“Fine. I just don’t know how to respond sometimes.”
“I’ll tell you how to respond – you respond by telling me I’ve still got it and I’m not in fact the oldest twenty-eight-year-old in the history of man.”
I tossed her a long-sleeve black dress that I borrowed from Aria. “You’re not. You’re still the hot chick, alright? Now go prove it to me by trying this slinky thing on.”
“Christ, it’s tiny.” Riley’s eyebrows ascended, trying to stretch the barely stretchable fabric. “I won’t be able to eat more than half a fucking corn muffin tonight.”
“Just try it,” I said, only half-joking as I stared her down till she left to change in the bathroom. I breathed out when she was gone and flopped back onto my bed, closing my eyes and wishing I could just open them and be ready.
When I finally did open them, I wasn’t magically dressed for dinner, but I had another treat waiting for me. Lying in bed, I gazed out my door to find a freshly showered Liam returning from the kitchen with a beer. I relived the insanely hot sex we’d had in the Onyx locker room as my eyes caught on his water-flecked abs. Shamelessly, I trailed them down to those gorgeous hipbones. That V was cut so deep I wanted to fucking lick it.
Tied well below those carved lines was a plush, white towel. It was all that Liam wore but the second we exchanged silent grins, he whipped it casually off, tossed it in my room and kept walking, leaving me open-mouthed and unblinking as I watched his muscled back and naked ass stroll into his room.
“Uh-oh, I think I love it,” Riley called from afar in singsong, emerging from the bathroom just as Liam’s bedroom door closed. She frowned when she walked in to find me blinking, still revisiting the image of Liam’s swollen dick right before he tossed me his towel. “Hello? Now is the time when you shower me with compliments.”
I blinked. A goofy smile twitched onto my lips. “Mm? Right.” I made sure to give Riley a full onceover before offering my assessment, since she hated “fake compliments more than anything in the world.” Looking her up and down, I nodded. “Damn, woman. That does look good,” I said, genuinely admiring the way the wrap dress clung to her waist and hips. I gave her a thumbs up when she tugged the neckline down to show off more cleavage.
“It is kind of spectacular, isn’t it? By the way, I’m keeping this,” Riley said, posing in front of my full-length mirror. “Also, please put on some pants so I can call Liam into the room. Honestly, you really shouldn’t be hanging out half-naked with the door open when you live with your stepbrother,” she said, grabbing a pair of shorts out of my drawer and chucking them at me. I enjoyed a private little laugh as I pulled them on, trying to recall at this point how many times Liam had seen me fully naked. “Liam!” Riley yelled out the door. “Come here and tell me if I should wear this dress tonight! Sasha says I shouldn’t!” When I shot her a quizzical look, she winked. “Lil’ trick of mine. Tell a guy that someone insulted you and he’ll give you twice as many compliments.”
“Riley. That’s stupid.”
“Hey, you do you, I’ll do – oh. Hello there.” She cut off because appearing suddenly in the doorway was Liam, still shirtless with rivulets of water streaming down the sections of his six-pack. But now at least he wore a pair of jeans. Swigging his beer, he raised his eyebrows at Riley.
“You changed. You look beautiful, Riles.”
“Thank you!” She did a little spin for him and bounced on her heels a bit when he didn’t offer more praise. From behind Riley, I shot Liam a look. He seemed confused but still delivered.
“You should wear this kind of dress more often,” he said, looking at me again to see if he’d properly done whatever it was I was asking him to do. I bit back a laugh. The way he spoke to Riley versus the way he spoke to me was so different it was somewhat amusing.
“So is Travis coming tonight?” Liam asked her.
“Travis who?”
Behind Riley, I motioned for Liam to drop the subject. Again, he looked confused. Only then did I realize just how many secrets I was keeping from him. There was Riley’s secret crush and now, her failing marriage.
But more importantly, I’d never told him about Ethan’s visit to the bar.
A tiny ball of stress formed next to my heart as I remembered what Aria had said recently about Ethan texting her to get to me. I’d blocked his number but clearly, he had yet to give up on us. Which was worrisome. But I tried to ignore it. I knew it was stupid to merely hope for the best and pray my ex would forget me, but I couldn’t bring myself to deal with him. What energy I had left after all the dramas of late I wanted to use to enjoy Liam.
“Planning on getting dressed at all?” His voice broke me out of my thoughts.
“No, I plan on going there in my pajamas.”
“Yeah?” He smirked. “You could pull it off.”
I flashed him a look for his flirtatious tone. God, he made even innocent phrases sound like straight up sex. “Why, thank you,” I finally replied, my rigid voice saying something more like, “You should probably go now.” I could feel Riley’s eyes shifting back and forth between us and while she didn’t say anything, I didn’t like the awkward feeling the hung in the air. I was probably being paranoid but a part of me felt like Riley had just read the undertones of Liam’s simple five words, and after that, my uncomfortably stiff response. It didn’t help either that he kept his gaze pinned on me, as if savoring every second of my sheer discomfort. What the hell are you doing? I willed him to read my mind. It seemed to work.
“Anyway. I should get changed,” Liam finally decided. “Will you girls be ready in five?”
“Oh, I’m ready, babe,” Riley said. “I’ll have Sash ready soon, too. You, however, need to dry off.”
“True.” Returning his eyes to me, Liam held his hand out. I shook my head but he ignored me. “Toss that towel back, Sash,” he smirked.
I stared at him, trying not to look obviously shocked and fully pissed as I grabbed his wet towel and threw it back to him.
“What the hell was that doing in here?” Riley asked with true confusion. But by then, Liam was headed back to his room and I had just about thrown myself into my closet. “Sash.” My heart pounded when I realized Riley wasn’t dropping the subject. “Why did you have Liam’s towel just now?”
Practically hiding in my clothes, I tore the next piece I saw off its hanger. “He threw it at me before to be a dick.” Correction: He threw it at me before to show me his dick. “Do you like this one?” I asked, holding up the dress I’d yanked out of closet in sheer desperation. My heart thumped as my sister stared at me incredulously instead of looking at the dress. She narrowed her eyes at me slowly, shaking her head and opening her mouth to speak, but failing to say a word. Shit, shit, fuck. My pulse raced so fast I felt almost dizzy, like the room was a second from spinning around me.