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Did I want to finish what I started downstairs?

I wanted to. I wanted him more than anything. And the proximity to him, mixed with the longing I’d felt for years, wasn’t leading me to wanting to decline.

But there was just one small part of me that wondered if it would be better for us to talk first. Maybe we needed to clear the air completely.

I’d tried that, though. I’d attempted to have a conversation with him in the bar, and Liam had shared so much that I wasn’t prepared to hear, things that made my heart shatter.

Plus, I’d just attempted to have a conversation before giving him an answer, and Liam had made it clear he wasn’t interested in talking about anything at the moment.

I couldn’t really blame him.

That kiss had turned my world upside down. If it made him feel even half as much as it did me, I could understand his mindset.

And really, if he wasn’t looking to hash more of thisout, if I could avoid hearing more things that might break my heart, maybe I needed to take advantage of that.

So, I took half of a step forward, closing that remaining distance between us. Liam’s breath hitched as I pressed my body against his, but when I tipped my chin up and offered my mouth to him, Liam didn’t hold back.

He took it.

One of his hands drove into my hair as an arm wrapped around my waist. He captured my mouth with his, and the restraint he’d been showing as he sat on the barstool downstairs had flown out the window.

Liam was greedy.

He had an iron hold on me, like he was afraid I might vanish if he released me. And he didn’t kiss me lightly.

No.

No, Liam was a man starved. His tongue plundered my mouth, seeking and tasting like never before, like he had years and years of kissing to make up for.

But it wasn’t just the kissing.

Liam’s hold grew tighter, and when he lifted me up with ease, my legs immediately wrapped around his waist.

That was the point at which I was gone.

It was no longer about dissecting the recent interactions we’d had or taking steps to set things straight from years ago.

This was about reconnecting with the man who had stolen my heart years ago. It was about doing anything I could to show him just how much he’d meant to me, evenif I’d led him to believe I hadn’t loved him enough to want him in my life forever.

Liam carried me through the room, but I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going or what was around us.

I trusted him. And I’d allow him to take me wherever he wanted.

My arms were over his shoulders, my hands in his hair, and when Liam lowered me to my back in the bed, I got something I thought I’d never forget.

But being beneath him, having his strong body over mine, I realized, like him, I hadn’t remembered what it was like, either.

And when he disconnected his mouth from mine and began kissing along my jaw and down the front of my throat, the feeling consumed me.

“Liam,” I moaned.

He nipped at my throat. “Missed you, Layla. God, I missed you.”

My heart squeezed. His breathing was labored, and I knew it had nothing to do with him having carried me through the suite. Liam was in agony. Not necessarily pain. But despair. Like a man who’d been lost for years, who was just now clawing his way out of some dark pit of hopelessness.

“Captain.” The word came out, and in some way, I guess it was all I could think of doing to help him. Call him by the name I’d given to him years ago, the name that seemed fitting for the guy who’d always ledthe way for me.

As much as I’d been hoping it would help him, I wasn’t sure it had worked like I hoped.