Gratifyingly, his voice was nowhere near as composed as she thought he might have liked. There was comfort to be taken from that, at least.
But then she couldn’t think any more because he was trailing his hands lower. Down her sides, and around to the small hollow at the base of her spine. Caressing and re-educating himself like she was a new, fascinating subject in which he wished to school himself.
And then he was sliding his fingers under the hem of her top. Inching under so that they skimmed her bare waist, making her entire body contract with desire. Dear God, if he made her this edgy from mere caresses, what might happen if he did more?
She couldn’t manage more than a whisper, though she could hear her deep breaths loud and clear.
‘Liam...’
She ought to remind him where they were...if only her mind wasn’t a dim fug of nothing.
‘Like I said, all in good time,’ he repeated, his voice scratchy.
And then, as her hooded eyes caught his, she felt his hand dip beneath her waistband, down, lower still, until her throat was too choked to speak, and her body too aroused to object.
He teased her. Taunted her, even. Letting his fingers creep lower as they traced exquisite whorls wherever they went. Everywhere they went. Except for where she needed him most.
‘I know,’ he muttered, as some desperate squeak escaped her. ‘Trust me, I understand.’
But if he did, then he wasn’t giving in to it. Not quite yet. He wanted to keep her dangling, like a fish on a hook as the fishermen did out there in the deep blue sea.
‘Liam,’ she managed again.
‘Why the rush?’ he growled.
‘No rush.’ Talia had no idea how she managed to answer, though she sounded embarrassingly out of breath. ‘I just...’
‘You just...?’ he echoed mercilessly. ‘Just this, perhaps?’
But before she could reply, he dipped his fingers lower, dragging through her hair and sending devilish shivers right through her body.
‘Or this?’
With another twist of his wrist, he le
t his fingers abrade her. Right where she was hottest, slickest—where she needed him most.
‘Like that, then?’ he confirmed, a certain triumph in his tone.
Clearly, he didn’t need her to answer. Her body’s reactions did all the talking for her.
As he stroked her, flicking his fingers over her, tearing low cries from her with every pass, sensations pummelled her from every direction. So much more than every fantasy she’d had over the last three years. Because there had been no one else for Talia in all that time.
What would have been the point? No one could ever have matched Liam. She wondered if he knew that. If he knew that he was the only person who had ever, ever gone where he was now.
‘Is this what you want?’ he demanded, his tone thicker now.
Talia couldn’t answer, it was taking all she had not to cry out. He was stroking her fast now, one hand in her panties, the other cupping her cheek. When had he released her hands? She didn’t even know, but now they lay almost flimsily against that granite chest.
He angled his head to kiss her again, his fingers still playing that irresistible rhythm on her body, and she was helpless to resist. Between his mouth and his hand, she was adrift. Floating off on a sea of bliss with every skilful stroke.
He built the tempo quickly—or maybe it was just that she couldn’t stop herself. That wild, wanton pace that dragged such low, primal sounds from deep inside her, and made her entire body begin to quiver, pushing herself against his hand as though it could somehow hasten those glorious final moments.
And then, as the edge of that chasm raced ever closer, and her body began to shake and come apart, Talia felt his lips on that sensitive hollow of her throat, and she couldn’t fight it any longer.
It was like being hurled into the air. Flying and hurtling, all at once. Not even caring that she was out of control, as long as she kept coming apart, over and over again. She thought he would stop, but he didn’t. He just kept going, sending her off in this direction and then that one. Propelling her wherever he wanted her to go.
And she simply gave in to it. As if there was nothing else she could do. As if there was nothing else she wanted to be doing.