Page 124 of Power Play

Scared he’ll compare me to the other women he’s been with and not want anything to do with me anymore.

Scared he’ll see me at my most vulnerable and not be interested.

I can make jokes. I can play it off with sarcasm or quick wit, but under all these games of pretend, I’m starting to think I have feelings for him—realfeelings—and I’m terrified how this next step might change things between us.

I’m still working on myself.

He doesn’t want anything serious.

Iknowthat, but it doesn’t dull my attraction to him.

At first, I thought my pull to Liam was because he was the first man in years to show me any attention. The first man to listen and seem interested in what I had to say.

Over time, though, I’m learning it’shimI’m drawn to.

The guy at the supermarket doesn’t do anything for me.

The guy at the western bar didn’t do anything for me.

Liamdoes something for me, and tonight I get to have him exactly how I’ve wanted him from the very beginning.

“Hey.” He rubs the inside of my wrist. My eyes shoot to his, and he’s watching me. Studying me. Clawing past the layers and finding the most intimate parts of me, andgodthat makes my chest ache. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head and smile. “I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

“Piper. Don’t hide from me.”

“It’s silly. I’m supposed to get on my knees and blow you. You’re supposed to fuck me. That’s how this arrangement works, right?”

“We’re notsupposedto do anything. I need you to be honest with me, and right now, you’re not being honest.”

Damn him and his ability to read people.

I walk to his bed. The mattress sags under my weight and I sigh. “I’m nervous. Not for the physical aspect of it, but for the emotional aspect. You’ve been so nice to me these last few months. Teaching me. Being patient with me. I want this to be good for you. I want you to get off and enjoy what you’re doing. I don’t want this to be a one-way thing. I’ve always felt so rejected after sex, and it makes me think I’m the problem. Like I’m not going to be able to satisfy you.”

He moves toward me and drops to his haunches, right between my legs. He cups my face in his palms and runs his thumbs over my cheeks. “I am never going to reject you,” he says so softly, I think I might be dreaming this all up. “Ever. And I want you to know I enjoy everything I do with you, Piper. Eating dinner. Holding your hand. Watching you get off and not getting off myself. It’s going to be good because it’s you and me, but I need you to know just fucking existing with you in my orbit is enough. I don’t need the other shit. Forget sex. Forget blow jobs.Forget every lesson we’ve had. We can go to bed right now and I’ll still think the same way about you tomorrow.”

His words carve a spot on my heart—the lonely, sad, forgotten part I thought might never get attention. They tattoo themselves over every inch of the organ, erasing the old. Getting rid of the bad and making me believe them too.

“Thank you,” I whisper, but the two words feel inadequate. Hardly worthy of the way he’s building me up. Laying a brick each and every time we’re together until soon I’ll stand on a pedestal high above my former self. “Thank you for being patient with me. I want to do this, Liam, and I want to do this with you.”

There’s a tremor in his hand that wasn’t there before as he reaches up and pulls my hair free from its ponytail. As he brushes his nose against mine and kisses me softly, gently, like I’m the most precious thing in the world.

I expect him to jump right into it, but he doesn’t.

He keeps kissing me, his lips bruising mine, until I can’t take it anymore.

I reach for the hem of his shirt and pull it over his head, tossing it aside and urging him along. I run my hands down his bare back and smile against his mouth when he hisses at the bite of my nails along the line of his spine.

Liam eases me onto my back so I’m flat on the mattress. His palms run up my thighs to the waistband of my jeans, fingers toying with the button.

“Good?” he asks, unfastening the silver clasp and dragging the zipper down.

“Perfect,” I murmur, lifting my hips so he can yank the pants off my legs.

When I’m free, I sit up, discarding my shirt until I’m in nothing but the lingerie set I bought the other night with Lexi.

The purchase was an impulse buy because I wanted to make tonight special, but from the way Liam stares at me, from thehollow of my throat to the small mole next to my belly button, I know I could’ve shown up in a sack and he’d be looking at me the same way.

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