Page 64 of Bake You Mine
He whipped his T-shirt free from his chest. There was no real surprise here. Liam did post the odd shirtless selfie. His arms contained most of his tattoos, leaving his chest and back bare. The beginnings of a bruise stretched up his side.
“Rugby?” She gestured toward the red and purple mottledmess. He’d somehow managed to squeeze in a game during this hectic time.
Liam tilted his head to regard it. “Ah, yeah. It is a full-contact sport.”
She laughed, her happiness sparkling up inside her like champagne bubbles. “You know what else is a full-contact sport?”
“Are you asking me to stall? Because we both know the answer.”
“I’m not stalling.”
Maybe she had been, but why? How Liam gazed at her made her feel that if she didn’t hurry up, he would help her along.
She crawled over to him, dancing her fingertips across his forearm tattoo—a realistic black-and-gray portrait of his father, judging by the resemblance and his Virginia State Trooper uniform. Sensing this was not the time to talk about dead relatives, she brought her hand down to another tattoo, an outline of a city skyline.
“San Francisco?”
He turned his arm over. “Yeah. I lived there for five years and missit a lot. You don’t mind the tattoos?”
She traced her thumb along the edge of his crossed knives. “I mean, if we’re talking face tattoos, that’s a hard pass. But I like most others. Chris has a portrait of me and Daphne on his arm, so I’d be a hypocrite to hate them.”
Liam raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
She shrugged. “I’m not saying I want you to get my name tattooed across your ass cheeks. Although I assume the placement would be an homage to your favorite part of me?”
He patted his ass. “Well, damn, because I already put the deposit down.”
They both laughed, and he pulled her closer. She sighed against him. Being with him was easy. Which meant for once, her anxious mind had nothing to say.
He dropped a kiss on the side of her neck. “We can admit you’re stalling for real, now, Aubs. Can I reassure you, I find you the most beautiful, compelling woman in the galaxy?”
She brushed her hand across the dark hair on his forearm as she released herself from his grip. “Well, if we’re talking galaxies, alright, then.”
She lifted her sweater over her head. She forced herself to hold his gaze as he took her in. His eyes were glued to her breasts, which cascaded out of her brand-new pink lacy bra. She was grateful his eyes went there, and not the top of her C-section scar, which peeked out of her leggings, along with her muffin top.
“You’re beautiful, Aubs. So much so, I’m going to cheat and make you go again.”
She blushed, lowered her head, and tugged the leggings down from her hips onto her thighs. They got stuck there, and she had to sit on the bench at the foot of his bed. Laughing, he came to stand in front of her and gathered up the fabric as he tugged it off her legs.
He tossed them across the room. “Although I’ve got to admit, the effort to get them off was entertaining, like ripping apart the pretty wrapping paper to see what’s inside.”
She hefted herself up off the bench and half-crawled onto the bed. Liam let out a groan. She glanced back and found him rubbing his hands down his face, eyes glued on her ass.
“Holy fucking hell, Aubrey. You’re gonna kill me with that thong.”
A bubblegum-pink scrap of fabric covered the essentials. When she’d tried it on, she’d looked at herself in the mirror, not seeing the cellulite or stretch marks, but a beautiful woman.
“Are you waiting for permission to touch? Because you can.”
In a flash, he was on the bed next to her. She fell against him as both of his hands lowered to her backside for a squeeze. Pressed up against him, Aubrey was nearly undone by his closeness.
“I don’t mean to objectify you,” he said, “but I’ve been dreaming about getting to touch you like this for a while.”
Their dirty dreams were on the verge of coming true. It’d been a long time since Aubrey had felt desire anywhere close to this. “I bought this lingerie for you, so of course I want you to touch.”
He let out a noise from deep in his throat. She stroked his broad back.
“Your turn.” She lay on the bed, feeling beautiful beneath his gaze.
