Chasing Charlie (2 page)

“You always dress like that at work?” The words were out before I could stop myself, but I didn’t care. 

I had just spent hours in a rage because she was so damn beautiful and every hot-blooded male in there was staring at her as though she was a piece of meat. This girl was the first one to have ever gotten under my skin, and thinking of some dick looking at her with lust was just unbearable for me. My eyes roamed up and down her body. I was sure she could see the hunger lurking in my gaze. 

“I’m not sure how they raise men in your country, but here, you should look a woman in the eye when you speak to her.” Her eyes gleamed with some sort of flirty challenge. 

“I apologize,” I growled, discarding the box of bottles at my feet and lunging across the small space between us. 

Her hands were in my hair, her thigh hooked around my waist. Now she felt my cock, hard and pounding between us and pressed against the seam of her skirt, the very goddamn place it’d been itching to be all night. 

“You’re an Irish bastard,” she said as her teeth nipped at my bottom lip. 

My hands clawed at her arse before I hoisted her on my hips and pressed her against the metal shelves behind her. 

“Looks like you’ve got a thing for bastards then.” 

I nipped at the tender flesh beneath her ear before laving my tongue up the line of her throat. A low whimper fell from her lips and landed a sucker-punch to my balls. My hips worked against her body, my hands roaming her torso and teasing at the neckline of her top. 

“Jesus, I want to taste you.” I trailed my tongue across the swell of one breast. Her fingers thrust in my hair as a tremor pulsed through her body. “I want to see what you’re wearing under this hot little skirt.” 

I fisted at the tight skirt, desperate to shove my hand beneath her panties and coax that soft, wet pussy to an orgasm with my fingers. And then my tongue. God, how my tongue ached to taste every inch of that perfection. I was going mad with the thoughts of how she would taste. 

My hand found its way beneath the elastic of her panties, my fingers soaked instantly by her silky juices. I nearly came in my pants from just a single touch. I slid another finger through her hot lips and circled her clit slowly with my thumb. Breaths shuddered out of her body, her nipples hardening even further. Without a second thought, I pulled the low neckline of her top down, the creamy round flesh of her breast spilling out of the cup of her bra. I tugged the lace out of my way with my teeth, and finally, my lips attached to the dusky pink bud. I drew out the delicate flesh in slow, torturous sucks. 

Soft mewls fell past her perfect pink lips as I worked her soft body. I couldn’t wait to hear her come, my name biting past her lips as I pushed her to a mind-blowing orgasm. 

“Christ, you feel this good in my hands. I can’t wait to taste this sweet pussy.”

“Irish,” she sighed, her eyes falling closed when I pressed my thumb to the bud of her clit, applying pressure until her nails cut into the skin at my shoulder and her head fell back against a box. 

“Name’s Liam, beautiful, and I can’t wait to hear you scream it from the rooftops.” I sucked at her nipple, enjoying the sounds she made before her muscles tensed and trembled beneath me. 

Fuck me. 

She was a vision when she came. 

“You are the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I could make a job out of watching you come.” I pressed a probing kiss against her lips. Shuddering pants racked her body as I held her, letting her come down from her orgasm but unwilling to let her come down from the high of me. 

I wanted her obsessed and craving me just as much as I did her. “I can’t wait to fuck you so hard you forget every name but mine.”

“Liam?” she stuttered between breaths. 

I placed a soft kiss to her temple. I wanted her to know that she meant something to me, that this was just the beginning. Charlie had become a drug, and I was her addict. Nothing in life would complete me like touching her would. “Yeah, sweetheart?”

“We should get back to work,” she murmured as her eyes caught mine for the first time since I’d gotten her off so sweetly.

“I love that look on your face.” I kissed her lips before gently setting her back on her feet. “I want everyone to know I put it there.” 

I winked then clasped her hand, prepared to walk out into that bar and announce to anyone still there that she was hands-off now. Charlie was mine. 

She arched a challenging eyebrow then surprised the hell out of me when she dropped my hand and sauntered straight out of the cooler without a glance back. I wasn’t sure what was running through her mind, but only one thought was on repeat in mine: I bet she’d taste even sweeter when she came against my tongue.

TWO

Charlie

I wiped down the counters and busied myself straightening chairs and collecting stray crumbs. I’d done this three times already tonight, but now it was closing time. The last regular had just shuffled out the door, and this was it. The very damn moment I’d been dreading all night. Liam and me, alone. The memory of his touch still vibrated through my body, and the sad part was that I longed to feel that touch again. Liam had burrowed under my skin. All night I had been on autopilot, thinking about his lips on mine. 

“Glasses are put away, boxes broken down in back. I’ll lock the door, then I think we’re good?” Liam’s Irish brogue curled around my ears. 

“Yeah,
guess we’re done. Easy night.” I tucked the rag into the pocket of my jean skirt and spun to collect my stuff from the backroom. I ran into a broad Irish chest that nearly knocked me over and made me beg for more of what he’d delivered earlier. 

“Let me walk you home.” 

My hands were still planted on his starkly rigid abdominals, like cobblestones beneath my fingertips. “No, I’m good. Thanks though.” I ducked around him, my stomach flipping as my mind waged a battle with my hormones. 

Why did you let him touch you? What were you thinking? You do not do things like that for a reason. 

“No way I’m letting you walk home alone, ‘specially after two in the morning. I wouldn’t be a gentleman if—” His voice boomed in the now-empty room as he crowded over me. He seemed to dominate the space, and suddenly I found it hard to breathe.

“I don’t need a gentleman,” I spat, instantly feeling guilty for being short with him. I caught the surprised look in his eye and tried to redeem myself. “I’m sorry, but I don’t need anything, honestly.” 

A fake smile cracked my lips before I rushed to shove a few things in my bag and pull out my sweater, suddenly feeling exposed for the first time all night. This was my normal work attire, but damn if something in Liam’s eyes didn’t make me feel naked. 

“Charlie?” His hands curled around my shoulders, and he turned me to him. “Earlier—”

“No, it’s all right. I don’t know what got into me. Honestly, I’ve never done anything like that in my life.”
Lie, the little voice in my head chimed in, you know you loved his touch, Charlie, and it will be hard to ignore his pull.
“It won’t happen again. I swear we can be professional. I just had a momentary slip.” 

I pushed a hand through the wisps of hair framing my face and turned away. I didn’t want him to think that he could just take me home and we would fuck on the floor like animals. God knew I wanted to, but I didn’t want him to see me as some girl he could use and discard. 

“I definitely don’t want to hear any of that.” 

Liam’s grip tightened on my forearms, and he pulled me closer to him. I could feel his erection pressed between us. What was he thinking? What was I thinking? And why did I like it so much? If I closed my eyes, just for a fraction of a minute, I could allow myself to fall into the safety of his arms. I could be taken away by his beautiful lips and that thick voice, and maybe I’d find love at the end of it, but I’d be damned if I would risk that again. The pain was too much. I was a fool to be won over by fast romance, and I had learned over time that if things seemed too good to be true, they definitely were. 

“Hey, right here, look at me. You’re special, Charlie, and I don’t know what you’re thinking about what happened earlier, but I’m thinking I’d like it to happen again, and often. I promise I’m not a man who usually does this, but seeing you walk in that door tonight, the way you gave me sass, the way you came alive under my fingers,” he whispered the last part against my ear. “I’m drunk on you.”

“Irish…” I groaned, thinking it would take a little more explaining to push him away. 

“Liam,” he chastised with an arch of one dark eyebrow. 

“Liam.” I smiled curtly before pushing myself out of his arms. God, I missed his arms already. “That was a mistake. We work together, and if my dad found out I was dating his newest hire—”

“Wait a minute, your dad’s the boss? Vince Sr.?”

I nodded when I realized Liam was finally making the connection. I guessed I wouldn’t have to scare him off with details of my past after all. My brother hadn’t even filled Liam in that I was the boss man’s only daughter. His pride, his joy, and the one thing he’d choke a man to death for looking at. 

“That’s why what happened earlier can’t happen again.” I nodded, a little sad myself. His broad, tall stature, and delicious accent were like an instant sugar rush. It was probably a good thing he was off-limits because surely I could wrap myself around a man like Liam and get hurt in all the most beautiful and painful ways. 

“Shit.” Liam seemed to finally give up then, pushing a hand through his hair before swiping at his stubbled chin. God, his five o’clock shadow—or two a.m. shadow, as it were—made him even more edible. 

“So I don’t need a walk home because I live right above the bar, and my dad lives right next door, so believe me, there’s no sneaking around, even if we wanted to…” I realized after it was too late how wishful that last line sounded. 

Liam’s eyebrows rose for a minute before he reached across the space separating us and locked my hand in his. “Whatever you say, love.” 

Love? Did he really just call me love? 

He bent and placed a delicate kiss across my knuckles. “I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night, or tonight then.”

“Wait, Vince isn’t working with me?”

“That’s why I was hired. He wants more time off to—”

“I don’t need to know.” I shook my head. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you tonight then.”

Why did this feel like the end of a date?

“I’ll get the door.” He smiled and stepped ahead of me, opening the old back door and waiting for me. 

“Right, well, thank you.” What was I thanking him for? The orgasm? For being understanding? For being a gentleman… sort of?

“Sleep well, love.” 

His words rooted me to the spot. 

I frowned before shaking my head quickly. “Okay, stop. Please stop with the European charm thing you’re doing. You can’t say stuff like that to a girl like me.”

“It’s just a term of endearment, Charlie.” He twisted a lock of my ponytail around his fingers. “And I don’t know what a girl like you is exactly, but I’d like to find out.” His head dipped then, his nose trailing up the curve of my neck and sending goose bumps scattering across my skin. 

“You’re making it hard to ignore you,” I whispered without thinking. 

“Good.” He placed a kiss on the hollow of my neck. “Don’t ignore me anymore.”

“Liam…” My fingertips burned to wrap around his neck and pull him closer so I could hitch my leg around his narrow waist. I wanted a repeat. I wanted to bring him up to my place and see the look on his face when pleasure pulsed through every muscle of his body. 

“I love when you say my name,” Liam uttered before his hand wrapped around the nape of my neck and his lips pressed against mine in a fiery kiss. 

My lips parted on contact, and his tongue delved into my mouth, twisting and turning. My hands spanned over his shoulders while he pressed a palm at my lower back, sucking me into his space, getting me drunk on his touch. 

“Liam,” I panted and pushed him away, licking my lips as I tried to compose my racing thoughts. “I-I have to go.” 

I darted down the steps and around the back of the old building to race up to the top-floor apartment. 

My heart hammering, I sped through my front door and dumped my purse on the kitchen table, listening to it clatter unevenly as I ran for the bathroom. 

I flicked on the light and looked in the mirror, touched my fingertips to the place his lips had caressed just seconds ago. My heart clunked erratically as I prayed he hadn’t followed me up here, but I simultaneously hoped maybe he would. He had me so twisted, my heart begging me to drink his intoxicating Kool-Aid and my head warning me that men like that—sexy, smooth-talkers with a talent with their fingers—were only destined for heartbreak.

Liam with the devilish smile and even more devilish digits made me feel beautiful, and despite every warning firing off in my brain, I loved the strange way my stomach twisted when his eyes landed on mine. 

But what kind of girl lets a man bring her to an orgasm within hours of meeting?

A bad girl, that’s what kind.

THREE

Liam

I tapped my fingers on the shiny counter, waiting for the lady of the hour to appear. Sixteen hours since I’d last seen her. Eighteen since I’d given her that swift and sexy orgasm. Exactly seventeen since I’d decided I wanted to give her another one, then another, every day for the rest of our lives. She consumed me; everything about her possessed me. I wanted to devour her, show her she was priceless and perfect and mine. God, she was mine. I’d known it from the moment I first looked at her. I wanted nothing in life more than her, not just sexually but in every way. I wanted to sit on a sofa and hold her hand, listen to the sweet melody of her voice. I wanted to make her laugh so hard that she snorted then became red with embarrassment, then I wanted to kiss the red on her cheeks and make it burn even brighter. I wanted to wake up and see her smiling face and go to sleep wrapped around her, so tightly that she could never get away.