Page 126 of Liam

He leans down, his warmth covering me as he places his mouth to my ear. “I love you, Adelaide Baker…”

51

Addie

“I’m really glad I was able to stay longer,” Dayna says, haphazardly throwing a handful of clothes in her suitcase. “And I’m so proud of you for giving therapy a try. Those breakthroughs you had really seemed to have an effect.”

I sit on the edge of the bed and pick up a tank top, start folding it. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, you’re all smiley today.”

Right. Smiley from the breakthroughs. Nothing at all to do with the boy I love telling me he loves me first.

“Addie?”

“Huh?”

She practically rips the tank top from my grasp and throws it in with the rest.

“You know you can fit more in there if it’s folded.”

She glares playfully at me, making a show of dumping in dirty sneakers—no separate bag—and then closing the suitcase, zipping it only halfway. “I’m literally driving four hours home.”

I almost shiver at the imperfection, and she busts out a giggle.

“Oh, my perfect little Addie bear.”

I roll my eyes.

She sits down beside me and pushes into my side. “I gotta say, I’ve missed your smile.”

I face her, my smile full force.

Shaking her head, her grin matches mine, even when she heaves out a sigh. “It’s not the breakthroughs that’s got you smiling like that, is it?”

For the first time in a while, I feel like I am who I’m supposed to be—a nineteen-year-old girl, in love for the first time, sharing the moment with her best friend. “Liam told me he loved me last night.”

Dayna gasps, her eyes as wide as mine when I heard the words fall from his lips. “Addie.” She grips my upper arm, shakes it wildly.

The laughter that pours out of me is pure, unconstrained.

“Wait.” She stops with the shaking, but keeps her hold on my arm. “Have you guys…?”

“No,” I’m quick to answer and just as quick to turn away, hoping she doesn’t notice the blush creep up my neck.

We didn’t get tothatpoint last night, though we got pretty damn close. Right after he shared those three words, we kissed. And kissed. And kissed. And it was all we did for the longest time. But then he got on top of me, settled between my legs, bearing down every time I thrust up. I wanted more, and so did he, and within seconds, we were naked, skin on skin, hot to the touch. He deepened the kiss, pressed up against my entrance, and then he… froze. Locked up. Said something about megoing through a lot. And something else aboutthe day I’d had. I was so crazed with desire, both physical and emotional, and unfortunately—or maybe fortunately—the physical side won out.

I threatened to smother his face between my legs.

Not my proudest moment, but it turns out I didn’t need to threaten him at all, because he willingly went… and took his fingers with him.

I don’t care to know anything about Liam’s past sexual partner, but in that moment, I felt the need to send her flowers, because that boy—his fingers, his mouth, his tongue—whoo.

By the end, I was the one who needed my face to be the smothered—into a pillow.

“Addie!” Dayna’s shaking me again, and I can’t stop giggling. “I don’t know if I should be in mom mode, or older sister mode, or girlfriend mode.”

“I just want you to be you, always.”

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