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CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

SASHA

“Now that we’ve settled that, are you going to tell me where you went?” Liam pushes, tightening his hold on me.

Burying my face against his chest, I grasp the front of the hoodie I’m swimming in for comfort before answering, “Some place bad…”

“Tell me because I don’t ever want to be the reason you go there again.”

I reach up to his jaw and pull his gaze to me as I slide my face from his chest. Meeting his eyes, I share, “You aren’t the reason. I know beyond all doubt that you would never do anything to harm me. Ever . But when you forced me to my knees, I couldn’t stop every last one of them from encroaching on my thoughts.”

Wrapped in his warm embrace, I spend the morning telling Liam every abhorrent detail from my time spent with numerous wannabe Dominants before him. He comforts me—without judging me but vowing to kill each of them—as I provide the details of what I now know was my horrible mistreatment. Abuse .

“You should have told me, mo mhuirnín, ” Liam mutters. “I refuse to strap you to a bench and can’t fathom gagging you because I know your history. The negativity you have associated with those practices has no place in our play for our safety. Had I known your history with kneeling, I would never have demanded that position of you.”

“Dropping into the conversation that the last guy I was with would make me kneel on the concrete by the pool so his friends could use me like a urinal doesn’t exactly slot into Tuesday night dinner conversation,” I joke, trying to ease my discomfort.

“In this house, it does,” Liam insists. “Tuesday night dinner, Saturday morning baths, or random Wednesday afternoon texts. There isn’t a thing I haven’t told you about my life, and I expect the same from you.”

I would doubt his admission, but he spilled all of it to me as I moved into his room a couple of weeks ago and accidentally stumbled upon an engagement ring in the valet on the dresser. He told me all about Ella, how his life wasn’t for her, and how he swore off caring for anyone like that again… Explaining why he was so hesitant to give in to us. When he was done, he shared so many sorted details of his life outside this apartment that I could single-handedly be the reason he—and his brothers — spend the rest of their lives waiting for the electric chair.

He’s opened his closet and unpacked every one of his skeletons because he trusts me. “This thing between doesn’t work if there are any secrets,” Liam adds, further fueling the guilt I’m harboring for everything I’m still holding tight to my chest.

Liam slides from the bed as I find the courage to give him the last piece of me. I open my mouth and speak his name as he says, “I’m serious about eliminating all of them for you. I can’t remove them from your thoughts, but I sure as fuck can remove them from this world.”

“I know you would.” With what he did to Isaac for me— when he barely knew me —I don’t doubt him for a second. “But I don’t need you to. They aren’t part of my life anymore, and I don’t need them to take up more space than they already have.”

Climbing over me on the bed, Liam presses his lips to mine and pulls back with a smirk. “Dead men don’t take up space, especially after they go through the crematorium. I’d let you watch. It’s hot!”

“Oh, my God!” I playfully shriek, shoving him from me. “Did you just make a disgusting dad pun about burning one of my exes to ash?”

Rolling back on top of me, he presses me into the mattress with his weight. He leans down, stopping a breath from placing his lips on me. His playful eyes soften, replaced with adoration. “There are no limits to what I would do for you”—his confession blows over my lower lip—“to help heal you the way you’ve healed me.”

Lifting my head from the mattress, I press my lips to his, and the two of us melt together. Liam presses his tongue between my lips and massages it against mine, his hand pulls my leg over his hip and settles him between my legs. Lacing my fingers through his hair, I break our kiss and stare up at him for a moment. “Sir…” I slide my palm along his stubble-covered cheek and confess, “You’re going to make me fall in love with you.”

“Good.” A slow, broad smile spreads across his face as he hovers over me. “Because I’m fucking enamored with you, mo mhuirnín .”

His lips crash back into mine, and I can feel every bit of his love as his tongue sweeps through my mouth. Running my hands down his back, I slip my fingers beneath the waistband of his sweatpants and push them over his firm ass.

“Are you sure,” he asks against our kiss.

I lift my hips to rid myself of Liam’s pants. Wriggling my leg free, I hook my knees over his hips as he rests the thick head of his cock against me. I wrap my legs around his waist and pull him against me, inching his long, thick length into me as I groan, “I’ve never been more sure of anything .”