With a pinch of his fingers, he untied the apron around my neck, slipping it off my body first. Then my shirt. His thumbs found my hipbones, pushing the elastic waistband of my shorts lower around my hips until they hit the floor in a puddle at my feet.
It was a damn good day to go commando, and as he palmed my damp cleft, he grinned, mouth still on mine. “You took a page from my book, I see… going sans underwear.” Oh, God. Did that mean… was he bare beneath his jeans? My body clenched with the thought.
A shuddered breath robbed me of any answer as his thumb circled my bundle of nerves and I tore the shirt from my body, tossing it aside as well. My muscles were quivering as he slid his touch along my slick opening.
In contrast, Liam was still way too dressed, whereas I was completely naked.
His hands clenched my ass, hauling me up his massive body and carrying me across the kitchen. With a kick, he opened the office door and gently lowered me to a cot that was set up in the corner as I stripped him of his apron and shirt.
He stepped back, jeans slung low around his hips, and I feasted my gaze on his incredible physique. The muscles at his shoulders contracted, the cords at his neck straining with each heavy breath. Defined lines edged across his abdomen, leading down to a thick ‘v’ and the small trail of hair leading my eyes to the bulge against his zipper. Desire pulsed through me, and when I lifted my attention back to his face, I caught his eyes skimming across my body, admiring me as much as I had been admiring him. He paused at my breasts. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted you,” he groaned.
Before I could respond, he launched himself at me, feasting on my nipple. I dove my hands into his hair, my head resting against the wall behind the counter, and moaned as he sucked and nipped, his exquisite tongue laving my breast until I was writhing beneath his mouth.
He kissed his way down my body, and just as I had a moment to catch my breath, he pushed my knees open and his mouth covered my clit.
The world around us faded the moment his head disappeared between my legs. He tormented me with each stroking circle of his tongue, with each teasing lick and plunge of his finger into my pussy.
I bucked against him, entangling my fingers in his hair. “Liam,” I cried, his name a sigh on my lips. It was too good; I was too close. But I needed more. I wanted all of him. I needed his body pressing into mine as he filled me completely. I needed to come around him, while he pulsed inside of me. “Condom,” I gasped, reaching and clawing at his back.
“Not yet,” he growled, his fingers digging into the flesh at the backs of my thighs.
“Yes, now,” I cried. I couldn’t explain it, but I didn’t want to come without him. He paused, glancing up at me from between my legs. “Please,” I plead. “Now.”
I didn’t know if he saw the desperation in my face or if he didn’t want to wait another moment either, but he was quickly on his feet. Despite the long, thick bulge outlined against the denim of his pants, he undressed slowly, pulling a condom from his wallet before popping the button of his jeans.
My gaze followed as he languidly unzipped his pants and shoved them down his thick, muscled thighs. I gasped as he stood there an extra moment, allowing me to take all of him in. His gorgeous cock was hard and straight, thick with veins.
My breath hitched in my throat and I couldn’t breathe as I stared at him. He was gorgeous—and not just his perfect cock. He was gorgeous everywhere. “Do you not have any flaws?” I asked in a moment of brave honesty.
He chuckled, arching a chestnut brown brow in my direction. “You’re one to talk.”
I sat straighter on the cot, spreading my legs and gripping his hips. I gave him a tug, pulling him between my thighs so that his erection lined up with my mouth. Closer, my bare nipples brushed his thighs, the short burst of friction sending my nerve endings into overdrive.
A fierce shiver tremored through him as I reached out and gripped him. His swollen length filled my palm, heavy with need and his groan was the most erotic thing I’d ever heard. My pussy pulsed and I felt so powerful. So desired.
He hissed against a sharp breath as I stroked him from root to tip, then slowly, I flattened my tongue against the underside of his broad, thick shaft. Hollowing my cheeks, I drew his head into my mouth and took him to the back of my throat. His grunt filled the room, and I swallowed against the pressure of him filling my mouth and throat until I heard him curse above me. Then and only then did I pull back, withdrawing him from my lips and pumping him back in.
“Shit, Chloe,” he breathed, his fingers gently raking through the strands of my hair, brushing them back from my face. I gripped his hips harder and bobbed over his cock, slurping him harder and faster.
“Slow… down…” he panted and I dragged my tongue over his head a final time before releasing him from the seal of my lips.
I took the condom, still gripped in his hand, and tore it open, carefully sheathing his length with latex.
I slid myself back on the cot and Liam followed, crawling on top of me, careful to prop his weight on his elbows above me and pressing his hips between mine. I pulsed against the thick erection that nestled between my legs, and swallowed a moan as my nerves fired against the pressure and slick intimate contact.
His mouth covered mine in another kiss, maneuvering my lips with the firm movement of his own. “Do you know how many times I fantasized about this?” he asked, his voice thick like honey.
“Probably as much as I have,” I answered.
“I very much doubt that.” A sexy grin spread along his face and he shook his head, flexing his hips slowly, applying just the right amount of pressure to my clit. My head fell back against the pillow as the air rushed from my lungs. “For years, I thought about you,” he continued. “Wondered where you were, what you were doing. I would remember that kiss we shared in high school and touch myself, imagining what a night with you would be like.”
I swallowed against the lump stuck at the back of my throat. I lifted my hands to either side of his face as he nudged his pelvis closer, wedging his cock at my opening. “I’ve always been right here… you could have come to me at any time.”
He shook his head slowly, but didn’t say anything more. Maybe because we both knew what I’d said wasn’t true. Yes, I’d been here in Maple Grove, but I’d been far from available. And while Tasmanian Chloe was a lot of things… she was not a cheater. “Well, I hope I can live up to the fantasy,” I replied.
He dipped his mouth to brush a kiss at my jaw. “Fantasy Chloe Dyker doesn’t even hold a candle to the real you,” he said.
Time stood still between us, and we were suspended there, nose to nose. “Just tonight,” I whispered and this time it was quite possibly more of a reminder just to myself.
“Just tonight,” he repeated. With a flick of his hips, he pushed inside of me. I gasped, my body stretching and adjusting to his thick girth. He groaned, the sinews of his back flexing as I dragged my hands across them. “The real you is so much better than anything I could have imagined.”
Tears stung the back of my eyes as I skimmed my fingertips across his stubbled jaw. “You are perfect,” I whispered as he thrust slowly and deeply inside of me.
His mouth brushed across mine. “A wise woman told me: perfection doesn’t exist.” His withdrawal was slow and languorous.
“Maybe not,” I agreed and bent my knees. Planting my feet on the cot, I used the leverage to push my hips higher, thrusting deeper against him, and we both groaned. “But Liam Evans is the closest I’ve ever seen.”
He linked his fingers into mine and pulled my arms above my head, pinning me there to the bed as his hips set a steady, sensual pace, gliding in and out of me. A stream of apricot light spilled into the room from the window near the desk. The golden hue sliced across Liam’s face, catching against a single bead of sweat gliding down his temple. He was downright breathtaking.
I clung to his hands while wriggling and pulsing against his hard body as he sped up his rhythm, rot
ating his hips in hard, measured strokes.
He bent and latched his lips to my nipple, sucking hard, as panting gasps tumbled from my trembling lips. Hands clasped, mouths possessing each other’s, we exploded in frenzied movement. Consumed by our hunger for each other, we gripped and pounded, clawing and thrusting feverishly. No amount of closeness was close enough.
He shifted my hands so that he could hold both of them above my head with one of his while reaching the other down between our bodies.
The moment his touch brushed across my swollen clit, I was done. I cried out, legs trembling and possessed by my lust, I exploded as a carnal sound tore from my throat. Blazing heat detonated through me, contracting my muscles around his cock, still pulsing in hurried thrusts inside of me.
He freed my hands, pushing up onto his elbows as his climax followed directly after mine. I was still riding the waves, convulsing around him as he groaned, his head thrown back in ecstasy, the muscles and lines of his biceps corded with tension.
His shaft pulsed, throbbing violently within me as he rocked against me, milking every last drop of pleasure he could from my pussy. Eventually, his hard, shallow breaths slowed, lengthening back to normal and we both sighed, exhaling in that satiated way that only the release of long-built tension could allow.
With a curl of his finger, he twisted a coil of my hair around his knuckle and kissed me with a careful and deliberate sweep of his tongue across mine. “You know,” he said, his voice raspy. “Having you here each morning might not be the most time-effective choice.”
I sat up quickly on my elbows. “Why?”
He jerked his head toward the closed office door, then leaned down and bumped his nose to mine with a chuckle. “Because one more second out there, and we would have violated about a hundred health codes. Do you know how long it would have taken to sanitize that kitchen after sex?”
23
Liam
The remaining two days in the week flew by and I felt like a completely new person once I got a couple days with an extra hour or two of sleep thanks to Chloe.
However, no thanks to Chloe, she kept our schedules packed and planned to the minute. Neil and I filmed all kinds of social media content on her phone, so that she could get clips of us together before he left.
And she’d kept her word when she said our night together was a one-time only thing. But there was a change in how we acted around each other. Even while we baked yesterday morning, her hand would brush mine, her touch lingering. I’d look up from where I was whipping the cream and find her staring at me.
And damn I liked it. I would take Chloe anyway I could get her; And eventually, I felt confident that she would see how good we were together. I just hoped “eventually” came sooner rather than later.
Elaina meant the world to her and she would never hurt her sister. My only hope was that once Elaina got over the pain of her and Neil’s breakup, Chloe and I could be together.
When the day of Mom’s surgery rolled around, my phone alarm blared at four in the morning. The plan was to meet Finn, Addy, and Neil at Mom’s house and caravan down to Boston General together in two cars, just in case someone had to rush back to Maple Grove for any unforeseen reason.
The sun hadn’t yet risen over the horizon and crickets still chirped, singing their evening song as I locked my front door, packed duffel bag slung around my shoulder.
When I turned toward my car, I startled, finding Chloe parked out front, leaning against her car. Arms casually folded across her chest, she smiled at me in a greeting.
“What are you doing here?”
She rolled her eyes and tugged the door open. “You didn’t really think I was going to let you go to your mom’s surgery alone, did you?”
“I’m not alone, I’ve got Neil and Addy and… wait. You’re driving to Boston with me?”
“You were there for me on one of the worst nights of my very charmed life. So, yes… I’m driving you to Boston.” She jerked her head to the passenger side door. “Get in. I already texted Addy that they don’t need to wait on you.”
Utterly and completely surprised, I circled her car to the passenger side. Still stunned as I opened the door, there was a square Tupperware on my seat. I lifted it and climbed in, popping open the lid.
Inside were four of the most wretched looking muffins I’d ever seen in my life. Dry crumbles surrounded them and the “frosting,” if you could call it that, was globbed on and lumpy. “Er… what are these?” Hell, I thought she had learned something these last two days baking with me.
Apparently not.
“Carrot and cranberry muffins.”
“Carrot and cranberry?” I repeated, unable to keep my face impassive and clicked my seatbelt into the buckle at my hip.
“Yeah,” she said, turning the engine over and starting the car. “It was supposed to be pumpkin and cranberry, but I didn’t have any pumpkin, so I substituted carrots.”
“Yeah, those two things aren’t exactly interchangeable.” My mouth twisted in disgust as I dipped my finger into the frosting on top. A hard chunk of unblended butter collided with the tip of my finger, and my stomach roiled.
It occurred to me that Chloe’s tasks when we baked consisted mostly of mixing and pouring the batter—but most of the ingredients and mixes were prepped already from the day before. Maybe I needed to expand her baking lessons.
“Well, go ahead. Have one,” Chloe prodded. “I know you’re hungry. You always eat early in the morning.”
“Um… sure. Yeah, thanks, Chloe.” I gingerly lifted one of the muffins out of the Tupperware and brought it to my lips. Chunks of shredded carrot spiked out from the side of the dry, crumbling wall of the muffin. Maybe they tasted better than they looked? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Here goes nothing.
I took a bite, the smallest bite known to man, and chewed slowly.
Nope. They decidedly did not taste better than they looked. Impossibly, they were worse than they looked. I couldn’t even fake a smile as Chloe glanced at me, anticipation etched in her raised brows and bright eyes. “Well? I think I’m getting really good. I mean, it’s only been two days, but I never would have tried to make muffins from scratch before!”
I bought myself an extra second to think as I chewed and forced myself to swallow the gritty bite. The texture of the ‘frosting’ felt like sand had been poured into the whipped cream cheese. “They’re… um… did you not use confectioner’s sugar?”
She shook her head, chest puffed, proud of herself. “Nope! I used that erythritol stuff you do. Your mom is on a strict sugar-free, grain-free diet and I wanted her to be able to have one after her surgery.”
“Yeah. The thing about erythritol is that at the bakery, I blend it so that it becomes like a powdered sugar so that its melting point is lower…”
She looked confused. “It doesn’t melt?”
“It incorporates better into the baked goods when it’s powdered.”
She blinked a few times, her confidence deflating. “Are they bad?”
“No,” I answered without thinking and wishing I had just kept my stupid mouth shut. She baked for me, which was so sweet. Especially since we hadn’t finished up at the truck until 11:30 last night. That meant she had spent the last hour of her evening baking when she also woke up before four in the morning.
Yep, Chloe Dyker was a saint. And I was an asshole. “They’re good. Really.”
Her scowl deepened. “I want to try one.” As she reached for the muffin in my hand, the wheel turned a little, swerving her car to the right.
“No!” I shoved the whole thing in my mouth so that she couldn’t take it from me and forced my mouth to curve into a smile as I chewed. And chewed. And chewed some more until I could finally swallow the giant, revolting thing down.
She glared at me, her gaze so sharp it could have cut right through the windshield. “Give me a muffin, Liam. Now.”
I sighed and grabbed one of the other muffins from the Tupperwar
e, handing it to her. Driving with one hand, she took a bite. “Oh my God,” she muttered, her mouth still full. The bite barely stayed in her mouth for one second before she rolled down her window and spat it out, tossing the rest of the muffin with it. “Oh my God,” she repeated. “I don’t even think the birds will eat that! That was the most revolting thing I’ve ever had in my mouth! And that includes Pockmark Peter Wilson when I gave him that blowjob in college!” She wiped her tongue against her sleeve. “Ugh, how could you let me eat that?”
“Let you!? I tried to stop you! I ate a whole damn muffin trying to save you!”
Her gentle giggle started quietly at first, rippling through the air with only a small trembling of her shoulders. But her infectious laugh quickly grew louder and louder until we were both laughing so hard that tears streamed down our cheeks. “You ate…” she gasped for a breath between words. “You ate the entire thing! It was disgusting, but you shoved it down your gullet like a starving seagull at the beach.”
“The things I do for you, Dyker!”
But really, it was what she did for me that was so amazing—terrible muffins and all—Chloe was the real thing. She was true and good and honest.
And I was damn lucky to have her. Even if it was only as a friend.
Most of my life, my brothers and sister had been my best friends. Maybe some of my only friends. At least the ones that stood the test of time. I leaned on them consistently.
A sobering thought slammed into me as my laughter subsided. I leaned on them—but they didn’t lean on me nearly as much. Neil had made friends out in LA. And Addy was Maple Grove’s social butterfly. She knew everyone. As one of the few late-night bartenders in our small town, she was practically a therapist who knew everyone’s problems. And, of course, Finn could charm the pants off of any woman… and did. Consistently. Not to mention he had his fraternity brothers, and most of them still lived within an hour of here.
Sugarlips (Beefcakes Book 2) Page 16