Page 26 of Ward Willing
I laugh out loud. “Sounds about right.” Propping my chin on my hands, I watch as he works, as his muscles move and contract, as his large hands delicately cuts the sandwiches into triangles. Whenever he tells me stories about my parents, or my childhood, it makes my day. I don’t have anyone to talk to about it, but Liam seems to remember everything. “I didn’t realize I was the one who chose his name.”
“Yeah. He took right to you. Every time you came over, he’d follow you around. And those first few weeks after your parents…” Liam slows his movement. I know it’s hard to talk about it for him, too. “He didn’t leave your side. He slept in your bed or with you on the couch. And when you went back to school…” Liam swallows, setting the knife down. “He cried by the front door for days.”
My heart clenches as I pet between Captain’s eyes and look down at him. “Aww. I’m sorry, Cap,” I say affectionately. He nuzzles my hand, and he’s still purring so loudly that I can feel the vibrations against my palm.
Liam hands me a plate with a sandwich, and I thank him as I eat it quickly. The sooner I’m away from him, the better.
Sometimes I don’t know where to draw the line with him. I’m comfortable around him, and every once in a while, I think I might betoocomfortable with him and say something inappropriate. Push his buttons.Testhim. It’s not that I don’t trust him. I don’t trust myself around him.
Plus, he’s a walking threat without a shirt on, and I can’t be trusted to not gawk at his firm stomach or the way his Adonis belt cuts down into the band of his low-slung pajama pants.
I also can’t help but remember how big he was and how he was almost like a different person when we were togetherlike that.
That’s my good girl. This is where you belong. With my mouth on your cunt and your taste on my tongue.
I think you’ll be the one sayingpleaseafter we’re through.
It sends shivers down my spine whenever I remember how confident he was. How commanding and in control he was.
In fact, one taste of his dominating side was the reason I discovered whatIliked in bed. I spent weeks agonizing over what happened. I’d never had an experience like that—in alotof ways—and I prowled the internet for what it was called. I didn’t know Orion was into this kind of stuff until I overheard Liam talking to Chase about it last Christmas, and when I furtively asked Orion where to find more information later that night, he invited me to my first munch. Before I knew it, I had a word for the way Liam made me feel that night.
Eventually, that led me to the BDSM lifestyle, and I started regularly hanging out with Orion and the other lifestylers. And despiteknowingit, I still couldn’t recreate that feeling—the all-encompassing, euphoric feeling. I’d tried and failed numerous times, always chasing that high.
It never seemed to work. Not really, anyway.
I learned very quickly that it had a lot to do withwhowas doing those things to me rather thanwhathe was doing.
We both finish our sandwiches at the same time after several minutes of silence. Taking my plate, he loads the dishwasher, and I stand up to go back upstairs.
“Thank you,” I tell him quietly. “For the sandwich, but also for making sure I was okay earlier.”
“It’s not a problem, Zoe.”
Liam stands up and wipes his hands on the dish towel. He twirls it a few times, and I watch as his hands handle and grip the fabric with ease and sexual magnetism. He’s sogivingand capable. Always fixing things, always using his hands somehow. I mean, how could he possibly look like that andnotknow exactly what he’s doing? And how are women not lining up to be with him?
Since the night in Catalina, I haven’t seen a single woman leaving in the morning. He has to be sleeping with people, but wherever he goes for that, it’s not here.
What is he like with other women? Is he the same with them as he was with me? Does he revel in their taste and talk dirty to them, too?
Shaking the thoughts loose from my brain, my eyes catch on the colorful book sitting on the couch across the room.
“What are you reading?”
His responding, lopsided smile sends a kick to my heart.
“Percy Jackson.”
I groan as my smile widens. “You’re such an elder millennial.”
He barks a laugh, and Ilikethat I can make him laugh like that. “Did you just call me aneldermillennial?”
“Well, yeah.” I point to theLive, Love, Laughsign in the dining room. “If I didn’t know how old you were, your signs would give you away.”
He frowns. “What’s wrong with my signs?”
I shake my head. “That’s a very loaded question, Liam.”
He shifts his stance a bit and crosses his arms. “I have time.”
