Chasing Shadows (First Wives Book 3)

by Catherine Bybee

  He was blushing, he knew it.

  He bent at the hips and rested on his elbows on the mat until their chests were touching.

  Avery rested one hand on his waist. “Comfortable?”

  He moaned. The last thing he wanted to do was pretend like he was going to hurt her. Not in this position.

  “You’re okay with this?” he asked close to her ear.

  Her fingers flexed and then caressed his side. “Uh-huh.”

  Liam placed a hand on the side of her face, took a breath, and clamped on.

  She bucked her hips, hard, nearly removing him. Then her hand came from nowhere, her leg wrapped around and tossed him to his side. She stopped short of kneeing him in the groin, and he hesitated.

  Avery was halfway on the balls of her feet, and Liam rushed her. She pivoted on the floor and sent a kick. “Shin,” she yelled out without taking him to the floor.

  “Missed,” Brenda yelled.

  Liam moved forward, on his feet now.

  Avery kept her angle to where her legs were always between the two of them. She kicked a second time. “Shin.”

  When Brenda didn’t say she missed, Liam stopped and dropped to the mat. Something that would happen if her kick had landed its mark.

  Like a cat, Avery was on the balls of her feet, and Liam sat.

  “Perfect,” Brenda called out. “Now do it again.”

  Avery smiled as if she’d just won the lottery, and pumped both fists in the air.

  Two more mock going at it strangling assaults and they were being shuffled out of the gym before they could shower.

  Avery teased Brenda without mercy. “Someone has a date tonight.”

  Only Brenda had a pretty accurate comeback. “I’m not the only one.”

  Outside the gym, Liam took Avery’s bag from her hand and swung it over his shoulder along with his. “Pug’s?” he asked. “We’re sweaty, but I don’t think anyone there will notice.”

  Avery took his hand in hers and pulled him down the street. “I have a better idea.”

  He followed.

  “That was epic tonight. I didn’t freeze, not once.”

  “Not once.”

  “God, I feel good.” She was practically jumping up and down.

  This side of Avery didn’t come out often. He loved it. Carefree, no filter. To be fair, she never seemed to have a filter except when clamping down on her emotions. Which was another habit of hers, he’d noticed.

  She’d marched them straight to her complex and through the doors.

  “Hello, James.”

  “Good evening, Ms. Grant.”

  In the elevator, Liam could see some of the adrenaline seep out of her pores.

  “Drinks at my place don’t require a shower.”

  He watched the numbers light up as they moved. “True.”

  “I won’t jump you,” she told him.

  That was unfortunate.

  “Wait, I can’t promise that.”

  He was smiling.

  The door dinged, and Avery dug into her bag for her key. She led him into her place and switched on the lights.

  “Wow.” The view of the city at night was nothing short of spectacular. “I see why you like it.” He dumped their bags by the door and moved deeper inside. The lofty space was a massive open room with a state-of-the-art kitchen that didn’t look like it had been cooked in.

  Avery kicked off her shoes and jumped up to sit on her kitchen island.

  She spread her knees apart, just a fraction, and leaned back on her hands.

  Liam forgot about the view, or the grandeur of her home, and only saw her.

  Without invitation, he wiggled between her legs and clamped his hands over hers.

  Staring down her pert nose, she grinned.

  “See. I’m not jumping you.”

  That made one of them.

  Holding her hands so she couldn’t get away, which he knew was an absolute joke, Liam lowered his mouth to hers.

  The heat between them was instant. Or maybe it had never cooled off. From the moment she jumped on his back during his push-ups to the tiny slaps on his ass during their workout, he hadn’t had a single minute to let his brain catch up with his groin.

  He opened his mouth to hers. The taste of her drove him high, but the feel of her . . . it wasn’t expected. There had been women he kissed before that he thought he cared for. Knew he did on some level. And then there was Avery. He’d been cautioning himself every step of the way with her. Letting her lead . . . or maybe he had cut her off.

  Not now.

  Not this time.

  She inched closer to the end of the counter and stroked the back of his leg with her foot. A simple touch, and the slow burn that he’d kept on low flipped to high.

  He let loose her hands, pressed his palms onto her hips, and pulled her flush.

  Avery wrapped her arms around him and fanned her fingers through his hair while her legs clamped on and she pressed her core against his erection.

  He saw stars. Serious specks of light as all the blood rushed below his belt.

  Liam kissed her harder, cautioned himself to not leave a bruise.

  For a woman with her strength and agility, she felt small in his arms. He traced the edge of her spandex pants and ran his hands up the back of her shirt. She was soft against his worn hands.

  Avery broke from his kiss and moved her lips to his neck. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to stop,” she said.

  He traced the sides of her breasts with his thumbs. “Not unless you tell me to.”

  Avery shook her head. “Not a chance.”

  He chuckled. “Shower first?” he asked. “Finish what we’ve started, then shower?”

  Her hands ran over his ass.

  Making it to the shower might not be an option.

  Avery leaned back, pulled her shirt over her head, and tossed it to the floor.

  A sports bra couldn’t diminish her beauty.

  “This. Here. Now.” She smiled. “Shower later and then repeat.”

  He tugged his shirt over his head to follow hers. She never unwrapped her legs from his hips. “What if I’m too tired for a second round?”

  “Then I’ll do all the work.” She traced her hands over his shoulders and down his chest. “This looks even better than I imagined.”

  He dropped his lips to the top of her breast and tasted the salt on her skin. “So good.” With a quick movement, he unclasped her bra and let it fall from her shoulders.

  “You’ve had practice.”

  He gathered the firm mounds of her breasts between his fingers and lifted them, one at a time, to his tongue. “I work with my hands,” he told her.

  Her head fell back. “And your mouth.”

  Yes to the left, and yes to the right. She was perfect. All of her.

  The control he’d felt as he turned her into putty fell away when she traced the outside of his cock through his pants. Resting his forehead on her shoulder, he pushed into her touch.

  “I want this inside of me, Liam.” Her husky voice drove through the fog in his head. “I want you inside of me.”

  He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and tossed it on the counter.

  Avery reached beneath the elastic of his pants and wrapped her delicate fingers around him.

  “Good God, woman.”

  She offered a deep laugh. “Feels like God was good to you.”

  He dragged her off the counter long enough for her to peel her spandex off while he kicked his sweats and briefs to the side. The desire to stare and study and taste was overpowered by the need to feel.

  “Here?” he questioned one more time.

  With a grin, Avery wiggled back up onto the countertop. “Here, there . . . against the window where someone below might see us. I’ve pictured you everywhere, and now I want to make that happen.”

  With hands on her thighs, he smiled into their kiss. “You have quite the imagination.”

  “It isn’t as good as the
real thing.”

  From his wallet, he retrieved a condom and tore it free of the wrapper. “Next time we go slower,” he promised.

  Avery opened for him and looked between them as he positioned himself.

  Her breathing matched the quick staccato of his. “Please, Liam. I’ve waited long enough.”

  With a sigh, he pressed into her warm folds and paused.

  Avery’s long release of a breath tightened her body around his.

  He shook his head, already fighting for control.

  “Liam?” she questioned.

  “Shhh.” He pulled away and slowly moved back in. “I got you.”

  And he did. Standing as he made love to her made it a little easier to hold off while she warmed to the feeling. Her kiss was a barometer of where she was at and how close she was to the edge. Slow and easy at first, then a little faster, until she wasn’t kissing him at all. With her lips hovering over his, he felt her start to go. As she did, he lifted her from the counter and moved deeper until she called his name.

  The feel of her insides squeezing took him over the cliff. He set her back down and rode the last waves of his release until his legs felt like blobs of Jell-O.

  They breathed hard into each other’s necks while his heart rate returned to normal.

  Avery pounded a fist to his back. “Don’t ever make me wait that long again.”

  Liam kissed her shoulder. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  They made it to the shower, and that was when Avery digested every ounce of him.

  The tattoo on his right shoulder was a geometric design he told her didn’t have a meaning. He’d been on spring break his second year of college, drunk with his friends . . . yeah, she could identify with that. She wasn’t sure how much of her college years she’d actually spent sober.

  There weren’t many times in Avery’s sexual life that she’d showered with a man. Early on, when she wanted to try everything once. But in her most recent past, she never wanted a man to look at her the way Liam did. Every gentle swipe of his soap-filled hand told her she was beautiful . . . said he was lucky.

  The moisture dripping off her hair as she stepped from the shower matched the volume of the ice that had been around her heart. Even as the thought entered her head, she tried to pull it back.

  It’s just sex.

  Even alone with her thoughts, she couldn’t convince herself that was true.

  Liam was different. What that meant she couldn’t name. Refused to name. Men bounced once they slept with her. They always did.

  With a towel wrapped around her and another one in her hands as she dried her hair, she watched Liam come up to stand behind her. Their reflection in the mirror brought a smile to her face.

  “What has you so quiet?”

  “Nothing.”

  He rested his chin on her shoulder and stared at her in the mirror.

  Before he could call her a liar, she squeezed out the only words she could find. “I really like you.”

  He bit his lip as if he was trying not to smile.

  “You just figured that out?”

  Avery rolled her eyes and dropped her gaze. “Men never stick around. And you’re kinda growing on me.”

  “I’m not like any other man in your life.”

  “Yeah, I know. It’s scary.”

  He laughed.

  “Stop. I’m serious.” She shivered, looked at him. “Ever since we met, I’ve felt like there’s a wool coat on my bare skin, but I’m fine with it because feeling the coarse fiber is better than feeling nothing at all.”

  His laughter faded. “I want to be the silk against your skin. But I’ll take the wool coat for now.”

  He took the towel from her hands, set it aside, and grabbed a brush. With slow strokes, he brushed her hair without so much as a tug.

  “You’re good at this.”

  “I have a niece who doesn’t sit still unless I’m brushing her hair.”

  “You’re too much.”

  He nodded without shame. “I am.”

  “Humble, too.”

  Moving her hair to the side, he kissed the back of her neck. “Tell me something.”

  Avery tilted her head to the side and encouraged him to kiss her again. “Yes.”

  “Do you ever let men spend the night?” Lips on her neck, a tiny lick.

  She shivered.

  “No. I kick you all out once I’m done.”

  He untucked her towel and ran the bristles of the brush gently over her back.

  Her sex fluttered.

  “What side of the bed do I get?”

  Avery stretched like a cat waking up in the sunlight streaming through a window. Her eyes blinked open and the previous night rushed in. She closed them again and smiled. They’d made love until she cried uncle and then proceeded to curl into a ball at Liam’s side and fall fast asleep.

  With one hand, she patted the space beside her, searching him out.

  Not there.

  Damn it.

  On her way to rolling over and pounding the pillow beside her, she heard whistling coming from her kitchen. And coffee. She smelled coffee.

  She left her bed naked and searched out a robe. When she couldn’t find it, she pulled on an oversize T-shirt she often wore as a nightgown.

  In the kitchen, with his back to her, Liam sported her white, fluffy bathrobe. She swam in it. On Liam, it came up short on his arms and just hit his knees.

  He looked ridiculous.

  “Perfect fit,” she teased.

  Without looking her way, he lifted a hand in the air to ward her off. “Desperate times deserve desperate measures. Don’t judge.”

  He stopped chopping whatever he was cutting up, turned, and crossed to her side.

  After dropping a kiss, he said, “Good morning.”

  “Morning.”

  His gaze lowered. “I’d offer you your robe, but then I’d be naked and you’d be dressed. And I like this ensemble you have going. The only thing that would make it better is if that were my shirt.”

  Liam turned back to what he was doing.

  “Are you cooking?”

  “I am. But first thing, you don’t snore. And the second thing . . . there is nothing but rabbit food in here.”

  “Organic rabbit food.”

  He traversed her kitchen and poured her a cup of coffee. “What do you take in it?”

  “Raw sugar. It’s in the—”

  “Got it.” He had the lid off her sugar container before she could finish her sentence.

  “Are you always this awake first thing in the morning?”

  He paused, looked at her, then turned to the clock on the wall. It was almost nine thirty.

  “Oh.”

  “I am. After last night, I could take on the world.” He handed her the cup and kissed her forehead. “I hope you like omelets.”

  “I can’t believe you’re cooking.”

  “We need to eat. Don’t you cook?”

  “Not if I can avoid it.”

  He put oil in a hot pan and added the egg mixture. The man looked like he knew what he was doing.

  “I don’t mind it. Most days I don’t have time.”

  She sat at the kitchen counter and watched him channel his best impression of a short order cook. It was hot, even while he was wearing her bathrobe.

  A few minutes later Liam placed a plate full of food in front of her.

  “This looks amazing.”

  “Taste it and tell me if it needs anything so I get mine right.” He winked.

  There were onions, feta, spinach, and a spice she didn’t recognize. “Heaven.”

  Before she could butter her toast, he had managed a second omelet for himself and was taking a place beside her.

  “This is really good, Liam. Thank you.”

  He took a bite, nodded. “A little bacon would round it off perfectly.”

  “Love bacon, just hate cooking it.”

  “Bake it in the oven. No mess
.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup. The way my mom always did.”

  “I’ll have to try that.”

  Avery sipped her coffee and watched him finish.

  He glanced over. “You’re done?”

  She wasn’t about to tell him her normal breakfast was java alone. “I’m stuffed.”

  He pulled her plate over and dug into the last few bites. “You drained me.”

  She leaned back and placed her foot in his lap. “Worth it?”

  “Just need to fuel up so we can do it again.”

  “First you won’t, now you don’t want to stop.”

  He wiped his mouth with his napkin and sat back. “Need to make up for lost time.”

  Avery laughed.

  “What is on your agenda today?” he asked.

  “I was going to stop by the Lankford property for a couple hours.”

  “Working on Saturday?”

  “Don’t look at me like that. I’ve heard your phone buzzing constantly.”

  “True, but most of the time construction stops on the weekends.” He started absentmindedly rubbing her foot that rested in his lap.

  “I want this job done. Especially after Sheldon asked me out.”

  Liam’s hands stopped. “He what?”

  “Don’t stop.” She wiggled her foot before placing the second one in his lap for attention. “Yeah. Out of the blue. I’m thinking no. And hell no. I work for him. Even if I didn’t . . . no.”

  “So you don’t want to date the man. Got it.” Liam smiled.

  “I told him I was seeing someone.”

  Liam pointed a finger to his chest and mouthed the word me.

  Avery rolled her eyes. “No, James, the doorman.”

  “I knew he had a thing for you.”

  “You would think I’m seeing someone would end the discussion. Not with Sheldon, he practically quizzed me. Said if it was new, then he would check back with me later. The whole thing struck me as weird. Uncomfortable.”

  “Like wool on bare skin?”

  She took a hasty drink of her coffee. “No, like bile coming up your throat. I’m overreacting, but I didn’t like the whole exchange. Especially on the heels of him asking you to take the job.”

  Liam rubbed her feet a little harder. “Asking me to what?”

  “Okay, so right before the awkward date request, he asked that I inquire with you about taking the remodeling job.”