Tell Them Lies (Three Little Words Book 3) (22 page)

Of course, that made her smile, and he traced that with his finger too. Then he cupped the back of her head.

"But your brain? Liz. It makes me
so
hot."

She dropped her head so that their foreheads touched, trying desperately not to laugh during his wonderful speech.

"So, you're saying that..."

He grinned and dropped a kiss on her lips. "You're going to make me say it out loud, huh?"

Liz nodded, tracing the line of his throat when he swallowed.

"Even though I've never said it to anyone?"

She lifted her eyes to his. "Really?"

"Really."

Fitting her mouth to his, Liz poured every ounce of what she felt for Kieran into the kiss. Hands clutched at skin, and lips and tongues and teeth pushed and pulled. It was slow and luxurious, the way they just tasted each other. Not for show or the product of a desperate moment, because they didn't want to be doing anything else. Liz moaned into his mouth when he lightly sucked on her tongue, her movements on his lap became more languid and arching.

Then she pulled back.

"What?" Kieran was out of breath. So was she. And she started smiling all over again.

"You didn't actually say it."

"Yeah, because you're a saucy little minx who distracted me."

"You know, I can honestly say no one has ever called me that before."

Shifting Liz to the side, he fitted one arm under her knees, the other wrapping around her back. Then he stood, carrying her easily back towards her bedroom.

"I think I should move in with you."

"That is
not
what you were supposed to say." She tempered the statement with a tiny kiss underneath his ear, where his scent was strong and his skin was warm. "But maybe we can discuss that some other time when it's not the day we started actually dating."

"Solid point." Kieran kicked the door shut behind him and then tossed her on the bed. Liz hit the mattress with an oomph. Pushing the hair out of her face, she gaped when Kieran used one hand to yank his t-shirt up over his head.

"Wh-what are you doing?" His answer was to toss the shirt into her face.

"Undressing."

Giving him a tiny roll of her eyes, she set the shirt next to her. "Clearly. Now who's trying to be a distraction?"

Thankfully, he left his pants on, otherwise the conversation would really have been derailed. Setting one knee on the bed, he crawled towards her until she laid back completely. Kieran stared down at her, holding all of his weight away from her, even though she was trying to pull him down with her hands behind his neck.

Finally she gave up with a tiny pout, which didn't make him smile as she'd expected it to. Instead, she ran her hands down his shoulders to his biceps, the muscles large enough that she wasn't positive she could wrap both hands around it.

"Liz, I'm fairly certain that I started falling in love with you that very first night we met."

At first, she started to smile, but he was serious. He was
serious
. It was all over him, in the tone of voice, in the slightly vulnerable hook to his mouth. She laid one hand on the side of his face, so beyond touched and humbled and overwhelmed by the words he'd said and in the way he leaned his face into her touch.

"But if it wasn't that night, then it was definitely seeing you in that bridesmaid dress."

All she could do was shake her head, tsking at him. There was the grin, the one that popped the dimple in his right cheek. And while it remained on his face, he took one hand and slid it under the hem of her shirt, feeling the skin over her ribs.

"I'm glad I sent you that text," she whispered, finally succeeding in pulling him down to her.

"Oh, I was going to come over anyway."

"Really?"

He nodded, moving his hand from her waist to her back, following the path of her spine until he found the clasp of her bra. She arched towards him in reaction. "Yup."

"What were you going to do when you got here?"

"Seduce you until you agreed to be with me."

The mattress beneath her shook with her laughter. In all the hours and hours she'd spent imagining what love would look like for her, she'd never considered that it could be much fun. This easy.

But her laughter promptly died when he unhooked the clasp of her bra with one hand, pulling his hand back to the front, where he'd just loosened the offending garment. So she took it upon herself to drag her hands across the muscles of his chest and down, each ridge and bump of his abdomen hard underneath her fingertips.

"Guess what?" he whispered into her neck as he nipped his way down into the curve of her shoulder.

"What?" she said breathlessly.

Rocking his hips into her, he groaned a little under his breath. "We're alone. No banquet hall full of people watching. No friends around. No family downstairs."

"That's good. That's very, very good."

In answer to that, Kieran shifted down on the bed, dropping a kiss just below her belly button. He sat back on his heels, peeling her shirt up and over her head. Then he hooked his hands into the waistband of her cotton shorts. The way his eyes devoured every inch of her skin, she felt a flush cover her from chest to cheekbones, it felt so decadent.

"It is good." Then he pulled her shorts down over her thighs, helping her lift one leg at a time to take them off completely. "Because that means nobody can hear you."

And he laid back down in between her legs.

They didn't leave the bed for three hours, and it was a
very
good thing nobody could hear them both.

K
ieran stretched
a hand out across his bed and met only wrinkled sheets. His eyes snapped open, and he had to blink a few times at the soft blue wall of Liz's bedroom. It was light out, and judging by the sun streaming in the window opposite the bed, it was still afternoon.

So then where was Liz? Hopefully not in another room of the house, freaking the hell out. Because those few hours before they'd passed out had basically been the greatest few hours ever in the history of any hours in his entire life.

Ever.

EVER.

A thin arm snaked around his waist, resting on his stomach and he breathed out a sigh of relief, grabbing her hand with one of his own. When she pressed up against his back, he grinned. Because yup, she was still totally naked. And she
loved
him. Totally insane.

"Thought maybe you ditched me."

She pressed a kiss onto his shoulder blade and he felt her lips curved up into a smile.

"There was a moment when I woke up and you'd hogged the entire bed where I seriously considered it."

Kieran rolled over and smiled at the picture she made. Her blond hair was an absolute disaster. She had smudged mascara under her eyes, sleep marks on her cheek, and a few hickeys on her neck

It was
awesome.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi, she said back, leaning in to kiss him with a sweetness that made his gut clench.

"So that really happened earlier? You're not going going to yell 'psych' and shove me out in your front yard without my clothes or anything?"

Tipping her head back to laugh, Kieran took the very tempting opportunity to duck his head down and kiss her throat. When he started working his way back up, thinking how convenient it was that they were both unclothed, she pushed back on his shoulders.

"None of that. Shouldn't one of us go back over to your mom's?"

Kieran rolled onto his back with a groan. "That's a very effective way to kill my mood. Thanks."

Liz shifted next to him, tucking herself into his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder, anchoring her in place and seriously contemplating never moving again. Maybe not even for food.

"But you know I'm right."

"Pffft. No way I'm admitting something like that so early in our relationship, I'll never regain the power."

The way she lifted up on one elbow and stared down at him gave him really spectacular view of her chest, but he shifted his focus back to her face when she smacked his shoulder.

"Umm, ow."

"Focus, Kieran. Want to drive over together?"

"You're really cute when you get violent. How did I not know this?"

Shaking her head, she sat up and left the bed, pulling on clothes. He glared at every piece of fabric as it covered her flawless skin. But a no longer naked Liz was actually motivating him to leave the bed. They hit the road to his mom's less than ten minutes later.

They held hands as he drove, occasionally smiling at each other like complete dopes. And fine, at the three red lights he had to stop at between her house and his mom's, he leaned over to suck face with her just a little bit.

When they pulled into his mom's driveway, Kieran felt a twinge of guilt that that aide's car was still in the driveway. She probably wouldn't normally have stayed so long if he'd had someone else scheduled to show up. But, hopefully he'd be forgiven when he walked in with Liz.

"All right, clear out all the boys and the booze," he called out as they walked through the front door. The aide smiled dutifully, as she was more than used to his jokes by now. She said hi to Liz and left. His mom was awake, but looked like she was on the verge of sleep.

A slow smile wrinkled her cheeks when she saw them. Then she looked down and saw their joined hands and she started laughing. Just a quiet, satisfied sound. Liz and Kieran smiled at each other, again like dopes.

"Well," she said, "you certainly know how to make a woman worry. I thought you'd never pull your head out of your ass, son."

"Thanks," he said dryly.

"How are you feeling, Maggie?"

She fluttered a hand and then let it drop back down onto the bed. "Tired, as usual. But I don't think I'm going to die today."

This time Liz's smile was sad. She walked over and dropped into the chair next to the hospital bed, picking up his mom's hand. "Well, that's good then. Because I'd hate for you to die without knowing that Kieran finally got the girl."

"Oh, I knew he would eventually. It's not possible for two people to look at each other the way you do and not get past the speed bumps. And that's what that was, just a little one. Eventually you'll hit a big one, and all you need to do is hold onto each other to recover from those."

Kieran cleared his throat, not wanting to break the moment, but kind of wanting to break the moment because it felt way too much like a goodbye speech. "Are you hungry, Liz? I'll go grab us some food while you guys do your girly talk."

"I'll overlook that horribly demeaning statement if you get Arby's."

He walked over, kissing his mom on the forehead, then leaning over to plant a solidly embarrassing kiss on Liz's mouth. "Only because you asked so nicely."

When he walked out the door, they were both laughing, and it soothed him down to his bones. What did not soothe him was the fact that all of Grand Rapids wanted Arby's at the exact same time, because the drive-thru line was so effing long. He swung his car into an open spot and walked into the restaurant.

He got their food and was about to push through the door to the parking lot when he spotted those quarter machines in the entrance. One was stickers, and the other was full of rings in small plastic containers. The light bulb, ohhhhh it went off, and he shoved his free hand into his pocket, almost crowing in triumph when he found a quarter.

After he'd pulled his bounty from the metal flap, he whistled the entire way to his car. Both women were exactly where he'd left them, laughing and holding hands.

He motioned Liz into the kitchen, and the broad smile on her face made him so damn happy that it almost felt illegal.

"You take some of her happy drugs or something?"

"Nope. Just you. And her." She shrugged, walking into him for a hug. "I'm happy."

"You're about to get happier."

Liz pulled her sandwich and held it up. "You're right. I am."

He held his grin until she left the kitchen. And he kept a lid on his excitement until they'd both finished eating. His mom was slowly tiring, only chiming in to the conversation every now and again, closing her eyes and resting. Finally, Liz balled up the paper that had been wrapped around her sandwich. Kieran pulled in a deep breath and reached into his pocket.

When he stood up from his chair, neither woman paid him any attention. Liz was chatting about some book she'd read last week, and his mom just gave her a tired smile.

But when he dropped down onto one knee? Oh, they were paying attention then.

"What are you doing?" Liz asked, face looking slightly terrified.

"Just give me a minute."

"Such an idiot," his mom whispered under her breath.

Kieran popped open the bright blue top on the container and tipped it, so that the tiny ring fell into his hand. The diamond shaped gem was red, blood red, and the circular piece of plastic was a reflective silver that didn't even make a full circle.

Still, he held it up to Liz, who was covering her mouth with both hands.

"Elizabeth Anne Peters, I'd like to ask you something."

"Ohhhhhhh my word," she breathed out, dropping one hand into his. He grinned and it lessened just a touch of the anxiety on her face.

While he slid the ring onto her left hand, he was almost ashamed to admit that his hand shook a little. "I'd like to ask you to go steady with me. To promise me that you won't run away when I do stupid shit, or ask you for the millionth time whether you'll get a tattoo. I'm asking you if you'll commit yourself to me, with whatever label you'd like to put on it. My girlfriend, my partner, my lover, my soulmate, or just my
love
. I'll take any of them."

Chancing a glance at his mom, she was positively beaming, and she gave him a tiny thumbs up. When he looked back up at Liz, her eyes were so shiny with tears that the blue seemed lit from within.

"I'll say yes to all of that, Kieran. As long as you can promise the same back to me."

Rising to his feet, he wrapped her in his arms and buried his face in her perfect, perfect hair.

"That is a deal."

She pulled back to smile at him, and his eyes fell to her lips.

They met in the middle for one hot, searing kiss, until his mom cleared her throat.

"Maybe you could take this back to your room?"

Liz tucked her face into his neck, smothering her embarrassed laugh.

"No, I think we're good now."

"Good," she said decisively, settling back against her pillow. "Because now I'm definitely not ready to die today, since I just witnessed the equivalent of pigs flying out of my ass."

The women both laughed, Kieran only pretending to act wounded. He and Liz settled on the couch together, her laying back in his arms. They all quieted down, the room taking on a satisfied silence.

Liz fell asleep first. He could tell by the way her breathing evened out. And right before he closed his eyes, he looked over at his mom. She winked at him, and he smiled in return. Then he fell into a perfectly content sleep.