I’ve lost the ability to speak, and my tears are soaking the fabric coating his perfect body—the place I want to melt into and call home every day for the rest of my life.
When I don’t answer, Liam grabs my shoulders and pushes me away from him to study my face, and it pains me to see the hurt in his eyes, knowing I’m the one who put it there.
“Hey, it’s not you,” I say, finding my voice in an attempt to alleviate his fears.And okay, that’s not the truth.“It’s nothing you did,” I correct, reaching up to cup his cheek.
My sweet, precious, oblivious Liam.
“Then what is it?” he asks, begging to be clued in. “It’s kind of hard to feel like it’s not my fault when you can barely look at me, you’re crying literal ice cubes, and not even hugging me back.”
I chew the inside of my cheek as I run through my options.
They all suck.
I can walk away right now, go to bed, and pretend like he made the whole interaction up tomorrow, which is shitty because he’ll feel rejected, and he doesn’t deserve that.
I can tell him the truth and ruin the rest of this tripandour friendship—because there’s really no coming back from thirteen years of unrequited love once it’s out there.
Or I can put on a brave face and lie my ass off—which he’d see right through because he’s Liam, and he knows me better than I know myself most of the time.
In reality, I know I really only have one option.
Allowing my eyes to come back into focus as they memorize every inch of his face, I swallow hard, breathing harshly through my nose, desperate to hold it together. My nostrils flare, and I feel the muscles in my face twitch from the effort of trying to keep my emotions at bay.
“Damon.”
When Liam whispers my name, I don’t just break, I shatter.
Pushing onto my toes, I cup his face with both hands. He doesn’t even flinch because he trusts me, and that makes what I’m about to do even worse.
“I’m so sorry, Li. I swear I tried to stop it,” I say right before I crash my lips against his, unleashing a tidal wave of need, desire, jealousy, hurt, joy, anger, and every ounce of love inside my body.
It all belongs to Liam.
I’m crying into his mouth as I wordlessly beg him not to hate me.
It’s not a kiss full of lust and passion. I’m not trying to climb him or grind against him. I simply crave this connection to him.
I hate that being his best friend doesn’t feel like enough anymore.
He doesn’t stop me, and when his lips part in shock, I selfishly run my tongue along his once before choking out a sob,because he’s fucking perfect, just like I knew he would be. In another second, I’m gone, moving away from him toward my room so I can sit with my self-loathing in the shower where he can’t hear my cries of anger and frustration.
“The fuck?” are the last words I hear before tearing through the sliding door of the cabin.
Chapter 18
Liam
Istand on the deck, unable to move, frozen in place by more than just the cold-ass temperature.
What the fuck just happened?
And who does Damon think he is, doing something like that and then tucking tail so we don’t even have a chance to talk about it?
Once the shock wears off, I finally convince my feet to move and go after him.
Approaching his room, I hear the shower running, but his bedroom door is locked.
“Damon!” I yell, banging my fist on the door. When he doesn’t answer, I pound harder, making sure he can hear me over the running water. “Dammit, Damon, open the door!”
