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Because he froze. For several beats, he didn’t move. Then he pulled his head back and stared down at my face.

His eyes were wet, a look of yearning in his expression. Liam’s hand had moved to the side of my face, and without taking his eyes off mine, his thumb stroked lightly along my cheek. The touch was so sweet and tender, just like I’d always known him to be, and the gesture had sent warmth radiating through my body.

I took a chance and smiled at him. Liam’s features softened, and his body relaxed in a way that made it feel like he’d been waiting since I left to have me smile at him.

As though I hadn’t already taken enough shocks to the heart, it hit me just how badly I’d screwed up and how much I’d missed him.

“I never thought I’d hear you call me that again,” he croaked, his thumb drifting down toward my neck. He stroked it along the front of my throat. “That’s another thing I forgot. I forgot the way hearing you say that made me feel.”

There was nothing quite like feeling such regret. If I could have gone back in time and changed things, I would have done it in a heartbeat. Not only had I walked away from the best thing that had ever happened to me, but I’d taken everything Liam loved away from him. Maybe that’s why I was still so terrified. Because I clearly didn’t deserve him.

But the warmth I felt in his gaze paired with the heatthat was coursing through my body, and I was no longer concerned with what was honorable.

I wanted Liam.

He wanted me.

Gripping his hair a bit tighter, I suggested, “So, let’s take some time to remember, Liam.”

Without waiting for a response, I lifted my head and sought out his mouth. The moment my lips touched his, Liam took over.

And I had only a few seconds to relish it, in him and the weight of his body over mine, because before I knew it, things had turned frantic.

We were both tugging at one another. Through heavy breathing, our mouths were everywhere; we couldn’t get enough. His hands roamed over my skin, along my bare thigh and beneath the skirt of my dress, so he could grab my ass.

I closed my eyes, my head pressing back against the mattress as I rolled my hips against him.

He was hard, ready, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever wanted anything more in my life than I wanted him inside me at that moment.

So, I tugged at his shirt, urging it up. Liam lifted his torso, yanked off the shirt, and promptly dropped his pants. Wearing nothing more than a pair of black boxer briefs, Liam’s body was on full display. And even if I always thought he was something spectacular, it was clear he’d grown into a man in the years I’d been gone. He was even more breathtaking now.

Liam’s hungry eyes roamed over my thighs and mydress, which was now bunched up to just a few inches below my waist.

Reaching a hand out to me, he ordered, “Come here.”

When I placed my hand in his, Liam urged me off the bed. Then he brought his hands to the hem of my dress and lifted it over my head. I was wearing nothing but a pair of underwear.

If I thought Liam had looked hungry before, he was now ravenous. Famished. And he was going to do anything for a taste.

His mouth was on me again. But instead of kissing my lips and driving his tongue into my mouth, he had tugged back on my hair to angle my head, so he’d have unhindered access to my neck. He kissed and nipped along the column of my throat before he licked the indentation at the base of it.

There was heat in my body, shivers down my spine, and tingles between my legs that only grew more pronounced as he descended on my breasts.

Liam had released my hair, brought both hands to my chest, and buried his face there, inhaling the scent of me.

“I forgot about how good you smell, too,” he groaned, just before biting down gently on my nipple.

My nails dug into his shoulder at the pleasure sensations that shot through me. Liam soothed the spot his teeth had just clamped down on, using his tongue before sucking it into his mouth. He paid glorious amounts of attention to one breast before moving to the other.

Then Liam’s hands drifted down along my ribs to my hips as he dropped to his knees in front of me. His fingerscurled around the material at my hips and dragged it down my thighs.

I barely had the chance to step out of my underwear before Liam gripped me around the backs of my thighs, leaned forward, and inhaled the scent of me again.

“Jesus,” he hissed.

A flush of heat and desire went right between my legs, the need to have him increasing with every ragged breath I took.

Liam had his own plans, and he didn’t hesitate to lift one of my thighs over his shoulder. A moment later, his hands were gripping my ass while his tongue swiped right through me.