Liam kick-started the bike and revved the engine. The bike roared and settled into a low hum, the vibration of the bike went all the way to her bones. Sabrina wrapped her arms around his waist, contoured her front to his back and held on tight.
Tucked close to Liam, she couldn’t see where they were going, and that was all right with her. The wind streaming around her, the rumble between her thighs, the rock-hard abs beneath her hands, he had her at the first rev of the engine.
“I missed this!” she admitted and left the past in the past where it belonged. Vincent had ruined enough of her life. She wouldn’t let him ruin this for her too.
“You ever have one?” he said through the Bluetooth as he rolled to a stop at a light.
She sat up and eased away from him. Vincent’s image popped into her head and she didn’t care enough to push it away. Where the old pain and anger resided, indifference had taken their places. “I did. He bought it for me but wouldn’t let me ride it. It was a sweet red and black with chrome pipes and princess on the tail. It was pretty.” Silently she challenged him to tell her it wasn’t.
He chuckled and revved the engine as the light turned green. “We have to get you your own bike, then.”
A bike popped into her mind. It would be a candy apple red Fat Boy. Not that she could afford that bike, and she wouldn’t let Liam buy it for her. No, she was going to buy it for herself so no one could ever use it against her. To hurt her. To use her.
“Hey. You okay back there?” he asked.
Confused, she answered with, “Yeah, why?”
“Your fingernails are carving half-moons into my skin.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“No worries. I’ve had worse done to me.”
And had the scars to prove it.
Liam took them to a seafood restaurant on the beach. Summer night, great weather, the sun setting, of course the restaurant was packed. A two hour wait, they said. “I shouldn’t have brought you here. We can go someplace else.”
The sea was a blue ink spot a short distance away. They just had to walk down an embankment and the dunes to reach it. “It’s fine. Let’s go to the beach. I haven’t walked on the sand in years.” She took his hand and tugged him down the wooden stairs. She stopped once to shove her helmet into his chest and yank off her shoes, then she ran across the dunes.
“Hey!” he called after her, but Sabrina didn’t stop until warm gulf coast water lapped her toes.
It was beautiful and vast and stark and fathomless. If she had known this was where they were going, she’d have demanded they come earlier. She’d even brave a bathing suit for a dip. Another thing she hadn’t done in ages because of Vincent.
In a burst of insanity, she looked around at the mostly empty beach, and reached for her shirt.
“Whoa.” Liam swept her off her feet and sat her in his lap above the high-water line. She pushed him down and straddled him. Ground her pelvis against him. “What’s got into you?” He laughed and fell onto his back.
“You got into me, that’s what.” She pinned him to the sand and rained kisses all over his face until finally allowing their lips to meet. “I love kissing you. I love your taste. I love your tongue.”
“I love you.”
Everything in her halted. Heart, brain, lungs, all froze… Then warmth flooded her system. She claimed his mouth in a rough kiss and poured all she wasn’t ready to say but bubbled in her heart into that kiss. Their tongues rolled together in a sensual duel neither wanted to win. I love you too was shared with each touch, each lick. It wasn’t enough, not for her and not for him. She needed him inside her.
Her hand slipped under his shirt to travel over the ridges and valleys of his spectacular body. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel him. “I need you, Liam,” she whispered between fervent kisses and rocked her core over his cock. Breathing, thinking, neither mattered as she spiraled out of control. Losing herself in the man who loved her.
He stood her up. Shoved her shoes into her hand, grabbed the helmets and her free hand, and off they went. Even in bare feet, she could barely keep up with his long strides.
Confused and breathless, she huffed, “Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t stop until he reached the boardwalk, and only long enough for her to put on her shoes. Was he angry? No. He was focused, but on what she had no clue.
“Liam, where are we going?”
He pointed to the tallest building on the boardwalk. “That was supposed to be my end of the night surprise, but if I don’t fuck you right now, this zipper’s gonna split.”
They entered the building, Liam pulled a key card out of his pocket and waved it at the desk clerk while hustling her to the elevator. He kissed her once, hard and fast, then pointed at the camera in the corner when she wanted more. “The only show you’re giving tonight is for me.”
In the elevator, he hit the top button. This wasn’t a four-star hotel, so she didn’t expect a penthouse, and that wasn’t what he unlocked the door to. It was a regular room with a king-size bed and better-than-average furniture. He didn’t stop at the bed or the chaise to strip her clothes and make love to her. He pulled her onto the balcony. Free of anything overhead, a blanket of stars twinkled down at her, even with a quarter moon shining brightly. The gulf was an inky carpet spread below them.
“You planned all this?” she asked, stunned that he went all out and did this for her. He shrugged as if it were nothing when it was everything. Sexy, sweet, a stud with a big dick he knew how to use quite well. Nope, he was too perfect. There had to be something wrong with him, a key flaw she had yet to discover.
He leaned against the rail. “I squared it with Anna. She’s fine keeping Vivi all night.”
Add thoughtful, considerate, and responsible to the list. She turned back to the view. “This is your favorite spot?” Because now it was hers. She hoped he liked to share.
His arms came around her, caging her at the rail. He leaned in, a human wall at her back. “You’re my favorite spot.” He breathed in her ear, which sent a thrill down her spine. His hands on her hips, then her waist, under her shirt, on her skin, and spanned her abdomen.
Excellent answer. Heat spread everywhere he touched, followed by goose bumps. Feverish for more than his touch, she spun in the circle of his arms and took his face in her hands. “You’ve been here before?” She heard the jealousy in her voice and cringed. She wasn’t the jealous type, yet here she was interrogating the man. And suffering through his knowing smirk.
He shook his head and peered at her from beneath his lashes. “Why do women do that? Ask questions they already know the answer to?”
That got her back up. She pushed against him. His arms tightened, keeping her close.
“Yes. I’ve been here before, with another woman. Not this room. And not Nikki. The last time I was here was two years ago with someone I thought was special. I was wrong.”
Sabrina turned back around, made sure to rub her entire body along his. Pleased that he answered quickly to put her mind at ease, she arched her spine, stuck out her ass out and tilted her head back onto his shoulder. “You may continue touching me.” She giggled and gave his cock a butt massage.
Liam hissed low and long and palmed both cheeks. “Sassy. I like it.”
Apparently, he did by the way he touched her. Was it wrong to be relieved that he liked the new yet old Sabrina? Did he even realize that this new her really was the old her reemerging?
He slid the jacket off her arms and tossed it onto one of two chairs. He unzipped her jeans, shoved his hands inside and pushed the denim and panties down her long legs. Warm summer air flavored with sea salt and food from the multitude of restaurants on the boardwalk fanned her bare ass. She’d never felt sexier.
The first kiss at the base of her spine had her reeling. She held onto the rail for dear life. A lick followed the kiss, his mouth wet and scorching on her lower back. Her spine arched, offering more, offering all.
Lia
m dropped to his haunches. He pushed her shirt out of the way and licked down the center of her body until his tongue split her slick folds. A shocked moan ripped from her throat. His tongue danced along her flesh. She stifled another moan, barely.
“You like that,” he said between his tongue teasing her flesh. “Answer me.”
When she failed to reply, he buried his head in her, between her cheeks, and licked from one opening to the other. He lapped, slurped, and the noises he made, “Oh, God!”
He pulled away completely, leaving her bereft without his touch. A nip to her ass dialed back the heat, just a fraction, but she was desperate for him to continue.
“You like that?” He breathed against her heated flesh.
Never had anyone done that to her before. “Y-yes,” she stuttered.
“I can tell. You’re pink and slippery, lips swollen,” he said dreamily. “But not enough.” He ran a single finger along her seam. Teasing. Teasing. Back and forth. She shuddered and chased his finger, her ass jerking with each pass.
“Liam,” she cried out.
“Tell me what you want?” He licked the curve of her ass, nibbled on her flesh. Each nip of his teeth sent a pulse to her clit.
Her back bowed, seeking his tongue, his finger, his cock. Lust riding her hard, a double-edged knife along her sensitive nerve endings. “I want you.” Please. She didn’t want to beg. “I want you, Liam. So, damn much.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Not as much as I want you. Liam wanted to savor, feast on her slowly, but she was wet, and sweet, and lush on his tongue. He slid a finger deep inside her folds. Her hips bucked and her sex clenched around the intrusion. She trembled, her entire body seemed to hum. Sabrina cried out and said something he couldn’t catch.
He set his finger in motion, pumping in and out. “I want to hear it, hear you. Let the world know how good it is, baby. You want to scream, fuck it, scream.” He added another finger and rolled his thumb over her clit.
She didn’t scream, but her head dropped to the rail and she went to her tippy-toes. That was the best she could do with her legs trapped in the jeans bunched around her ankles. And the mewling sounds she made went straight to his rock-hard cock. He needed to be inside her.
Liam planted a soft kiss on each cheek and praised her. “That’s a good girl. My baby wanna come?” A vigorous nod. “Tell me, Sabrina. I want to hear you say it.”
“Liam, I wanna come.” Breathless, she panted each word.
“Look at me,” he demanded. “Lemme see that beautiful face.” He waited until she craned her head around and looked over her shoulder. Damn, lust looked good on her. Her eyes smoldered, her lips bruised from his kisses and her biting them.
Slowly he pulled out of her body and licked his fingers clean. Her eyes went wide, then hooded. She panted and tried to kick her legs free.
“Don’t.” He wanted her legs right where they were, essentially bound with limited movement. His hand went back to her pussy, two fingers inside this time, his thumb on her clit while freeing his cock. He one-handed the condom out of his pocket, ripped it open with his teeth, freed the latex and sheathed his raging erection. He was at her entrance and buried within her tight body a second later.
She grunted, held onto the rail and threw her hips back at him. He thought he was fucking her. Oh no, baby. She was fucking him, hard. He grabbed her hips, did a two-step shuffle to the chair behind him. Sabrina yelped when he sat with her impaled on his length.
“You okay?”
Her answer was a slow grind of her hips. She gloved him perfectly, clenching and releasing his cock. His head fell back and hit the glass balcony door. He couldn’t last. Had to last.
Her hands braced on his thighs, she rocked and rolled, shit, bent low and bounced on his dick. She was wild, uninhibited, and more passionate than he would’ve ever imagined. He was gonna blow. He’d be damned if he did so before her.
Liam fisted her shirt and brought her to him. In one slick move, he had his hand under the shirt, and whispered, “Thanks,” in her ear at discovering her front closure bra. A pinch and slide and he had her bare breasts in his hands, her nipples between his knuckles. She bucked, her walls gripping him with each glide of her body.
He needed her naked. Now! A quick yank and he had her shirt off and she was gloriously bare. In the moonlight, she was ethereal, her body aglow… What. The. Fuck.
They stopped moving at the same time.
“Don’t look,” she whispered harshly and slammed her back into his chest.
Too late.
She sobbed and tried to escape. Liam caged her within his arms. He expected a fight to keep her there, but she collapsed into him. Her tears were bullets to his heart. He waited for the sobs to dwindle and the shudders to cease, then carefully, gently, asked, “Did he do that to you?”
Sabrina sniffed and tucked her chin into her chest. “When he got pissed, he liked to hurt me. Soon, bruises weren’t enough. They healed. He wanted something permanent but didn’t want it in places anyone would see.” She inhaled a sharp breath and continued. “He stopped when I got pregnant, didn’t want to hurt his son.”
Gently rocking her, Liam whispered in her ear. “Show me.”
Slowly, she leaned forward and didn’t stop until she was doubled over. Moonlight illuminated each and every scar on her, from below her shoulders to her lower back.
“Cigarette burns?”
“Cigars,” she murmured.
“I’m going to kill him. I’m going to break into prison and shank his ass,” he gritted between clenched teeth. He gripped the chair until the rage passed and he could touch her with a gentleness she deserved.
He stretched his hand out, then pulled back. Instead of his hands, he paid her homage and kissed each scar he could reach.
She straightened and craned her head around to look at him. “You-You’re not disgusted?” The surprise on her face wounded him.
“Of you?” he said. “Never.” He dragged a knuckle down her jaw and wrapped his hand around her nape. He brought her closer to kiss her with all the love in his heart. “I love you. I didn’t throw that out there to get you in bed. I said it because I meant it. A scar will never change that. Never. Do you understand?”
She flexed her hips. “Yes, I do.”
Liam had gone semisoft inside of her. But that flex followed another, and her kissing him had him hard within seconds. Again, Sabrina bent low, braced her hands on his thighs and rode his cock, her body lifting and slamming down. She had no mercy and he was almost too lost to beg for it.
Almost.
“Easy, baby.” He gripped her hips to slow her roll and pressed a kiss to every single burn and scar on her skin. She stilled and a sob had her trembling. “Don’t do that, baby.” He brought her to him, wrapped himself around her, her breasts in his palms, her nipples between his knuckles. “No tears. Just pleasure.” His hand skimmed the flat plane of her abdomen until he reached her drenched sex.
Liam lifted one of her legs and draped it outside of his leg. Sabrina needed no help with the other. Open and completely vulnerable, she stretched out in his arms and let him take control. He felt where they were joined, and it shook him. They were one. She was a part of him, and he was a part of her. But they were more than the physical connection. She was in his heart, in his head, stealing parts of his soul and merging it with his.
He made love to her slowly, each thrust of his body a promise to treasure her heart as he treasured her soul and body. With his head buried in the crux of her neck and his body surrounding hers, and her soft cries floating in the air, somehow, he wasn’t holding her. She held him, filled spaces in him he hadn’t realized needed filling.
She rose and he slipped out of her. He let her go, though everything in him wanted to haul her back onto his lap. He watched her spin to face him, her legs now free of her heels and jeans. Naked, she stood on the balcony, almost translucent against the inky backdrop of the sea and moonlight bathing her skin. Damn, sh
e was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Sabrina returned to him. She climbed over his body, all legs and arms, breasts and hips swaying to a siren’s song only she could hear, and impaled herself on his cock. He gripped her ass and drove into her hot body. Then kept her hovering while his hips went into overdrive plunging into her sweetness. He couldn’t stop himself and by the nails digging into his shoulders and the desperate kisses between them, she didn’t want him to.
“Liam!” Her entire body clenched on a prolonged gasp. Her pussy closed on him as tight as a fist and released and continued. The pleasure was too much to take. He planted himself as deep as he could within her heat and came like a wave crashing into the shore.
“Sabrina.” Her name ripped from him as he spun out of control. He came back to himself with Sabrina limp in his lap, their bodies still joined. He brushed the hair off her sweaty brow and tipped her chin up for a lingering kiss. Her eyes fluttered open and the look she gave him had his heart tightening in his chest.
Everything she felt was right there on her face. She hadn’t said it yet, but he didn’t need her to because it was right there, written in the glow in her eyes. She was an open book, so easy for him to read. When she was ready, she’d tell him.
He picked up her and carried her into the shower.
“Where are we going?” she grumbled and held on tight.
“The night’s still young, lazy bones, and the bed…and the balcony will be here when we get back.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
They had dinner at a hole in the wall barbecue joint. Mesquite flavored the air, grease clung to the walls, and the soles of her shoes stuck to the floors. No chairs, just a counter that circled the room. They wanted you to eat and go, or better yet, pay and go. The waitress could give a drill sergeant orders, yet they had a line out the door of patient customers. Sabrina understood why after she sunk her teeth into the juiciest slab of ribs she’d ever tasted.
Plain Jane and the Bad Boy (Plain Jane Series) Page 19