He climbed off the bed, pulled off my boots, socks, jeans, and underwear, then lavished the lower half of my body—minus my insanely hard cock, because he was cruel like that—with the same attention he’d shown the upper half, kissing not only my scratches and dings but every stupid freckle. I’d never been so aware of just how many miles of skin there were on my legs until he’d insisted on kissing every inch.
Liam nuzzled his nose into the juncture of my legs, his breath hot and moist on my balls, and I groaned. His cheek dragged against my erection, spreading the precum that pooled at the tip.
“Liam, baby,” I breathed. “Fuck.Hurry.”
He stood up and shucked his shirt, throwing it on the floor.
“What do you want, Gideon? Tell me.” His voice was hoarse, like he’d been just as aroused and tortured by his kissing as I had. “My mouth? My hand? My ass? Whatever you want, it’s yours.” He reached for his fly and pushed his jeans down.
“What?” I propped myself up on my elbows to see him better. The window candles glowed behind him, making Liam look like something out of a vision. The ghost of Christmas past… or maybe,maybethe ghost of Christmas future.
“Pretend I’m Santa Claus,” he said. His voice was teasing but his eyes were deadly serious. “But not the soulless kind. You can have anything your heart desires. Just ask.”
Things flashed through my mind. Hazel and her drawings and the candles in the windows. Liam petting Fia while I poured coffee. Hazel planting flowers in my front yard in spring. Liam and me watching a summer sunset.
But I didn’t feel like I could say any of that, so instead I said, “You.Just… you.”
Liam grinned. “Convenient,” he teased. “Would have beensuperawkward if you’d said Ev or something.” He pushed at my shoulders until I was lying flat again, then put a knee on either side of my legs. “Buthowdo you want me?”
He lowered himself so our cocks slid together, and we groaned in two-part harmony.
“I want to be inside you,” I said, lust thrumming through my veins too hot for me to keep silent. My cock fuckingachedwith the need to claim him. “I want to fuck you until you forget everything, everyone, but me.”
He laughed, short and breathless. “Shit. Like I could think of anyone else? You think I’m reciting a list of presidents here?”
“I’m not kidding.” I grabbed him and rolled so he was beneath me, then propped myself up so I could stare down at him. “I want you to forget the last five years ever happened. Forget every guy—”
“You don’t listen,” he interrupted. “There haven’tbeenany other guys. Not since you.”
I ran a hand over his forehead, pushing back his hair so I could see his eyes in the dim light. He’d said similar things before—that he hadn’t dated, that he didn’t date—but…
“None?”
“Not like I had an abundance of free time, and I…” Liam shrugged. “I’m guessing by your shocked expression you can’t say the same?”
I wished like hell I could, but I shook my head slowly. “None since I moved here,” I said instead. And the couple of guys Ihadfucked around with had been one-night stands. Simple, uncomplicated… wildly unsatisfying.
Liam leaned up and kissed me. “I get it. It’s fine,” he soothed.
But itwasn’tfine. I was suddenly dying to be inside him. To be back where I belonged. To erase myownmemories of everyone who wasn’t him.
I hastily stood, just long enough to grab the bottle of lube from my nightstand, and groaned when I climbed back on the bed and my skin touched Liam’s again. I poured a thick stream of lube on my fingers—way too much and withzerofinesse because my hands were shaking too hard.
“Fuck.”
“Gideon,” Liam said softly, grabbing my wrist. “It’s okay, baby.”
“I just… I want you. Badly.”
“And I’m here,” he assured me, lying back down. “I’m right here.”
“But I want this to be perfect—” So I can keep you forever.
“Itwillbe perfect. It’s always been perfect.”
I exhaled a shaky breath and looked at the man in my bed. Green eyes, brown hair, killer smile, gorgeous body. But so much more than all of that. The way his gaze locked with mine said he knew I needed reassurance, the way his pulse hammered in his throat and his breath came fast said he needed this connection as badly as I did.
I lowered my head and took his cock into my mouth at the same time my fingers found his hole and slowly, slowly opened him.
