Page 69 of Liam

Reluctantly, I give him the team’s social handle, and I lean in close, watch him open Instagram, and find it immediately. He taps on the first image and slowly scrolls down, down, down. It’s literally just shots of the team, usually from a distance. A couple of classic headshots of our key players, me included. Bats. Balls. Gloves. The usual.

Liam doesn’t even hide his grimace when he peers up at me. “Wow… this is…”

My nose scrunches. “Bad?”

“I was going to sayhorrible, but sure.”

I push on his shoulder and try to steal his phone, but he’s too fast, grabbing me around the waist, and, for a moment, we wrestle—me at full strength and him laughing at my miserable attempt. We fall to the floor with athud,and I laugh when he groans, lying flat on his back beneath me. “So…” I say, straddling his lap and kissing him once. “I forgot to mention that part ofmy team manager position is doing the laundry, cleaning the equipment… running our social media…”

“This isyou?” His bright blue eyes are so wide it’s almost comical. He brings his phone to his face, inspects the content again. “Oh, no, Addie…”

“I don’t know what to do! I don’t, like, study trends or whatever. Anyway…” I finally snatch his phone from him and slide it along the floor, far enough away so he can’t reach it. “Enough about me. Tell me about you.”

“There’s nothing to tell you that you don’t already know. I’m boring as hell.”

My eyes go as wide as his were only seconds ago. “How can you say that?”

His shoulders lift with his shrug, and he settles his hands on my thighs. “Because it’s true.”

“There’s a whole subsection of the Internet who thinks otherwise,” I rush out. “In fact, I’m pretty sure there are at least a million girls who would kill to be in my shoes.” I push down on him just to get my message across. Then stop abruptly. “Wait.” I gasp. “Do you have stalkers?”

“Not anymore,” he fuckingdeadpans.As if it’s completely normal that he once did. “At least, I don’t think so.”

“Do I need to start carrying?”

“What?” He chuckles, his eyes so bright and alive I wish I could take them from his head and keep them in my pocket. Notliterally. Obviously. But I adore this version of Liam—this carefree, relaxed version of him I’m only just getting to know. “You’re going to go around shooting random girls who might approach you?”

“Nah.” I wave off the idea. “Guns are too messy. Too dangerous.” I lift my hands up between us. Form fists. “I’ll take them with my bare hands. I’m a boxer, you know?”

“Relax, Mike Tyson,” he says through a chuckle. “You took one lesson less than twenty-four hours ago.”

I punch the air an inch from my face. “Yeah, so my hands are lethal now,bitches.”

Liam all-out laughs, his body shaking with the force.

“You think it’s funny?” I ask, running my hands over the dip, dip, dip of his abs, lower and lower until he’s squirming beneath me. “See? These hands are weapons of mass destruction.”

“Come here,” he orders, and I comply with his wishes. Our lips don’t play this time; they merge, become one, just like our breaths. His hand coasts my flesh, from my neck down to my back. The lower his touch, the more intense the kiss becomes.

I get dizzy from the contact.

High from his touch.

His hand slides over the curve of my ass, squeezes once as he pushes into me. And then he?—

Helaughs.

Right into my mouth.

I pull away, too confused to be angry. “What’s funny?”

Heslapsmy butt. “Big booty ass.”

“Liam!”

“I’m sorry,” he says through a chuckle. “My sister has no fucking filter, but she ain’t wrong.” Another butt slap before he attempts to kiss me again, but his body’s too overtaken by his silent laughter.

“Stop,” I tell him, but I’m laughing too.

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