by Sara Desai
She jolted up, her mouth curving in a grin. “Trying? Seriously? Was there a video game I didn’t win?”
Cheer-up mission accomplished, but his ego was taking a beating. “Guitar Hero was never your strong suit.”
“Don’t even think about challenging me,” Daisy warned. “I was a fret-shredding machine.”
He gave a dismissive shrug, baiting his trap. “You were young, so Sanjay and I let you win . . .”
She gave him a calculating stare and jumped to her feet. “The guitar is mine.”
“The guitar is lame. Drums are where it’s at.” He picked up the mugs and plates. “Two songs and I’ll call an Uber.”
“What if we tie? It will have to be the best of three songs and I’ll call an Uber.”
“Are you sure you’re up for it?” He watched the gentle sway of her hips as she climbed the stairs. “I don’t want you to feel bad when I destroy you.”
Daisy looked back over her shoulder and gave him a grin. “You are so going down in flames.”
• 19 •
DAISY awoke as the bright morning sunshine slid through the curtains, her head nestled against Liam’s chest, her legs tangled with his. Although she was precariously close to the edge of the couch, she didn’t dare move for fear that if she woke him, this perfect, blissful moment would disappear in a puff of smoke.
She closed her eyes, tried to take a mental snapshot—the slow steady beat of his heart, the rhythmic cadence of his breathing, his familiar scent, and his warmth—heat that sank into her bones. His body was hard beneath her, and his arm lay heavy across her back—comforting and secure.
Despite Max’s misadventure, she’d had a good time last night. A great time. After countless games of Guitar Hero and a tableful of snacks, Liam had finally conceded her Guitar Hero superiority. Of course, she hadn’t told him she’d hacked the game so that no matter how badly she played, she’d never miss a note, but it was fun to watch him try. Liam never got angry the way Sanjay did. He was a good loser, his self-deprecating humor making it impossible to gloat when she won.
After her twentieth straight victory, however, Liam had begun to suspect something was wrong. He had stretched out on the couch with her guitar in his hand to inspect it for tampering, and she had curled up beside him, resting her head on his shoulder. She had closed her eyes just for a moment, listening to the deep rumble of his voice, and then she must have fallen asleep.
Now here she was, living her teenage fantasy—at least, it had been her fantasy until Liam had gone away.
That last thought came and went without leaving its usual sting. The more time she spent with Liam, the more difficult it was to cling to her anger, or to reconcile his actions with a man who could be so callous and cruel. He had pretended to be her fake fiancée at the conference, sat with her at the vet, and suffered through twenty rounds of Guitar Hero simply because he didn’t want to leave her alone without Max.
Turning her head ever so slightly, she pressed a kiss to his shirt-clad chest, imagining that this was real and every morning she could wake up in Liam’s arms. He stirred, tightening his arm around her. Daisy held her breath, hoping he would stay asleep. Once he was awake, it was back to the world of work and family and a fake fiancé who was becoming more real every day.
Her phone vibrated softly from somewhere on the couch. For the first time, she hated the thought of picking it up and reading all the schedules and notifications, reminders that after their coming sports date they would be halfway through the dating plan—halfway to over.
She snuggled in closer, resting her hand on his shirt over the ripple of his abs. Her gaze dropped below his belt. Had that bulge been there before? It gave her a thrill to imagine she had aroused him as they slept. Maybe she was a little geeky, a bit quirky, slightly emotionally damaged, and she couldn’t fit sideways through two blades of grass if she tried, but in his dreams he wanted her despite her flaws. And if he did, what was she supposed to do with that?
She eased her hand down, the tips of her fingers now just below the smooth leather of his belt. The width and length of his erection took her breath away, making her face hot and her pulse quicken. She was suddenly dizzy with her feelings for him—wanting and hating, and yearning, always yearning.
He shifted and she looked up. Sleepy blue eyes returned her gaze, heavy-lidded with desire.
Daisy’s eyes fluttered closed as his mouth moved over hers, slow and gentle, his tongue touching, tasting, exploring, like they had never kissed before. Every nerve ending in her body fired at once and she felt nothing but him—the heat of his body, the tenderness of his mouth, the softness of his hair.
With a groan he pulled her on top of him, positioning her so the bulge in his jeans was nestled between her thighs. His kiss grew harder, dark and dangerous, raw with need. It awakened something inside her, jumbling her senses, stripping her defenses, exposing her passion and a longing she couldn’t control.
Part of her desperately wanted to believe that she, Daisy Patel, who had once gone four days debugging a program without speaking to another human being, could seduce the man who had been every high school girl’s crush. But the other part, the logical, sensible part, knew it just couldn’t be true. After all, everyone she cared about had left her, including Liam. What could possibly stop him from doing it again?
Then again, what did it matter? They’d made a plan and she knew how this would end. Why not enjoy the journey?
She wasn’t a teenager anymore, tucked under her pink covers, listening to her father bustle around the family kitchen. Nor was she alone in her cubicle at work, deep in her world of code while the rest of the office buzzed around her. The day she’d run through the conference center with an armload of pads, she would never have imagined she’d find herself here—in the arms of the man she wanted and hated with equal passion, only a heartbeat away from making all her sexual fantasies come true, from feeling truly alive.
“You’re thinking too loud.” Liam’s breath was warm against her hair, his quiet voice intruding on her thoughts.
“You can’t possibly know what I’m thinking.”
“Don’t think anything,” he murmured. “Just be. Here. Now. With me.” His hands slid down her back to rest on her ass. She felt a wave of pure desire, the heat shocking in its intensity. It raced through her body, sending a wave of white-hot fire through her veins.
One word and everything would change. One word and there would be no going back.
But she’d already made that decision when she’d invited him into her home.
“Okay,” she whispered. “Yes.”
His eyes darkened, and his voice lowered to a pitch that vibrated between her thighs. “When I bumped into you at the conference, I never imagined a few weeks later I would find myself here, back in this house, on this couch, with you on top of me, your lips wet from my kisses, and no knife in your hand. I didn’t even think you’d speak to me again.”
“I guess there’s no turning back now.” She twisted her lips to the side. “Although I did leave a butter knife on the table . . .”
His low, ragged growl made the thin cotton of her shorts dampen with her desire. “You’re sexy when you threaten me.”
“I aim to please.”
His eyes raked over her body and he reached for her shirt. “Take this off.”
“You’re very bossy.”
“I’ve waited a long time to see you. I don’t want to waste a second.”
“If we’re going to do this, we need rules,” she said as he reached for the bottom of her shirt.
“What rules?” He eased her shirt up, the tips of his fingers skimming over her bare skin, fuzzing her brain. She grabbed his hand, holding it in place. If she let him touch her again, she wouldn’t be able to say what needed to be said.
“It’s just one time. No strings. No expectations. No feelings. No l
ong cuddles. It’s just sex. Like any other hookup.” She released his hand and he tugged her shirt up, exposing more of her skin.
“You aren’t any other hookup to me, Daisy, and I won’t pretend you are. But I can give you everything else, if that’s really what you want.”
“It is.” Did he sense her hesitation? Hear the lie?
He yanked her shirt over her head, and a giddy feeling of anticipation rippled over her skin at the thought of Liam’s hands on her body, of being wrapped in the strength of his arms.
“What the hell?”
Too late, she remembered she was wearing her Iron Man bra, a red and gold mask covering each breast, silver eye slits glaring into the great beyond—or in this case, at the man who had dared take off her clothes.
Liam barked a laugh. “Is that meant to scare dudes away?”
“You know I like the Avengers.” She shrugged. “I just wasn’t expecting to be . . . sharing the visual.”
“So I see.” His hands closed over her breasts. “I’m going to cover his eyes. I can’t perform if Iron Man is watching.”
“Afraid you won’t measure up?”
“More like I’m afraid he might break down the door and take me out.”
She’d been waiting so long for his touch, imagined it so many times in so many different ways that her breath left her in a rush. Wild, crazy energy sparked inside her, and she closed her eyes and focused on the sensation, the way he caressed her, the skitter of her pulse beneath her skin, the length of his cock, hard and thick between her thighs.
She wanted him closer, wanted to feel the press of his naked body against hers. She’d never been with a man like Liam—all power and muscle with a force of presence that filled a room. “I think we need to say goodbye to Iron Man,” she murmured, opening her eyes.
With a quick flick, he unhooked her bra, releasing her breasts from their confinement. “You are more beautiful than I imagined.” He tossed her bra on the floor. “And your skin . . . Christ, it shimmers like gold.”
Before she could respond, his mouth was on her nipple, hot and wet and sucking with gentle pulls. She unraveled in an instant, sliding her fingers through his soft hair as she rocked her hips on his cock.
“Fuck, Liam.” As a rule, Daisy didn’t often use the word fuck. With over a million total words in the English language, there were many better ways to express oneself, but when the man of her teenage fantasies was sucking on her nipples while squeezing her ass and grinding his thick cock against her, fuck was the perfect word to express both her emotional state—impatient, needy, and flying on an endorphin high—and her hopes for the future.
“Hold on, sweetheart.” He released her nipple with a shuddering breath. “I’ve waited so long for this, I want to take my time.” Pulling back, he trailed one finger down her middle. She tensed when he reached her belly, but if he noticed he had to double dip along the way, he didn’t seem to care.
“Who am I going to find under here?” He tugged at the waistband of her shorts. “Is Iron Man guarding the Dream Lab?”
The ring of the doorbell startled her, sending her heart into overdrive. Liam froze beneath her.
“Were you expecting someone?”
“No.” Daisy jumped up to peek through the curtains, her stomach sinking when she saw four of her aunties at the door. “It’s my aunties, Liam. You can’t be here.”
Liam groaned and threw a hand over his eyes. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m very serious.” Daisy scooped her bra and shirt off the floor. “I’m a single desi woman. If they found you here like this . . .” She shuddered. “I can’t even imagine the fallout.”
“I thought you wanted to be ruined.” Liam sat up on the couch and pulled on his boots as she raced around picking up the dishes, soda cans, and chip bags from their night of indulgence.
“Not this way. I want to be properly ruined.”
“Clearly I didn’t appreciate the nuance of your ruination.” He cocked his head to the side, frowning. “I hear drums.”
“They’ve sent someone to knock on the back door.” Heart thundering, she quickly dressed. “You’ll have to go out the window in Sanjay’s room like you used to do when you two sneaked out at night.”
His eyes widened. “You knew about that?”
“You weren’t quiet. I used to watch you from the bathroom window, or sometimes I’d go into Sanjay’s room and watch you from there.”
After a quick check of the room, she raced down the hallway, shouting in the general direction of the door. “Hi, aunties. I’m coming. Just getting dressed.”
“I like this view,” Liam panted as he followed her up the stairs, one hand caressing her ass. “I was hoping to see more of it, but without the shorts.”
“This isn’t the time.” She slapped his hand away and ran into Sanjay’s room.
“It’s like he never left,” Liam said as Daisy struggled with the window. “I recognize every book, every action figure, every Lego—”
“You can reminisce later,” she gritted out. “They’re going to break down the door if I don’t get downstairs.”
“I almost want to stay just to watch,” Liam mused, seemingly unconcerned by the danger of being discovered. “Your aunts must be great in a siege.”
Daisy shoved open the window and called out to whichever auntie had been sent to do recon in her backyard. “I’ll be there in a minute. Meet you around the front.”
“I thought I was supposed to meet some of your relatives.” Liam straddled the windowsill. “After everyone is inside, I could ring the doorbell and pretend I just arrived.”
Daisy shook her head. “It’s not in the plan.”
“Neither was this morning,” he said softly. “And you appear to have survived.”
Daisy’s face heated. What had she been thinking? Making out with Liam was against the dating plan rules. Her rules. It could complicate an already complicated situation. And yet, her skin still tingled and she ached for his touch. “We can talk about that later.”
He lifted his head and a cheeky smile lit his face. “What about a goodbye kiss for being such a good sport?”
With a sigh, she leaned forward, but what was meant to be a quick peck on the cheek became something more when Liam cupped her nape and dragged her closer, his tongue sweeping through her mouth, setting her blood on fire all over again.
Daisy pulled away, panting her breaths, her body tingling in all the wrong places. “You have to go.”
Liam stepped out onto the roof and studied the steep incline. “I’m not as young as I was the last time I did this. I need to tell you something in case I don’t make it.” He drew in a deep breath. “It’s about the night of the prom . . .”
“You want to talk about the prom NOW?” She grabbed the window, preparing to tug it down. “I have four suspicious aunties banging on my door. Sharing things about the past was supposed to happen when we were lying on the couch together.”
He gave an apologetic shrug. “You know I’m not good with plans.”
Daisy leaned out the window as he edged down the roof, following the well-worn trail over the tiles. He’d never looked this unsteady when he and Sanjay had snuck out at night, and her throat constricted
“Liam?”
He looked up, brow furrowed in concentration. “What?”
“Do you want to use the back door?”
“And run the risk of encountering a rampaging auntie?” He shook his head. “I’ll take my chances with the roof of doom. Maybe you should take a picture so the police don’t think you pushed me when they find my body in the azaleas. If I do survive, it might also be useful to show the trustees. Nothing says ‘legitimate relationship’ like having to escape down the roof.”
Daisy grabbed her phone and took a few pictures as he made his slow, perilous descent. “Liam?”
“Thank you for offering to explain about the prom. I’d like to hear it another time.”
“Good to know.”
“I really appreciated you coming to be with me at the vet,” she said quickly. “And taking my mind off Max last night . . .”
Liam grunted when his foot slipped. “Are you thanking me because you think I’m going to die? Not the vote of confidence I was hoping for.”
“And this morning . . .” she continued.
“Don’t talk about this morning when I’m trying not to fall off the roof. It could prove to be a fatal distraction.” He reached for the tree branch he and Sanjay had always used for the last, more precarious part of the descent. Daisy knew every step of their escape route. She had watched them too many times to count.
“But I have to tell you something. It’s important.”
He froze, teetered on the tiles, his eyes glistening in the morning light. “What?”
“I hacked Guitar Hero. There was no possible way I could have lost.”
A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “I know.”
Puzzled, she frowned. “Then why did you keep playing?”
“It made you happy,” he said simply. “Same reason I brought you math puzzles, played video games with you when Sanjay wasn’t around, tried to guess the after-school snack instead of looking at your meal plan, and offered to take you to the prom when you didn’t have a date. I wanted you to be happy, Daisy. I still do.”
His sweet words took her breath away. This was the Liam she knew. Kind, generous, selfless, and about to get killed climbing down her roof. “Liam! Wait.”
“I’m good.” His hand closed around the nearest branch, and her pulse thudded in her ears. A man who would do this for her, who had done so much in the past to make her happy, wouldn’t have left so abruptly without a good reason—a reason he’d been willing to share.