Page 45

45

Liam

“ W hat are you still doing down here?” Maxxy was leaning against the makeshift bar, the straw of her drink resting in the corner of her mouth.

“Enjoying a party?”

“Yeah, but you’ve been doing that for hours. Why are you still doing it when your girlfriend is upstairs? Gosh, can’t believe I’m saying that. My best friend is your girlfriend.”

“She was my best friend first,” I teased.

“Yeah, and now she is your girlfriend. Your very hot and capable girlfriend who is upstairs. Even though I only saw her for all of a minute from afar, she’s looking like hot shit. Why are you not ringing in the new year by her side?”

“I told her I would be upstairs at five to.”

“So you’re ten minutes early, give her a taste of her own medicine.”

“You good to wrap this thing up, then? I doubt I’m coming back down.”

“Gosh, if you came back downstairs, I think I’d lose it. Or maybe think that you had lost it. I’ll be fine closing things down. I’ll rope Teddy into it. I would have followed that woman upstairs the moment she went.”

“You’re not factoring in the fact that she needs to process some things alone, like that her current boyfriend held a civil conversation with her ex-boyfriend and instead of making her come to her own party, the current boyfriend told her to go back upstairs and read whatever book she is desperate to finish.”

Maxxy smiled broadly.

“Which would have sent her into a tailspin because the ex-boyfriend would have carried her around like a trophy for a while. And he wouldn’t have given her hours to brace herself for a party entry, either. Not when she was one of the hosts. You make me sick, Liam.”

I laughed. “Why is that?”

“You really love her. And you understand her as well, and I want that. I’ve never been jealous of people in relationships, but you’re making me feel sad and alone with your cute little love.”

“Not to be that person, but it will come when you least expect it. I didn’t know at the beginning of this month that I would be ending the year like this, and yet, here I am.”

“I’ll let you be that person because you make my best friend happy. Happy New Year, Liam.” She raised her near-empty glass at me, I did the same.

“Happy New Year, Maxxy,” I replied, kissing her on the cheek and then going upstairs.

It smelled like bread when I walked into the apartment.

“Len?” I called as I locked the door.

“Kitchen,” she called back. When I walked into the kitchen, she was leaning against one of the counters, holding a book in one hand and a timer in the other.

“Are you baking bread?” I asked just as the timer went off. She closed the book around her finger as she switched the timer for a tea towel and opened the oven, pulling out a bread tin and setting it on a cooling rack.

“No, I’ve baked some bread. Rosemary and olive,” she said proudly.

“And you did that in this dress?” The idea of it was hotter than I was expecting.

“No, I’ve only just put the dress back on. I had a feeling you’d make your reappearance before five to, so I wanted to be prepared. I made the bread in my underwear.”

I groaned.

“You told me that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Muller. How was the party when you left it?”

“It looked like everyone was bracing for the ringing in of a new year. They all seemed like they were having fun. I would say that your party is a success.”

“How was Maxxy?” she asked casually, but with a hint of suspicion.

“She seemed fine just now.”

“She’s been spending more time with Teddy the last couple of weeks. Did he tell you that she spent Christmas with him and the family? ”

I raised my eyebrow. “No, he did not. That’s an interesting development.”

“It is, right? She’s being cagey about the details, but I’m thinking it will all work out in the end.”

“I may have said something similar. Only I didn’t realise that I was suggesting that it might all work out with Teddy. I think they’d be good together, though.”

Lenny walked over to me and draped her arms over my shoulders, one hand still holding her book.

“You look beautiful, by the way. I didn’t tell you earlier. But I am starting to think that I might be the only person who will ever see you in this dress.” It was the one I bought on Christmas Eve Eve.

“This dress and your jerseys. What a range of ‘for your eyes only’ outfits I am acquiring. You’re looking very dapper, yourself. Black dress shirts are definitely your thing.” Her fingers traced around the collar.

“Len, I’m going to need you to put that book down in a safe place and then wrap your legs around my waist. And don’t you dare tell me you can’t because of my shoulder. I’m walking you to bed, not up a mountain.”

Lenny huffed a breath before she closed the book and set it on a counter. She jumped and I assisted her in settling around my waist. I could feel the wet heat of her against my shirt.

“Are you bare under this dress, Alana?”

Her eyes sparkled under the kitchen lights.

“Do you want to know what else I have been doing while you’ve been downstairs being a sociable person?”

I buried my head in the crook of her neck and nipped at the skin there.

“I don’t think I do, but go on, tell me.”

“I have spent the last however many hours getting myself right to the edge and then stopping. I still don’t know how you managed to play like that. I feel like my skin is on fire. Anyway, underwear became uncomfortable, so I took them off just after I put that bread in the oven.”

I groaned.

“Yeah, I was right, I didn’t want to know. I’ve been schmoozing downstairs, and you’ve been playing with your pretty pussy and getting it all wet and ready for me. I would have immediately followed you upstairs if I knew that was what your evening was going to entail.”

Although something tells me if I had, it would have been me on the receiving end of the edging because Lenny was mean like that.

“Nah, this evening went exactly the way it was supposed to go. There is a button pressed against my clit right now that might get me over the edge if I shift even a little bit. So, dealer’s choice, how do you want me?”

“Do you think you can come more than once?”

“I think I might just have one really good one in me tonight.”

“In that case, I wanna feel you come around my cock.” I clung to her thighs tighter.

Lenny reached down and grabbed my cock through my trousers, squeezing me, and laughed when I shuddered under the touch.

“Someone is happy to be here,” she said.

“I’m happy whenever you are around, Len. ”

“You are such a fucking sap. Now be a good boy and rail me into a new year.”

I laughed. “Is that what getting all your New Year midnights means from now on? Railing you into new years?”

“What could be better, Muller?” She squeezed me again. Distantly, I heard a countdown start from ten.

“Absolutely nothing, Lenny.”

Five, four, three, two, one.

“Happy New Year, Liam.”

“Happy New Year, Al—”

She cut me off with a kiss, which I didn’t break until I laid her on her bed and gave her exactly what she asked for.