by Sylvia Fox
“So, does that mean you’ll call them?”
“Yeah,” he said softly, pressing his lips to my ear. “I’ll call them. Just not right now. I have some other ideas in mind for this evening.”
Thrills shook through my body. “Oh yeah?” What kind of ideas?”
“They involve you being naked. I hope you’re ready for me again, baby.”
Chapter Eight
My heart fluttered at the heady look in Liam’s dark and swirling eyes. In the light of the fireplace, he looked even more masculine and powerful than usual. And that was saying something. He leaned forward and kissed me, hard and fast, spreading open my mouth with his tongue. Moaning, I pressed my hand against his hard chest and trailed my fingers across his ribbed abs.
I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have this man before me, pressing against me with a need that my own body echoed right back to him.
“Lay back,” he said as he pulled away, breaths heaving. “You’re going to spread your legs for me, and I’m going to lick you in ways you’ve never known.”
Shivering, I obeyed. I loved when he took command like this, ordering me to do whatever he pleased. Because mostly, whatever he please involved pleasing me. And I’d never had someone lick my pussy before. The thought of his head between my thighs, his mouth working wonders…well, my polka-dotted panties were soaking wet already.
He tore my panties off my body and opened my thighs wide so he could get a good look at me. I’d never felt more exposed in my life, but I didn’t feel embarrassed. Not this time. Not in front of Liam. The appreciative glint in his eyes made me feel like I just wanted to spread my legs even wider and show him more of myself.
His head dipped down, and his tongue flicked across my clit. Sparks of heat tore through my body, and I trembled uncontrollably. Ass bucking on the carpet, I arched my back and held my breath, desperate for him to taste me more. And so he did. His tongue lapped against my wetness, drinking me in with an eagerness that left me breathless.
I could barely think from the sensations shooting through me.
He pushed his tongue through my pussy lips, and I lost all control. My body shook, the orgasm overtaking me before I even knew it was coming. Legs clenching, voice crying out, I came harder than I ever thought possible. And when I was done, stars dotted my eyes.
But Liam wasn’t done yet.
“Did you like that, baby?” He asked, easing up from the floor to stare down at me. At some point, he’d removed all his clothing, and his big cock dangled before me, hard and stiff as a board.
“I liked that very much,” I said in a small voice, eyes locked onto his cock. Even though I’d just had the most mind-blowing orgasm imaginable, I was already for more. I wanted his dick inside me. Now.
I reached for his length, to push him inside me, but he moved just out of my reach, a lusty glint in his eye. “Uh uh, not so fast. I want you to suck me, baby. I want your gorgeous lips wrapped around my cock.”
My excitement only grew at his words. I moved to sit up, but he pressed me back onto the floor, sliding forward so that he straddled my body, his dick bobbing into my face. “Not like that, baby. We don’t want you to hurt that pretty little knee of yours.”
And then he slid his cock into my mouth. He was so big that he stretched my lips as wide as they could go, and his hard length hit the back of my throat. I’d never done this before either, but his groans told me I was doing something right. He rocked against me, fucking my mouth, slowly and carefully, but with a powerful intensity that made me feel weak and helpless beneath him.
And it made me so wet that I could feel my juices pooling on the blanket, leaving behind evidence of my overwhelming arousal.
He began to move faster, grunting out my name as his body shook. Only moments later, his seed exploded into my mouth. He pulled his dick from my lips and let his cum drip onto my face, his mouth open in a wide and masculine O.
“You’re so sweet, Callie,” Liam said, shifting back so that he could get a better look at my face. “Why don’t you get up and clean that pretty little mouth of yours?”
I swallowed and licked the droplets of cum from my lips. “I don’t need to spit it out.”
Liam’s eyes widened and he let out an unmistakable moan. “My god, woman. You are going to be the death of me.”
He eased down on top of me, holding up his body with his strong arms. Dropping a kiss to my neck, my cheek, my breast, he suddenly seemed far more serious than he had only moments before. His lips found mine, and the kiss he gave me then took my breath away. It was different than the ones that had came before. Those had been scorching hot and full of need. This one felt softer, gentler. It made my whole body sigh, less from passion and more from pure satisfaction.
I felt…more than just wanted. I felt cared for.
“You are so gorgeous, Callie,” he murmured between kisses. His hand traced down my cheek, sending shivers through my body. “I want more nights like this with you for months and months to come.”
And then he slid inside of me, slowly and gently and full of more than just lust. He kissed my forehead as he rocked against me before pulling back to meet my eyes. I got lost in his gaze, a strange and surprising feeling washing over me. I suddenly felt like I was where I belonged, like I’d spent my whole life waiting to get to this moment. Here and now with Liam Cox. He was no longer fucking me, not like he had in our time together so far.
No, this felt different.
It felt like making love.
My heart grew six sizes larger, and tears pricked my eyes. I didn’t quite understand what was happening between us or when we’d shifted from something lighthearted and fun to something more. But I never wanted it to stop. I wanted to feel like this for the rest of my life, and I knew without a doubt in my mind that this was the only man in the world who could give that to me.
There was no one else I ever wanted. No one else other than Liam Cox. There never had been, and there never would be.
I could spend the rest of my life wrapped in his arms.
Liam and I made love for hours, the fire flickering in the background, the Christmas tree spanning up to the cabin’s ceiling. We knew we only had hours together before my parents arrived, and while we didn’t speak it aloud, I knew it was on both of our minds.
So, we made the best of it, the only way we knew how.
Chapter Nine
When I awoke the next morning, I was no longer draped across Liam Cox’s perfect chest in the cabin’s expansive living room. At some point during the night, he had carried me upstairs and deposited me in my bed. Alone. Despite the thick comforter covering my body, I felt cold and alone, aching for the heat of the fire and Liam’s touch.
As I sat up, I heard voices drifting toward me from downstairs. My heart went cold. It was my dad and Liam, chatting about something to do with work. So my parents had made it after all.
My breathing became more rapid as I let the thought sink in. This didn’t have to be a disaster. Not really. And I felt guilty for experiencing anything other than happiness at spending Christmas Day with my family.
But logic said my dad would go ballistic when he found out. Total, one-hundred percent rage.
Liam Cox was my dad’s best friend. They’d known each other practically all of their lives, and my dad liked to think of me as some little girl who would never have sex in her life.
But I was grown now. And Liam was a good man.
Maybe everything could turn out alright.
Hell, maybe that was what they were downstairs talking about right now.
Might as well get it out of the way.
Before last night, I’d assumed that Liam and I would go back to how we’d been as soon as my parents showed up, but I knew that wasn’t the case anymore. Not with the way he’d looked at me. Not with the way he’d made love to me like I was the only woman in the world. He wanted to be with me as much as I wanted to be with him.
It just meant this Christmas might be
a little…interesting, to say the least.
I showered and dressed and braced myself for whatever was going on downstairs. But when I made my way into the kitchen, everything seemed calm and normal. I glanced at Liam, but he didn’t meet my eyes. He looked relaxed enough, but there was something hard about him that I couldn’t quite read.
“Callie, hon!” My dad boomed and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me from the floor. “Merry Christmas!”
“Merry Christmas, Dad,” I said, almost with a question-mark at the end. He was sounding pretty jolly for a man who had just found out his best friend was banging his daughter.
“Liam here said you’ve been bored out of your mind.” Dad smiled and ruffled my head, his eyes crinkling in the corners. “Sorry ‘bout that, darling.”
“He did?” I glanced at Liam again, but he averted his gaze. “We’ve actually been having a nice time.”
“No need to be polite there, honey. We both know a girl your age doesn’t want to spend her holidays cooped up with an old man.” Dad clapped his hands together, making me jump. My heart had taken a turn for the worse, squeezing and unsqueezing like some kind of boa constrictor had wrapped itself around my blood supply. It was becoming very clear that Liam hadn’t said a word to my dad about anything, not yet. This was only going to make it worse when he finally did, because now it felt like we were lying to him. And I hated lying to my parents.
“Well, he helped me put up the tree,” I said, my eyes never leaving Liam’s face. He looked ashamed, and that hurt me far more than his silence did. Like I was some kind of mistake he didn’t want to admit to. Like what had happened between us meant nothing to him at all.
“He did?” My dad looked genuinely surprised. “Well, what do you know? Liam Cox has a festive bone in his body after all.”
Liam cleared his throat and backed out of the kitchen. “I’ll leave you two to it. I’m going to have a few runs on the slopes so you all can enjoy some family time together.”
His words cut a hole into my heart. Why was he being this way? Not only was he acting different than he had all weekend, he was acting completely different than he ever had with me. Liam had always been friendly. He’d always been nice. But now he was acting like I was some kind of leper he couldn’t even look at for fear he’d catch a terrible disease.
I’d opened up to him the night before, and he’d opened up to me. But suddenly there seemed to be a huge chasm between us, swallowing up everything emotion we’d shared.
I stepped forward, desperate to erase the distance between us. “I’ll come with you.”
“No, I don’t think so, Callie.” Liam’s lips shifted into a strained smile, his eyes focused on the snowy slopes outside. “You hurt your knee yesterday, and you need to stay off the slopes. Doctor’s orders.”
Irritation and pain flared up inside me. I liked it when Liam gave me orders, but this particular brand wasn’t the kind I wanted to hear.
Not now. Not ever.
Chapter Ten
My parents and I had breakfast together, and I listened to them chirp away about the snowstorm and the drive to the mountains. My mind wandered the whole time, drawn to the look on Liam’s face when he’d seen me that morning. He hadn’t even been able to look at me, much less speak more than three words in my direction.
This wasn’t what I’d expected at all. Sure, I’d known things were probably going to get a little dicey because of our rather…unique situation. But he’d just shut me out the moment he could. Maybe he was far more like the boys from college than I’d thought. You know the type. The ones who used their words to get girls into their beds and then tossed them out as soon as they got what they wanted.
I just never would have thought Liam Cox was anything like that. Another wham, bam, thank you ma’am guy without a heart.
He didn’t need to play that kind of game. But he had. With me. And I really needed to come to grips with it or I’d spend my entire Christmas holiday moping around like some sad puppy left out in the cold.
“Callie?” My mom’s voice cut through my thoughts. We were sitting on the back porch, looking up at the slopes and sipping hot cocoa. She’d been talking to me about something, or probably asking me about my last few classes I had scheduled for next semester. I hadn’t heard a damn word though, too wrapped up in my thoughts about Liam.
“I’m sorry.” I took a sip of the hot cocoa, but I’d left it so long that it had turned cold, just like Liam’s heart. “What were you saying?”
“What’s wrong with you, Callie?” Mom frowned and brushed her highlighted air out of her face. She looked like the kind of mom you’d see in movies or in magazines. Always picture perfect and totally put together. Always saying the right thing. She never got hung out to dry like I had.
“Sorry, I’m just a little distracted today is all.”
“Hmm.” She took the cup out of my hand and leaned closer, searching my eyes with hers. “It’s a boy, isn’t it?”
I glanced away and tried to hide the thoughts I knew were flickering across my face. My mother had always been able to read me better than she even knew herself. “Of course not.”
“Oh, Callie.” She patted my knee and sighed. “It was bound to happen eventually, no matter how picky you might be. What’s his name? What did he do? I’m sure you father wouldn’t hesitate to go teach him a lesson or two if you asked.”
“Mom.” I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help but laugh. Always over the top, my mother. But I loved her for it. “It’s complicated.”
“Oh, honey. Love is always complicated.” She narrowed her eyes, reading my face with a clarity that made me want to squirm. “It’s love, isn’t it? Well, if that’s the case, then you should make sure he knows that. Let him know what kind of mistake he’s making.”
“It really is more complicated than that, Mom. Even if he wanted to be with me, I’m not sure he could.”
Mom raised her eyebrows, and I was afraid I’d said too much. “Care to elaborate?”
“Not really.” I kicked at a pile of snow near my feet.
“My girls!” Dad stomped outside, fully-clad in his ski gear. He was a big and boisterous man, and he filled the entire back porch with his presence. Powerful like Liam, but in a different way. He commanded respect with his voice while Liam commanded it with an aura that was impossible to ignore. “I’m going to head up the slopes to get my yearly Christmas runs in. Want to join me?”
Clearly he hadn’t paid much attention to Liam’s warning about my knee, and a sudden idea sprang into my mind. I just needed to get Liam alone. Talk to him. Find out what was going through his mind. It would be impossible to do here at the house, not with my parents around every corner. He’d only closed up when they’d arrived, so I needed to find a way to speak to him when they weren’t around.
I knew which runs he liked best.
No more black diamonds for me, of course. I wasn’t a complete idiot.
But I didn’t have to go down the mountain to find him. He had to go to the top eventually.
This might be the only chance I had to speak to him about us before this trip was over.
And even if he was going to break my heart, I had to try.
The slopes were full even though it was Christmas Day. Families bustled about, their screaming kids hurtling down the green slopes with a feverish energy. My mom took one look at the crowd and retreated to the lodge just behind the lifts, choosing to settle in with a book and a warm cup of coffee instead.
A part of me wanted nothing more than to join her, but I was driven by the need to speak to Liam.
Dad gave me a salute before heading toward a blue run, and I hung back, my eyes on the black diamonds. It was chilly outside, a crisp and biting cold that sunk into my very bones. Even though I’d bundled up with thick mittens, waterproof ski pants, and thermal underwear, it didn’t take long for my stationary position to welcome in the chill.
How was this my Christmas Day? Waiting on top of a mountain for a
man who may or may not want to ever speak to me again?
Last night had been the best of my life, snuggled in beside a fire with the perfect specimen of man, feeling his adoring eyes all over my body. And yet, everything had changed with the flick of a switch, and now I was left standing outside in the cold alone. Literally.
After what felt like hours, I finally spotted Liam’s red-and-black–swirled skis. He had a woman by his side. Tall, tan, beautiful. She was as close to a supermodel as any woman could get, and a jealously rose up within me I’d never felt before. I’d never in my life seen Liam with a woman, and the first time just happened to be the day after we’d made love.
It was like a punch in the gut.
Gasping, I whirled around too fast. My skis slipped from underneath me, and I fell flat on my ass. Teeth knocking together, the ground reverberated throughout my skull. But even though it hurt, the pain I felt in my heart was far worse than that in my bones.
“Callie?” Liam’s deep, familiar voice rang out from behind me. My face flooded with color, and I forced my eyes to hold back the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks. I couldn’t let him see me upset like this. I couldn’t let him know that his sudden change toward me had dug a hole in my heart quite so deep.
I had to put on a brave show.
But I didn’t know how I could do that.
Not when my heart felt ripped right in two.
“You okay?” He slid to a stop by my side and knelt down, the beautiful blonde only inches behind him. “Why are you out here on the slopes? I thought I told you to stay at home.”
“Yeah, you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I snapped.
Liam frowned. “Where’s Rick?”
“He’s off skiing down the slopes?” I shrugged and pushed off from the ground, but my skis only slid out from under me all over again. How freaking humiliating was this?
