“Because they have shampoo at the gym?”
“Are you sure that’s the reason?” Aria sassed on like she always did when there was vodka running in her veins. “Are you sure you’re not just giving yourself an excuse to prance around Liam’s gym? Hm?”
Jenna scoffed. “Let’s be real, it’s a win-win. I’d get to clean my dress and I’d make all those boys’ nights by giving them something to look at after a long, hard workout.” She tossed her hair and stuck out her pushed-up cleavage. “One look at my girls and Liam’ll be jerking off in the showers.”
“I thought this dinner was about you saying sorry for your creepy obsession.”
“No, it’s about me softening the blow for Sasha because me and Liam are about to happen.” Jenna turned to me with a breezy smile. “I mean, you ate food and drank booze that I paid for, which is basically accepting my peace offering. All you need to do now is say thank you and stand back while I go seduce your stepbrother, right? Right.” Jenna tossed back the last of her martini. “Now let’s get moving, bitches.”
Aria looked at me and rolled her eyes all the way to the gym. We let Jenna walk excitedly ahead of us, fixing her lipstick in her compact mirror while crossing the street without looking. “That girl would rather get hit by a truck than see Liam without perfecting her makeup,” Aria snorted. “I want so bad to tell her about you two. You have no frickin’ idea.”
“Trust me, I’m tempted myself,” I said. “But she comes to the bar enough to know Riley and we just can’t risk it.”
“I know,” Aria groaned. “Sorry on her behalf. She has a good side, I swear. She just gets so boy crazy sometimes.”
“I know,” I laughed. “We all get a little crazy. Especially around Liam’s guys.”
That point was proven the second we got to the gym. Usually, there was a small crowd of girls or fans outside, watching through the giant windows as the guys worked out. I thanked God that there were none tonight because Jenna was about to put on a show.
The second we walked in, A.J announced our arrival with a thundering, “Goddamn.”
I blushed as suddenly, the entire floor stilled to look at us. Dozens of eyes widened and stared, hopping across each of us and traveling from head to toe. It was almost embarrassing. I felt like such an obvious attention whore that I instantly spun on my heel and walked back out but before I could go too far, A.J dragged me back into the gym, holding my hand up high and making me do a spin for him. To my delight, his attention soon moved onto Aria and stayed there, turning her into a nonstop giggle machine. It was at that point that Max came along to kiss my cheek and murmur that I looked beautiful. Slipping a big arm around my waist, he took me around and introduced me to the guys I didn’t know while A.J whisked Aria off somewhere, leaving Jenna to happily misbehave on her own, sitting on guys’ laps to introduce herself.
I was in the midst of talking to Max and some guy with a neck tattoo when I caught Liam coming out of the back.
Oh God.
He tore his baseball cap off his head the second he saw me, his eyes pinned to me even as he yanked his shirt up to wipe his face. Every muscle on his body glistened, highlighted with sweat that had me picturing him pumping iron, sexy grunts ripping from his chest as he bench pressed my weight times two. I swallowed as his lips pressed into a firm, straight line. His green eyes glinted as they flicked up and down my body in my heels and little cocktail dress. There was nothing playful about the way he looked at me. He looked almost pissed and suddenly, I wondered if he was angry about the fact that I was parading my friends into his gym, where he discouraged bullshitting and all forms of distraction.
I forced a smile through the rest of my introductions but fear was pitting in my stomach as I watched Liam walk past Jenna’s strut toward him, still glaring at me till he had his hand wrapped around my arm.
“Excuse me, gentlemen.” His tone didn’t match his polite words as he pulled me away from his friends. His eyes looked me up and down. “Sasha – Christ, what the hell are you doing?”
“I’m sorry. Jenna wanted to come by after dinner and I – ”
“You can’t come in here dressed like this,” Liam murmured, shaking his head as his gaze dipped down to the sweetheart neckline of my dress. He gave a slight but insanely sexy tilt of the head for a better view of my lacy sides. “Christ, you look fucking incredible.”
“Liam,” I whispered warningly, biting back my little grin. My eyes slid past him for a second to his friends. They were grinning and nudging each other. They
knew exactly what was going on and they thought nothing of it. Jenna, however, was a different story. She squinted at us with total confusion. “Liam, you’re being a bit obvious right now,” I scolded under my breath as he thumbed the sheer lace, arousal glazing over his eyes.
“I can’t exactly help it when you walk in here looking like you’re begging me to fuck you right in front of all my boys,” he murmured, a wicked grin twisting the corners of his lips. “Which I’ll gladly do if you say the word.”
“Liam!” My hand shot out to smack his chest. Bad call. It was harder than steel after his workout and it had me so instantly hot I could barely breathe. He smirked.
“Hey, it’s what they get for all the years of talking about you right in front of me.”
“What do you mean?”
Liam sneered. “What do you think I mean? Every time you come in here to train with Max, the whole fucking floor stops so these assholes can talk about all the shit they’d do to you.” His jaw clenched just thinking about it. Every muscle on his body flexed tight as he turned to shoot smirking “I’ll-kill-you” looks at his friends who dared to hoot at him from afar. For some reason, it turned me the hell on.
“Yeah? What do they say they want to do to me?” I teased Liam, curious to see how much I could rile him up. Jenna was nowhere in sight now – I figured she’d gone to the locker room – so I let myself get a little closer to Liam, standing so tight that my feet were between his, my breasts brushing up against his pecs. His attention snapped quickly from his boys back to me.
“You really gonna make me answer that question?”
“Yes.”
“What, you like seeing me pissed off?”