Page 31 of Holiday Home 4

He wondered who had suggested this apartment as their living space. Anna, who wanted a reasonable apartment, not an extravagant penthouse suite, or Avril, who…

Liam rubbed his jaw, trying to envision why Avril would have picked this place. He struggled to come up with an idea that fit. From their Christmas shopping experience and the ridiculously expensive prizes at her New Year’s Eve party, he knew Avril wasn’t gun-shy about flaunting her wealth. So… he supposed that it must have been Anna who’d gotten them this place, then convinced her best friend to lower her standards. That made the most sense.

Somehow, it did, but it didn’t.

“Could I bother you for a second?” Liam soon asked Anna, breaking his intention to let her cook peacefully. The nagging thought hadn’t abated, and he’d eventually felt compelled to swing his head into the kitchen in search of the answer.

Anna looked up from her work, minty green eyes wavering as she emerged from her focused trance. Liam felt a little bad about that; he hoped he didn’t cause her to make any mistakes because his curiosity had gotten the better of him. Fortunately, she was staring at a timer counting down on the oven, so at least she seemed to be waiting on the next step, not in the middle of something intensive.

“Of course, what is it?”

“This apartment: which of you was the one to find and suggest it?”

Without missing a beat at the randomness of his inquiry, Anna said, “Avril did. Why do you ask?”

“It was just one of those brain worms, I guess. I started thinking about it, and then I couldn’t get it out of my head. What made her pick this place?”

“She wanted to find a spacious place, but not overly so. She…” Anna briefly paused, appearing to chew on something difficult. “Well, I think she’d be fine if I said this. She didn’t want us to end up in a place where there was more than what we needed. It’s something about her family home that she strongly dislikes, and when I found out, I was happy to look at places like this one. Originally, when she finally seemed adamant about getting a place of her own and invited me along, I assumed she’d pick out only… extravagant living spaces. She very quickly proved me wrong.”

Huh,Liam thought.Wrong about Avril yet again.

It seemed to be a habit that he just couldn’t break. Whenever he assumed something about her, especially when he tried to box her into the classical rich-girl archetype, it seemed to turn out wrong. He realized that was the feeling he’d been experiencing in the living room. His subconscious had caught onto the trend, even if his conscious mind hadn’t yet.

“Avril’s family, what are they like? I… heard a little about them from Victoria on Christmas Eve. I got the sense that it’s probably a strained relationship.”

Anna fought another silent battle with herself, but this one didn’t work out in his favor. “I’m afraid I shouldn’t say too much. Not unlike my own, it’s caused her a lot of grief over the years, but at least I have my mother. If you’re genuinely interested, you should bring it up with Avril… eventually.

“Eventually,” he repeated, understanding her insinuation. “Not today.”

Anna nodded, and the timer on the oven moved into its final minute. “That’d be for the best, given what day it is—what day we’re acting like it is.”

Accepting the wisdom in Anna’s words, Liam nodded and retreated to the living room. Only for Anna to join him on the couch about ten minutes later, informing him that there’d be about a twenty-minute wait before she’d need to return to the kitchen.

Twenty minutes well spent, in which Anna allowed their passion to reach its own simmering point. If not for the literal timer hanging over their heads, things might have progressed past just making out and touching one another over the clothes. Indeed, Anna seemed more aggressive today than he’d ever seen her, and he didn’t even need to lift her onto his lap for her to end up there.

As his mouth worked its way across her neck, he inhaled the soft citrus scent of Anna’s perfume. He absorbed the racing of her pulse as his lips traveled over it, then lingered right above her collarbone. The quickening of Anna’s quiet breathing informed him that he’d made the right choice.

“Liam,” the beautiful heiress sighed, leaning into his touch. She gripped his shirt for steadiness, fingertips wound tight through the fabric. Her dark hair curtained much of his sight, sohe instead relied on his sensation of touch. Based on every subtle—and a few that weren’t so subtle—move she made on his lap, she seemed pleased with his attention.

“You feel so nice, smell so nice, too,” he whispered, gently guiding the hand he’d set on her waist higher.

“Thank you,” his girlfriend—the one he was allowed to present to the world—whispered. She placed her hand on the back of his before it reached the soft curvature of her breast. Rather than slowing him down or stopping him, she helped his hand make its much-desired journey.

Feeling one of Anna’s wonderful breasts through her pleated top, he could feel the hardness of its nipple through the fabric of it and her bra. Because of how sensitive her breasts were, Anna practically seemed to ache for his touch, for his attention. They remembered what had transpired in his dorm room and craved another instance of the bliss they’d finally realized they could experience. As such, more seemed inevitable, yet her oven decided now was the time to interrupt their licentious fun.

A blaring set of beeps practically launched Anna up from his lap, her eyes widening as if she were coming to consciousness in an unexpected location. Drowsiness dispelled, she took a step toward its whine but stopped herself. Glancing at him, she wore a visibly pained expression, and one of her hands rested over her breasts.

“I’m sorry. We’ll… continue this in a bit?”

“That’s a silly question,” he said, rising and giving Anna a gentle but motivating pat on her butt, then a quick and relatively chaste kiss on her luscious lips. “Only the excitement about trying your cooking is enough for me to stay away from you. For a little while longer.”

Blushing fiercely, Anna’s beautiful eyes shone with relief that he wasn’t upset about the abruptness of their separation.She smiled warmly and hurried back to the oven’s side, finally silencing its incessant cries.

Just a little longer,he told his grumbling body. Both parts. The hunger in his belly and the lust in his groin.

Chapter Fourteen

Swapping Roles

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