Page 61 of Liam

“You and Lachy are still coming today, right?” Lucy asks, and I bite back my frustration. I’d forgotten she’d asked me and Linc to help move bookshelves around in her shop. Not surprisingly, Lincoln made himself unavailable, so Lachy it is.

“Yeah, I’ll pick him up now, and we’ll head over.” I smile to one side when Addie pouts, and I’m sure she’s having the same thoughts I am. There are far, far better things we’d rather be doing today. Unfortunately, the people-pleaser side of me won’t let down my sister. I ask Lucy, “How long are you expecting this to take?”

“All day,” she says. “Probably all night, too.”

“Great.”

Lucy laughs. “Hey… tell Addie, aka your mutual infatuator, that book club is this Thursday, so she better swing her big booty ass by.”

“Big booty ass?” Addie murmurs, her eyebrows lowering as she steps away, moving to the full-length mirror. She half turns, lifting the bottom of the shirt to inspect saidass.

“Do I—” Addie starts.

I groan, cutting her off while hanging up the phone. “Don’t do that shit in front of me, Addie.”

“Sorry,” she says, all innocent and coy, as if she has no idea what she’s doing to me.

She knows damn well.

I get up, pull out the dresser drawer with more force than necessary, and grab some clothes. “I need to get out of here,” I mumble. “Fast.”

Addie grasps my arm, urging me to face her. “Why?”

Why?I think the tent in my shorts makes it pretty fucking obvious, but hey—if she wants to play games, then games we shall play. I lean forward, settle my hand on her hip. “Because if I’m in this room with you a second longer, I’ll devour you, Addie. Every inch. Your tits.” I run my hand down the curve of her ass. “This ass.” Then I shift closer until she canfeelthe effect she has on me. With my mouth to her ear, I whisper, “Your pussy…” I run my nose along her jaw, smiling when I hear the unevenness of her breaths. “I won’t leave an inch of you untouched. And in the end, it still won’t be enough.”

22

Liam

I’m hiding.

Which, yes, is a bitch move on my part, but fuck it. I’m doing it, anyway.

To be fair, moving shit around at Lucy’s store took longer than expected. She called it quits at around nine and asked Lachy and me to come back the next day, but we both agreed to just get it done. We finished at around two in the morning, and so I’d granted myself a sleep in. My body, however, had other plans. It woke itself up approximately thirty seconds before the front door opened, almost as if it was in tune with Addie’s arrival. A moment later, I heard her make her way to the back room, where she’s been for the past two hours.

And during those two hours, I’ve been in my room… hiding.

I know I’m just delaying the inevitable, and a conversation needs to happen. I just don’t know how I’m going to bring it up. Or what, exactly, I’m going to say.

That’s the problem with having twenty-four hours to replay our last interaction, on repeat, in my head—I’ve had way toomuch time to think about it. In fact, it’sallI’ve been able to think about.

After another five minutes of mental gymnastics, I exit the bedroom to face the issue head on. But the moment Addie sees me, shebeams, her smile full force, and I forget who I am and what my purpose is. “Have you been here the whole time?” she asks.

I nod. “Late night. Slept in.” Honestly, I’d been worried about how she’d be after how I acted yesterday, but knowing her as well as I do now, I figured she’d call or text if she was pissed at me. She did neither.

“I was about to call you,” she says.

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t know what time that boxing lesson is… if you’re still okay with me joining you.”

“Of course.” But first, we should talk. I try to get the words out, but what comes instead is, “We’ll leave in ten?”Weak. Addie has made me weak. Actually, that’s completely false. She’s made me the opposite. Which is what I need to tell her. Soon. Or eventually. Or at some point.

Fuck.

Addie’s still smiling, and the sight of it stirs up something deep inside me. Something I’ve been trying to push away for a while now. “I should get changed then.”

“All right.” I stare at her longer than I should, before turning away. “I’ll meet you outside.”

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