“Liam, I want to touch you.”
He doesn’t reply. His lips travel from my jawline, down to my chest. He’s so tall and long-limbed that he can move around me easily and still keep my hands secured.
He sucks a nipple into his mouth, and I almost come undone. The sensations are incredible. Goose bumps work their way over my skin, and I feel heat roll over me.
I want him.
I need him.
“You’re gorgeous,” he whispers, blowing on my tender peak, then laving it with his tongue. “So responsive.”
“Let me touch you, Liam.”
He lets go of my hands, and I bury my fingers in his thick, dark hair. He groans, still licking and nibbling his way across my chest and down my abdomen.
My hand roams down to his shoulders. He pauses but doesn’t take my hands away.
Feeling bolder, I brush my fingers across his upper back. He shakes his head.
“Don’t touch my back, Ellie.”
I pause. I don’t understand. How can he not trust me with this?
“I want to touch you everywhere, Liam.”
He shakes his head again. “Not the back.”
I sigh, disappointed. Maybe I’m being selfish, trying to take him somewhere he’s not ready to go. After all, he’s been nothing but patient with me, letting me set the pace.
He deserves the same respect.
So, I move back up to his hair and feel him immediately relax. His lips roam over my stomach, paying particular attention to my navel.
Who knew a belly button was such a hot spot?
Not me.
“Liam.”
“I love it when you say my name like that,” he growls. He slides up me again and kisses me hard, as if he just can’t help himself.
It’s an incredible feeling to have a man practically mad with longing above you. Without thinking, my hands fall to his shoulders and move down his back again.
He quickly pins them on the bed beside my head.
“Not. The. Back.”
“I wasn’t thinking.” My breath comes fast, my blood rushing through my head. “Liam, I’m just caught up in the moment, touching you.”
He shakes his head and kisses my cheek.
“I saw your back,” I admit with a whisper.
He stills, then moves off me to stare down at me. “What did you say?”
“I’ve already seen your back,” I say again.
“What the fuck?” He pushes his hands through his hair and blows out a long breath.
“It was just a glimpse. When you went into the bathroom earlier.”
“I didn’t want you to see that.” His voice is rough, his hands shaking. “Ever. And I damn well don’t want you to touch it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s right, you don’t. You don’t fucking understand.”
“Then help me,” I plead and watch as he manages to climb from the bed and find his shirt without exposing his back to me again.
“It’s none of your business, Eleanor.”
“Are you kidding me?” I yank a tank top on and turn to face him, my hands on my hips. “You know practically everything there is to know about me, Liam. You’ve done things to me—”
“Sex isn’t the same.” He shakes his head slowly. “I’m asking you right now to let this go.”
I can’t. I know I should, and keep going the way we have been, without getting our feelings involved.
I should do what he asks and just enjoy the time I have with him.
But I can’t. I want him to trust me. I need Liam to trust me the same way I do him.
So, with my eyes pinned to his, I strip out of my clothes and stand before him completely nude. I turn in a circle with my hands out at my sides.
“This is me,” I say. “I have dimples and scars and knobby knees, truth be told. I’m not always happy with what I see in the mirror, but here I am. All of me. And the only reason I can do this is because I trust you. Not just with my safety, but also with me. All of me. Liam, I deserve the same in return.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
His eyes are fixed on the floor.
“Look at me.”
His brown eyes find mine. He looks tortured. Sad. Maybe even a little scared.
“Just talk to me. Please.”
He shakes his head and moves to turn away.
“If you leave right now—”
“What?” He whirls around, making me stumble back a step. “You’ll what, Eleanor? Fire me? Yell at me? What?”
“I’ll be so angry,” I reply and lift my nose into the air. “And hurt. Don’t do this. Fine, if you’re not ready to talk about this, don’t. But don’t leave like this. It’s not worth being so damn upset.”
“It’s not worth it to you,” he replies, his voice softer. “Because you don’t understand what you’re asking of me.”
“Help me understand.”
He shakes his head again.
“Why are you so bloody stubborn?”
He stomps out of my bedroom, and I follow him, not giving the fact that I’m as naked as the day I was born a second thought.