Tessa shook her head. “I’m laughing because I’m happy.” My brow quirked. She pushed on, explaining. “I yelled at you when you first came in.”
“Yeah…” I wasn’t sure where she was going with this.
Tessa smiled as though she had just discovered the cure to cancer. “I haven’t yelled at anyone in over six years.”
My hands fisted at my sides. I couldn’t imagine the state of fear she must have been living in for her to never raise her voice to even a single person.
Tessa cupped my face. “You don’t understand. I yelled at you. That means I trust you. Even though you fucked up. And I know we both will in this. I trust you. I trust you not to hurt me. I trust that I can totally express myself. You are…safe to me.”
Tessa was letting me in. And, God, it was so beautiful.
Tessa’s violet eyes caught fire then, sparking with a heat that had my blood simmering. She brushed her lips against mine, hands running through my hair, tugging on the strands. “Take me to bed.”
33
Tessa
My heart hammered against my ribs, but it wasn’t from fear or even nervousness, it was from anticipation. I wasn’t sure why it took everything falling apart for my trust to slide into place, but I guess that’s how things worked sometimes. It took my life breaking apart, the one I’d thought I wanted with Garrett, for me to start building the beautiful one I had now. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasreal. And perfection was overrated anyway.
Liam’s eyes widened. “Are you sure? A lot has happened in the past couple days—”
I cut him off with a deep kiss. “I’m sure.”
Liam’s arms tightened around me as he picked me off my feet. I wrapped my legs around him, laughing as he took the stairs two at a time as though I weighed nothing.
He pushed open my door, sending it flying into the wall, and making Trouble run for his kitty climbing tree cave. Liam closed the door behind him with a booted foot and carried me to the bed. He laid me down carefully—so gently it made my heart hurt.
I stared up at Liam. Strands of hair swept down on one side of his face, framing his hazel eyes. Irises that seemed to blaze just a bit brighter as he gazed down at me. I watched in fascination as his strong hands started to unbutton his shirt, hands that I was going to feel all over my body.
I shivered as Liam’s shirt fell to the floor and he toed off his boots. My heart skipped a beat as my eyes traced his upper body. His skin, still sun-kissed from his time in California, seemed to glow in the early morning light.
I reached out a hand, needing to feel that flesh beneath my hands. Liam leaned over me, granting me access. My fingertips began to tingle just before they touched his chest as if they knew they were about to experience a feast for the senses.
I trailed my hands lightly over Liam’s pecs. Soft skin with just a dusting of hair tickled the pads of my fingers. I kept exploring, circling Liam’s nipples that seemed to grow harder under my touch, then lower to those abs that seemed to defy nature.
I met Liam’s gaze. “You’re beautiful.”
He grinned down at me. “I prefer ruggedly handsome, but I’ll take beautiful.”
Liam swept his mouth across mine, just a soft brush, but the promise of what was to come sent heat flooding through my veins. He pulled back and traced my lips with his thumb. “These lips. So pink. So perfect. I’ve wanted them on my body since the first time I saw them.”
I sucked in a breath, and my core tightened at the thought of all the places my lips might travel. Liam’s eyes flared when my mouth parted on that inhale. His hands left my face and skimmed under my shirt, lifting as he went. The pads of his fingertips, roughened from all the time spent playing the guitar, created delicious sensations across my skin.
I lifted my hands over my head, helping Liam ease off my shirt. He let out a groan. “No bra?”
My cheeks heated. “You started pounding on my door when I had just gotten out of the shower, I didn’t have a lot of time.”
Liam’s gaze shot to my yoga pants, his hands following. He ran his thumb lightly over the seam in my pants, and my hips bowed off the bed. “Fuck, you’re bare here, too, aren’t you?”
My teeth pressed into my bottom lip and I nodded. Liam cursed. “I need to see all of you. Can I?” His hands paused at the waistband of my yoga pants.
“Yes.” The word came out as half whisper, half pant.
Liam slowly pulled the spandex down my legs until he was kneeling before me, gazing down the length of my body. “You are so fucking beautiful, it almost hurts to look at you.”
My chest constricted. Liam looked at me with such reverence. He didn’t touch for a long moment, just stared as though he were committing every detail of my body to memory.
I couldn’t take it anymore. My skin was on fire, and I needed to feel him against me, inside me, everywhere he could be. “Touch me. Please.”
