“Tell me.”
“I didn’t have sex with him, Liam. I swear. I promise you. He didn’t—we didn’t—”
“But you wanted to.” It’s not a question; I can hear the surety in his voice. “You still have feelings for him. That’s why you let him take you back to his hotel without screaming or throwing a fit.”
“I—” I swallow hard, trying to think of how to explain it to Liam, how to make him understand. “I thought that maybe I did. I didn’t know—I was upset. With you, with him—with all of it, but I stopped him! I didn’t let it go that far because I thought of you, and I knew I would lose you, and I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
I’m stumbling over my words, trying to find a way to make Liam understand, and I’m almost certain that I’m failing horribly. I don’t see any understanding or forgiveness in his green eyes, only pain and hurt. I feel like I’m cracking into a million pieces knowing that I’ve caused it.
“Did he kiss you?” Liam’s voice is harsh, rasping. “Did he?”
“Yes, he—”
Liam’s hand tightens on my jaw, dragging me up against him, my lips up to his as his mouth comes down on mine. I gasp with shock, and that’s all he needs. His other hand goes to my lower back, crushing me against him in the same way his lips are crushed to mine, his tongue plunging into my mouth, tangling with mine as if to erase any lingering taste of Alexandre. It’s a kiss more possessive than any he’s ever given me before, violent and hungry, and I can feel my heart pounding wildly as I lean into it despite myself wanting him. I want the taste of his mouth and the heat of his body. I want him to take this all the way, to make me his completely, to show me that it’s really me he wants, and not Saoirse.
I can’t help but wonder, as the pleasure of the kiss races through my veins and heats my blood, if I’d subconsciously wanted, in some way, to make him jealous. It’s a horrible thing to think, and not a game I’d meant to play. But inadvertently, I had. And I can’t help but think I’m about to see a side of Liam that I haven’t seen before.
Just that small thought is enough to send a pulse straight down between my thighs, an ache of need spreading through me as Liam kisses me hungrily.
“There,” he says darkly when he finally breaks the kiss. “Now you can tell me, for certain, which of us is better. Who do you prefer to kiss, Ana? Me, or Alexandre? Should I send you back to him to try again, just to be sure?”
“Liam—”
“I’m not giving you back to him.” Liam’s hand drops from my jaw, both of his hands on my hips now, holding me against him. I can feel how hard he is already from the kiss, thick and rigid against my thigh, and I can’t help but arch against him. I’m still upset with him, but I want him, too. I want to go back to how we were before his trip, before I found out about Saoirse, before the ill-fated date. I want—
“I don’t want you to,” I whisper. “Liam, tonight hurt me for a number of reasons, but I shouldn’t have run away. I should have stayed, so we could talk about it. Iwantto talk about it with you, to work through these things like a normal couple, to fight and make up and make mistakes and make up again—”
“Except you did run. Straight back to him.”
“I didn’t! He was following us, watching me—”
“So you say.” Liam’s gaze holds mine, darkly, and I see then and there that he doesn’t entirely believe my story of how I ended up in Alexandre’s grasp. “You have to let him go, Ana. If you can’t let him go, then there’s no future for us—”
“Liam, please,” I beg, my hands going up to his chest, fingers sliding against his skin in the open v of his button-down. “I swear, I didn’t call him. I didn’t ask him to come to get me. I didn’t have sex with him. We kissed, and there was some touching, but it didn’t go further than that, and then I left. I ranfromhim, and I calledyou.Liam—”
I take a deep, shuddering breath, forcing myself to hold his gaze even though what I see there—a depth of pain that I’m afraid I can’t rescue us from—tears me apart. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I know I was a bad girl. I know I hurt you, even if I tried not to. Please, Liam, don’t stop loving me. You can punish me if you want. You can do anything you want to me; I deserve it. Just don’t tell me this is over, not when I finally feel so certain that it’s you, that it was always supposed to be you—”
Liam’s hands tighten on my hips as he looks down at me. “You want me to punish you?” he asks darkly.
“Yes, please,” I whisper, trying to keep my voice steady even though deep down, I’m both terrified and so turned on that I can hardly stand it. What Liam had done to me the other day for punishment was a torturous pleasure beyond anything I’d ever imagined, but I know right now that’s not what he means. Right now, he’s hurt, and I can see the darkness gathering in him, a side of him that he’s never shown me before.I won’t hurt you,he’d promised me before, but now I think he might need to, if only a little, for both our sakes.
“You can make it hurt, if you need to,” I whisper, and Liam’s eyes widen. “You can spank me, you can fuck my throat, you can do anything you want. Anything you think is best for me—and for you. Whatever will make you believe that I’m yours, Liam, whatever you think I deserve for letting him take me back tonight, for letting him touch me, kiss me—”
“Ana, I—” There’s a faint protest in his voice, but from the way his hard cock throbs against my thigh, I can tell the idea turns him on—that maybe he knows what he would do, even now. That maybe he’s—
“Have you thought about it?” I ask softly, reaching up to push a lock of auburn hair out of his eyes. My heart is pounding in my chest, adrenaline pulsing through my veins. “How you wouldreallypunish me, if I were ever that bad?”
Liam swallows hard, and underneath my palm, I can feel his heart pounding, too. “I—”
“It’s okay,” I murmur softly. “I wanted you to reward me when I was a good girl for you. So you should punish me now when I’ve been bad. Please, Liam. I think you need it to get past this, and if I’m being honest—” I take a deep breath, feeling a tremor of desire run through me. “I need it too. Please.”
Ifeelthe shudder that goes through him, feel his cock swell against my thigh, the way his entire body stiffens with desire. His hands slide from my hips to my waist, and I see something dark and commanding in his gaze that turns my knees to water.
“Then go to my room, Ana,” he says hoarsely. “And wait for me there by the bed.”
I nod, turning away from him with my heart pounding. I want this—want him, and in a way, I almost feel as if it could be a new beginning for us. I walked away from Alexandre, back to Liam. I have to trust that Liam is going to walk away from Saoirse and stay with me. And tonight, Liam can show me that he can make me his, that he can satisfy that darker side of me that my trauma seems to have brought out, the part that Alexandre fed into.
Slowly, I walk into his bedroom, remembering all too clearly what we did the last time I was in here, the pleasure Liam had wrung out of my body, over and over again until I’d cried from the sheer overwhelming exhaustion of it. I know tonight won’t be the same, but I know there’ll be pleasure. Liam can’t touch me without giving me pleasure, even if there’s pain too. I can feel myself trembling with anticipation, wondering what he’ll do and how it will feel for Liam to take complete mastery of my body.