“I’m…” Not sorry. “Not ready to share that stuff yet. I hope you understand.” Now would be a good time to leave, she even looked at the door.
“Not a problem. You should go while I get dressed. I’ll be down in a minute.” He crossed the room and walked into a closet.
Don’t know why she followed, but Sabrina found herself right behind him as he yanked a T-shirt off a shelf. “I have a lot of shit in my head that trips me up and I have to deal with it before I can share it with anyone. If you can’t understand why I need—”
He spun. “I understand. Probably better than anyone else here.” He got a faraway look in his eyes and she knew he wasn’t with her anymore. Then his eyes closed, and his head lowered. “If you keep all that shit that hurt you trapped inside, it will kill you, bit by bit, until you’re not good for Vivi or yourself. Trauma has to be shared and released for you to heal.”
“You tell me yours. I’ll tell you mine.” She tossed out knowing he wouldn’t.
“All right, lemme kick everyone out and you and I will have a nice long talk.”
In his towel, he made for the bedroom door and got it open before Sabrina wedged herself between him and the hallway. Hand pressed to his chest, she pushed him back into the bedroom. “Let’s not do that, please.”
His hands settled on her hips and he brought her into his body. “Fine. I won’t do that. But know I’m pissed off you have shit in your head, shit an asshole put there. If there is any way I can make him pay, I will.”
Liam captured her mouth in a searing kiss that left no doubt what he wanted to do to her. What she wanted him to do to her. She didn’t fight it. She wanted his mouth so rough and demanding on hers. His possessive touch on her body, in her hair. She trusted him, never thought she would trust a man again, but she did. That alone should terrify her.
They broke apart. She savored the taste of him on her lips.
“We gotta get downstairs,” he said into her mouth and kissed her again, his hands in her hair. She held onto his arms wanting, yet not sure what exactly she wanted, except for the passion threatening to carry her away.
“You’re still naked,” she said.
He backed away, one step at a time, into the walk-in closet. She bit her lip, so tempted to watch him dress, but gave in and turned away.
“I’m decent now.”
That he was. Had a pair of jeans looked better on anyone else? Nope. Definitely not. And the shirt, just a tease hugging the muscular chest beneath. Hair slicked back, curling as it dried, he needed a shave but damn! She didn’t mind, even imagined that stubble rubbing— “Keep looking at me like that and we won’t get going anywhere but that bed behind you.” He opened the door and held out his hand for her to join him.
Chapter Nineteen
Sabrina clasped Liam’s hand and followed him downstairs. She wasn’t surprised no one had waited for them to start eating. She wouldn’t have waited. Jay and Mack saw them coming and said something that caused laughter to circle the table. They were the topic of conversation. How could they not be when they spent half the evening in his bedroom. Self-conscious, she slowed and pulled away. Liam’s hand closed around hers, refusing to let her go.
“Hey, what’s going on?” He stepped in front of her blocking her view to the backyard. He studied her face, her flaming cheeks, and chuckled. “You’re blushing.”
“Of course. They think we were doing something,” she whispered. And now they were all staring. Nine faces peering at them through the glass windows.
He brought her into his body, which caused her to blush even more. “We were doing something. Well, I wasn’t. I was trying to save my virtue and fend you off.”
She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t hide her grin. “Really? You’re going with that?”
“You were all over me.”
She hissed. “I was not.”
“You kissed me.” A sly grin twisted his lips.
She smirked and cocked her head to the side. “You wanted me to.”
“Hell, yeah.” He planted another kiss on her lips for all to see.
The glass door opened, and everyone traipsed in. This time when she pulled away, Liam let her go. She went straight to Vivi, who whined the second she saw her mother, while Jay and Mack cornered Liam.
Willa approached with two plates of food. “I fixed a plate for both of you. They’re cold now.”
Sabrina ignored the censure in her voice and said, “Thanks, that was kind of you.” With Vivi balanced on her hip, she took one of the plates and set it on the table.
“Don’t worry about Vivi. She had mashed potatoes and loved them,” Anna said as she set a glass of wine next to Sabrina’s plate, then leaned in to whisper, “Liam already asked me to babysit tomorrow. I’ll be by at eight.” She waved goodnight to everyone and headed out the door.
Wow. Guess it’s really happening. She tried not to think about Liam or their date as she struggled to eat and hold Vivi, who wouldn’t stop reaching for her fork. Willa strolled by and offered to help. She took Vivi and dropped into a seat on the opposite side of the table and sat Vivi on the wooden surface.
“It’s been a while since I held a baby.” She tickled Vivi, earning a squeal. “This makes me want a grandchild. Chelsea, my oldest, finally has a decent guy in her life. One I approve of. I’d like them to be married, but it’s not mandatory.”
This was the first time Willa had shared anything with her. “Well, if you want some practice, you can borrow Vivi anytime. I may even pay you.” Hands free, Sabrina took the opportunity to stuff her face and gulp her wine. Between breastfeeding and lack of funds, it had been ages since she had liquor. The merlot balanced nicely with the juicy steak.
Willa chuckled and Vivi joined her with a gummy laugh. “Good to know. Sorry about earlier. I’m a hard-ass because I love my people, and Liam is my people.”
Liam squeezed into an opening on the bench between Willa and Sabrina. He was on a second helping of food. “I heard my name.” He glared at Willa. “You better be telling her how wonderful I am.”
She winked at Sabrina. “Naturally, what else could I be saying to her?”
Vivi saw Liam. Before Willa could react, she flipped over onto her hands and knees and crawled her way to him. He snatched her up and snuggled her to his chest. “Hello, my little lady. How are you today?”
“Dada,” she said, and continued to repeat the word into his stunned face. Liam’s gaze cut to Sabrina, probably to see her reaction, while she stared at him to see his. Vivi’s chubby little hands smacked his face, demanding his attention. He didn’t answer her. Instead, he kissed her forehead and took her for a stroll around the room.
“Well, that was eye-opening,” Willa drawled.
“How so?” Sabrina asked as nonchalantly as possible while her insides churned.
Elbows on the table, Willa leaned in and said low, “Just so you know, whatever you and him have between the two of you, it’s real. If it wasn’t, there’s no way in hell he’d be okay with that precious angel calling him Dada. No way.” With that, she pushed back from the table and joined Mack, Liam, and Jay by the fireplace.
Sabrina had two options: pretend it didn’t happen, or address it at the first opportunity, which would likely lead to her confessing about Vincent. Appetite gone, she pushed away from the table and headed for the bathroom.
“Tell me what he sees in her? Tell me.” Sabrina caught Nikki’s voice halfway down the hall.
“How would I know? You two hooked up last time you were here,” Lori said. “What did you do wrong?”
“Nothing. Sucked him and fucked him, and now he wants that skinny plain Jane looking bitch. I don’t understand men. I mean, just look at her?” Nikki snorted.
Lori tsked. “I don’t know what he sees in her? And her clothes. Salvation Army has better.”
“And the hair!” Nikki snorted. “Her roots are an inch long. And she has more split ends than hair.”
“She is petite, though. I wouldn�
��t mind being that thin.” Lori sighed.
“Anorexic isn’t petite, stupid,” Nikki snapped. “She’s not good enough for him, at all. I’m what he needs, what he wants. She is not going to show up and steal him away, not without a fight.”
A sharp pivot brought Sabrina back to the kitchen and looking out into the great room. She couldn’t call them liars. The clothes were threadbare, and her hair had seen better days. Feeding her child was more important than either of those things. As for her being anorexic, she would never stick her finger down her throat to gag. Plus, the two self-absorbed bitches should’ve seen her three weeks ago. She had no idea how much weight she’d gained, she just knew she had. Three square meals a day, and not worrying about where or when the next plate of food was coming from for her and Vivi, helped.
Was she really that horrible looking? She wasn’t a ten, never pretended to be, but she wasn’t a one either. She really hated that scale of judgement but couldn’t think of anything else.
Sabrina paused at the mouth of the hallway, her eyes burning from unshed tears. Mean girls grew up to be mean women. Some things never changed. Some people had easy target stamped in invisible ink on their forehead that only all the assholes in the world could see. That had to be why she attracted more than her fair share of assholes.
The clickety-clack of heels on the wooden floor echoed behind her. She froze and listened to Nikki say, “He’s slumming. Giving to the needy. She may have him now, but I’m not done with him.” The two swept past her as if she didn’t have ears and hadn’t heard anything they’d said. They made a beeline for the men.
Sabrina wanted to grab her child and leave, escape across the street, and lock the world out. The world included Liam. Especially when Nikki draped herself on him. I can’t keep running. Gotta plant my feet somewhere. I choose here. I’m done running. I’m done ignoring how I feel. I want him and—what the— That bitch Nikki had the nerve to play peekaboo with Vivi.
Oh hell no. What psycho disses the mom and then plays with the child. “Screw with me. Do not screw with my child” was her motto. She marched over to Nikki, body checked her out the way, and lifted Vivi right out of Liam’s arms.
Nikki gasped. “O. M. G. What’s wrong with her? Some people shouldn’t be parents,” she whispered loudly.
That bitch was lucky Sabrina was the kind of parent who wouldn’t curse her skanky ass out with her baby in her arms. No, she wouldn’t curse Nikki out, but someone so malicious deserved a bit of her own medicine.
She fisted Liam’s T-shirt and brought him to her as she went up on her tiptoes. She planted an open mouth kiss, full tongue, teeth, the whole works. Liam’s shout flashed from surprise to his hand cupping the back of her head, not giving a damn about the show they were giving.
Wedged between them, Vivi was not happy. Panting, Sabrina peeled herself off him to snatch the baby bag from the couch, and she and Vivi headed for the front door. She opened it and didn’t hear it close behind her. She kept going, all the way across the street, up her porch steps, and into her house.
The door bounced back when she kicked it closed. Why? Liam was right behind her. In her house. “Wanna tell me what the hell is going on? Why did you leave?”
Men are so damn stupid. “Go back to your party, Liam.”
She left him in the living room and took Vivi to her bedroom. In the weeks since she’d started working, she found a secondhand baby store and bought a used crib that would grow with her and a matching dresser. Anna had surprised her with a frilly pink and yellow comforter set, and Liam with a rocker. The three of them turned the room into a nursery, but none of that mattered.
Quickly, she stripped Vivi, changed her diaper, and gave her a bottle from the diaper bag. One burp and she was out for the night. Baby monitor in hand, Sabrina left the room and went to her bedroom next door. She stripped down, dropped her clothes into the hamper and…stared at them. Everything about the plain shirt and long skirt reminded her of Vincent. In a fit of rage, she snatched everything up and dumped them into the plastic trash can in the bathroom. Shirt, skirt, panties and bra, all of them.
“Tomorrow, new clothes.” A few dollars spent on herself wouldn’t blow up her budget. It was time to get back to normal.
Whatever normal was. Her new normal. Slipping into a robe, she liked the idea. The old Sabrina was gone and, in her place, the new Sabrina rose from the ashes.
Calling it a night and going to bed sounded epic, and her body certainly agreed, but she was too keyed up. Anger simmered beneath her skin, putting her on edge. Talk about me all you want, leave my kid out of it! She seethed. And Liam slept with that bitch. Now, there were images of them in her brain.
Men. Anything with a hole will do. Ugh. “I need wine.” Good thing Anna included a cheap bottle of Moscato when Liam brought her groceries. It was chilling in the refrigerator right now waiting for her to crack it open. Can’t get wasted with a baby to care for, but one glass wouldn’t hurt.
Robe loosely belted, she strolled down the short hallway and rounded the corner to the living room…and screamed.
Chapter Twenty
“What the hell are you doing in my house?” she shouted at Liam, who sat quite comfortably in the middle of her secondhand couch. She told him to leave and he’d stayed all this time, waiting for her. “Why are you still here?”
His gaze skipped down her body. Jesus, she hadn’t closed her robe all the way. She’d just flashed a track of skin from her neck to her bellybutton. She snatched the two halves closed and belted it tight. “Answer the question.”
He stood. “Two different questions. I’ll answer the second question first.” He came to her. Sabrina held her ground. “After that kiss I followed you from the house. You were so angry, you assumed I left. Well, I didn’t.”
“You’ve been in my house the entire time?” He nodded once and a chill ran down her spine. How could she be so distracted and not know a man was in her house? Not any man, she reminded herself. Liam.
“To answer your first question, why am I here, to find out what the hell set you off.” He folded his arms and glared at her.
She folded her arms and glared back. “Nothing set me off. I was ready to come home, so I did.”
“Liar. You don’t shove your tongue down my throat in front of everyone and storm off. Tell me.”
Yeah, like she was going to regurgitate what Nikki said. “Leave. I’m tired and want you to go home.”
“I will, when you tell me why you left,” he said calmly, standing there, like a frigging mountain. She was certain he’d stand there for hours.
Banked heat seeped from him to her, making her aware of the soft cotton of the robe and her tightening nipples. The kiss they shared went on auto replay in her brain. She couldn’t stop the sudden moisture between her legs or the way her mouth dried and her breath hitched. You know what… Fuck it.
“I figured I’d leave so you and Nikki could have at it.” His brow lowered and a slow smirk stretched his mouth. Damn it, she sounded like a jealous girlfriend and they both knew it.
Sabrina circled around him and headed to the kitchen. She needed that glass of wine right now. She pulled the bottle out of the refrigerator door and unscrewed the top. The glug, glug, glug was a comfort, especially with Liam breathing down her neck. Yeah, he was a few feet away, leaning against the counter, still, he was close enough.
Wine tasted just as good in a plastic cup as it did in a fancy long stemmed wine glass. A long sip gave her a few seconds to gather her wits. Their gazes connected over the rim of the cup, and she saw the smug look plastered on his face. She didn’t hate it as much as she hated the similar look Vincent often threw at her. That look came right after an ass-kicking.
Those seconds vanished when he took the cup from her hand, lifted it to his lips, and drained it. He licked his lips and God, she just had to imagine that tongue somewhere else. He tossed the cup into the sink and crooked a finger for her to come to him.
She shouldn’
t. But she wanted to. And that was enough for her feet to have a mind of their own. Four steps and she was in his personal space, staring up at him, waiting for whatever came next.
“Nikki and I had a thing last year.”
“A thing?” She had no right to feel territorial. “What thing?”
He shrugged. “A one-night thing.”
She wasn’t a prude, but Liam having a one-night thing and being so cavalier about it irked her. “That’s all she was worth? One night?”
His gaze narrowed, and he leaned closer. On a sexy growl, he said, “Yes, because she wasn’t the right one.”
The way he looked at her…
His hand grazed her cheek and slid behind her neck to thread his fingers in her hair. “I’m tired of tiptoeing around you. Are we gonna do this or not?”
Talk about laying it on the line.
“And just so you know. Yes or no, either way, you will still have a job and a place to live. I will still care about you and Vivi, nothing will change that, and I will never bother you again.”
“Am I that easy to read?” she asked.
Forehead to forehead, he stared into her eyes. “You’ve been through a lot. If you’re not ready, you’re not ready. I’ll wait.”
Sabrina brought her hands up between them and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m ready.”
She tipped her chin up and brought him to her. Gently, he took her mouth, kissing her with a tenderness she felt all the way down to her toes. He tasted of the wine they’d shared, heady and potent. She wanted to get drunk on him. Get lost in him. His tongue teased her with light flicks and deep licks. All of her throbbed, ached, it had been so long, and never with this urgency. It wasn’t like this with Vin—
Stop! Not another thought about him.
Liam swung her into his arms, the kiss unbroken.
Living room, dining table, kitchen counter, she didn’t care where he took her, as long as he took her, and quickly, because she didn’t know how long she’d last. He carried her to the master bedroom. She broke their kiss to whisper, “Don’t close the door.” Then explained when his brow furrowed. “Vivi. She’s asleep but—”
Plain Jane and the Bad Boy (Plain Jane Series) Page 16
