“I think you have the right idea,” I mumble, and my eyes blink a few times before they become too heavy to open again.
A warm hand presses on my cheek, startling me awake. Crap. My heart rate spikes when I see my empty hands and I look to the ground beside me to make sure I didn’t drop my son to the wood floor. “Hey, sleepyhead." Holly giggles. “You alright there?”
"Shit, where's Matty?"
"Relax, daddy, I took him inside to lay down. You both passed out. Can’t blame you. It’s so peaceful out here.”
She’s looking out into the night sky and I’m looking at her, admiring her long toned legs and the way she wets her lips as she thinks.
I reach out and grab her hand and yank her to my lap making her screech. “Liam.”
“Hush.” I cup her face and kiss her. What I’ve been waiting to do for days. She moans down my throat, my tongue pushing between her plump lips. She tastes as good as I expected.
I need her. Need to feel every inch of her. She's a balm. My latest addiction, one I don't mind getting addicted to. She is an addiction that can heal me.
She moves to straddle my lap and grinds against me. My dick is straining hard against my zipper, desperate to break free and feel her warmth.
My hand inches up her shirt and I trace the curve of her covered breast. She bucks against me with a moan of pleasure. My thumb traces higher, her nipples poking hard through the fabric.
“I can smell how alluring you are,” I tell her as my mouth kisses down her throat.
Her hands fall flat on my chest and she pushes back. "Wait."
"What?"
"Maybe…" she says, breathing heavily. "Maybe we should get to know each other first—this time."
She has got to be kidding.
"We don't know enough? I’m a tech nerd. I like computers, comics, and classic cars. My fav color is lime green. You like to design stuff and your favorite color is red.” She glares, with a hint of a smile. “No? Is that not correct?”
“No. I like more than just designing stuff and my favorite color is pink by the way.”
“Close enough. Pink is a light red, so are we good? We got the basics.” I lean in to recapture her lips again, but she places her hands to my mouth, halting my effort.
"We know nothing. And it's not just that, it's Matty."
"Let's not think about all that…" I reach up and cup my hand around her neck. I don't want to think. I want to escape in her; what I should've done the night at the bar. If she had let me.
"Liam, I have to. We have to. I do like you, but there's a lot at stake."
She's right. There's so much she doesn't know about me. Demons that haunt me. Ones I want to keep hidden but are written all over me. She wants the full package. I see it in her eyes, and I want to give it to her, no matter how it is. Though I have no idea what I’m doing, she deserves it.
"The thing is Red, I've wanted you since the first time I saw you. It's been hard enough not to go full force with you and dive in."
"Last time we dove in with each other, we got Matty out of it. So, I'm okay with the one foot in front of the other approach."
I laugh. "Alright. Fair. We’ll do this slow, but it’s not going to stop me from doing this.”
I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and pull her to me, recapturing her lips with mine. I’ll go slow, but I can’t promise I won’t make it absolutely torturous for her, in hopes she crumbles to my persuasion.
CHAPTER TEN
HOLLY
What the hell was I thinking?
I asked a man—Correction! A freaking sex god—who can have any woman he wants and hasn't dated since the stone-age—to take things slow.
I must have lost my mind.
His lips were on mine, I was gyrating on his lap, and we were so close, but dummy me said it would be better to get to know each other first.
I haven’t had sex since that fateful night at Comic Con with him! More than three years ago. And after the last two weeks with Liam, it’s been absolute torture. I don’t know how much longer before I give in, giving up on this “slow.”
Every time we kiss it's as if he's kissing me for the first time. Each one is always so intense, filled with so much heat and passion where it makes my head spin, but then when he lets go, I feel deprived of him and I'm aching for more.
It’s crazy to think the man who kisses me so is the same man who told me only a week ago he stuck to one-night stands because he didn’t want to settle down.
There’s a story behind it. Something that causes him great pain. I saw it the first night I met him and I see it every time he sees liquor or how he reacts with his family. Maybe it's none of my concern, but anybody who holds in as much as he does is bound to burst.
I’m chopping up some vegetables to add to the marinated chicken I’m making for dinner while also going over some last-minute design on Liam’s office. Sam is helping me find a little superhero design element to put in his office that won’t be too big but will be fun and useful.
