Escaping Reality

“Everything,” I pant. “You. I want you.”

His eyes darken, and he leans in, bringing our mouths a breath apart. “Everything?”

It is a question and a demand, and in this moment, perhaps in every moment since I met him, there is only one answer. “And more.”

He does not move. We do not move. There is a spike of energy between us, a shift that I have never experienced, and do not understand, but it is like a wicked burn in my body, a craving unsatisfied. “More,” he echoes a moment before he kisses me, and I taste the same burn in him, the same need. He molds me closer, arching into me, and begins to pump his hips. Time falls away. There is just the wild passion consuming us, and he is touching me, moving inside me, and I am going crazy with my hands tied. I want to touch him. I need to touch him.

He is on edge too, his grip tightening around my hips, his face buried in my neck, and with a guttural moan, he pushes harder, deeper, and my sex is one deep pulse around his shaft that begins a wave of pleasure and spreads through my entire body. I am there. I am falling, tumbling, and finally, I crash into that sweet spot. He pumps into me again, and I feel the shudder run through his body, or maybe it is me who is shuddering. I do not know how long it is before we melt into one another.

He reaches up and unties my hands and my arms fall around his neck. Liam shifts us and strokes the hair from my eyes. “We aren’t anywhere near finished. You know that, right?”

“Promise?”

“Oh yeah. I promise. And I never make a promise I don’t keep.”

He shifts his weight and somehow stands up with me still wrapped around him, him still inside me. I bury my face in his neck, inhale the scent of him, the prickling of memories trying to surface fading into his words earlier tonight. Tell me who’s scaring you and I promise you, Amy, I will make them go away. Or they will make him go away. I can’t let that happen.

***

I wake to the morning light and the soft rumble of Liam’s voice from someplace not far away, and I smile with the realization that I am na**d and I did not have a nightmare last night.

Thanks to Liam, I am certain who spent the night with his big body wrapped around mine. His big, sexy body, I amend. I am sated and relaxed. Safe. I feel safe with Liam.

Rolling over in the big, comfortable bed, I watch the curtain flutter over the sliding glass window only a few feet away, confirming Liam’s location. “I’m not meeting with him today, Derek,” I hear him say, sounding more than a little displeased. “Forget it. I have plans I’m not giving up for that jackass. Monday.” A pause. “Yeah, well, he’s lucky I’m motivated to stay around Denver for a few months. And no. That’s none of your business.”

Motivated to stay around Denver for a few months. I revel in these words, savoring them like I would fine wine in a bottle soon to be empty. But he will eventually return to New York, where you can never go again, I remind myself. Eventually he will be gone.

“Good morning.”

My gaze lifts from the bed where it has fallen, to where he has parted the curtain and is standing in the opening of the door, dressed in nothing but a pair of blue pajama bottoms. I sit up, hugging the sheet to myself, but I am not shy in my inspection of his body, gobbling up every detail of this hot man I’ve had the pleasure of waking up to, from his lean, hard body to his lightly shadowed jaw line that only makes his goatee sexier. “You, Liam Stone, are too good looking for the safety of womankind, and I probably look bad enough to scare small children and a few timid animals, too.”

He laughs, and it is deep and wonderful and far better than sunshine or cinnamon rolls in the morning. He starts toward me and I hold up my hand. “No. Wait. Stay right there.”

Stopping in his steps, his brow furrows, and I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but that savor-him-until-he’s-gone thing is ripe in my mind. Throwing aside the sheet, I expose my na**d body, and I don’t let the blast of heat from Liam’s inspection slow me down. I rush forward and stand in front of him and I am as I was last night. Exposed in the most erotic of ways.

Liam arches a brow, a question in his gorgeous blue eyes I could drown in, and probably will before he goes back to New York. I answer his inquiry by dropping to my knees and pressing my mouth to his tattoo, my hands settling on his lean hips. He sucks in a breath, his body tensing ever so slightly, and I smile against a taut muscle. I have surprised him and this pleases me.

My gaze lifts to Liam’s and the heat I see in his stare only serves to empower me. I lick his stomach and drag my finger down the line of numbers until it dips beneath his waistband, a quick tease before it is gone. “Now,” I say, “I am going to have to kiss my way down—”

A knock sounds on the door and Liam groans. I jump to my feet. “You have company?”

He wraps me in his arms. “Room service. I thought waking you up to breakfast in bed was a good thing until you started licking my tattoo.”

“You were going to wake me up to breakfast in bed?”

“Then make you the second course.” Another knock sounds and he gives me a quick kiss.

“Just to be clear. Sexy is me waking up to you in my bed and looking just like you do now, tattoo licking optional, though not discouraged. Grab one of my shirts. I don’t want any sneak peeks from room service. I plan to keep you for myself.” He sets me aside and heads toward the other room.

I stare after him. He plans to keep me for himself. I fight the urge to call him back and make him seal those words with a promise.