Getting Off

by Abby Green

  Liam felt so tight inside it hurt. All he could think about was when he’d been singing like a proverbial canary that night on the rooftop of the old hotel. He lashed out at Candy for seeing too damn much and sneered, ‘Where did you learn all this? At your pop psychology module in college?’

  She shook her head and leaned back. ‘I’ve never seen you behave around a woman the way you do around her. And if you’re not careful, you’re going to lose the best thing that could have ever happened to you, because as we both know, that good-for-nothing, stuck-up ice princess Julie did a real number on you. You’re you around Caitlin.’ She grimaced. ‘Well, a grumpy version of you at the moment, but that’s just sexual frustration.’

  Candy jumped lithely off the desk and went to the door, stopping to look back at him. ‘And the only reason you’re getting away with what you just said is because you were the only one there for me when I came out. Now I’m doing the same for you. It’s time to come out, Liam.’

  Something raw in Liam made him blurt out, ‘I told her I didn’t want to complicate things and she agreed.’

  Candy rolled her eyes. ‘Dude, you’ve been handling complicated for decades. Honestly, I don’t know how you straight people ever manage to get it together.’

  Chapter Eleven

  I gritted my jaw so tight it hurt. Even though it was killing me, I was determined not to take the easy way out and leave my job at Sullivan’s. I told myself stoutly that it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the prospect of never seeing Liam again was more painful than seeing him every day.

  At least that would improve slightly once I began my internship, which was four days a week. Two weeks had done nothing to put a dent in my levels of sexual frustration. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could hear were two heartbeats and feel the sweaty tangle of limbs, the delicious slide of Liam’s big body into mine.

  ‘Red, I’ve gotta split, my mom’s got some emergency she needs help with. You okay to lock up? Liam’s doing stocktaking in the office.’

  My heart lurched. No, I wasn’t okay to be left alone with Liam, even if he didn’t emerge from his office. But I’d have to go in there to give him the keys. I would have preferred if he’d been snarling at me the way he had done that first week, but it was much worse now, he completely avoided me and was distant but polite if we interacted.

  I smiled brightly at Toby. ‘Sure. Absolutely not a problem.’

  He lobbed the keys at me and I caught them.

  ‘I’ve already locked the main door, I’ll go out the emergency exit. Night, Red, see you tomorrow.’

  The heavy door closed with a fatalistic-sounding bang, and then I berated myself. No doubt when I went in to give the keys to Liam, he’d barely glance at me.

  Even so, he’d surprised me by telling me that he’d asked a detective friend of his to put feelers out for Johnny. His thoughtfulness had rubbed salt into the wound that I kept telling myself wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. I’d fallen for an orgasm, not the man.

  I cleaned up, checked the fridges were stocked for the morning for Candy, finished locking up and turned off the lights. And then took a deep breath and went to the office.

  The door was ajar and I knocked lightly and pushed it open. ‘Liam?’

  No answer. I went in all the way and Liam was standing there with his hair awry, a stubbled jaw and wild eyes.

  Something lurched in my chest, ‘Are you okay? You look a little...’ Crazy. I didn’t say it.

  ‘No,’ he ground out. ‘I’m not okay. I haven’t been okay since the night I first saw you.’

  My belly swooped. My hand tightened around the keys. Distant and polite Liam was gone. The air crackled. I held out the keys.

  Liam looked at them and almost snarled, ‘I don’t care about the damn keys.’

  Feeling as if I was in some kind of mad dream, I asked, ‘What do you care about?’

  For a long moment he said nothing. Tension pulsated between us.

  When Liam uttered a guttural-sounding you, I almost didn’t believe it. But then he was closing the distance between us and taking the keys out of my hand and dropping them to the floor.

  He’d maneuvered me onto his desk and was between my legs before I knew what was happening. Every cell in my body was sizzling. Without wanting to think about what this meant, I wound my arms around his neck and almost sobbed with relief when his mouth crashed down onto mine.

  It felt as if we were devouring each other. Ravenous. Tongues sucking, teeth nipping, I tasted blood and didn’t know if it was mine or his. Desperation infused us, there was a hunger like I’d never experienced before, making me beg incoherently, please...now.

  Liam stripped off my T-shirt as I scrabbled for his. His hands were on my jeans, undoing them, as I did the same to him, fingers clumsy on his buttons. He was lifting me up to pull my jeans down over my hips and down my legs, taking my panties with them.

  I was feverish. Caught up in a lust so powerful it was awesome. With my feet I pushed Liam’s jeans down, too, and then he was pulling down his boxers, releasing his impressive erection, a drop of pre-come glistening at the head. I must have licked my lips or something, because I heard him say roughly, ‘No time for that now. I’ll explode.’

  I watched as he ripped off the foil covering of a condom and rolled it over his erection with trembling hands. He put an arm around me to pull me to the edge of the desk, spreading my legs wide, and then he held his cock in his fist and fed himself into me. I closed my eyes tight, almost unable to take the unbearable pleasure of him filling me so completely. And then he started to thrust and I couldn’t keep the moans of exquisite pleasure back.

  I wrapped my legs around him, and he slid deeper.

  He grabbed my hair and tugged it gently to make me face him, and I opened my eyes. And then he kissed me, tongue thrusting deep, mimicking his steel length inside me. He thrust so deep that I could feel ripples of pleasure starting to vibrate out all over my body.

  His hand found the delicate lace cup of my bra and yanked it down so that my breast popped free. He palmed my breast, fingers pinching my nipple. And then his mouth moved down, taking the hard stiff flesh into his mouth and sucking it roughly.

  I bit his shoulder to try to contain the desperation I felt as he drove us both higher and higher. And then everything inside me stiffened, taut, held on the threshold of extreme pleasure, before it crashed into me with the force of a freight train.

  I could feel my inner muscles clenching tight around Liam’s cock as he thrust deeper and deeper, and just as my ripples of pleasure were starting to fade, he went stiff, too...every sinew and tendon on his powerful body standing out, pulsating.

  When our breathing started to slow, finally, Liam drew back. He smoothed some damp hair off my hot cheek and the gesture made me ache. He was still inside me, deeply embedded.

  I thought of how he’d had the protection so easily to hand. My belly lurched and I said rawly, ‘You were prepared.’

  He withdrew and even now I could feel my body clenching as if to draw him back in. He dealt with the protection efficiently.

  He looked at me and muttered darkly, ‘I’ve been carrying around condoms for the last week because I didn’t know if I’d have the strength not to grab you and take you up against the nearest wall.’

  My chest got ominously tight. ‘Oh.’

  But before I could analyze that or how it made me feel, Liam had yanked on his jeans and picked up the detritus of our clothes and scooped me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing. I squeaked.

  ‘Let’s take this upstairs.’

  I put my arms around his neck and let him carry me all the way up two flights of stairs to his apartment, which I hadn’t seen yet.

  He put me down inside the door and I grabbed my jeans and T-shirt, scrambling into them. Feelin
g far too exposed.

  The apartment was loft style, massive. Exposed brick and soaring ceilings with choice furniture that looked comfortable and lived in. An industrial-style kitchen took up the length of one wall. And a massive bed was in the corner of the room near a huge window. I was still jittery after the explosion downstairs.

  ‘It’s lovely,’ I said, trying not to look too intently at the bed.

  ‘I gutted the place and did it up after my dad moved to Queens. I wanted to get rid of any reminder of the bitter arguments and pain before my parents split up. It used to really affect my sister, Ashling. She’d go into her room and cry. All I could do was hold her.’

  My heart clenched and, acting on instinct, I moved forward and slipped my hand into Liam’s. He looked down at me and tightened his fingers around mine.

  He drew me into the room and guided me to sit down on a slouchy couch. He sat down, too, but it was on a chair nearby. He came forward, hands clasped between his legs. Hair tousled. He looked like someone who’d just fucked someone hard. Me. I felt an overwhelmingly proprietorial urge right then, for him never to look like that unless it was with me.

  I also felt empowered. Even though what lay ahead was undoubtedly an excruciating conversation, where Liam tried to make me see that what had just happened meant nothing and that it might be best if I didn’t work there anymore.

  All I could see were those intense blue eyes. I knew that no matter what happened, this man had given me a gift. He’d returned something I’d locked away a long time ago. And even if he broke my heart a little, I’d survive and move on. A little bruised maybe, but richer all the same. And I wanted to be honest with him.

  I tipped up my chin. ‘That weekend...I wasn’t entirely truthful with you.’

  Liam just said, ‘You weren’t?’

  I shook my head. ‘The fact is, I wanted much more than that weekend. And the other fact is that I did go and fall for the first person I slept with in New York.’ I anticipated the hurt to come and added for good measure to let him know I didn’t welcome it, ‘You bastard.’

  A slow sexy smile made Liam’s face light up. ‘Now, that’s not a very ladylike way of putting it.’

  I tossed my head, my heart hammering as I said bravely, ‘I don’t really fucking care.’

  Liam’s smile got wider. He got up and came over to sit down beside me on the couch. My eyes were glued to his. He was close enough to touch. I could smell the scent of sex on our bodies and my insides liquefied. I had to clench my hands into fists to stop from reaching out.

  ‘Well, if it’s all the same to you, I do fucking care and I was also less than honest that morning.’

  ‘You were?’ I breathed out, the tight knot inside me easing.

  He nodded. ‘The fact is that I would like to complicate the hell out of things with you.’

  The world tipped slightly on its axis. I couldn’t stop a huge loopy grin breaking free. I moved over and straddled Liam’s lap, feeling his big callused hands come to my hips, holding me fast, as if he’d never let me go.

  My voice was husky. ‘I’d really like to complicate the hell out of things with you, too.’

  He looked at me, all serious and sexy. ‘Then let’s do it.’

  Many hours later, when dawn was touching the sky outside and Liam’s hand was trailing lazily up and down my bare back, I felt him tense under my cheek.

  I lifted my head to find him looking at me and a little flutter of foreboding made me say, ‘What is it?’

  He shifted so that he could look at me more directly. He was definitely nervous. ‘You need a place to stay, when your aunt comes back.’

  I frowned. ‘Ye—es.’

  Liam’s voice was gruff. ‘Stay here with me. I don’t like the thought of you anywhere else.’

  My heart swelled in my chest, but I bit my lip when my mouth wanted to spread into a wide grin. No point in letting Liam see how happy this made me. He was far too cocky, as it was, in every sense of the word.

  ‘Well...maybe I could, just in the interim, until I find somewhere I like.’

  Liam moved his body over mine, he was hard and ready. My legs were already spreading to accomodate him, entice him in.

  He growled, ‘Interim, my ass.’

  I smiled coquettishly. ‘Speaking of asses...’

  * * * * *

  About the Author

  Abby Green lives in Dublin, the capital city of a generally rain-soaked Ireland. When she was small, she was obsessed with American TV, and thought that if she ever went to the US, it would be like Dallas or Dynasty, where the women looked like Joan Collins and wore power suits and all the men wore cowboy hats in the shower like JR. But as we all know by now, it was just a dream. Since then she’s been to America lots of times and is happy to report that the reality is far better than ’80s TV shows.

  She used to work in the film and TV industry bossing a lot of people around, but now she’s happy to live in slovenly bliss and make up stories about hot, sexy men and gorgeous women who give as good as they get—with as many sex scenes as she can manage to throw in before her editor gets suspicious.

  You can find out more at www.abby-green.com, or find her putting up an adequate amount of NSFW stuff on Twitter, @abbygreen3.

  Do YOU want to write a story for Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Harlequin?

  The editors of Cosmo Red-Hot Reads are looking for new writers with fresh voices and entertaining romances. The editors review each and every submission looking for bright new talent. It could be you!

  Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Harlequin are 25,000 to 30,000 word fast-paced, passionate romances for today’s fun, fearless females! Set in big cities, including glamorous international locations, each features a twentysomething heroine who values her female friendships and is building a successful career. She does not need a man to make her life complete, but he is the icing on the cake! The ensuing hot romance has strong conflict, witty repartee, a fresh contemporary voice and a hero you want to spend the weekend in bed with.

  Complete details on how to submit at http://www.harlequin.com/harlequincosmo

  ISBN-13: 9781460338353

  Getting Off

  Copyright © 2014 by Abby Green

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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