Shit, this is stupid.
I listen to Liam move the laundry over, chewing my lip.
Am I seriously staying here? Fantasizing about him? I’ve already gone insane and I have alcohol softening my nerves. Why not finish this night the way I really want to?
Before I can stop myself, I kick the blanket off and get to my feet. This is stupid, it’s really stupid, but when I take a step toward the hall I realize:
I want it.
I really want it.
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be Regan again. Safe, good, comfortable Regan. I’ll do all the right things, say the proper words, go to work, play by the rules, make my father proud.
That’s who I am and who I’ve always been. I’ll never be anyone else. My organizational lists have organizational lists.
But tonight, I set a car on fire.
I did that with my own hand. I spray painted it first too, and I can’t pretend like Liam pushed me into it.
This isn’t me. It’s someone different.
And this version of Regan wants to take this mistake all the way.
I turn the corner of the hall, heart racing, planning how I’ll knock on his door, slip inside, hesitate on the threshold to see if he sends me away?—
When I run directly into him.
He grunts in surprise. I yelp, hands pressed to naked skin, fingers digging into muscles. I look up, shocked, adrenaline flooding my core as he catches my waist, running a hand around to the small of my back to steady me. We’re inches apart. He’s in gym shorts and nothing else; his body is as toned and gorgeous as I knew it would be. Tattoos cover him, shapes and colors too dim to make out right now, and I feel strangely knotted clumps of scars on his chest.
We stare at each other without speaking for a beat.
Until I realize.He was coming to me. Just like I was going to him. There’s no other explanation for why he’s right here at the end of the hall.
“Were you sneaking out, love?” he says very quietly, his voice like a rumble down into my toes.
I shake my head. “I was just…”
His free hand snakes up my arm and slips into my hair. It doesn’t pull, but it tightens. He leans closer. “You were just,what?”
“Doing the same thing you were.” I meet his gaze and dare him to deny it.
But Liam only tilts his chin closer. “And what’s that, love?”
“You were coming to see me.”
His lips quirk. “Why would I do that?”
“Because… you wanted to…” I whimper when his fingers in my hair tug.
“Say it straight. No dancing around what you want, darling.”
“What I want?”
“Whatwewant.”
I hold his attention, looking right into his dark brown eyes. “You were coming to fuck me, weren’t you?”
His smile says everything. It’s desire, it’s promise, but above all, the emotion that almost breaks me then and there, it’sneed and hunger.
