“Liam. Seriously?”
He shrugged with the blankets and towels still in hand. “Ava’s soon-to-be husband keeps this a well-guarded secret. I thought we’d sleep here tonight and figure out the rest in the morning.”
It was the most he’d said to her all night and, damn it, the words made her want to cry. He was backing down from his need to call the shots and offering her a night in a haven. With her throat thick, she went to Liam and pushed up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “It’s perfect.” You’re perfect.
“I’m glad.” He swallowed and stepped back. “Go explore or sit and stare or whatever. No one will see you except me.”
Grey wanted to say something, to explain how much his thoughtfulness meant to her. To ask what he was thinking and how he’d known where to find her and that she was in danger. The words wouldn’t come. With a brush of her fingers along his arm she walked toward the water, stepping out of her shoes as she went.
She glanced back. Liam spread the blankets out and then set the towels on a corner. A part of her wanted him to join her at the water, but she didn’t ask. Instead of joining her, he sat on the blankets and watched.
She had messed up by leaving, possibly enough to drive a wedge between them, but the man had just given her the one thing she’d missed most since leaving five years earlier. She was going to enjoy it and do as he suggested. She’d worry about the rest tomorrow.
Turning to the water, Grey unfastened her capris and let them slip down her legs. She tugged her shirt over her head and dropped it. If she didn’t have an audience she might have stripped all the way, but Liam was watching.
She smiled. What did it matter that Liam watched? He’d seen her naked before, and she hadn’t been shy.
He was watching, and she wanted him to kiss her. She was going to remind him he wanted to kiss her.
Grey reached around, popped the bra hooks and eased the straps down her arms. She dropped the satin torture device and sighed. Arousal trembled to life as she tucked her fingertips beneath the waist of her panties and pushed them down.
Exhilaration flooded her. With an audience of one, an audience who made her body sing with a touch, she sauntered closer to the water. The wet sand was cool and smooth between her toes. The gentle waves as they rushed in and out swept her skin like a lover’s caress.
The farther she went the more constant and persistent that touch became. Cool water brushed between her legs. Heated ripples of desire tightened her stomach. She was ready, eager, for an orgasm that would come so easily. Indulgence would wait.
She went farther, embracing every inch of water that pulled her deeper and deeper into its embrace. She stopped when the slippery surface rested along the bottoms of her breasts.
Stretching her arms out, she rested her hands palm up on the water. Moonlight bathed her in perfection until all that existed was bliss.
Violence and death, lies and betrayals, nightmares and impossible dreams all slipped away. They flowed out the tips of her fingertips and were washed away. Freedom had never been so real. And it wasn’t something she’d had to fight for. It was a gift she’d been handed by a man who understood more than she could have hoped.
Greycen Craig was a skin Opal Donovan had donned out of necessity. The conflicting women in her head had pulled at her ever since, but now, the salt in the ocean waters exfoliated the old. It buffed away the shell she’d never felt comfortable in and gave her space to discover herself.
She wasn’t only Opal any more than she was only Grey. She was a work in progress and her newest revelation lay in knowing exactly what she wanted. At the moment she wanted Liam to kiss her.
She smiled as she approached the beach. She closed the distance between them, springing off the balls of her feet. She was naked and he was looking. The awareness of those facts preceded every step until she stepped onto the blanket, dripping wet. With a swallow, Grey stepped over his legs and lowered herself until she straddled his lap.
He tilted his head just the tiniest bit. “Enjoy yourself?”
She kissed his right temple. “More…” then his left, “…than you…” then his right cheekbone, “…may…” his left, “…ever…” his right jaw, “…know.” His left. Grey eased back and looked at him seriously. “I need to apologize for running away when you’ve only tried to help. I want to be able to explain myself and tell you everything that’s happened.”
“But you can’t.”
She shook her head. “I can tell you I feel lighter, more at peace.”
“H and Ava swear the water here is healing.”
“I feel lighter, but I also know the stress and fear will come back.”
“And when it does you’ll start arguing again.”
“Or try to run,” she admitted.
He moved his hands to her hips. “You won’t get far.”
“You’ll tell me later how you came to be on that beach.”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
He would tell her; she’d make sure of it. Later. “Right now I want something else.”
“What, Grey? What do you want?”
“I want that kiss you promised this morning.”
Chapter Eleven
Grey was wet, naked and beneath his hands. He wasn’t breaking the touch after craving it for so long. Fun didn’t need to be out of the picture, though. Liam checked his watch by twisting his wrist and leaning left a little. “I still have thirty minutes before the day is over.”
She wiggled a little, which brushed her breasts against his chest. She wasn’t big, barely a handful, but size didn’t matter with perfection like hers.
“It’s been a rough day, Liam. I think you’d agree.”
Beyond rough and things weren’t easing up in some regards. “A rough day is no reason to rush things.”
“Then kiss me and make it last.”
“Is that all you’re asking for, Grey? Do you want it to stop at a kiss?” He had to have hit his head when he tackled her shooter. Why else would he hold out?
“I’m asking you to kiss me. I’m not sure I’m ready for everything else you do to me.”
As admissions went hers blew him away in its honesty. He had a weakness for honesty. Hell, he had a weakness for Grey.
“Are you sure you’re ready for my definition of a kiss?”
“Yes.” She moved closer, definitely close enough to feel how she affected him, not that she should be surprised there.
“Okay.” He grinned as he leaned in. If he had to stop at a kiss he was going to make it good for them both.
Copying her kisses when she’d first straddled his lap, a move that had hardened him more than watching her undress or enjoy herself in the water, he kissed her right temple. Liam granted her nothing more than a close-mouthed peck on the temple, but she leaned into it.
He eased away and kissed her other temple. Again he lingered just long enough for her to lean into it. Pulling away, he moved from her right cheekbone to her left, taking his time to savor the lingering scent of her morning shower.
Grey sighed as he placed his lips to her right jaw. Unlike the last caresses he opened his mouth this time. He blew a warm breath along the edge of her jaw and ear. She squirmed. He grinned as a shiver slid over his arms. Then he kissed her left jawbone and again blew a long breath before closing his lips.
She arched her back, shifting the silk of her skin beneath his fingers. They curled of their own accord into the flesh of her waist. It wasn’t enough. None of it was enough.
Her nipples pressed against his chest, begged for attention. A flick of his fingers would be cheating, worse, a flick would lead to a squeeze, which would lead to all out groping.
Poking the tip of his tongue between his lips he ran it from her jaw down to the hollow of her neck. “You taste like salty sea,” he murmured.
She dropped her head back on a sigh. Her pussy rubbed the length of his dick. His eyes rolled back in his head. Liam bit down on his tongue to keep from sinking his teeth into her
.
“Liam.”
“I’m just getting warmed up.”
Her moaned response was all the encouragement he needed to continue. Her sides quivered beneath his gliding hands. When she rested her hands on his shoulders he allowed himself the briefest brush of thumb against nipple. She jumped. Power surged in his veins and melted his muscles.
He gripped her shoulders and eased her back. Cravings crashed in her gaze, mirror reflections of his own. He ached with his body’s tightening need to plunge deep. Her pelvis rotated forward, teasing him. He’d deserve a box of medals if he held out all night.
Liam growled as he swept in and claimed her mouth. Even if she asked for sex he didn’t have a condom so they’d have to stop, but he’d be damned if he didn’t yearn for it. She opened for him, angled left while he angled right. Tongues danced. Lips brushed.
Grey rolled her hips again. Her heated wetness seeped through his shorts. His hips rose to meet hers. She grabbed his head and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss. He explored the inner recesses of her mouth, slid his tongue between her gums and teeth.
She ground against him, moving faster. The lining of his running shorts became slippery with her arousal as she neared orgasm.
Liam ripped his mouth from hers and sank his teeth into her neck. She rubbed herself against him. He suckled on her neck.
Orgasm built, drew closer and closer with each panting breath. The moment he began to go over the ledge, Grey arched her back and pressed herself close.
The layers of his shorts muffled the flexing pulses of her orgasm, but he was too attuned to her to miss them. He moved his mouth back to hers and kissed her gently until her pulses eased. He’d promised to stop at kissing and while he wasn’t sure if he’d kept that promise he couldn’t regret it, because no kiss had ever been so hot.
Grey rested her head on Liam’s shoulder and huddled close as he pulled the spare blanket over her. The darkness, gratefully, hid the flush heating her cheeks. She’d asked him to stop at kissing and then she’d rubbed herself off on him.
No mixed messages there. “Liam?”
“Mmm?”
“How did you know where I was?”
“I planted a tracker in your car.”
“Oh?”
“And in your phone.”
“I see.”
“And I bugged you.”
“What? How?” She lurched up, but he pulled her back. When she’d again settled against him he traced a finger along the back of her neck.
“Kieralyn’s husband created a listening device that can be stuck to your skin and looks like a hair.”
“How long have you been listening to me?”
“Only after you checked in at the motel.”
“I see. And when did you bug me?”
“While you were sleeping that first night after you’d almost left.” His fingers moved along her neck and over her shoulder. The post-orgasm excitement that had settled began to rise again, rush through her blood.
“Why? I had agreed to stay.” Not that she had, but she hadn’t snuck out.
“I was scared.” Liam rubbed his face against the top of her head. His heart pounded hard and erratic beneath her ear. “I was scared you’d change your mind. I wanted to know I could find you.”
“That’s why you let me go, because you’d know where I was.”
“No. I let you go because you wanted freedom and trusted me to give it to you. The bugs just made watching you walk a little less painful.”
She chuckled. “Like I could hurt you.”
In a blur, Liam rolled Grey to her back and towered over her. His gaze bored into her. Unblinking. Hard.
She swallowed.
“You scare me, Grey, because I’m afraid I’ll mess up when it matters most because of worrying about you. You have an eerie power over me and yes, when you ran from me at the house, each step away was a bullet to my heart.”
“I had no idea.”
“I didn’t want you to. I still don’t.”
“Then why did you?” She tugged at his shirt. He’d been so hard and rigid after the incident. The kiss being the one exception.
“I don’t want to lie to you, but I really don’t want to be left behind wondering if you’re safe. Especially since we know Jessup has people coming for you.”
Grey nodded. She still wasn’t ready to think about being Liam’s wife or how unsuited she was for his world, but she couldn’t deny him.
“I won’t run again. I have no doubt I’ll freak out on you again, and I still think I’m bringing unnecessary danger to your door, but I promise not to leave again until we’re certain it’s safe.”
“You could be stuck with me for a while.”
“I know.”
“You may meet more of my family.”
“I’ll be nice.” She knew that wasn’t what he meant, but the other was something else she couldn’t think about.
“I’m not lying about who you are.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to tack ‘my wife’ to every introduction.”
“No, but I happen to like the sound of it.”
“Liam.” The man was a wall of stubborn. And then he did something disarming like smile with a gleam in his gaze that rattled her resolve.
He smiled with that gleam and inclined his head like he was acknowledging a point. “But—” he lifted her left hand and pressed a kiss to the diamond ring he’d given her in Vegas, “—if you promise to stay and let us help you until you and I both agree you’re safe I will promise not to introduce you as my wife.”
His lips over her finger, over the ring she’d been unwilling to remove, were reminders of the night she’d agreed to marry him. He’d kissed her the same way after slipping the ring on the first time. “I feel like you’ve left room for a loophole in there.”
He smiled. “Do we have a deal?”
“On one condition.”
“Name it.”
“Take me home. I may be easygoing but I’m not a girl who sleeps nude under the stars.”
“On one hand that’s sad to hear.”
“But on the other?” She might have just rediscovered the fun Liam she’d met in Vegas.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing you nude on my bed.” With a grin he grabbed his backpack, wrapped her in a blanket and carried her toward the car.
“My clothes!”
“We’ll get them later.”
“They’re the only ones I have left.” Everything she had had been left in her car and motel room.
“Fine.” He set her on her feet and hurried to gather her things. Even if she did have something else to wear she would’ve wanted her things picked up. Otherwise she’d be embarrassed by the idea of Ava’s fiancé gathering her underwear.
Liam returned with her clothes and the towels and blankets he’d borrowed. “Better?”
“Yes,” she replied sweetly. “Thank you.”
“Sure thing.” He walked toward the building’s back entrance. “Though I’d rather be carrying you.”
“You’re a complex man, Liam Burgess.”
He coded into the back door and headed to the locker room. “I prefer my naked wife in my arms instead of her clothes. Nothing complex there.”
“Liam, you promised.”
“I promised not to introduce you to everyone as my wife. I never promised to pretend you weren’t.”
“I knew there were loopholes.”
“Stick around long enough and maybe you’ll learn to work them in your favor. Now…” He tossed her shirt and capris over his shoulder, tucked her bra and panties in his pocket and opened his empty arms. “Shall we go?”
“I am perfectly capable of walking.” She angled her shoulders away from him as she passed.
He swept her off her feet, curled her close and headed to the front of the building. The feel of his arms and body supporting her were almost hypnotic enough to banish her free will.
“I really can walk.”
“Don’t
take this the wrong way.” He paused long enough to code out of the front door. “But putting aside how sexy your walk is, I’ve seen enough of it for the next little while.”
He wasn’t letting her off the hook easily, which she probably deserved. It made her wonder if she had hurt him. Did he really care that much? If he did, why? How long could it really last?
“I made a promise.”
“More than one.”
“Are you going to forgive me for leaving?”
“There’s nothing to forgive, though it’s going to take some time to forget.”
“I don’t think we ever forget. At least not the big stuff.”
He set her on her feet beside the car. Framing her face with his hands he leaned in close. Her breath caught at the raw sincerity in his gaze.
“Greycen Craig Burgess, you should consider yourself big stuff. Nothing you say or do will be easily forgotten.”
She swallowed and hoped nothing else would be said. Anything more would minimize his admission. Ready or not, she was falling and no amount of fairy dust would save her.
Chapter Twelve
Grey hid at the top of the stairs and listened as Liam answered the door. A woman’s cheery laugh reached her clearly.
“It never matters what you’ve changed, Liam, a part of me always feels dirty when I come in here.” The woman talked fast and sounded as chipper as her laugh. “At least until I see the sun. I love the light all the new windows let in.”
“The place changes with the people in it. And you were never dirty.”
“Maybe. Speaking of people, when is Lana coming over?”
“Anytime.”
“Would it be okay if I invited Lori over?” The woman laughed again. “She’s curious to see what changes you’ve made.”
“If Grey’s fine with it you know I am.”
“Thanks, Liam. So when do I get to meet the mysterious Grey? Where is she?”
“She’ll be down soon. It was a long night. Is that…?”
“Yes.”
“Why don’t you go to the kitchen and make sure the coffee’s ready.” His tone shifted to humor. “She’s more talkative after a few cups.”
Taste Me Deadly (Sensory Ops) Page 10
