Crossing (9 page)

My stockings slip down my legs and he skims the length of them to my ankles, where he lifts my feet up one at a time, sliding the black silk off and rubbing it against his cheek.

I make like I’m going to drop the hem of my skirt, but he shakes his head no at me, his gaze pinned to mine. He puts his hands on my hips and scoots me over to the arm of the chair. “Sit down. Open your legs for me.”

I’m mortified. I’ve thought about what he’s on the verge of doing, but in this moment I feel like putting my coat over my head and giggling. I sit down and lock my knees together. “I can’t,” I whisper.

“Would you feel more comfortable on the couch? Because this is happening.”

I can tell from the way he’s looking at me, his eyes all glazed over, he ain’t lyin’.

“It is, isn’t it?” I stand and walk sideways to the couch, leaving him on his knees by the door. Reaching back, I unzip my skirt and tug it off over my hips. Next off, my underwear.

I feel him watching me and it takes everything in my power not to make a quip or a self-deprecating comment to cover my nervousness. I kick aside my skirt and sit on the edge of the couch, my knees still together. Taking a deep breath, I lie back, close my eyes, and let my legs fall open.

Moments later, I feel him near me, kissing a path across my lower belly. I tense up, wishing I’d turned the lights off so he can’t see my stretch marks and jiggly tummy. I open my eyes and find him looking at me.

“Relax,” he says as he lowers his mouth. My whole body shivers with the first flick of his tongue. Liam kisses his way from my center down my leg, lifting my knee up and draping it over his biceps, back to center and down the other leg.

I needn’t have worried about his rhythm because he has me whipped into a frenzy in no time, not caring one bit what I look like or remembering to be embarrassed.

I tilt my hips up, pressing myself to his mouth, willing him to draw my desire out of me. As that happy pressure builds, I gather up handfuls of the electric blue fake fur couch cover, wishing for something a little less whimsical against my bare ass.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I let out a low moan as intense heat floods my body in waves of pleasure.

But before I have time to recover, Liam is on his feet, pulling me up and walking me down the hall and up the stairs to my room.

“The bed’s a mess,” I murmur, my body blissed out. “There are clothes all over it.”

He kicks the door open. “I don’t care.”

Liam leads me over to the bed and lays me down on top of a dozen outfits I’d tried on a million years ago in preparation for my audition. How did I get here?

He strips completely, a little too quickly for my liking, and tosses three of the condoms on the bedside table, unwrapping one and rolling it on. Kneeling on the bed between my legs, he leans forward and slides into me. I nearly come again.

“Take your sweater off,” he says, his breath stilted.

I whip that sucker off in record time.

Liam lowers himself down onto his elbows and buries his face in the crook of my neck, kissing and sucking on my skin. “Jesus, you feel good,” he whispers into my ear, thrusting into me more powerfully.

“You too,” I manage to get out, as his mouth travels down my chest and finds my nipple through the fabric of my bra. He sucks on it hard and I arch my back to meet his touch.

I can’t get enough of him. I want him deeper inside me. I rake my fingernails down his back and grab his ass, my hips rocking with him.

Liam takes my other nipple into his mouth and we come undone, slamming into each other, tensing up, and then letting go. He collapses on my chest, resting his face on the pillow next to mine.

He laughs, sounding exhausted.

I take a deep breath and ready myself for his quick dismount and exit out the door. Instead he shimmies his arms under my shoulders and settles in like he’s going to fall asleep. I bring my arms up and hug him to me.

“Am I crushing you?” he asks dreamily. “You’re nice to sleep on.”

“Cushy, huh?”

“Mm hmm, especially these lovely breasts of yours. I barely even paid them their due. I’ll be more attentive next time.”

I wiggle underneath him. “As nice as this is, I have to pee.”

“Okaaaay.” He reaches down and takes hold of the condom and pulls out of me.

I lean over the side of the bed and grab the little trashcan I’ve got stashed in the bottom of my nightstand. I hold it up for him and he tosses the condom into it.

“Alien sperm, zero,” he says, eyeing me. “Orgasms…two?”

I bite the inside of my lip. “Three counting you, I hope.”

He picks up a corset that’s jabbing into his knee and raises one of his eyebrows at me. “Had I known about this, you and I might have been even.”

I shake my head at him and grab my robe off the back of my bedroom door. “Back in a sec,” I say, all super casual like I didn’t just get expertly boned by one of the more beautiful guys I’ve ever known.

Downstairs in the bathroom, I pee and then take a facial inventory. There isn’t any lipstick on my actual lips anymore, but the area around my mouth is pinker than normal. My eyes have raccooned just a touch. I swipe a cotton swab underneath them and clean it up. I don’t have a supernatural glow or anything, but I make myself smile and it feels natural. I brush my teeth. As I’m turning off the water, I hear my bedroom door open with a creak.

Hey, it is what it is. Good while it lasted. I don’t know why I expected Liam to be any different. I mean, he was way more into my finishing than anyone else had ever been, so that’s something. We’ll do the awkward “did it” dance during class and the play for a couple of weeks and then things will segue back into normality. I can handle being the rebound. It wasn’t the first time and won’t be the last.

I jump when there’s a knock to my left.

“Do you keep the ibuprofen in there?” Liam asks from out in the hall. I open the bathroom door to a completely, deliciously naked Liam, with a glass of water in each hand. He holds them up. “Preventative measures. Although, we’ve probably sweated out most of the tequila by now.” He smirks. “Your skin tasted sweet and salty.”

I grab the bottle of Advil from the medicine cabinet and shake two out in my palm. He leans forward and sucks them into his mouth.

“Three,” I say, clearing my throat.

“What?” he says, but then he smiles. He knows, the fucker.

I take a glass of water from him and down it and then fill it back up again in the bathroom sink. He waits for me to top my water off and then we head upstairs.

Back in my room, I see that Liam has taken all of the clothes off my bed and placed them into two neat piles on the floor. He sets his water down on the bookcase on the other side from where I usually sleep and gets under the covers. He points to one pile of clothes. “Clean.” And then to the other. “Suspect.” I notice a few of the items weren’t even on the bed to begin with. Time to do laundry.

I walk over to my side and put my water down on the nightstand. Pulling back the quilt, I climb in, realize the light is still on and get back up.

“You really should get The Clapper for situations such as this.”

I clap my hands twice and then swiftly hit the switch.

“The Clapper!” We say in unison.

“Take off your robe and bra before you get into bed while you’re at it,” he says, his voice all husky.

I don’t know what to say to that suggestion, so I just mutter, “The Clapper,” again and take off the rest of my clothes.

I get in bed, enjoying the coolness of the sheets against my skin. Liam scoots over next to me and turns onto his side.

“Hey.”

His breath tickles my ear. I giggle. “Hey.”

“How’re you doing?”

The question hangs there in the air until I give in to the need to give my blanket answer. “Fine.”

“Fine as in satisfied and spent or fine as in freaking out and thinking I’m going to sneak out in the middle of the night?”

I clear my throat. “Second choice.”

He kisses my shoulder and threads his arm underneath my neck, rolling me toward him. “Goodnight, Dani.”

I sigh. “Goodnight, Liam.”

X

I open my eyes to the gray light of pre-dawn, Liam’s fingertips brushing lightly across the tops of my breasts. I’m on my back and turn my head to look at him. He smiles and then moves toward me.

“Sorry, my breath might be gross.” He kisses me, and I could care less about his breath. He stayed!

“You stayed.”

Liam rolls on top of me, propping himself up on his elbows. He takes my top lip between his, tugging on it lightly. He continues kissing his way down my chin, across my jaw line, over to my earlobe. “As a general rule, I find it’s better to wake up next to a naked girl and entertain her naked bits with my naked bits than to wake up alone.”

“Ah-ha! So this is about more sex and not my fragile ego,” I tease.

Liam raises his left knee and pushes my leg out to the side. He’s hard and warm against my inner thigh. “It’s about both, but maybe more one at this very moment than the other.”

He scoots down my body, cupping my breasts in his hands, scraping his thumbnails over the sensitive tips.

I twine my fingers in his hair, and in my first real conscious effort at getting what I want, I urge his face down. He opens his mouth and covers my right nipple, lazily circling it with his tongue. After a few rotations, he pulls his mouth back and blows gently until my hips are rolling, begging for him to be inside me again. He tortures my other nipple equally and then reaches for a condom.

Sitting back on his heels, he rips into the package. I stop him before he can roll the condom on and take it from him. “Let me, I haven’t even touched you yet.”

He nods and says, “There’s plenty of time for that.”

My hands shake as I get him suited up and guide him to me. This time he enters me slowly, and moves deliberately, swiveling his pelvis. I raise up to meet him.

He moves one hand to my hip, further controlling our speed, and slips the other behind my head. Liam’s face hovers over mine, his eyes locking onto mine, engaged as opposed to the usual blank “I’m gonna come” look I’m accustomed to. From time to time, he dips his mouth down to sweetly kiss my lips, until they stay there, just touching as his movements inside of me get deeper and less steady.

My release comes first, cascading through my body, before he takes his. I’m overwhelmed by the fact that he’s waited for me every time and a tear spills from the corner of my eye.

“You okay, Dani?” he says softly.

I nod. “I’m fine.”

“First choice?”

“First choice.”

X

When I wake up again, it’s mid-morning and the full, bright sun of Indian summer is shining through the gap between the window frame and the blinds. I put my arm out to the side, wishing for Liam’s body to appear underneath it, but he’s gone. “His side” of the bed is cold.

Yeah.

The
other
side of
my
bed is cold. I roll the opposite way onto my side and face my dresser.

I exhale.

Scrawled across the mirror, written in Perfect Red:

Thank you. You’re beautiful and awesome and I stole your lipstick.

Call me 267-1589

I hurry up the path that leads to Villard, anxious to see the cast list for
Townsend House
. Liam meets me at the top of the stairs.

“Hey,” he says, grinning. He takes my hand and leans in for a kiss.

I look around to see if anyone has noticed that the cutest and sweetest boy ever has just kissed me in public, but apparently the general public could give a shit about my hang-ups.

“Hey,” I say, squeezing his hand. “I missed having you in my bed last night.” I’d called him about an hour after I got up on Sunday, not wanting to appear too eager. He’d been at work and couldn’t talk for very long.

He actually blushes. “Sorry, I was wiped. I had four tutoring sessions and then a bunch of homework. I just needed to stay home and veg.” He presses a kiss to my forehead. “Ready to take a look at the cast list?”

I nod. “And playing the part of the Eccentric Best Friend…”

India slams through the double doors, scowling at me as she goes past. “Congratulations, bitch.”

“Um, fuck you very much, India,” I call after her.

Liam laughs. “Guess you got the part.”

“Or she didn’t get cast at all and I did. We’re at the bottom of the pecking order. She’s just pissed that being THE MOST BEAUTIFUL didn’t work in her favor for once.”

Liam pulls me toward the building. “It seems to me that actually being able to act would help in this situation.”

“You are such a naïve man,” I say, shaking my head in mock pity.

Liam opens the door for me and we walk over to the crowd that’s gathered around the bulletin board.

“Who the fuck is Dani Walker?” says a statuesque blond, who I recall did the same monologue as India and the other girls.

Liam holds up our linked hands. “This is Dani.”

The girl looks at me and then looks at Liam. Her face softens. “You’re having a good day. Congratulations.”

I can’t stop the most massive smile from busting out of my face. “Thanks.”

She comes over and offers her hand to me. “I’m Ursula. I’ll be playing Kaitlyn to your Maggie. Your audition must have been flawless, because I rocked it.”

I drop Liam’s hand so that I can shake hers. “I think all the good karma I was due kicked in over the weekend.”

“And she’s extremely talented,” Liam says. “But she’d never admit to that.”

Ursula holds her hand out for Liam to shake. “What’s your name, so I don’t have to call you Dani’s hot boyfriend in my journal entry tonight?”

“Um,” I say, afraid to look at Liam in case he’s freaked out that Ursula called him my boyfriend.

Liam shakes her hand, grinning. “I’m Liam. I think you and Dani are going to get along well.”

“Righteous.” Ursula makes a fist and punches the air. “I could use more woman friends. Most chicks hate me.” She checks her phone. “I gotta go. See you at the read-through tomorrow night, Dani. Nice to meet you, Liam.”

“Later,” I say.

The crowd around the bulletin board has thinned out, and I finally get to see my name on the cast list. I’m the first person. I’ve never been at the top of the cast list before.