“It’s not because of your hand,” Liam said loudly, his eyes zeroed in on me. “It’s because of your heart.”
I swallowed, my breath labored, throat tightening at the way he watched me in that moment.
But I didn’t want to be the poor little girl he saved from being wrecked by his love.
I wanted him to devour me.
“Well, that’s just presumptuous of you,” I said.
He licked his lips, shaking his head and ripping his gaze from me. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I know exactly what I’m asking,” I argued.
“Did you not hear me before?” he asked, his expression a mixture of anger and exasperation. “I’m. Fucked. Up. You don’t know what I’m like when I’m… when I’m…” He shook his head, unable to finish. After blowing out a breath, he said, “I’m constantly pulled between who I was before the accident, and who I’ve become after. Sometimes I’m that carefree kid I used to be. Most of the time I’m the most miserable sonofabitch to ever live. And I don’t think it’s fair to subject you to the whiplash that comes with that.”
“I can handle it.”
He snorted.
“I can. I’m not asking for you to marry me,” I said, ignoring the way my neck heated with the words.
Liam still shook his head, still dug his heel in with the word no dangling in the air between us. I sat there and watched, and waited, until I decided I’d done enough waiting in my life.
With more courage than I knew I possessed, I dragged my chair over to his side of the table, not sitting back down until I was practically in his lap. His nostrils flared when I leaned into his warmth, my left hand folding over his thick forearm, chest pressing against his hard bicep.
In the very depths of my soul, I felt a twinge of warning, a muted voice trying to tell me I was getting in deeper than I could swim. I’d never had a casual hookup before. I’d never had a one-night stand. I’d never given myself to someone I wasn’t firmly dating.
But I’d also never wanted anyone in my entire life as badly as I wanted Liam Benson.
And no matter what I had to face after, I’d do anything to have him now.
“Look at me,” I whispered, my lips close enough to brush his ear. When he didn’t heed my request, I leaned in even closer. “I know you want me, too.”
He closed his eyes and blew out a hard breath through his nose. There was a minuscule shake of his head before his eyes opened again, and with just a slight angle of his jaw, he was looking down at me, our noses touching, breaths meeting in the space between us as my mouth parted in anticipation.
“Say yes, Liam,” I pleaded.
And then he crashed his mouth to mine.
The Art of Ecstasy
My back slammed hard into Liam’s dorm room door when we were on the other side of it, the bang of it being shut still ringing in my ears. It stole my breath, black invading my vision as he opened his mouth wider and slid his tongue along mine.
I moaned at the shock of pleasure it sent through me, hands gripping his shirt and twisting to hold him close. But when the blackness in my vision cleared, I found a wide-eyed, smiling Thomas eating popcorn on the couch.
I squeaked, breaking my kiss with Liam and ducking between him and the door as if I could hide now.
Liam looked at me, confused at first, his chest panting, jaw and lips smeared with the brick red of my lipstick. But when he followed my gaze and saw Thomas, he understood.
“Out,” he said with a snap of his finger.
“Can’t really leave with you standing in front of the door like that,” Thomas pointed out.
I giggled at that, which seemed to ease the tension in the moment, and Liam rolled his eyes before pulling me into his arms and to the side to clear the exit.
Thomas hopped up from the couch, bowl of popcorn still in hand as he gave us a salute and excused himself.
“Where’s he going to go?” I asked. “He didn’t even put shoes on.”
“He’ll be fine,” Liam assured me, and in the next breath, I was swept into his arms again.
We ping-ponged down the hallway blindly, knocking into walls and picture frames and stumbling over our own feet until Liam found his doorknob and twisted. We tumbled through, Liam kicking the door closed with his foot once we were inside, and then the backs of my knees hit the bed, and we both went down into the cool sheets.
Oh my God, I’m in Liam Benson’s room.
He pinned my wrists above my head with one hand, the other trailing down my body and paving a path for his mouth to follow. I arched into the touch as he kissed my neck, and my surroundings hit me all at once.