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Chapter Thirty-Eight

I text Liam as promised,and he’s waiting for me in front of the building. He’s leaning on the closed passenger door of the Escalade, arms crossed at the chest. Camo cargo shorts low on his hips show a sliver of tanned skin. His biceps bulge against the sleeves of his white T-shirt.

When I’m a few feet from him, he pushes away from the truck and in a single move, his left arm wraps around my back while his right-hand tangles into my hair and the back of my head.

He kisses me.

Long and slow, he savors me. His lips on mine, his tongue playing hide and go seek in my mouth. My hands come to his arms automatically and hold on. I can feel the flex of taut muscle under my fingers and my hands are on the move again, up his arms, shoulders, and the back of his head, where they fist into his hair, still damp from a shower. My body pushes into his, looking for more. His arm tightens around me. We kiss for seconds, minutes, years. Everything fades around us. There’s only this. His touch, his taste, the heat of his skin, the clean scent of man and need.

He pulls back after a while. But just enough so we can breathe, his lips graze my cheek, then my forehead and he places a lingering kiss on it. Little by little, the outside world makes an appearance. The bright afternoon light filters around his wide shoulders, giving him a halo effect. The sounds of people, cars, birds pour back into the vacuum that kissing Liam creates. Kissing him fills my every sense until there’s no space for anything else. The outside world goes unnoticed, absent, until it forces its way back into my reality again.

Reality being that I’m making out with this beautiful man in the middle of campus, in front of a building where hundreds of people just had their finals and they all witnessed my complete oblivion to anything that’s not Liam.

It’s only been a day since we dropped our walls. Seventy-two hours since that first kiss. We haven’t talked about this, about the simmering need between us. We just stepped into it, not a natural progression really. We weren’t exactly friends. We didn’t flirt. It was more of a stupidly strong sexual attraction disguised as an annoyance contest—since we couldn’t get each other off, we pissed each other off instead.

His words brush against my skin. “Hi, baby.”

I have always hated that term of endearment. Baby. I’m not a baby. I’m a grown woman. I’ve always thought it a bit condescending, diminishing. I’m wrong. When said by the right lips, with the right tone behind it, this one word—baby—it says so much more than the two syllables can carry. There is tenderness in the word. It’s sweet and kind and sexy, all at the same time.

If some other guy had said it to me, I would have ripped him a new one. But in Liam’s voice, I want to hear it again.

“Hi.” My voice is breathy, a low rumble in my chest.

He smiles at me, a sexy, all too knowing smile that reminds me of the Liam I’m used to. If he says anything about that bet, I’m gonna knee him in the balls. Baby or no baby.

He doesn’t. “How did you do? Ace every test?”

“I think my GPA is safe.” I can’t hold my smile.

He takes a step back and brings me with him, placing a quick kiss on my cheek before opening the door for me. His hands are on my hips as he helps me up into it. The truck is tall and a good step up. I can easily navigate it, but then again, his hands wouldn’t be on me if I did and I kind of like his hands on me.

“We’re having dinner at my house tonight. The four of us. Pizza and beer. It’s Logan’s treat.”

“You told him?”

“Yeah, he’s pretty excited about it, so he’s buying.”

I love to see the smile on his face. Love how much lighter his whole demeanor is. He looks younger, without the weight of his tours on his shoulders. As I study him, I realize he’s studying me. “What?” I ask.

He shakes his head, a wondering look in his eyes.