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Liam

W hen I went back next door, I was greeted by Rob and Stassie having one last cup of tea. I stopped to have a quick chat with them before going to find Lenny.

I wondered if she had even noticed that she had told me she loved me before she hung up on me. When I got to her partially open bedroom door and saw her sitting on her bed with a book in one hand and the other cradled around a mug while wearing my number, I knew that she knew exactly what she had done.

I leant against the door and looked at her. The long line of her legs stretched out in front of her. The curve of her thigh before it disappeared underneath the dark grey jersey. The way her bottom lip was drawn in between her teeth as her eyes moved across the pages of her book. The way her curls fell across her face from the pineapple on top of her head.

“You’re being weird, you know that?” she said, not looking up from her book.

“What’s weird about me admiring you?” I asked as I closed the door behind me.

“You were doing it in a very brooding fashion from the doorway.” She closed the book around her finger.

“That’s where the best vantage point is.”

“Right, you need a good vantage point of me reading a book and drinking hot chocolate spiked with whiskey.”

“Yes, it’s a very nice sight. It might be topped by you baking, but it’s definitely making my top three sights of you.”

“Most people would say they like to see someone naked, not covered in flour.”

“You naked is number three. And I think you’re underestimating what it does to me to see you in your element. Or with my number on you.” I took the fabric of her sleeve between my fingers and pulled her closer to me.

“You want to tell me how you have a Panthers jersey with my name on it in your possession? And why is this the first time I am seeing you in it?”

“Aaron thought it was a funny gift. He gave it to me secretly while you were arguing about something in Catan. I have no idea how he got one in his possession, but he said I might have more use for it than him.” She shrugged as she slotted her bookmark into place. “How was the rest of your dinner?”

“Fine. Dad dropped the hockey thing, although I somehow doubt that is the last I will hear of it. He may go on about it until I reach the age he thinks I should have retired at.”

“What, forty?”

“Yeah, probably. I did want to talk to you about something, though.”

Lenny took a long sip of her hot chocolate.

“Wait, I have something as well. Turns out my parents knew we were lying about dating. They let us have it because it became apparent very quickly that we were definitely into each other.”

I nodded. It didn’t surprise me that they had figured it out. “That kind of makes sense. This is good; means I don’t have to worry about slipping up one day.”

Lenny would not have been the one to slip, she would never have forgotten our fake origin story.

“Back to my thing though,” I said. I wouldn’t let her get out of it this time.

“Yeah, what?” she said quietly before taking another sip.

A dab of cream caught on the corner of her mouth and her tongue peeked out to catch it, putting me at risk of getting us off topic. I shook my head and cleared my thoughts.

“You know you said the wildest thing on the phone earlier?”

“What, that you made the right choice to retire before you went ahead and actually damaged yourself further? We calling that wild? I thought that it was common sense,” she said quickly, her fingers tracing the edge of her thumb ring.

“No, there was something else.” I moved to sit in between her legs and settled my feet on either side of her hips.

“Are you putting in a formal complaint about the way I signed you up for cooking duties indefinitely? Because I will consider it, but I can’t guarantee that the outcome will change.”

“No, I’ll cook your every meal forever if you want me to,” I replied with zero hesitation.

“Then I have no idea what you’re referring to.” She was fighting off a smile behind the rim of her mug. I cupped her thighs and squeezed, making her shiver.

“Just say it once when you look me in the eyes and then you never have to say it again to my face if you don’t want to. ”

“Yeah, right,” she scoffed, blowing more cream onto her face, which she wiped away with her fingers.

“I’m serious, Alana. I know you’ll say it enough over the phone or text or any time that doesn’t require being soft in plain sight. I know you’ll show it in your actions. I know I’ll feel it in the quiet moments and the loud ones. I know you well enough to know that, so just give me one. Look me in the eyes and say it once.”

She took another long sip from her mug before setting her shoulders back.

“I love you.”

I leant forward and pressed my lips against hers. She tasted like chocolate, cream, and the barest hint of whisky. I removed her mug from her hand and pulled her in closer. Her hands threaded through my hair.

She shifted into my lap, and I felt the wet heat of her core against me.

“Are you not wearing underwear?” I asked in between kisses.

“I was hoping to distract you with that before you made me confront my feelings face to face, but you just went straight to it.”

“No, but…the door was open,” I said.

“And given that you only just noticed when you’ve been sitting this close to me for the last ten minutes, I think it’s safe to say that this jersey did a great job of covering me.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist and fell back onto the bed, bringing her with me.

“Get up here,” I said as I nipped at her bottom lip.

“Absolutely not. ”

“Why not? And if either of your reasons are you’re worried you’ll crush me or something to do with body hair then skip them and just get up here. I told you that you had unlimited face-sitting privileges and I meant that. Starting now.”

“I wasn’t going to say either of those things,” she shot back.

“Then what were you going to say?”

“Okay fine, I was going to say something about that being hella exposing but I guess I’ll just settle on saying I love you and moving on up.”

I warmed at hearing the words again as she scooched up the bed until her knees were on either side of my head. My hands settled on her thighs, and I guided her down onto my face.

My tongue swiped along her and dipped inside before moving up to her clit. I swirled around it, adding suction now and again. I could feel her inner thigh muscles starting to quake as I drove her closer to release. Her hands pulled at my hair as she tried to ground herself.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” her words were said in a breathy whisper as her hips started grinding down against me. I focused solely on her clit. Lenny’s body bowed forward as she came, muttering a steady stream of curses as she rode out her orgasm. As the aftershocks ran through her, she lifted herself off my face and lay next to me.

“I don’t understand how that’s possible,” she said in between deep breaths.

“What?”

“The speed with which you can get me to come is alarming and confusing. I mean great, but confusing.”

“It’s because you feel safe. You know I’m not lying there secretly thinking about all the ways that you’ve let yourself go or just ticking a box to look good before we get back to me. Which means you do fun things like come on my face in two minutes.”

Her hand slipped under the waistband of my sweatpants and covered my hard cock. I groaned at the touch.

“You know you make me look like an asshole, right?” she said as she applied pressure, making my hips buck up.

“Oh yeah, how?”

“You’re so open about feelings and shit and then you say things like ‘you only have to say it once to my face’ about the words ‘I love you’, like they don’t hold meaning. You are all about my orgasms and I would honestly quite happily just leave you on edge all day—”

“You can do that if you want.” I cut in. It would be torture, but the best kind. “Besides, no one’s gonna know any of the other shit because it’s none of their business. You’ve said it twice now to my face so maybe your brain will finally cotton on to the fact that it’s fine to say it and I am not going to say, ‘Ah, that’s nice, but no thanks, let’s just be friends.’”

Lenny laughed as she sat back up.

“I’ll be nice to you today and let you come within a reasonable timeframe.”

I didn’t have a chance to reply before I was drawn into the wet heat of her mouth.