by Paris Hansen
“So you spent the entire shoot playing pranks on each other?”
Liam laughed. “The entire five months, even when we were out shooting on location instead of the sound stage. Elijah is one creative prankster, but I gave him a run for his money. There were a couple of times that we nearly got in trouble when the prank affected the movie, like when he somehow figured out how to turn the water in my bathroom green and the color would not come out of my hair or my beard. Or when I turned his teeth blue and they stayed that way for a few days. We were fined pretty heavily for those but it was totally worth it.”
“Wait a minute…it was you that changed a bunch of shit on his phone so it autocorrected certain words to other very dirty words wasn’t it? Holy crap, that was so funny. Eli was so pissed and his texts for those few months were hilarious. Every time he figured out how to change things back, new words were changed. I took screenshots of all of those texts so I could save them for later. Thank you for that. I’ve had great fodder for years now because of it.”
“It was definitely my pleasure, m’lady. And I would do it all over again if I could hear you laugh like that every day.”
Liam watched a blush creep up her neck and onto her cheeks. She tried to ignore his comment and instead dipped one of her fries into her milkshake. He loved when something he said or did made her shy or even just a little reserved. Finley was always so confident, taking what she wanted instead of waiting for it to be given to her. It felt like a small victory to him; like he affected her as much as she affected him. He wasn’t always sure that was the case, not when she seemed so calm and collected while he was a bundle of nerves hoping he didn’t scare her away.
There were no words to describe how he felt about her and even if there were, he wouldn’t tell her. He couldn’t delve into the magnitude of his infatuation with her. Finley was too skittish for that and Liam was too paranoid that even the smallest hint would make her give up on seeing where their mutual attraction could take them. He knew she could feel the deeper connection they had. He knew she’d shared things with him that night that she hadn’t shared with anyone else and he’d done the same.
That wasn’t something people usually did with one-night stands. Of course, Finley had tried to keep things as anonymous as she could and she did leave without saying goodbye, but Liam wasn’t going to let any of that stop him from proving to her that they should be together. He had never felt so strongly about another person in his life besides his parents and his sister. After less than 24 hours, he was more than certain that he had to be near her, even if there was nothing more to it than sitting next to her in silence. Just being near her made him feel normal; made him feel like regular old Liam and not Liam Crawford B-List Movie Star.
“Why acting?” Finley asked breaking him from his thoughts.
“When I was five my parents took me to my first play. There was a magic in the air. I was so enthralled by the fact that these people could totally transform a rundown theater into another world. That these people could become their characters so effortlessly that you almost couldn’t tell where they ended and the character began. I fell in love with acting that day and begged and begged my parents to take me to acting lessons. We didn’t have a lot of money, but they scrimped and saved until they could get me lessons and I loved every second of it.”
“I don’t think there’s ever been anything in my life that I’ve been that passionate about,” Finley admitted, which made Liam a little sad.
His love for acting had saved him a time or two over the years. And it had done wonders in repairing the broken parts of his life. It gave him a lot of freedom, although not as much anymore, but acting had still allowed him an escape, both financially and from his problems. He owed a lot to his chosen profession. Which was why it pained him to even think about how much his passion was waning.
“I honestly don’t think most people ever find anything to be that passionate about besides their loved ones. I mean a lot of people love what they do, but acting was like breathing for me. I loved feeling like I was putting on a different skin and being someone completely different for a few hours a day. When my sister was born, it was a lot harder for me to get to auditions and classes. I was nine and my parents had a new mouth to feed, not to mention they had to remember what to do with an infant as it had obviously been a while since they’d last done it.”
“I couldn’t imagine starting all over again with diapers and sleepless nights.”
“I helped a lot. Having a baby sister was a dream come true and for a while acting took a backseat. I absolutely love my sister and I would do anything for her…even back then.”
“She’s beautiful,” Finley said. “Fuck…I mean…she’s probably beautiful…shit…Fine. I might have Googled you after you left today and I might have seen pictures of you with her.”
“You Googled me huh?” Liam laughed. “That’s interesting. And…what did you think of what you found?”
This was not where he had expected the conversation to go. He hadn’t expected her to Google him, let alone accidentally admit it. If she asked, he’d admit that he tried to Google her the minute Elijah had given him her name and told him where to find her. But there was little to no information about Finley Blake online. She didn’t have a Facebook or an Instagram or any other social media account that he could find. The club had a Facebook page and a Twitter account, but it didn’t seem like Finley was the one who handled those. She had absolutely no online presence whatsoever and her name was barely mentioned in any article he’d found about Heat. It was like she was deliberately trying to stay out of the public eye, which did not bode well for him.
“It’s not like I read any articles or anything or clicked on any of the many social media accounts about you. I just checked out the images.”
“Just the images? Really?”
“Fine I wanted to see if you were a manwhore like the rest of Hollywood. I needed to see if you were photographed on the arm of a different woman every day. I might have gotten trapped in the vortex of the thousands upon thousands of shirtless pictures there are of you on the internet. You laugh, but I couldn’t stop scrolling. These people are crazy about you without clothes on. There are screenshots of every frame of every scene from every movie you’ve ever been in, but the ones where you’re wearing very little are in fucking HD. The sad thing is I can’t really blame them.”
“What can I say? My fans love me,” Liam choked out between loud guffaws of laughter.
He tried to rein it in, not wanting to draw extra attention to them, but he couldn’t help it. Between the look on Finley’s face as she so desperately tried not to laugh at the situation and him picturing her unable to stop scrolling through a shit ton of pictures while wiping drool off of her chin, his body was shaking with laughter.
“Oh sure laugh it up. I lost at least an hour to that craziness. I’m just glad I didn’t click on Pinterest or Tumblr and go further down the rabbit hole. Savannah spends hours on Pinterest looking at wedding stuff, I’m sure there are just as many pictures of you on there as there are wedding pictures. Who has time for that? I’ve got a club to run.”
The indignant tone to Finley’s voice made him lose it all over again and before Liam knew it they were both laughing so hard there were tears in their eyes. People around them were starting to stare and although it was nearly two in the morning, the last thing he wanted was for their date to be interrupted by someone who recognized him. Pulling his wallet out of his back pocket, he grabbed enough cash to cover their bill and a generous tip for the waitress.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said as he stood up for the first time in almost two hours.
Heat filled Finley’s eyes as she nodded, letting him take her hand and pull her out of the booth. Once she was standing, she tried to pull her hand away, but Liam used her movement as a way to twine their fingers together. He couldn’t remember the last time he held hands with a woman that wasn’t his sister and even then it had been over
a decade. Finley’s hand in his felt perfect. Just another checkmark that proved they were made for each other.
He didn’t miss the fact that holding hands made Finley uncomfortable, but she wasn’t fighting it. If it had been a long time for him, he knew it had been even longer for her. He hoped eventually she would get used to it, that eventually she would crave his touch, even in public. Liam wanted to walk down the street with her, holding her hand or with his arm around her shoulders. He wanted to be able to stop and kiss her whenever he felt like it and while he knew he was getting ahead of himself, he figured baby steps were a good start.
They walked to the car in silence, though Liam could almost hear the wheels in Finley’s head turning. She was so lost in thought, she barely seemed to register that they’d made it to his rental car. While he was reluctant to let go of her hand, Liam realized they couldn’t stand outside all night just so he could keep touching her. Opening the passenger door, he swooped in to give her a quick kiss before helping her into the car.
For the entire drive back to Heat, Liam fought with himself. His initial plan was to walk her to her door, kiss her and then promise to call her in the morning. It was a great plan when he’d first thought of it. He wanted to prove to her that he didn’t hunt her down just for sex. He wanted her to see that she was much more than that to him. It was easier to have the willpower to walk away when he wasn’t sitting next to her, when he hadn’t just pressed his lips against hers in the hottest, most chaste kiss he’d ever experienced.
He knew he had it bad for her, but knowing it and being immersed in it were two different things. Being in her presence scrambled his brain. All he could think about was being wrapped up in her. She was going to ask him to come up to her place and he knew it would take everything in him to turn down her invitation. It would be so easy to take her upstairs and spend the night worshipping her.
But he had to be strong. At least for the night. He wanted to spend more time with her fully clothed before they got back down to the mind-blowing sex. It was obvious they were compatible there, but he didn’t want that to overshadow everything else. Finley was going to be a tough nut to crack. Her walls were higher and thicker than anyone he’d ever met. Higher and thicker than even his own. And she would hide behind those and sex as long as he let her and he didn’t want that. He wanted to knock them all down; or at least enough of them so he could make his way inside them. If she wanted to build them back up after he was behind them that was fine. But until then, he was going to chisel away at them piece by piece, brick by brick.
Pulling into the Heat parking lot, Liam noticed how different it looked when it was closed for the night. There were a few cars left in the parking lot that he figured either belonged to some of her staff or to patrons that were too drunk to drive home. The lights that illuminated the sign with the club name on it were no longer flashing. He didn’t like that there weren’t a lot of lights on outside the building at nearly three in the morning. There were lights scattered around the lot, but only one light lit up the side door, which was the outside entrance to the stairwell to her apartment.
As he parked the car near the door, he wondered how often she actually used it. He hoped that most nights at three a.m. she was already safely inside. It was likely she didn’t even realize how much of a safety risk the dark doorway was, but now all Liam could think about was the dangers that could be lurking in the dark right outside the place she lived.
Turning the car off, he got out, but not quick enough to open the door for Finley. She climbed out before he could even offer her a hand. Liam realized that was something else they would both have to get used to. He was raised to open doors for women, to give her a hand when she might need it. He was fairly certain that was another thing Finley hadn’t seen a lot of in the last few years, if ever.
Before she could stop him, he grabbed her hand again. If she wouldn’t wait for him to open her door and help her out, then the least she could do was let him hold her hand as he walked her to her door. She tried to pull away, but he held firm.
“I had a great time tonight. Thank you for agreeing to see me this weekend,” he said once they stopped at her door.
“I had a great time too, but the nights not over yet. In fact, none of this has to end until you leave on Sunday.” Finley pulled her keys out of her pocket, dangling them in front of him as a tease, as a promise, probably both.
Liam sighed. This was exactly the temptation he knew was coming. He dropped her hand, before reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ear. His eyes met hers and for a moment they stood there, each searching the other for a hint of what was going to happen next.
“There is nothing I want to do more than take you upstairs, strip you naked and worship that beautiful body of yours,” he said, shocked when his voice cracked. “But I didn’t come to Seattle for that. I came here for you…all of you, not just the naked you. While I would love to spend the night, I’m going to walk away. I’ll call you in the morning and we’ll spend another amazing day together. Then maybe tomorrow night I’ll work you until you’re screaming my name so loud people at the club will be able to hear you over the music.”
Finley’s lips parted as a nearly silent gasp escaped her. He used that to his advantage as he gripped the back of her head and pulled her in for a kiss. This one wasn’t chaste or quick. It was slow, deep and the worst thing he could have done to himself when he was trying to be strong. And Finley wasn’t playing fair. It took her less than a second to take over the kiss, sucking his bottom lip into her mouth, nibbling on it gently as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Backing her up against the door, Liam groaned as Finley pressed her body firmly against his. He needed to step back, but she picked that moment to sweep her tongue against his, which nearly short-circuited his brain. Breaking down, he allowed himself to kiss her like he’d wanted to all night. His hands traveled over her shoulders, down her arms, where his thumbs brushed against the sides of her perfect breasts. As much as he wanted to stop to play with her nipples that he knew were hard and begging to be sucked on, he had other things in mind. His hands continued their journey over her hips down to cup her ass.
Using his grip on her ass, he pulled her up against him until her legs wrapped around his waist. He ground against her, his cock nestled against the heat of her core, which he could feel through both their jeans. She moaned into his mouth as she pushed against him. Her hand snaked between them until she was stroking his cock through his jeans. His knees nearly buckled at the feel of her even through the harsh fabric.
His dick throbbed with the need for release and if she hadn’t chosen that moment to break the never-ending kiss so she could take a breath, he would have done whatever it took to slack that need. In his mind, he was dropping to his knees right there at the door so he could worship her pussy before he fucked her against the door.
With their lips no longer touching, it was like a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He could feel her tense, when she realized he wasn’t going to pick up the kiss where they’d left off. He set her down gently, making sure she was steady on her ridiculously high heels before taking a step back.
“Good night Finley,” he said as he took another step back and then another. His dick practically screamed at him in protest. Would one night really kill what he was hoping to accomplish? He fought the need to go back to her.
Their eyes met, confusion chasing away the come-fuck-me look that had filled hers right before he’d kissed her. Liam continued to walk backwards until he bumped into his car. He watched her thumb traced along her lower lip, as she straightened out her clothes with her other hand. He caught a moment of hesitancy in her as she contemplated what to do next, but then her shoulders stiffened and she gave him a forced smile before turning around to unlock her door. She walked through the open doorway, turned back around to look at him one last time then let the door close without saying a word.
Liam chuckled, knowing he was going to hav
e to do a lot to make the moment up to her. He could tell she was pissed that he’d stopped the hot and heavy make-out session and he really couldn’t blame her. His dick was just as angry. But in the end, he knew not giving in was going to be worth it. He just hoped she agreed.
Chapter 6
Finley
After a night of tossing and turning and dreams that only made the situation worse, Finley woke up confused and horny as hell. She’d loved every second of spending time with Liam the night before and had eagerly awaited the moment he took her back to her apartment. The sexual tension between them had been thick and it was obvious that the night would end in panty-ripping, neck-biting sex. At least it had been obvious to her. To Liam…not so much.
How he could walk away after she nearly dry humped him in the parking lot was beyond her. He’d been hard as a rock and just as eager to fuck as she’d been. When he said goodnight, she was beyond pissed off. And a little bit hurt. She heard his words, heard him when he said that he wanted her for more than sex, but deep down she took him walking away as a rejection of sorts and that rejection hurt. At least it did until she’d made her way upstairs to her bedroom where she used one of her toys to ease the ache between her legs.
Orgasms had always been a great way to chase away the feelings. It was good to know they still worked. Although, now that she was thinking about the situation again, anger stirred in her chest. She hated that he affected her the way he did. She hated he could make her mad and that he could hurt her, even if only a little bit. She was usually tougher than that. Nothing bothered her, especially whether or not a man wanted into her bed. There were plenty of them to choose from nightly at Heat. All she had to do was crook her finger and she’d have a willing partner for the night.
That’s how it had worked for years, but since the moment she met Liam, she no longer found satisfaction in knowing she could easily find someone else to fill her bed. She didn’t want anyone else and when she realized that, she’d been even more pissed off. Finley chalked it all up to the fact that she needed to fuck him out of her system. It was one of the reasons she agreed to spending the weekend with him. A weekend filled with sex and getting to know him better, hopefully meant being able to get back to the way she usually was.
