Page 60 of Power Play

“I can’t wait to meet her, even if it is under false pretenses.”

“What about you? Siblings? Pets?”

“Nope. I’m an only child. God, is this what people do on first dates? It’s soboring.”

He shrugs. “Don’t know. Haven’t been on a first date in years.”

“I never thought the bedroom might be the easy part. This is excruciating. Do you have pets?”

“I have a cat.”

“What? Where was he when I came over?”

“Hiding. He hates people. Takes after me with that.” Liam smiles and scratches at his beard. “His name is Pico de Gato, and I found him when I went on a school trip to Costa Rica. He wouldn’t stop following me around, so I flew back after the tripand brought him home with me. Only understands Spanish, but we make do.”

“Do you speak Spanish?”

“I’m fluent in it.”

“Wow. I’ve learned more about you in five minutes than I have the whole time I’ve been with the Stars.”

“I’m a boring person. I go to practice. I come home. I eat and sleep, and I repeat the cycle over and over again. There’s hardly anything worth knowing in there. Do you speak any other languages?”

“I know sign language. I have a cousin who is Deaf, so I learned ASL when I was younger.”

“Alana knows sign language too. You all can shit-talk without me knowing.”

Silence settles between us, and I sigh. I reach out and play with the fringed edge of the blanket draped over the couch.

“I’m not sure what other questions I have,” I admit. “There’s probably a website out there that has a list, but I’m afraid to look at it. It’s probably overwhelming.”

“You have my number. You can text me if you think of something you’re curious about.”

“I figure you care about what your family thinks about your personal life, which is why you agreed to this fake dating thing in the first place. Being comfortable and familiar with each other would make things easier.”

Liam hums, and I think I might have hit the nail on the head. “I’m not embarrassed that I’m single. It’s more that I’m sick of all the questions. When am I going to have kids? Why haven’t I settled down? Who am I dating?” It’s his turn to sigh, but it doesn’t sound like it holds any real frustration. “I’m twenty-nine. Hockey is the love of my life right now. It’s not always going to be that way, but I want to enjoythisfor as long as I can.”

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to live in the moment. You have plenty of time to figure out what you want down the road.”

“Appreciate the pep talk.” He reaches over and wraps his fingers around my ankle. His thumb strokes up my calf, and I blow out a breath. “Do you want to keep talking, Piper? Or do you want to do something else?”

“Something else,” I say, gathering the courage to tell him what I want and wondering how he’s going to react.

Liam’s eyes roam down my body, a hungry, greedy blaze behind his gaze. “Ready for another lesson?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“We’re going to stick with what we did last time. Sex, even if it’s only being used for pleasure, can be emotional, and I don’t want to do too much too soon. We’re going to ease into it to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“We can go slow,” I hear myself say, but I think I might be out of my body. Craving his mouth on my skin and dreaming about how he’ll make me come tonight. “Patience is a virtue, right?”

He tugs on my leg, hard enough to move me, and I suck in a ragged breath. My back presses against the seat of the couch as Liam runs his hand up my thigh and toys with the stitching of my lounge shorts.

“These are fucking distracting,” he murmurs, his voice a husky rasp.

“Then take them off. I’d hate for you to be off your game, teach.”

SEVENTEEN

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