Page 5 of Holiday Home 4

For some reason, she blushed. Also, her gaze drifted toward his door. It was still open; his hand was resting on it while he mulled his options, in fact.

“Are you going to close that?”

“If you tell me how old you were when you started handling your own laundry.”

Mouth tugging askew, she pulled out the wheeled chair by his desk and sat down. Eventually, still blushing, she admitted, “Eleven.”

“Ah, so I was off by seven whole years,” he said, swinging his bedroom door closed.

“Yes, you were.”

Grinning, he walked over to her, not his bed. He sat on the ground next to her, legs crossed. Anna eyed him curiously, then surprised him by swinging her feet toward him. Setting her socks on his calves, she looked down at him from on high.

“How old wereyou?” she asked.

Liam shrugged. “Thirteen or fourteen.”

“So,nottoo much older than when I began.”

“Yeah, but my parents made me do it to help me start building good habits for adulthood. I bet you just started doing it of your own volition.”

Anna didn’t answer, so he knew he was right. Between her, Avril, and Tess, she was by far the easiest to tease. Especially compared to Avril. Teasing Avril Knight was making a declaration of war; peace was no longer an option when you made the opening salvo. With Anna, her infinite well of patience,when combined with how easily she blushed, made her an attractive target.

Smiling, Liam lifted his hands to Anna’s calves. She tensed slightly but didn’t withdraw her legs. Why else but for this would she have placed herself in such a position? He began rubbing her calves along the outside, feeling the muscles beneath her black leggings. While she might not be part of Avril, Tess, and Victoria’s jogging troop, it was noticeable from an incredible distance that she cared for her figure. Hopefully, people would soon start thinking the same thing about him.

He’d been working out regularly since getting back to Perrymont. Spring break snuck closer every day, and he wanted to impress when he took his shirt off, not earn looks of disinterest or apathy. He hadn’t been inbadshape during winter break, but there was always room for improvement.

“I did start doing it on my own, yes,” Anna admitted. “I like doing laundry. It’s cathartic.”

“It is?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. He brought his hands up behind her knees, then leaned in and kissed her knee through the leggings’ fabric.

Anna blushed again. “I think so, at least.”

“I don’t mind laundry. Hate doing dishes, though. Grant and I made a pact to handle our own dishes immediately after use so they don’t pile up.”

“And just like that, you’re both more mature thanmyroommate—a woman years older than you.”

Liam ended up smiling as he kissed her other knee. His fingers explored her legs while they chatted, climbing nearly to her thighs a handful of times.

“So, if we were to poll yourcurrentliving place, about how many people there do their own laundry?”

“She’s gotten better at household chores,” Anna said, coming to Avril’s defense. “It’s really just the dishes, and usually whenshecooks. She hates cleaning up after herself.”

“Leaves the mess for others, huh?”

Anna nodded, then tensed anew as Liam shifted her legs apart so he could begin kissing the inside of her knee. Her face had been a bastion of expanding crimson for a while, and he didn’t intend to let that change anytime soon.

With his hands resting on the back of her legs, they climbed like two elevators racing toward the top—in a race, yet incapable of rushing. His palms moved up her calves, under her knees, and then sought to feel Anna’s thighs. She swallowed when it became apparent that his hands weren’t planning to stop, but she still raised herself enough for his hands to squeeze between her thighs and the chair.

His arms extended as his hands journeyed up Anna’s legs. She didn’t stop him. So, he kept going. His hands skimmed against the underside of her thighs, tracing the dark leggings. She had a gorgeous figure. Unexplored, but that was rapidly changing.

Finally, his hands found the alluring shape of her butt. His fingertips pressed into it, and then Anna lifted herself a little more. She was no longer technically sitting. Rather, she sort of squatted, which allowed Liam’s hands to go farther than he might have assumed they would. His hands got underneath Anna’s butt. His fingers closed in like netting pulled taut from above.

It was wonderful. If Anna needed any proof of how happy he was, she found it in how wide-eyed he’d unknowingly become. Intent, focused, ecstatic. She still blushed furiously, but she let him hold her in his hands for several seconds.

As soon as he withdrew his hands, drawing them back like ropes dragged across the ground, he shifted onto his knees.Raising himself, as Anna came back down, she leaned forward. Their lips met. A passionate kiss followed.

“Should we move to your bed?” Anna asked in a tiny whisper.

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