Page 39 of Holiday Home 5

Idiot, what are you even thinking?a voice called out in his mind.You’veseenwhat she looked like a decade ago!

She’d been perfect then, and she was perfect now. Heart pounding, Liam discovered a problem he’d experienced numerous times with the group's bustiest woman.Whereshould he look?

Tonight, though, the issue was different. Hecouldlook anywhere he wanted, and he didn’t feel ashamed for doing so for even a second. But he couldn’t cover every part of her dizzyinglycurvaceous body all at once, which turned the problem of embarrassment into one of physical limitations.

Making matters worse, Victoria didn’t give him nearly long enough to ogle her stunning figure. After a few seconds, leaving all her clothes by the bed, she climbed back under the covers. Closer to him, which he liked. But with much of her smooth, unblemished skin now covered up again.

Victoria looked at him, undoubtedly seeing the conflicting emotions he was experiencing. Her calm, disaffected stare did little to soothe him. In another life, she would have made a hell of a dominatrix.

Something scratched at his brain. What it was, he couldn’t recall. Yet it grew in intensity rather than fading. Harder, faster, like a dog’s paws churning through the sand to dig a hole and find the bone it’d hidden hours ago.

Only then did Liam remember the plan he’d come up with. In a rush of covers and limbs, Liam hopped out of bed. Victoria watched him silently, though her eyebrows came together, slightly confused that he was nowfleeingfrom her side.

That evaporated when Liam began removinghisclothes. Very hastily. At this point, he was a train plugging ahead at full speed, and he lacked the brakes to slow himself down. Only once his clothes hit the floor did he manage to delay his return to bed. Standing, he let Victoria look—and shedidlook.

“I don’t recall this being part of our deal,” Victoria said, eyes trailing down his chest, his abdomen, lingering slightly on an erection that was honestly beginning to hurt a little bit. He’d spent more of his night aroused than not, and he’d yet to relieve himself of the tension roiling within it. He felt a pinch in his balls, an ache that only one act could dispel.

For now, he ignored all that. Shrugging, he started climbing back into bed, though he made sure Victoria could keep staring at his cock until the last moment. After that, the covers only sortof smothered it; a large shape pushed up their comforter at the area around his groin.

“Is it a problem if I sleep like this?” he asked, beginning to flatten his pillows out, acting like everything happening was what he was used to. Which was technically accurate, assuming he swapped this professor for another one.

Victoria eyed him silently but ultimately began doing the same thing with her pillows. A cold war ensued. Neither of them spoke. Not as they finished “making up” their side of the beds, in what might be the most performative example of doing so this side of a bad sitcom. Their eyes met briefly, but neither of them budged. Thus, they could only finish what Liam had started, and each of them reached to turn off their respective nightlamps.

The darkness was hardly smothering. Due to the plentitude of light pouring through their windows, it was brighter than Liam usually preferred. Yet, sleep wasn’t really on his mind—or physically possible—to begin with.

Even with his eyes shut, he was aware of her presence. Aware of her shape, her beauty, the intense feelings of desire coursing through him, frightening away all other thoughts. Minus the rampant horniness, he wondered if this was how Anna felt every night, so awake in bed, unable to bring her thoughts under control long enough for her to drift off. He’d be doing none of that. He was floating down the most vicious rapids, hurled about in every direction, coming close time and time again to being thrown off his weary raft.

“I can hear your heartbeat like you’ve put your chest against my ear,” Victoria said, shattering the apparently already shattered silence in the room.

Liam searched for the right words. The woman beside him didn’t sound annoyed, like he was also keepingherup. He chewed on his thoughts, considering his options. Eventually, herelaxed the tension in his shoulders and simply spoke from the heart.

“Well, I’m just really turned on right now, so I’m having trouble calming myself down.”

He heard the sound of shifting sheets. Turning his head, he found Victoria lying on her side, eyes staring intensely into his. The comforter outlined her glorious curves, showing off what was hidden beneath. For a second, she resembled a masterwork sculpture, holding herself still and silent.

“You never escaped during or after our game and did anything to calm yourself down,” Victoria said, no hesitance at all in pointing this out.

Blushing slightly, he shook his head. “No, I didn’t.”

“It’s been hours then, hasn’t it?”

Liam swallowed. She certainly wasn’t taking any steps tolessenthe fervorous boom of his heartbeat. “Yes. Hours.”

“You didn’t ask anyone else to help you before they left.”

“No, I didn’t,” he said, voice cracked and dry. The room’s comfortable temperature pushed into sweltering.

“And you haven’t made any attempt since they departed to handle your…problem.Even though it’s time to sleep. Why not?”

He was enthralled by every soft word, held in place by the sheer beauty of her unblinking stare. How he wanted her—all of her. Right now, tomorrow, the rest of the week, when they flew back to the States.

“Because,” Liam said softly, experiencing the culmination of months of preparation and the confidence it brought, “I was hoping you’d do it for me.”

Victoria’s response was immediate andtwofold.

“Why would I do that?” she asked.

At the same time, her arm shifted. A second later, her fingertips brushed against his outer thigh.

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