by Lauren Dane
Instead he grabbed the room service menu and flipped through it. Cobbling together an order, he called down and arranged to have it brought up.
She may have looked tired and thin but she was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. She was there and he was there, at least he’d gotten that far.
Maggie had called to say she wasn’t staying over in Atlanta with Liv and Marc had gone over to their house to wait for her to get an update. She didn’t tell him a lot and he knew that part of it was that she didn’t want Liv to feel betrayed. But she did tell him she thought he still had a chance to make things right between them.
He could have waited for her to come back by Sunday like she’d told Maggie she was planning to. But he didn’t want to. He wanted to go to her and lay it all out. They’d hammer things out once and for all and leave together on Sunday morning or he’d leave alone. Okay, he’d leave alone and then work to get her back after trying to convince himself he didn’t need her for a few weeks. But they had to work it out, the last walls had to come down between both of them or they’d never be able to move forward.
She came out a few minutes later, having changed into the soft yoga pants she thought he hated. In truth, they made her look even sexier with the way they lovingly hugged her ass and long legs.
Gracefully, she folded herself into the matching chair across from his. “Are you hungry? I haven’t eaten since breakfast. We could order up some food if you’d like.”
“Did you even eat breakfast? Liv, sugar you look like you haven’t been eating much at all.”
She shrugged. He didn’t like the dull look in her eyes.
“I took the liberty of ordering us up some dinner and a bottle of wine while you were in the other room. It should be here in a few minutes.”
“I’m going to order some chocolate cheesecake. I’ve been having a slice or two every day.” She moved to grab the phone.
“I already did.”
“You did? It’s got like eight thousand calories in it.”
He laughed. “Oh I see. You’re trying to agitate me, is that it? Well too late, I’m already agitated. You haven’t been taking care of yourself. That agitates me. A slice of cheesecake isn’t going to kill you. And if you’ve been eating it daily, it doesn’t show.”
Snorting, she rolled her eyes.
“I didn’t cheat on you.”
“I know.”
He jerked his head back, surprised. “You know?”
She shrugged.
“What the fuck is that shrug? If you knew I didn’t cheat on you why the hell did you bolt?”
“If I want to shrug, I’ll shrug. Don’t you tell me not to shrug. I’ll shrug if I want to.” Her chin stuck out defiantly and he fought the ridiculous urge to grin at her. “And I didn’t decide to believe that you hadn’t cheated until yesterday.”
He moved toward her but she put a hand out to stay him. “What? If you know I didn’t cheat on you, why aren’t we making up right this moment?”
“Because that’s not everything and if you don’t know that, we’re worse off than I imagined.”
Room service arrived and set up while she looked out the window. He signed the receipt, tipped the guy and put out the Do Not Disturb sign before closing and locking the door.
He moved to stand behind her, lightly resting his hands on her hips, relieved when she let him. “Liv,” he laid his head on her shoulder, “I love you. It’s killing me that there’s this wall between us. Let me in.”
“Do you know who first called me Liv?”
He took the opportunity to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her closer. “No. Maggie?”
“My mom. She was Olivia too, you know?”
“I remember that. I don’t remember much else about her though.”
“My dad, he loved her so much it was like my sister and I barely existed if she was in the room. Anyway, she started calling me Liv to give me something separate from her name, to set us apart a bit.”
“How old were you when she died?”
“Thirteen. She got sick when I was eight.”
“I’m sorry. It’s got to be hard. I can’t imagine.”
“It was. Anyway, she told me once that her favorite thing about my father was her ability to trust him totally. That she could rely on him no matter what.”
Ah, there it was. He’d been wondering why she’d chosen that moment to share that story about her mother.
“Nancy faked a problem with one of the machines and when I…”
“Yes, yes, I know.” She moved away and he felt her absence acutely. “I told you, I believe you didn’t cheat on me. Believe me, Marc, if I thought you fucked Nancy you’d be coughing up blood right now. Whether or not she’ll find herself in that situation if I catch her ass in town is another thing.”
“I’m lost, sugar.”
“No you’re not. And this is seriously pissing me off.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Liv? If you know I didn’t cheat on you, why are you pissed off?”
“Because I can’t trust you, that’s why. And you need to get the hell out of here right now if you’re going to play stupid.”
“You’re going to sit and eat and we’re going to talk right now.” Clenching his jaw, he stalked back to the table and began to uncover dishes.
“You need to cut that bossy shit out right now.” She sat and put a napkin on her lap.
“Shut up and eat.”
She narrowed one eye at him and he felt better at seeing her spark back, even if it was directed at him.
“I could just say I’m sorry to end this argument but I’d rather know what I’m sorry for.”
“You. Lied. To. Me.” She took a rather vicious bite of her fish and washed it down with a sip of red wine.
“When did I lie to you?”
The growl she emitted would have been cute if her eyes hadn’t looked so dangerously angry.
“On the night of the homecoming picnic. There was something wrong. I know there was and I know it wasn’t about your stress level like you said. I know it was about me. But I let it go and I shouldn’t have. I was a coward because I didn’t want to rock the boat and lose you. But the doubts were worse than losing you. You lied to me, Marc.”
He sat back, wiping his lips.
“I did. But it wasn’t important and it only would have upset you.”
“Please go. When I come back to Petal, just leave me alone. It’ll be easier if we make a clean break.”
“Whoa!” He put his hands up. “What the hell? I’m not leaving and I’m sure as hell not making a clean break. I told you it wasn’t important. It wasn’t.”
“We’ll make one if I say so.” Her jaw clenched and panic ate at his insides.
“What is it you want, Liv? Tell me and I’ll give it to you. I love you, damn it.”
“I want your honesty, Marc. We’re supposed to be partners and you’re hiding things. Lying to me and when you’re busted you have the audacity to sit there and tell me it was for my own good? It wasn’t important enough for you to tell me the truth? Is that what I’d have to look forward to as your girlfriend? Honesty when you decide it’s important?”
Oh crap. He was in a corner and it was of his own making.
“The day before the picnic, I bumped into Nancy in town. She came on to me pretty strong. There was a moment, just a moment, when I panicked. Felt a bit smothered and had a bit of a, man I’m only going to be with one woman for the rest of my life, moment. But it passed in a few minutes and I realized I didn’t want to be with anyone else but you for the rest of my life.”
She jammed a piece of bread into her mouth, clearly angry. She watched him as she finished off her glass of wine and got herself another glass.
“And when you saw how upset I was that night you told me it was nothing. You didn’t think I’d be happy to hear you’d faced a moment of fear and realized you wanted to be with me?”
“I didn’t want to spook you! I’
ve been walking on eggshells not wanting to scare you off. I didn’t tell you because I wanted to be with you.” He shot up and began to pace.
“You lied to me and it’s my fault?” She stood up but he pushed her back into her chair.
“Eat, damn you. You can be furious with me and eat some food.”
“You can’t tell me what to do, Marc Chase,” she grumbled but forked up another bite of fish and some rice.
“You talk too much,” he murmured more because he wanted to poke at her than because he thought so. “It is your fault partially. No, sit your pretty ass down. What I mean is that worrying about your reaction to things made me pull punches when I should have just shared. I see how that upset you and made you feel like I wasn’t being honest. I was about what really mattered but you’re right, honesty is important. But you haven’t been totally honest with me either.”
“About what?”
“Your doubts. Not the ones at the beginning but your feelings that there was something else and you kept quiet because you didn’t want to rock the boat. Is that what you think? That my love for you is so thin that a question would break us up? I’m here, begging you to take me back. Is that what happens with a man who’s so shallow he’d break up over a question?”
“And am I so fragile I can’t bear hearing the truth?”
“Touché, sugar. So where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know. Marc, I love you but at long last I’ve figured out a few things. I need love from a man who’s worthy of me. And I need him to trust me enough to share all of himself and be honest. Even if he thinks I may not handle what he has to say well. There’s got to be trust that the love is strong enough to bear the bumps.”
He sighed. “Okay. That’s fair. Here’s what I propose because you and I are at a stalemate. I can tell you I’m that man and that I’ll change and be totally honest from now on but it’s clear words alone won’t be enough. So let’s try this. Give me today and tomorrow. Walls totally down. Complete honesty from each of us. If, when we wake up Sunday morning you don’t believe I’m the right man, I’ll leave you alone and let you move on.”
His heart raced as she remained quiet, finishing up her dinner and mowing through the cheesecake.
He wanted to groan at the sight of her licking the tines of the fork when she’d polished off the last of the cheesecake but relief came when she nodded.
“All right, you have a deal.”
Moving to her, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her up against his body. “Well then, if you’re finished eating your way though Atlanta, let’s get started.”
Her gaze met his and he fell in, leapt into her with open arms because she meant everything to him and he wanted her to know it. He sensed her hesitation but she straightened her spine and opened her gaze. The shadows fell away and he saw her fear, her uncertainty and more importantly, her love.
Licking her lips, she exhaled and cleared her throat. “I worry that what you’re really attracted to is the novelty. You know, the woman who didn’t fall into your bed, thighs wide and begging you to fuck her. The woman who walked away first. Knowing you felt that bit of temptation but realized what we had was bigger, more than what you were giving up, means something to me.”
Touched that she’d shared something so intimate, he gave in and kissed each eyelid before replying. “I love you, Liv. Enough that it’s changed me in so many important ways. That day with Nancy, the one I didn’t tell you about, it wasn’t even that I was tempted. The fact is I haven’t been tempted by anyone else but you since before I kissed you in April. It was just a moment when I realized that it was us. You and me. And it was forever. You weren’t a passing fancy or a novelty. And you did so beg me to fuck you.”
She grinned. “You’re bad.”
“I am. You make me that way.”
She snorted. “You were born that way.”
“Okay, partially. But you’re the key. You unlocked part of me I didn’t realize existed until you came along. I never ordered a woman to hold her thighs open while I went down on her or I’d stop. You make me crave pushing you in bed, seeing what your limits are.”
“That was pretty hot. I can tell you if any other man had said the same thing to me I’d have held his head with my thighs until he suffocated.”
Throwing his head back, he laughed. “There’s no one like you, Olivia Davis.” And there wasn’t.
Need rushed through him. Need to be with her, to share intimacy, to touch and taste her in ways no other man would again. The need to re-establish their bond and connection.
Chapter Thirteen
If he didn’t start the sexin’, and soon, she’d wither and die. Liv needed him so badly she’d be begging him within moments.
He touched her. Deeply and with a rawness that was both intimate and scary. She wanted these two days to be real, to see the truth of his commitment because she meant what she said. She’d move on with her life because she’d wasted enough time on the wrong men for the wrong reasons.
But she wanted this man. Younger or not, he was the man of her dreams. And she wanted to dare imagining forever with him. But first, she wanted him to fuck her six ways ’til Sunday.
Arching her upper body away from him, she writhed until she got her long-sleeved shirt up and off, tossing it behind her.
“Oh. Well now.” His cocky grin made things inside her tingle and then tighten. “It’s like that is it?” His shirt followed and in three quick movements her bra was gone. He crushed his upper body to hers, skin to skin. The pleasure shot through her and out her mouth as a groan. Her nipples were diamond-hard, throbbing in time with her clit.
“You feel unbelievably good. I’ve missed this. I slept every night hugging my pillow but it wasn’t the same.” Liv’s emotion thickened her words but she knew he needed to hear them as much as she needed to say them.
“Girl, I love you. No one ever said anything like that to me before. It disarms me,” he murmured against her temple as he pressed hot kisses down her face, over the edge of her jaw to her mouth.
When he finally kissed her, after over a week of absence, she came home, felt the shape and form of a future she’d dared not imagine. His lips covered hers. No gentleness, only barely leashed passion as she opened to him in a gasp and his tongue barged in, taking what was his, had been his for months. He possessed her mouth, ate at it, devoured her, nibbled, licked, nipped and sucked.
Heat shot through her as his tongue flicked against hers, seductive. She’d missed his taste, the way his mouth felt against her own like he was made to be there.
Frissons of heat and pleasure flickered, sparking as his fingertips played at the small of her back, tracing over the indentations on either side of her spine and then along the top of her pants around to her belly button. She groaned as shivers of delight racked her body. He wrecked her, utterly. Small touches and caresses reached into her heart and captured it.
She swallowed his moan when her thumbs played over his collarbone, down the lightly haired chest to his nipples. He arched into her when she scored his nipples lightly with her fingernails and came back to flick her thumbs over them back and forth.
A slight roll of his hips and his cock pressed, hot and hard, against her body. Needing him with great intensity, her hands traced down each ridge of his abdomen and upon reaching his jeans, jerked them open.
One hand at the back of her head, holding her to the kiss, he yanked his jeans off. She heard the dual clunk of his boots and felt the breeze of movement when he threw the jeans over her shoulder. Quick, clever hands shoved her yoga pants down and she stepped out of them, kicking them away. Impatiently, he yanked her panties off. They stood pressed together a few moments, still.
He backed her toward the corner of the room where the small couch stopped her movement.
His mouth left hers and cruised down the column of her throat, across the sensitive skin of her collarbone and down to her nipples. First one and then the other.
With a fru
strated sound, one handed he pressed her breasts together and bent to them, using mouth, teeth and tongue to pay them so much attention she felt orgasm began to build.
Reaching around his body, she grabbed his cock in a sure grip and pumped a fist around him. He thrust hard and the wetness from his pre-come slicked her grip.
Impatient to feel him inside her, she angled him, hiking her thigh around his hip.
“Shit!” He looked into her eyes as he thrust into her waiting heat, naked. His chest heaved. “Oh, sugar, that’s so good. No. No don’t move. If you move I’m going to come and I’m not wearing a condom.”
Taking a deep breath and leaping into the void, hoping like hell he caught her, she writhed provocatively against him and watched as beads of sweat popped out on his forehead. “We’re tested, I’m on the pill. If this is forever, make it forever.”
“Are you sure?” She saw the toll of his self-control while he made sure she was really okay with it.
Nodding, she tightened her inner muscles around him.
“Damn! That felt good with a condom on, without it you’re going to make me come in three seconds. This is a gift, Liv. Thank you.” Drawing out of her body nearly completely, he slowly pushed back in, setting a slow, deep rhythm. “Back, let’s get you against that wall behind you.”
He helped her hop backwards to the wall where she leaned back for purchase while he resumed his pace.
“Your pussy feels so hot and tight. I’m going to have you so many times it’ll burn anyone else out of your brain out your body.”
One of his hands cradled her ass while the other did naughty things to her nipple.
“Marc,” she let a sob come, “there hasn’t been anyone else since you kissed me the first time.” Tears rolled down her face and he kissed them away.
“You wreck me. I adore you, everything about you, the good, the bad and the complicated. You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever clapped eyes on.”
This only made her cry harder as he continued to make love to her. It wasn’t gentle or soft, it was unrestrained need unleashed and she felt like a goddess for edging away his control.