Chapter 8
ALY
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At some point after, I had started dozing just enough to notice only too late when the bed shifted under me. I sleepily opened my eyes, first seeing the beautiful knotted pine that made up the ceiling beams overhead, then seeing the tops of posters dotted here and there along one of the walls in Liam's room.
I slowly sat up, closing my eyes at the pounding pressure behind them. Glancing around the room, I saw a slant of golden light along the floor coming from underneath a door. Liam must have been in the bathroom.
Feeling a little on the nosy side, I inspected the contents lying on Liam's bedside table, smiling at a picture of him as a young teenager, his arm wrapped around a woman I could only assume to be his mother, grinning at the camera. It was sweet, and sitting next to it were a couple of remotes and an old bottle of water. For the most part, Liam's room was incredibly clean, but then again, when was the last time he had even been here?
I pulled the warm blanket around my upper half and pushed my hair out of my face, my eyes scanning around the room some more. In the dim glow of the lamp I could make out several framed photos and even a few posters tacked here and there, mainly of Liam himself adorned with a tennis racket and a fierce stare. I lifted a brow.
My jaw dropped as I realized what exactly I was seeing. These weren’t just any photos of Liam playing tennis, no, these were professionally shot. When I looked over the other side of the room, I saw it—a professionally done poster of Liam in action, his hair swept back from his face and sweaty as he was obviously mid-swing, with the words ‘DAVIS CUP’ printed across the bottom.
Liam was a professional tennis player. A real, bona fide professional athlete. Looking at him, it was easy to assume he'd be good at sports, especially with his thick arms and broad shoulders, but to see actual evidence of it… I was in absolute awe.
The door to the bathroom opened, startling me, and I bit my lip as Liam walked through, mussing his hair as he yawned.
"Fancy meeting you here," he said, teasing me as he slid back into bed next to me. I felt silly at just how fast my heart began to race from Liam’s close proximity.
"So, I don't suppose you could explain to me why I didn't know you were a professional tennis player…" I said, letting my voice trail off.
Liam sat back against the headboard, his face unreadable. "It's just not something I like bringing up."
Uh oh. That didn't sound good. Despite wanting to give him his privacy, I couldn't help but implore him to explain. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize. Did something… happen?"
He didn't look very happy to explain, but shrugged and nodded at the same time. "I ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in my left knee."
I didn't exactly know what any of that meant, but it sounded incredibly painful, and my hand squeezed my own knee self-consciously. "I'm so sorry, Liam. That had to be devastating."
"It was, believe me. It was already a hard year for me… But I never thought I'd have to say goodbye to my tennis career. I've been playing since I was a little kid."
Already a hard year for him? I wanted to press on, but I felt like if I did I might upset him, so I sat back, studying the profile of his face. It was still hard to believe I was sitting in the same bed, naked, with this sex god.
"My mother died eight months before that happened… That was four years ago. It was really rough on all of us. And when I couldn't concentrate, well, I stepped too hard in the wrong direction and there you go." He continued on, looking straight ahead. "I… don't know why I just said all of that."
A pang shot through my chest when he mentioned his mother dying. How uncanny it was for us to have both gone through something so tragic… With the passing of my dad when I was a young teenager, it felt like the more I got to know Liam, the more we had in common. It touched me that Liam was opening up, even if reluctantly. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. So you went from tennis rock star to a massage therapist… That's somewhat of a jump, right?"
He chuckled as he stretched his arms over his head. "A bit. After all that happened, I just needed a break, you know? I needed to get out of that shaky headspace I was in, so I decided to go in another direction. I hated being stuck in the house all the time when I was in rehabilitation for my knee. I'm not one to sit still for very long, if you haven't already noticed… So I decided to focus my energy elsewhere. When my dad mentioned opening up the spa, I was all in, wanting to help out however I could. I even went to massage therapy school to get licensed."
The kind of determination it must've taken to push through all of those things and keep focused… Liam was a much better man than I had originally given him credit for. Part of me felt guilty for just assuming he was some rich boy with loaded pockets. "Wow, I had no idea."
He played it off like it was no big thing, patting the space on the bed beside him for me to come sit. "It's nice being able to help others out in my own way. I was always told that I had a gift of touch, so to speak. I figured what else could I do with that?" I knew exactly what he could do with that… My cheeks flushed at the thought. The corner of Liam's gorgeous smile quirked up and his hands slid along my thigh. "I can already see the dirty thoughts in your head. Your skin is a pretty shade of pink when you blush."
As Liam's hand dipped down in the space between my thighs, my breath hitched in my throat and I gnawed on my lip. He didn't even have to move an inch; his fingers found my heat and parting my folds as he coated them in my slickness. All it took was the smallest touch from Liam and every muscle in my body seized up. I tried to watch his face as he slowly pumped his fingers in and out of me, but my eyes fluttered shut and I moaned uncontrollably. "Mmm!"
My back arched as I came hard and quickly, like a shot going through the room, wave after wave of pleasure overtaking me until I collapsed onto the bed, shaking. With Liam's fingers still deep inside of me, I rolled my hips against his hand, my eyes wide open now, shocked at how the orgasms just kept coming. Finally, my pussy clenched tight one last time, and I slowly released the breath I was holding.
"Oh my God."
Chapter 9
LIAM
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Carefully slipping out of bed several hours after fucking the beautiful and quite flexible Aly Waterhouse, I peeked around the corner of my room and saw that her younger sister, Sage, was still snoring heavily in the room across from us. Selfishly pleased, I grinned to myself, and looking back one last time at Aly's peacefully sleeping form, closed the door behind me.
I was like a man possessed, throwing together any pathetic excuse I could find for breakfast food, trying to mix it up as quickly and as soundlessly as possible, and failing pretty miserably. I don't know what got into me, wanting to make breakfast for Aly, to see her face light up at my little surprise for her, so instead of reading too much into things, I just went with it.
"Fuck, am I supposed to use milk or water for these pancakes?" I wondered aloud, trying to think what my brother would do. Somewhere in the back of my mind, Jackson's irritating voice chuckled at my current situation, whispering something about milk making food fluffy, so I measured it out and poured some into the bowl of pancake mix. Professional chef, I was not, but at least I could say I tried.
After the bacon, the pancakes, and a strange, misshapen fried egg were finished up, I quickly spread some butter on the toast and grabbed a bottle of water before tiptoeing back up the steps to my bedroom. It only just occurred to me that maybe Aly would think this was all very weird of me, but I pushed that thought aside and hoped for the best.
When I pushed the door to my room open, Aly was already sitting up, blinking blearily from the sunlight coming through the curtains. "Good morning," she said groggily.
She was beautiful sitting there in the sea of blankets, her soft skin and messy hair making me want to throw the fruit down and fuck her silly all over again. God, what in the hell was going on inside my head?
Aly eyed the tr
ay in my hand, a sweet smile spreading across her face. "Is that for me?"
"Uh, yes. If you're hungry, that is." I strolled over to her and placed the tray in her lap, gesturing to the food. "It's not Jackson's continental breakfast or anything, but I think it's at least edible."
Aly giggled. "I think I'll be the judge of that."
I sat down next to her and took the offering of bacon she handed to me, satisfied that it wasn't too crunchy or too chewy. "Not bad," I said, my mouth full.
Aly poured the little bottle of maple syrup over her pancakes and dug in, groaning with each bite. "Oh my God, this is perfect. So, so good," she mumbled as she reached for her napkin to cover her mouth. "Thank you so much, Liam. This was very sweet."