“Paige?” It’s only a whisper. I rock my head sideways to find him blearily watching me, his eyes at half-mast, hair flattened.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper back. “I don’t know how this happened.”
Liam exhales a short laugh, moves his palm from my boob to my shoulder. He uses it to pull me back until I’m on my side again, facing him, but he manages to extricate his previously trapped arm in the process.
“We wake up like this every morning,” my boyfriend informs me with a sleepy smile. “You’re just usually too drowsy to notice.”
It’s true that Liam always beats me out of bed. He’s usually even showered and dressed by the time he shakes me awake each morning. But here I thought we’d been better platonic bedmates than a couple of tween girls at a sleepover only to be informed my snuggling tendencies die hard.
“Zara used to put up a pillow wall when we shared an air mattress on family camping trips in Gatlinburg.”
His smile grows. “I don’t need a pillow wall.”
Noted. Would now be a good time to discuss Liam’s physical boundaries? Light cuddling okay, no lip-to-lip contact, occasional ass grabbing, but don’t goanywherenear his groin? I’d like bullet points.
His hand on my shoulder drops to my back and presses my whole body forward. Since my thigh is still trapped between his legs, his erection becomes immediately evident.
“Why would I want a pillow wall,” Liam mumbles, warm breath tickling the hairs at my crown, “when this is my favorite part of my day?”
I can’t say anything, only melt a little more as he tucks my head beneath his chin. “I enjoy holding you for five minutes. Then Iroll out of bed. Then I go take a shower and jerk off while I think about you.”
A tiny gasp. A rattling laugh.
“Are youteasingme?” I ask, voice incredulous.
“Do you think you deserve to be teased?”
Yes, honestly. If I’d been in Liam’s shoes, I’d be feeling a little sexually vicious right now. I suggestedleaving. On thefirst day. No matter how selfless I thought it’d been at the time, I freaked Liam out, dusted off his defense mechanisms. He’s used to me being the one to walk away because that’s how it’s always been between us. Withholding sex isn’t something unexpected anymore. It makes absolute perfect sense he’d do this until he trusts me.
If he ever trusts me.
“Maybe a little bit,” I answer.
He pins me, my back to the mattress, my stomach heaving against his chest. Both of my wrists are locked in his grip on either side of my head. “I’m glad we’re in agreement,” he rasps, his eyes dark and wide-awake now.
Liam settles his front to mine, and instinctually, my legs hook to wrap around his back. “No,” he orders, a wicked challenge on his face. I let my legs go limp again.
A smile crooks at the corner of his mouth. He looks down at me one more time—gaze roving over my eyes, cheeks, jaw, neck—before he rolls back the way he came, then climbs out of bed.
I perch onto my elbows, devouring him in the honeyed light of the early morning as he peels his shirt over his head and tosses it. The cords of muscle in his bare back. The wrinkle of cotton in his boxers. His umber hair, already longer than when we reunited a few weeks ago. He turns, scrubs at his face with a hand, uses his other to hold his erection beneath his boxers. Liam leans against the wall near the bathroom and looks at me.
“You could do it too.”
My mouth is dry. “Would you want me to?”
One stroke. “Mm-hmm.”
I am blushing harder than a trombonist at a talent show. My bottom lip sneaks between my teeth. Another stroke.
“Go take a shower, Liam.”
“Are you gonna do it?” he asks, but it sounds like begging, and I could tease him back, but today this is his game, not mine.
I nod, and he grins.
Tucson, it turns out. We came here from San Diego, which was the last stop along the West Coast before the tour heads inland. Today is a rare, free day. No show tonight. We’ve only had one of these so far, and Liam spent most of it on a conference call with his boss, debriefing about how things have gone so far. Today, though, he wants to explore.
We climb into the car in high spirits. There’s absolutely zero awkwardness about what transpired this morning. If anything, it was like twisting off the cap of something carbonated, letting the pressure dissipate.
