“Fine,” he conceded. “But only if you text him.”
“As soon as we get in the car, I promise.”
With a look back at Kira’s room, Liam released me and began towing me toward the front door. As soon as we were in the car and it was turned on, he looked at me expectantly, and waited until I was done texting Zane about Kira’s mood and begging him to call her. Once my phone was back in my lap, Liam leaned in for a quick kiss before backing out of the space and heading over to his friend’s place.
I’d been there before, but still couldn’t believe the size of it when we pulled up. This guy’s house was so extravagant and large that he even hired a valet parking service for when he had parties. Kira had called his house a resort because that’s pretty much what it looked like. You could easily get lost trying to find a bathroom, and I’d told Kira he should have signs up directing guests.
He had a kitchen the size of our condo—that was only for entertaining purposes and appearance—and a much larger kitchen in the back for his chefs. Outside there was a basketball court, tennis court, two pools and a hot tub, and a small golfing area—and by small, I mean it was large enough for nine holes. And that’s not including the third pool and hot tub that were in the house, as well as the bowling alley. There were also menus placed near random phones in the house so you could call in a food order to the kitchen. And the best part? The part of the beach the house was on was private.
Like Kira said . . . resort.
Liam had gone to school with the owner of the house’s younger brother and sister, and apparently Eli and Liam did a lot of the advertising for the man’s business. Whatever his business was. I’d forgotten as soon as he’d told me just like I’d forgotten the guy’s name. Kira and I had been referring to him as RB—Rich Bastard.
There were hundreds of people there. Some in the house, some outside at the pools, and a few mingling on the beach. Weaving through the bikini-wearing girls and guys without shirts were waiters delivering drinks and food.
Liam kept his arm around my waist as he talked with someone he knew, and I just tried to take everything in again. It was all super overwhelming—even more so the second time around since Kira wasn’t with me.
“Well, don’t you two look a little overdressed?” a loud voice boomed from behind us, and we turned to find RB standing there with a wide smile. “Liam, how are you?”
“Good, doing good. Rob, do you remember Kennedy?”
Rob . . . Rich Bastard . . . same thing. I plastered a smile on my face and extended a hand toward him. “Good to see you again!”
He took my hand quickly, then pulled his away and pointed at me. “Was I really wasted last time, or were there two of you?”
“There were two. My twin, she’s not here,” I explained seconds before he pulled me in for a hug.
“Good deal, I was about to worry about my alcohol intake if I’d been seeing double.” He laughed and pointed at a man passing us. “Chris! This couple needs to be relieved of some clothing. Care to help them out?”
A uniform-wearing guy stepped up to us and pulled a key ring out of his pocket. After taking the key off, he handed Liam the key ring that had a gold plate with the number 103 on it. “Don’t lose that, please, otherwise I won’t be able to get your clothes back until everyone else has left the party. What clothes and belongings can I take for you?”
The last time we’d gone through this, Kira and I had looked at him like he’d lost his mind when he’d asked for our clothes. This time, it wasn’t any less awkward, but at least I’d known to expect it. Once I had my shirt off, I handed it and my purse over to Chris, and waited while Liam shoved his keys, wallet, and phone in my purse and handed over his shirt as well.
“Do you want me to take your shorts, miss?” he asked, and I shook my head.
“No, I’m fine with them. Thank you, though.” I knew every other female at the party wasn’t wearing anything more than her bikini, but I found it weird to walk around some stranger’s house without some kind of cover on. Not that my shorts covered much anyway, but it still made me feel better to have them on.
“There, much better.” RB gestured toward his house and smiled. “Have fun, anything you need, just call it into the kitchen. As always, it’s on the house! I have to go act like a host or something now.”
After our good-byes, I looked at Liam. “That sounded like the exact same speech as last time.”
Liam smiled and pulled me close. “It was, I don’t think he’s realized people have caught on to that—or he just doesn’t care.”
“The latter,” I mumbled.
“Probably. Do you want anything to eat or drink, or do you want to go outside?”
“Outside, please. There’s a lot of cologne and perfume clashing together in here.”
With a loud laugh, Liam pulled me toward the back, and I was quick to regret begging him to take me out. While RB’s house was something in itself to look at and explore, I hated how the other people attending the party had me feeling insecure.
I’d never been insecure until the last time I was here. I couldn’t look at any woman and know for sure that her hair was natural, just like I couldn’t look at them and find a natural chest. Mine wasn’t small, never had been. But my boobs didn’t stay up unnaturally high, looking surgically enhanced like all the other women’s. And while I’d never had a problem with my tattoos—and still didn’t—it was incredibly obvious that I did not fit in here because of them.
The only tattoos I saw on the other women were either little symbols or a word on their wrist, or something to make guys stare at their ass. And there I was with sleeves and more art and words on my chest, sides, back, and legs. I loved my tattoos; it was the other women’s looks as we passed by them that made me want to curl in on myself or leave. It didn’t really help that more often than not, people stopped talking when we walked by. They’d done the same when Kira was with us, but I’d been making myself believe it was because she and I were so identical looking. I’d been wrong.
“I don’t fit in here, Liam,” I whispered as we moved through the crowd.
“And? I don’t either. I wouldn’t want you if you did.”
I sighed, and turned to face him. When he stopped walking and leaned close, I shook my head. “But I’m not them . . . I don’t look like them.”
Liam’s eyebrows rose, and a smile crossed his face. “You don’t look like them? That’s what you’re worried about? Kennedy,” he mumbled as he lowered his head so his mouth was next to my ear. His hand squeezed my hip when he asked, “Have you seen yourself lately? Did you see how all the guys we passed were looking at you? You are easily the sexiest woman here, Moon. Trust me.”
“I don’t care about what the guys were thinking.” I pushed my fist against his stomach, but he didn’t move away. “But the differences between the other girls and me—”
“Are obvious, yeah,” he finished for me. “And I love every fucking one of those differences. Your confidence in yourself and your looks is one of the best things about you; don’t let the shallow people here make you lose that.”
I sighed and leaned away so I could look in his eyes. “If you don’t like them, why do you come here?”
“I’ve known Rob most of my life, but me being here also helps maintain the relationship between our two companies.”
I nodded, and with a deep breath in, I looked around us. There was still a group of women near us staring directly at me as they spoke quietly to each other, and instead of looking away, I raised an eyebrow and waited for them to look down.
“That’s the Kennedy I’ve come to know,” Liam said in amusement. “Let’s grab a drink, walk around the beach for a bit, and then we’ll get out of here. Okay? Rob won’t even notice we’re gone.”
As soon as my margarita and Liam’s bottle of water were brought to us, we took off for one of the paths leading down to the sand, and I couldn’t believe how much easier it was to breathe once we were away from everyone.
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After a few minutes walking along the beach, Liam pulled me to a stop and looked at me in confusion. I immediately stopped laughing at what we’d just been talking about and asked, “What?”
“I just don’t understand why you had to get away from all of them to be yourself. I thought you were supposed to be this tough girl who didn’t take shit from anyone. Even your uncle said you couldn’t be around people for long before letting them know what you thought of them.”
I laughed again, and shook my head once before looking up at the mansion. “There were a lot of them, and they all looked the exact same. It was hard walking through that while they were all staring me down.” Before Liam could respond, I said, “It would be like showing up to a black-tie party wearing a cow costume because you thought it was that kind of dressing up.”
Liam laughed loudly and eyed me. “A cow costume? Really, of everything you could have said, you came up with cow costume?”
“Shut up! I used to wear one while we were in college. I’d randomly walk around campus with it on during finals week, and Kira would wear her pig one. It eased the tension on campus and made people laugh.”
Liam was still laughing, but now he was bending over so his hands were on his knees. “You’re comparing tonight to your cow costume at a black tie?”
“Shut up,” I mumbled again, and pushed him so he stumbled backward. “It was really that awkward!”
“I’m just trying to picture you in a cow outfit. Did it have the face and everything?”
I rolled my eyes and started walking away. “Yes, it did. It even had a ribbon with a bell on it.”
“Was it named Bessie?”
I laughed and pushed at his chest, but he caught my wrist and held me close.
“Come on, it’s a fair question.”
“No! She didn’t have a name,” I said through my laughter, and a look of horror crossed his face, making me laugh harder.
“How could you not name her? That’s like not naming your car!”
“Because it was an outfit.”
Liam raised one eyebrow in a look that clearly said he was trying to picture me in the costume, and his eyes traveled down my body for a second before he asked, “Did it have the udders too?”
“Yes, Liam, it had the udders. There was a tail too, if you were wondering.”
“I was, actually. But what I really want to know is if I can call you Bessie when you wear it again.”
This time when I shoved him, he stumbled back again. “No, you cannot! And I didn’t even bring it to California.”
“You’re telling me that you’re going to tell me about this, and then deprive me of seeing Bessie?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying!”
“Whoa, whoa, wait!” he said suddenly with a serious look on his face, and my laughs stopped while I waited for whatever he was about to say. “Is that why you have the crescent-moon tattoo?”
“What?”
“Because the cow jumped over the moon. You have the cow, you needed the moon to complete it.”
“Oh my God, how did you even put those two things together? You’re so weird!” I called out as I walked away from him.
“But it’s perfect! I already call you Moon, now I get to call you Bessie too!”
“I will never speak to you again if you do!”
“Aw, come on, Bessie.”
“I hate you,” I said through more laughs and tears. “Seriously, this is not okay.”
“It’ll be fine, Bess. I’m sure of it. I promise to only say it in public if—”
His words cut off when I turned and dumped the rest of my margarita over his head, and now I wasn’t breathing because of how hard I was laughing.
Liam was staring at me with wide, shock-filled eyes as the icy drink dripped down his face, and in that moment, nothing could have looked better. “Now, that is perfect.”
With a deep breath in, he said, “That wasn’t nice, Bessie.”
Before I could tell him I didn’t agree, he lunged forward and grabbed the back of my thighs before lifting me up over his shoulder. “Oh my God! Put me down!”
Liam didn’t say a word as he began walking, and I slapped at his back.
“You are covered in icy liquid, and it is freezing! Put me down!”
“Trust me, I know just how cold it is.”
I stopped slapping him when I realized what direction we were walking in, and shrieked when he started jogging into the cold water and it splashed up on my legs. “Don’t you dare, Liam!”
“What?”
“You know what! Don’t. Do. It—” My last word ended on a scream as he launched me away from him and into the ocean.
As soon as I came up from the water, Liam was pressing his mouth to mine and slamming us back into the water.
“I hate you so much right now!” I yelled when we both came up.
I took off for the shore and, once I reached it, had only made it a few feet before I was bear-hugged from behind and started falling toward the sand. At the last second, Liam turned so he landed on his back with me on top of him. I awkwardly rolled over on top of him so I could yell at him, but his lips were on mine again, and for a few moments, I gave in to the kiss until he started rubbing sand all over my wet skin.
A high-pitched sound rose up my throat, and I struggled to get off him. I was running the instant my feet hit the sand again, and though I knew he was right behind me, he never made another grab for me until I made it up the first flight of stairs to the rinse-off station.
Liam’s arms wrapped around me and he slammed me against his chest as he moved backward. One of his hands came up to the side of my face and turned my head so his mouth could find mine, and he grunted into my mouth when he hit a wall. Turning around, he pressed me against it and moved down to kiss my neck.
“I hate you,” I whispered even as I pulled him closer, and a low, husky laugh vibrated against my skin.
“I doubt that, Moon.” Liam slammed his hand against a button on the wall as he brought his mouth back to mine, and water started pouring down on us from the showerheads.
Grabbing the back of my thighs again, he lifted me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist, and then he was pressing me up against the wall again. I met his next kiss eagerly, and my fingers secured themselves in his hair as his tongue met mine with teasing strokes. I moaned into the kiss when I felt him harden against me, and let my head fall back against the wall when he pressed himself closer to me.
His lips traveled down my throat and chest, and one of his hands moved up to push my bikini top aside before his tongue and lips were torturing my nipple. I wanted to move against him, but couldn’t given the way I was pinned between him and the wall, and a frustrated whimper left me.
Liam glanced up with a heated look in his eyes as he tried to catch his breath. “Let me take you back to my place,” he pleaded, and it wasn’t until that moment that I realized we were outside with a party going on not far above us.
I nodded and pressed my mouth to his once more before he released me and righted my top. “Let’s go.”
As soon as we got our things back from Chris, we were in the car and on the way back to Liam’s . . . but no words passed between us as the heated tension grew. When we pulled into the complex, I checked my phone and saw nothing from Kira or Zane. With a quick text to Kira letting her know I might not be home tonight, I shoved my phone back into my purse just as Liam parked.
I reached for the handle on the door, but stopped when I realized he was just sitting there watching me.
“I need to know what you’re thinking right now,” he said on a deep rumble.
“What do you mean?”
“You haven’t touched me or talked to me since we got in the car thirty-five minutes ago. I need to know if you’ve changed your mind about being here.”
A small smile crept across my face, and I leaned forward to slowly press my mouth to his. “I haven’t been talking because I’ve been anxious to
get here. And now I’m wanting nothing more than for you to take me inside.”
As soon as I grabbed for the handle again, Liam was opening his door and getting out. He waited for me at the front of his car, and pulled me into his arms when I got closer. Despite how I’d been envisioning this, I knew it was about to be completely different.
After the heated moments at the party, I’d been ready for us to start tearing at each other as soon as we were in his apartment. But even the walk to his apartment was slow, as I knew our movements would be inside. And once he shut the door and locked it behind us, I knew I was right.
He was looking at me with a stare that had goose bumps covering my body and my breathing deepening, and he wasn’t even touching me.
After putting his stuff on the table just inside the door, he walked up to me and reached for my purse before putting it down as well. And with his eyes still on me, he grabbed my hand and walked me to his bedroom. Liam hadn’t bothered with any of the lights in the apartment, and somehow the last of the setting sun’s glow outside of his windows was making the moment more perfect than I could have imagined.
Stepping up to him, I slowly started lifting his shirt, then let him finish taking it off. My eyes fell down to study his upper body and all the ink covering it, and I reached out to run the tips of my fingers across his skin.
He sucked in a soft breath at my touch, causing the corners of my lips to twitch up. The dark orange glow outside lit my forearm and hand when I rested it on his chest, and my fixated stare on it had Liam glancing down and grabbing my hand to press my fingers to his lips.
Turning me around so I was facing the window, Liam pulled off my shirt before slowly trailing his fingers up my arms and across my shoulders to untie the top of my bikini. Once it, my shorts, and the rest of my outfit were on the floor with my shirt, I leaned back against his chest as his hands made light passes across my skin—and never once took my eyes off the unblocked view of the ocean and multicolored sky until one of his hands made its way between my thighs.
My mouth opened on a muted sigh when his fingers found the piercing there and moved in a slow, steady rhythm while his other arm wrapped around my hips hard enough that I couldn’t move against him the way I wanted to. I had to raise a hand up to wrap around the back of his neck to keep myself from falling when the pressure increased, leaving me only seconds away from falling apart against him. I whimpered when Liam’s lips met the sensitive skin behind my ear, and after a few soft kisses there, he bit down gently just as my body began shaking before completely exploding. His arm around my body tightened to keep me standing when my knees went weak; and when my orgasm ended, he easily pulled me back toward the bed and laid me down.
Trusting Liam Page 11
