tearing his wetsuit off and giving me a show I’d like to have burned into my mindforever.
He drops down onto the bed and pulls at the zipper of my new wetsuit, quickly peeling it offcompletely.
His lips are working over my neck while his hands feel around, taking inventory of every other sensitive part ofmybody.
“I got you something,” he murmurs againstmyear.
“Oh really?” I don’t know what to expect from Liam. Every day seems to bring something unexpectedwithhim.
He rolls over me and reaches under the bed, retrieving a small rectangular box, and it scares the shit out of me. This is notLiam-like.
He hands me the box, and with a little hesitance, I take it. “Whatisthis?”
“Just open it,” he sayssweetly.
“Today isn’t supposed to be about me,” I tell him. “You’re not getting cold feetareyou?”
“I’ve never had warm feet about this, Jules. You’re the one who has been pressuring me to do it.” He has the same look on his face that he gets every time I bring up the small fact of him not coming clean to Sam yet. She deserves to know what Liam found out. She deserves to know that Dylan has abrother.
“She needs to know,” I tell himagain.
“I know, but first openyourgift.”
“Just promise me you’re sticking to the plan todayfirst.”
“If you use this gift, I promise.”Use.I think that eliminates the thought of him doing something completely insane,hopefully.
“Okay,” I tell him as I take the wrapping off the box, exposing a suede surface.Jewelry?I exhale slowly through my pursed lips and pull the box apart, hearing a quiet crackling of the hinges as I reveal two black balls. “What are they?” I reach in and run the tip of my finger over the top of one of them, feeling the texture ofsilicon.
“Well, since I know your feelings on sex toys, and the fact that you’ve had to replace Shermanator with me, I thought a replacement for when I can’t be inside you might be nice. Shermanator just won’t cut it anymore since he’s too small, plus, I can’t get that drawn-onfaceoff.”
