Which made Mackenzie even more of a bastard, to use her like that and then leave.
Liam laid his hands on Calla’s shoulders as she faced the shower spray and started massaging. She sank back against him and his chest tightened. She was so goddamned trusting. Didn’t she know she’d get flattened in this world if she kept that up?
Not if you protected her.
Liam blinked against the thought. He’d sure as fuck never been anyone’s protector. All his life he’d only taken care of number one—himself.
He frowned as he reached for the small bottle of hotel shampoo. “Close your eyes,” he said to Calla softly. He barely recognized his own voice. When he looked over Calla’s shoulders, he saw she’d listened and shut her eyes.
Liam angled her forward so the water soaked her hair. He turned her by her shoulders so that she was facing him. Her eyes were still shut. As water sluiced down her face, she looked like the most perfect, pure thing he’d ever seen. That clear, creamy skin. Her long neck and softly roun
ded shoulders.
When she reached out for Liam, he stepped into her. “I’m here.” There went his voice again, sounding all odd and strangled.
He turned to the side and squeezed shampoo into his hands. Then he worked his fingers into Calla’s hair. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d done this for a woman. If ever. He’d had shower sex before, sure, but he didn’t think he’d ever washed a partner. The intimacy of it had his chest squeezing again. Especially when Calla dropped her face so that her forehead laid on Liam’s chest.
She let out a contented sigh as he continued working the shampoo through her hair. After he’d finished soaping up her hair, he ran his hands down her back. All the way to her buttocks, which he couldn’t help squeezing.
Calla giggled and turned her face up toward his, eyes still closed since her hair was foamy with shampoo and some of it had slid down onto her face.
“You ticklish, baby?” Liam grinned.
She shook her head.
Liam glided his hands back up to her waist. He pinched her and she let out a giggling little shriek, pulling back from him.
Liam wasn’t having that. He stepped with her, pulling her into his arms as the shower spray started rinsing the shampoo from her hair. She kept her eyes squeezed shut but she had the most gorgeous smile on her face.
Liam could only stare for a moment. He wanted that beauty. He wanted to taste it. To breathe it. To own it.
He leaned down and kissed her before all the suds had washed off. Her lips tasted like shampoo. He didn’t care.
Calla gasped in surprise when his lips made contact, but then she wound her hands up around his neck, fingers burying in his hair. With her leaning against him like that, her breasts thrust right up to his chest. Liam broke from her mouth only long enough to draw one of her nipples in his mouth. It was warm and wet and immediately went hard as his tongue flicked back and forth across it.
His cock went hard against her stomach. Calla gasped again, and Liam didn’t know if it was from pleasure or surprise because she’d just felt his cock too.
He kissed up her neck, drinking the water that dripped down her throat as he went. Most of the suds had washed from her hair and Liam wanted to drink her in, every single bit of her.
His arms around her crushed her closer. “I want you,” he growled against her lips, even knowing as he said it that he shouldn’t. She’d just lost her virginity for Christ’s sake.
But it hadn’t seemed to pain her much when Mack had taken her. And there wasn’t any blood. Liam had glanced down to see, wanting to know if Calla would be hurting or not. She rode horses—didn’t they say horse riding could break a woman’s hymen? Then she wouldn’t be that sore if he—
“Then take me,” Calla said, blinking her eyes open in spite of the shower spray.
Liam shook his head at the same time his cock jumped against her belly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She smiled like she was amused at him. “You won’t.” Then she bit her lips like she was embarrassed. Her eyes dropped as she murmured. “I’ve um, you know, used a…” She waved a hand in the small space between them. “I have a BOB.”
“A beeyobi? What’s that?” Liam asked. Was this some American term he didn’t know?
She laughed again before clapping a hand over her mouth.
“What?” Liam smiled but pulled back, searching her face. “What is it?”
“A B. O. B. Like the letters.” Her eyes dropped again before meeting his gaze. “It stands for battery operated boyfriend.”
Battery operated— Did she mean, like—