F COURSE I was engrossed in a story when they finally did arrive back. Kneeling on a couch with my legs tucked under me, I bit the knuckle of my finger as I read. When the door opened I was startled. My arms went out to the sides and my hands spread against the back of the couch.
Liam was first in through the door. His lip curled as he saw me. His look was hungry and eager, like he’d surprised a little trapped animal. His nostrils flared as he rushed over to me. I was getting up off the couch but he held up a hand telling me no need, stay there, so I scrambled up onto my knees.
He lifted my chin and his breath was hard and hot as he told me, “I’ve missed you, little Miss Mischief.”
“And me, too,” Declan was close behind him. I reached out to both of them. My hand was on the back of Liam’s strong neck and his eyes drilled into mine. A phone rang. Liam and Declan both scowled.
Liam said, “I think it’s yours,” like that made it Declan’s fault.
Declan’s voice scraped angrily, “You know who it will be, though.”
I knew, too. I laid my free hand on Liam’s chest.
Declan barged around Liam. He took my face in his hands and looked in my eyes for a shining moment before he snatched a kiss. Wet, hot, fast, and angry, his lips took mine I tried to keep my eyes open, like he did, but I couldn’t. All too soon he broke off. As he backed away to answer the phone, he kept his angry eye on mine. Then he turned away as he bent to the call.
“Can’t I have a kiss?” I hated the needy tone in my voice, but I couldn’t help it.
Declan hunched around his phone and moved away, jerking around the room with his back to us.
Liam’s face bent toward me. The full approaching scent of him lit my body from the inside. With my fingertips I traced his lips. As I peered up at him, his arm came around me and swept me to him. Our faces were close. Close enough that I could taste coffee on the tang of his warm breath.
I stroked his cheek. When his lips touched mine, it was like my body splashed and sprayed into life. Trembling and urgent, I pressed my body against his, feeling all of his hard ridges as my soft curves rolled and spread on him.
His kiss lifted me. The heat of his body, his muscles as they rippled under his suit and his crisp linen shirt, and the insistent nudge from the uncoiling hosepipe in his pants all sparked currents inside me and made me cling to him. Made me pull him into me. Made me moan to have him closer. To feel his hot skin.
Knowing whatever was coming in on Declan’s phone was going to scatter our plans for the day yet again, my fingers clenched at Liam’s suit and gripped against him. As we kissed, his hands roamed over my body. I trembled when he held my throat. As he slid his hand down to grasp and knead my breast, I pulsed.
His hand slipped over my stomach. My breath caught as he paused to press on my mound and then I felt the air between my thighs cool as he lifted my skirt. His fingers tripped and trickled up the insides of my thighs and I melted in an explosion of need.
As Liam’s fingers teased the tops of my thighs and deftly traced and trilled along the folds of my lips and my hood, I gasped and moaned. My eyes pleaded at Declan across the room, but he turned his shoulder angrily. He spoke low and nodded impatiently, but it riled me to see that he wasn’t able to disentangle himself.
Liam’s strong finger pressed through the soaking gauze of my lacy panties and entangled itself at the base of my clit. A wave of anxious anticipation shook me. The muscles of my thighs shook and my ass cheeks clenched. He knew how to play my clit. With just one finger he could play me like a piano. A shock of sensation erupted inside me. With three fingers, he could play me like a conductor playing an orchestra.
With his free hand, Liam lifted my chin. Pulled up my face up to search in my eyes. “Have you been a good girl while we were away?”
I pressed my lips together as I nodded. His finger vibrated the wet fabric over my clit.
And he slapped my cheek. Not hard. Just hard enough that I wanted him to do it again.
“Liar.” His eye gleamed. I couldn’t read his face. His eyes shone in shadow. Hard.
Not daring to speak, I only shook my head.
His fingers and thumb pressed onto my cheeks and he pulled my chin down, then up. He made me nod as he said it again.
“Liar.”
My eyebrows steepled. I tried hard to shake my head, but he nodded it again.
His fingers slipped inside my panties and I almost collapsed. “You’ve been a bad girl. I know you have. When have you ever once been anything but a bad girl?”
“It’s a job.” Declan called from across the room.
Without taking his eyes, or his hands from me, Liam said, “When is it ever not a job? We just did a job.”
“He says that was only part of the job.”
“Oh?”
“The driver was only the opener. The real job is the boss.”
Liam’s eyes widened and he stopped moving.
“Hammer fucking deLunghi?” His mouth stayed open, “Is that what you’re saying he wants? Hammer?”
“That’s not the worst of it.”
“You’re fucking joking. What could possibly be the worst of us having to make a hit on the biggest, most senior, most heavily armed and protected fucking psychopath in the mob?”
Declan came and stood to look over Liam’s shoulder. He was watching me, too, as he spoke. “We’re to work in a team.”
Liam frowned. “We are a fucking team.”
A hard knock shook the door.