What a Woman Gets (23 page)

G
REAT
game.”

Cassidy kept her eyes on the road. “Yes.”

“You're really good.”

“Thanks.”

“Did you have fun?”

“Yes.”

“Am I going to get more than a one-word answer out of you?”

“Sure.”

Liam glanced at her and Cassidy realized what she'd said.

“Oh. I mean, yes. You will. How's that? Better?” She was rambling. But at least she was coherent. She was surprised that she was because, holy mackerel . . . What just happened back there?

One minute she'd been jumping for joy, thrilled with their hard-won victory, and the next . . . The next, she'd been in his arms, smashed up against his hot, sweaty body, his scent calling to her like a siren's song, and she'd forgotten where they were. That they were in a public gym where anyone could see them, with his brother standing not five feet away. But the moment she'd looked into his eyes and felt his arms go around her, she'd tuned out everything but what had been happening between them. It'd been different than when she'd kissed him before. Stronger.

Mutual.

She'd known that even before he'd pressed his erection against her. Or maybe she'd pressed against it, but regardless, Liam wasn't going to be able to call bullshit for that.

He'd wanted her and she wanted him.

Question was, what were they going to do about it?

“You want to get something to eat?”

She shook her head. “Not like this. I need a shower.”

Oh, God. The images flashed in her brain and she couldn't get rid of them. Her, naked and wet under the spray, and Liam shoving the curtain aside, equally naked but nowhere near as wet . . . until he stepped into the stall with her. Pressed her up against the cool tile and started nibbling on her neck.

She gripped the truck's door handle and squeezed. Hard. She had to squeeze something and she couldn't exactly squeeze her legs together when he was watching her.

Which only made the ache between her thighs stronger. And made her want that fantasy to come true.

“I don't think it'll matter, Cass. We're both pretty sweaty.”

“Hey, I take offense to that. I don't sweat. I glisten.”

He arched his eyebrow and, man, it was sexy. “Glisten? Nice try, sweetheart, but that's sweat. Good-for-you, hard-earned sweat.”

The words themselves weren't sexy, but the images they conjured . . .

So what was she going to do about it? Her gut was telling her to go for it; her brain was saying
back off
. She was staying in his house and had no other place to go. If they got involved and things got weird, what then? They'd already tempted fate once with that kiss; wasn't that what the “opposite sides” thing was all about? It wasn't a good idea to risk temptation any further.

That thought worked until Liam pulled into the garage and cut the engine. They stared at the back wall until the cab light dimmed.

“Liam.”

“Cass.”

Someone made the first move. It could have been her. It could have been him. It really didn't matter because the next thing she knew she was in Liam's lap, her hands tangled in his hair, his hands cupping her face, and he was kissing her until she couldn't see straight.

Given that she had her eyes closed and it was dark in the garage, that wasn't exactly a surprise, but the way her head was spinning with the taste and feel and scent of him . . . Colors and lights flashed behind her eyelids like fireworks.

Oh wow. Liam gave her fireworks.

Then he plastered his palm to the side of her face and dragged her hair back as he cradled her head, nipping kisses along her jaw, and the fireworks were joined by butterflies. Millions of them, fluttering in her belly so much that she could swear she heard them hum.

Oh, that was her.

“We said we weren't going to do this.” Liam licked an incredibly sensitive spot beneath her ear.

“I know.” She gasped as shivers radiated from that spot, and she dug her fingernails into his shoulder, never wanting him to stop.

“Both of us agreed.” He showed no signs of stopping.

Good. “I know.”

His teeth scraped her earlobe, eliciting a whole new round of shivers. “This isn't a good idea.”

She grabbed the back of his head and let her fingers curl into his hair and held him tighter to her. “I know.”

“We should stop.” He nibbled his way along her jaw toward her mouth.

She tilted his head just enough and looked him in the eye. “I know.”

“Cassidy, I—”

She kissed him. Sucked on his lips, swept her tongue inside, and never wanted to come up for air.

She moaned when he did.

“Let's take this inside, Cass.”

“Mmmm hmmm,” was all she could manage. At least one of them was coherent.

Actually, Liam was more than just coherent; he was surprisingly competent, given what had erupted between them. But he managed to get the door open and carry her cradled in his arms through the mudroom door and into the hallway, only stopping when Titania went ballistic in her pen.

“Tell me the dog doesn't need to go out,” he groaned.

Oh hell. The fireworks sputtered. “The dog needs to go out.”

“And that's going to happen how?”

Cassidy nipped his jaw. “Let me down. I'll open the door, she'll go out then come right back in. She wants to be around me.”

He kissed her neck as he stood her on her feet. “I know the feeling.”

Titania barked and hopped around them, almost tripping Cassidy as she let her out to do her business.

She stood in the doorway, trying to catch her breath and think this through. Was this a good idea? Or was it just going to invite disaster?

Liam wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. “I can hear you thinking.”

She leaned her head against his. “That's not possible.”

“Not true. You were doing some pretty heavy sighing that I could clearly hear.”

“Sighing happens for different reasons, not just thinking.”

“I know. You were sighing for other reasons in my truck. Moaning, too.” He nuzzled her neck.

Both of which she was going to do again if he kept that up.

He did.

“I want you, Cassidy,” he whispered against her throat, the vibrations of his voice rippling through her. “It's not a secret and it's not a surprise and I'm tired of fighting it. We can deal with the aftermath later. Tell me you want this as much as I do.”

“I do.”

Thankfully, Titania came back then. They penned her up and Liam led Cassidy to his room.

He stretched out beside her on his bed. “Last chance to stop if you don't want this to go any further,” he said, kissing his way down the middle of her chest, nuzzling her neckline as low as it could go.

“Don't stop.” She wiggled beneath him to get her hands on the hem of her T-shirt. She wanted this thing off. Now.

The darn rhinestones kept getting caught on his shirt, then snagged in her hair. “Rip it off.” It was either that or her hair, and she could always buy another shirt.

“You don't have a lot of clothes, Cassidy.”

“So I'll wear yours. Or none at all. Just get it off me.”

“None, huh?” Liam's smile lit a slow burn inside her—that went to raging when he
did
rip the shirt apart.

The rhinestones that didn't go flying off were still caught in her hair, but she didn't mind because he lowered his head to her nipple and rhinestones became the
last
thing on her mind.

“Ahh, God, yes. That feels so good.”

“You are beautiful. And you taste so good,” he said, never taking his lips from her nipple, his tongue circling it until it was as tight and hard as he was against her.

She slipped her hand between them and stroked the length of him.

“Ah, Cassidy,” he groaned against her skin, the vibration sending shivers all over her once more. “Careful, woman. I don't seem to have a lot of control where you're concerned.”

She smiled and raked her nails up his length through the silky basketball shorts. “Good. The better to torture you with, my dear.”

He looked at her, her nipple still between his lips, and tugged, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “And this is better to taste you, my dear.” His tongue did some quick flicker/stroking movement and
ohmygod
 . . . Cassidy dug her heels into the mattress and grabbed the comforter to keep from flying off the bed.

There was no place she'd rather be and she wasn't about to get off this bed until the earth moved.

His fingers slid down her stomach, over her hip bones, to exactly where she needed him to be.

The earth moved.

The heavens sang.

Birds wept, lions roared, and somewhere in all of her scattered thoughts, Cassidy knew she was helpless to do anything but go with the wave of pleasure Liam's fingers and lips were giving her.

“Liam.” She whimpered it. Or maybe she breathed it. Or maybe she moaned it . . . Possibly all three; Cassidy wasn't sure. All she knew was that Liam was giving her the most intense pleasure of her life and she never wanted it to end.

And then it ratcheted up. He cupped her breast, leaving her aching and wet and throbbing between her thighs, a state she could take huge issue with except for the fact that when he cupped her breast, his thumb slid over her nipple with such torturous pleasure that every nerve ending in her body roared to that one point, all energy, all desire, focused there—then shifted when he tongued the other one again.

She grabbed his head, holding him there, arching into him, muted pleas begging him to never stop, to give her this intense pleasure for the rest of her life . . .

He shifted, moving on top of her, pressing his erection—thankyougod—against her aching center, and she just wanted to pull him into her and keep him inside her long enough to fill this void that had been there for so long she hadn't ever really known what it was like to
not
have it. But Liam could make the void go away. Make it disappear for good.

She'd never thrown herself at someone. Had never felt the overwhelming urge to do so. She'd never had to because men had always come on to her and she'd been the one to say no. Thank God Liam was saying yes because it was as if the very act of living was dependent upon him touching her.

It scared her, this depth of what she was feeling for him. To give someone so much power . . . It was the exact opposite of what she'd said she wanted in her life now.

But it didn't stop her from wanting him. From wanting his hands all over her. His lips, his teeth, his tongue all over her skin. So she was going to go with that and deal with the rest later.

She slid her hands up his back, enjoying the sweat beneath her palms, the way it smelled on him, the way it slicked their bodies so they could slide against each other with just the right amount of friction—

“God, Cassidy. I want you.”

Thank the lord and pass the popcorn
. Cassidy tugged his face to hers and kissed him with everything in her.

His tongue danced over hers, his teeth nipped at her lips and his tongue . . . Dear God he had a talented tongue. What would it be like if he moved lower . . .

She gripped his shorts, wanting to find out. Wanting to know what it was like to be joined with someone so intimately—and she didn't mean physically. She'd had sex before, but this, what Liam could do to her . . . she'd never had this.

“Take your shorts off,” she muttered, trying to shove them down his hips and giving up, sliding her hands beneath the waistband and curving them over his butt instead.

He had a great butt. So firm and tight and muscular . . . Perfect for hanging on to or grasping to her as he thrust inside of her . . .

“I want you, Liam. Inside me. Now.”

“Bossy thing, aren't you?” He didn't sound annoyed. “Give me a second, sweetheart.”

He crawled over her some more, his lower half now in the vicinity of her chest.

Cassidy nibbled on his hip.

“Holy—!” Liam fell onto the bed. “Cassidy, honey. Give me a chance here. You do that and I'm not going to get one of these on in time.”

She looked at “these.” Ah. Condoms. Good. “Grab a bunch.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Define a bunch.”

She smiled back at him. “As many as you think you can handle, big boy. Then add three.”

He laughed and shook his head, the almost desperate edge taken off. Oh, she still wanted him, but at least now she could think.

And then he stood on the side of the bed and dropped his shorts.

Thinking went out the window.

“My God, Liam. You're beautiful.”

“That's my line.” He didn't move, just stared at her.

Cassidy looked at herself. Her nipples were two hardened pebbles, there was some brush-burn on her chest, her shorts were half shoved off her hips, and her socks and sneakers were still on. Oh, and her shirt was still tangled up in her hair. She had no makeup, had been sweating like a pig, and her lips were probably swollen from his kiss. “I guess beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.” She kicked off her sneakers and shimmied out of her shorts.