She curled her hands around the spindles of the headboard. He drove deeper, harder, pausing just a moment at the end of each stroke, so her body clung to his. She matched him beat for beat, feeling the wave begin deep in her core. He cried out as she crested, clenching around him, and they rocked into each other, chasing the last delicious streaks of pleasure.
Riley lay boneless beneath him, flushed and sated. Liam’s face was pressed against her throat, his breathing hard.
“I’m crushing you.”
As he started to move, she groaned in protest, sliding her leg from his shoulder to wrap around his waist to keep him buried inside her. “Not yet I love the aftershocks.”
Liam propped himself on his forearms and gave a slow swivel of his hips that had her body quivering.
“Mmm. You feel wonderful.” Riley dragged her hands down the muscles of his back.
“You are a constant surprise to me.”
She tucked a pillow beneath her head. “Why?”
“You’ve got this incredibly wholesome, girl-next-door vibe, so the fact that you know what you want from a lover and aren’t afraid to ask for it is this amazing turn on.”
“Well, it’s not like people are psychic. If you don’t ask, it’s not likely to happen just by accident.”
“True enough. I guess I just didn’t expect you to be so comfortable with your sexuality.” There was just a hint of worry in his eyes.
Riley traced patterns over his chest. “I think what almost happened to me colored your perceptions more than they did mine. At least for the long-term. If you hadn’t been there, things probably would’ve turned out much different. But you were, so I never had to deal with that beyond the realm of what if. You made sure of it.”
His arms tightened around her and he rolled so she straddled him. “I worried about you when I left.”
Not so long ago, Riley wouldn’t have believed him. But she understood him better now. Somewhere in the past few weeks, she’d let go of her anger and dropped the walls she’d built all those years before. So she let the thought of him worrying about her slide through her, warm and sweet, like sun-warmed honey.
She pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat. “It’s nice to be at a place where we don’t have to worry about each other anymore.”
Liam brushed a kiss over her brow. “Nice, too, to be in your bed rather than under it.”
“Good surprise?”
“Superior surprise. Mine’s going to pale in comparison.”
She folded her hands over his chest and rested her chin. “What is it?”
“Where are my pants?”
Riley grinned and wiggled. “I’m pretty sure I already got the surprise in your pants.”
“And it’s yours any time you want it. But no, that’s not the surprise.” He shimmied across the bed, one hand possessively on her butt, until he could stretch his arm to the floor to grab something.
She loved that he wanted to keep touching her and stay close.
A moment later he came back up with an envelope. “Open it.”
Riley sat up and took it, wondering if he’d gotten tickets to something. But whatever was inside was several pieces of folded paper. The envelope wasn’t sealed, so she slid the contents out and unfolded them.
Mississippi State Board of Contractors
Liam’s name and contact information was filled out on the front page. She flipped through skimming the rest.
Riley frowned, not really making the connection. “You’re applying for your contractor’s license?”
He stroked her thighs. “I told you that night at dinner that I wasn’t sure I was cut out for civilian life. That I didn’t know my place anymore. You told me to build my own.”
She went still, watching him.