"You're not."
The way he said it, so direct, so forthright, made me pause. There was no way he was lying...but of course he was!
"You should go," I told him.
He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll go if you want me to."
I licked my lips. He was a cheating dog, why was this so hard? "Okay then," I said, trying to keep my voice from trembling. "Leave."
"No."
"What?"
He shook his head. "I'm not leaving."
My voice broke. "You said you would."
He took a step closer to me. His eyes were so incredible. "I said I would leave if you wanted me to. You don't want me to."
I could feel the heat rising off of his body in waves. It carried his scent with it. "You don't know that."
"I do."
"How?"
He took another step forward, forcing me to look to at him. "Because you're biting your lip and you're breathing hard." He swiped his thumb over my lip, raking it down over my teeth and I hissed. "Because your eyes are as big as saucers and they're begging me to stay," he brushed a kiss across the place his thumb rested, "and tell you what you want to hear."
I was finding it hard to say anything but echo his words. "And what do I want to hear?"
He pulled back. "That I'm not a fucking cheater. On you or on anyone else."
I barked out a laugh, short and bitter. "And how am I supposed to believe that?"
"Because I am telling you. You said you needed to be able to trust me. Well, I am telling you that you can." He was getting closer, and I could feel my walls crumbling as he drew me in with those eyes. "I swear, Shay, there is only you."
His lips were on my throat somehow. Every defense I usually had was faulty when it came to this man.
"Ah, dammit Shay," he murmured, sending little thrills down my spine as he moved his lips up to my ear. "You've got me all mixed up. I'm not used to feeling so..." he trailed off in a sigh against my hair.
I knew what he meant. "Vulnerable?"
He pressed a kiss to my temple. "Yes. Vulnerable. Maybe that's it." He pulled back and rested his forehead on mine, so that all I could see were his eyes.
"I'm trying here," he said. "Trying to do what you asked, be a gentleman," he swallowed hard, "give you time. But things keep getting fucked up in the meantime." He brushed his hand across my breast and I felt my nipple stiffen under his touch. Without meaning to, I arched my back and a faint glimmer of a smile twitched his lips. He ran his thumb back over the hardened pearl and his voice grew husky. "The longer I wait...," he bent and brushed his lips where his thumb had been, making me gasp, "...mmm...the more I'm afraid I'm going to lose you." He pulled back and I fell forward a little. I hadn't realized how hard I was pressing into him. His eyes blazed like lightning in a storm cloud. "I'm not sure if I can risk being a gentleman any longer."
My skin was on fire where he had touched me. My heart hammered so loudly that he had to be able to hear it. But he stood there, stock still, and cast his eyes down, waiting.
Waiting for me to tell him what I wanted.
My fingers tingled, aching to touch him. At that moment, the last thing I wanted was for him to be a gentleman.
Fuck taking time. I wanted him inside of me.
Maybe I shifted, a little intake of breath. Hell, maybe he really was unnatural and could smell the change inside of me. But when I made up my mind, he knew, he knew. He snapped his eyes up from my feet and demanded, in a harsh, ragged whisper. "Tell me you're ready. "
I bit my lip. It had been so long since someone touched me down there. I was practically whimpering with need. "I'm ready."
I pressed my hands tightly to my sides to keep them from quivering and betraying me, but he was watching. He saw it.
My fears and suspicions. My mistrust.
Circling my wrist in his thumb and forefinger, he gently lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. "There," he whispered, "See? I can still be a gentleman too. If that's what you want."
I tried to answer, but it came out as nothing more than a little whimper. For a moment, desire won out and I lifted my lips to his.
He caught my chin in his hand and tilted my face upward. Pressing his lips to mine, he waited. Leaving it up to me.
Chapter Fifteen
Are you crazy Shay? You're just going to believe him like that? How can you be so stupid...again?
But my body wanted what it wanted. And as my lips parted of their own accord and our tongues met and mingled, the questions in my brain turned to him. Are you what you say you are? Can I trust you? Should I trust you?
He growled low and pressed into me, pinning me between the cool glass of the counter and the heat of him. And as he pressed into me, I felt the demanding length of him, rock hard and urgent. He undulated then, rocking his hips against me, making me gasp.
Maybe it was that sound I made. Maybe he felt how alert I was, stiffened and suspicious. But he pulled back just then, and looked at me, those heavy lids and foot-long lashes veiled with longing.
I shivered and clutched myself. I was behaving like a tease, a high school virgin. What the hell was going on?
"Shit, Shay," he growled. Then he took a step back. I watched him as he rolled his head from side to side, then shivered a little. "Okay then," he said, clenching his fists once and then releasing them. "I get it." A little smile quirked at the edge of his lips. "You know," he said, "I promised you that it would be good. And it will be, I stand by that. But maybe," he lowered his voice, "maybe right now I should show you how good it can be for just you, hmmm?"
"What?" I was still reeling, my body and my mind locked in battle. I flushed with embarrassment.
But when he put his hand on my leg, just resting it on the inside of my thigh, I flushed for a whole different reason.
"Tell me," he said, brushing his hand upward. "Is this good?"
I squirmed a little. The heat of his hand trailed outward in a slow burn inside of me. It did feel good. Even my brain could accept that much.
I opened my legs wider and nodded. "Yes."
He trailed his hand over the outside of my pants to cup his palm over my heat. I closed my eyes, feeling my brain slowly shut down, my inhibitions melting. But he touched my face. "Ah. Look at me. I need to see your eyes, Shay. I need to see that you're telling the truth when you say you like it." He moved his hand then, rubbing over the swollen flesh. "Open your eyes now."
I bit my lip and looked upward, then caught my breath sharply to see his face so close to mine. When he had me locked in his gaze, he pressed upward insistently. I gasped and he silenced it with a kiss as I moaned into his mouth. "Is this good?" he asked, moving his hand rhythmically now.
"Yes," I exhaled, wrapping my arms around his shoulders. The only thing my brain cared about now was that he didn't stop making me feel so good. My hips tilted up of their own accord and a soft thrumming began to sound in my veins.
He moved his hand away and I couldn't help it. I hissed. He chuckled softly and tugged at my zipper. "Greedy girl," he rasped tightly, yanking down. I lifted my hips away from the counter allowing him to pull my pants to the floor. He dropped down kneeling and pressed a kiss to my inner thigh. "Still good, Shay?" he asked, peering up from between my legs.
He looked like he knew the answer.
His warm breath hit the cooled fabric of my panties and I blushed when I realized how soaked I was. "Yes," I moaned, quivering slightly.
He inhaled sharply and his eyes darkened. Cupping his hands around my ass, he pulled me to his mouth. "Ah, god!" I gasped as his lips touched my singing nub. I was practically vibrating now. There was nothing between us but that fragile piece of damp fabric.
"Let's get rid of these then, hmmm?" Liam said. The vibrations of his voice against me made me squirm sharply as he yanked my panties down. I heard the fabric tear but I didn't care. All I cared about was how close he was to my center, how little it would take for him to just reach out and touch me th
ere, love me there, there...right there....
"Shit," he breathed as he tossed my panties over his shoulder. "Shay, you're gorgeous." With a growl, he lifted me again, depositing my bare ass on the counter. I brushed my hands through his coarse, close-cropped curls as he bent down between my legs again, and he smiled up at me. That devastating dimple nearly knocked me dead. "Are you still good?" he asked....
Just before his flicked his tongue over my clit.
I was so worked up that it nearly sent me sailing off the counter. "Yes!" I shrieked, though I had forgotten the question.
"Good," he rumbled. He pressed the flat of his tongue against the whole of me, and then swirled his finger around the outside of my entrance. Finger, tongue, finger, tongue, - he alternated, dipping inside of me. He worked for a moment in perfect rhythm, before he moved his tongue up again, flicking and fingering me in turn. "God you taste better than I dreamed. So sweet, fuck, you're so sweet." He paused, spreading my legs wider, then growled out an animal sound, "Fuck being a gentleman, Shay. I don't think I could stop if I tried."
I clutched the countertop, braced against his assault. "No," I hissed, "No stopping." I squeezed my eyes shut and yielded the last ounce of self-control that I possessed.
He rumbled something fierce and spread my legs even wider, exposing the whole of me. I was on display to him just like the flowers in the case and fuck if he wasn't making me bloom. I felt myself begin to move in the rhythm of his tongue; hips rolling and pressing in time with each stroke of his finger. I felt myself open up. Something that had been closed a long time.