Page 127 of Veiled in Brick

On day four, though there were many memorable moments, the one cemented in my brain was when I was writhing on the couch as Liam kissed his way from the center of my being down to my right inner thigh. Aftershocks running through me, I reached down with the intention to gently guide him back to me. His now gloriously stubbled face was unfortunately too far away, though, and I only managed to smack his hand that was grasping my left hipbone.

“Come back here,” I whined. “I’ll come again.”

He glanced up at me, his smile wicked. “You want me to drown?”

I chuckled through a panted breath. “Uh huh.”

“On it.”

He returned as if it were his sole mission in life.

Day five—Friday—was when I had once again heard from Claire. On day one, I had told her in just a few words that I needed some space before returning to reality and, of course, she understood. She allowed me to isolate. To distract myself with the comfort of the inside, the comfort of not needing to change out of ratty clothing, and the comfort of as much sex as Liam and I could manage to have. But isolation couldn’t last forever. I knew that. Liam knew that. And, upon day five, it appeared that our time had run out.

My phone was screen-side down on the kitchen table, and it buzzed while I was in the middle of drinking my third cup of coffee. Liam was sitting across from me, slowly sliding his thumb over his phone as he read something on the screen, and he glanced to the noise briefly. He then watched me casually as I grabbed it. The message displayed:

Claire 10:25 A.M.: Henry’s tonight? Me and Luke are back at work starting today—6:00.

I groaned, set my phone back on the table, and Liam did the same.

“It’s Claire, isn’t it?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

“How’d you know?”

He shrugged. “Thought she’d reach out sooner than this; I’ve been waiting.”

“Waiting for us to emerge from our cave like two bears coming out of a fuck-filled hibernation?” I offered.

Liam beamed a smile at me that was so wide, his dimples appeared. “Somethin’ like that.”

“She said they’re back working at Henry’s—6:00 tonight.”

“Mmkay,” he returned with a nod. “Cool, that gives us plenty of time.”

I squinted at him. “For?”

“For being bears for just a little longer?” he asked with a crooked grin.

I laughed. “Have you not had your fill of me yet? Jesus.” Liam shook his head, stood from his seat as if he had a job to do, and held out his hand, palm facing up. He looked to me with an expression that I knew far too well. “Fine,” I mockingly complained, smacking my hand in his.

He pulled me up and out of my seat, and I giggled as our lips locked and we walked ourselves back to bed.

Six o’clock on the dot, we were walking into Henry’s—the atmosphere was nostalgic, and I breathed it in. Claire waved at us from behind the counter as she spoke with a regular at the far end of the bar. Luke gave us a nod hello—also behind the bartop, he chatted with James as we made our way. James took a sip of his usual whiskey, and Luke scrunched his nose as he took in Liam’s appearance.

“Oh my God, what is that?” He cringed, pointing at the scruff on Liam’s face that I had grown to adore.

Both of us slinked onto our usual barstools, James to my left, and Liam’s head whipped to mine as he sat on my right.

“You said it looked nice!”

James barked out a laugh. I elbowed him in the ribs, and he coughed through his remaining laughter.

“I do think it looks nice,” I returned.

“It’s got red in it,” Luke noted with a squint of his eyes. “It’s dim as shit in here and I can still tell that there’s like…three different colors in there, man. Shave that thing off.”

“Don’t,” I insisted.

Claire approached slowly, having been distracted behind Luke by a beer tap that was consistently spitting out foam. She finally set a pale beer before the gentleman she had been speaking with previously, and he smiled at her in thanks. Her gaze finally found us, and she threw back her ginger head the moment that she was able to fully observe Liam.

---