Page 55 of Had To Be You

“And I can’t believe you know every song by heart,” he laughs.

I take his hand in mine, playing with his fingers. He lifts our joined hands to his mouth, brushing his lips across my knuckles. I’m completely unable to hide my emotions, I don’t even try. He’s looking back at me like I’m the one thing that means everything to him, a mirror image to the way I’m feeling.

“You know how happy you made me tonight, right?” I ask, my heart overflowing. No one has ever done anything like this for me and I’m still finding it hard to put into words how much tonight has meant. “I’m pretty sure that wasn’t your idea of a good time, so thank you.”

“Let’s just keep this our secret. When the guys find out I sat through close to three hours of watching grown men in leotards on their hands and knees, they’ll have smack talk on me for the rest of my life.” He laughs, then kisses my forehead.

“I’ve got your back, Liam. I’ll tell them you took me for all-you-can-eat hot wings at Hooters, that we shot-gunned beers all night then smoked cigars.”

“Can you throw in that I’m a God in the sack too?” he deadpans.

“It wouldn’t be a lie,” I tell him honestly, running my fingers over the lobe of his ear and massaging it between my fingers. “Speaking of. I’m ready to go back to the hotel now, unless you have any more incredible surprises up your sleeve?”

And then, as if I couldn’t want him anymore, he smiles the biggest, most heart-breaking smile and my heart tumbles in my chest. “Hotel. Now,” he says, enunciating each word, his hand reaching for mine as we head up the theater steps to the street outside. It’s dark and raining when we exit the building, so Liam tells me to wait under the awning while he finds our driver.

Watching Liam from where I stand, I am still amazed he went to all of this trouble for me. One night at the Seaside would have been more than enough, but the private plane, expensive dinner, surprise dress - not to mention sitting through a play for me… it speaks volumes to the kind of man Liam is.

He oozes sex, he’s over-the-top alpha. Beautiful inside and out. My heart swells when he turns to face me, looking up at me through hooded eyes as rain falls down upon him. I can’t think straight when he looks at me that way. I wonder if I’ll ever get my fill of this man, because right now it feels like I could never get enough. Returning to my spot under the awning, Liam pops open an umbrella that he grabbed from the car and holds it overtop of us. Tucking me into his side, he ushers me to the waiting car.

As we settle into the back seat, I think of all of the incredible things Liam has done for me and am suddenly slammed with all the reasons I don’t deserve him. With the good comes the bad. And everything right now feels too good to be true. It can’t last forever, can it? Especially not when secrets are involved. I would never want to see the hurt in eyes if he were to find out the truth. Besides, I’ve learned the hard way that people never stick around. They’re here today and gone tomorrow and I know what it feels like when they don’t come back. Tears sting the corners of my eyes for what feels like the millionth time today. I take a deep breath and tell myself to stay in the moment, to just be here with Liam. He deserves this night away from work, from the stress of his life. He deserves a reset, an unwind, and I want to show him just how grateful I am for this day.

I can do that.

And I intend to.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Liam

Not even the cool night air is enough to chill the heat simmering inside me as we step onto the sidewalk past the doors of the theater. Ellie in that dress, her legs on display beside me for almost three painstaking hours, her citrus scent tempting me all night. She doesn’t need to know I have a hard on for her right now. But I do.

When we slip inside the waiting town car we’re finally alone and I have her all to myself.

“I think it’s safe to say you had a great time,” I say, remembering the way she sang along to every song and then jumped from her seat in applause, tears in her eyes, when it ended. While I thought the show was a strangely torturous experience, watching oversized cats sing and dance while paw-licking and ear-slicking, Ellie clearly loved every single second of it. And that’s good enough for me, because even though I didn’t give a fuck about the spectacularly odd performance, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her happier.

“Are you kidding me, Liam? It was honestly one of the best nights of my life. I can’t thank you enough for setting this all up. A dream came true. You realize that, right?” She looks back at me with sparkling clear eyes. “You made one of my dreams come true.”

My smile widens, the passing streetlights casting shadowy hues across her face.

My chest fills with pride knowing I was able to give that to her, to make her feel that way. But I’ve never done feelings and expressing myself has always been strange, awkward. So instead of using words, I show her by tangling my hand in her hair at the base of her neck pulling her into me. I kiss her hard and deep, my tongue slipping inside her mouth to find hers. I’m rewarded with one of her sighs against my lips.

“You really have no idea what you do to me, do you?” I ask, a mostly rhetorical question.

She pulls her bottom lip under her teeth, a look of vulnerability in her gorgeous blue eyes. She knows, but she wants to hear it.

“You undo me, Ellie. I like the way I feel when I’m around you. I’m so fucking crazy about you,” I admit, cupping her face in my hands and kissing her with a hunger that makes my head spin. My tongue slips in her mouth and she tastes sweet, like wine and passion. Our chests heave in unison, our need for one another so strong.

A shy smile covers her lips. “Me too, Liam. It’s the same for me.”

The look in her eyes tempts me even further, brimming with lust and desire. Her voice is gentle and steady when she leans into my ear and informs me she’s never had sex in the back of a car.

That makes two of us.

I’ve had a lot of sex in my twenty-something years. Great sex. Filthy sex. In every different position. But never in places I might be watched. That’s where I draw the line. I’ve always been an insanely private person in all aspects of my life and although I love sex as much as the next guy, I prefer it in privacy, behind a closed door. I broke my own rule when I had her on my desk in my office, and now I’m about to break another because I want her. That bad.

She cups me, squeezing the outline of me gently. A smirk on her lips taunts me to take her. Right here. Right now. I can’t get enough of this woman and I doubt I ever will. It’s all fun with her. Playful Ellie is my favorite.

I lean down to kiss her. My fingertips graze along her thighs then back towards her knee, feather-soft. Kiss after kiss, one after another; the intimacy in this moment pulls me under her spell. I check the sound-proof barrier is closed between the back of the town car and our driver and then I pull her onto my lap. Her thighs straddle mine as I crash my mouth into hers, slipping my tongue between her lips when they part. Our tongues collide while my hands seek her bare flesh. Reaching for the hem of her dress, I slide it up over the curve of her hips, gathering the material around her waist. Her hands tug at the ends of my hair while my hands grip the globes of her ass.