“I swear, sometimes I think you take some perverse pleasure in being difficult.” Finishing with her palm, Liam took hold of Jaz’s chin and turned her face for a better look. His thumb rested on her cheek. The spot was tender, as if bruised. It probably was bruised. “And for the record, you’re the most insufferable, bullheaded, and frustrating woman I’ve ever met.”
“I…” She trailed off, not knowing what she’d been about to say. Liam’s presence, his touch, made her feel safe. Which was stupid because there was nothing safe about him. But her body wasn’t listening for a better reason just then.
Liam’s other hand tucked a piece of stray hair from her face, then dabbed carefully at a small cut over her brow she didn’t remember getting. She smelled something woodsy, a scent that was barely there but definitely coming from him. This close, she could see the fine stitching along the collar of his button-down shirt, the five o’clock shadow along his square jaw. Around them, the apartment’s normal sounds drowned out the occasional car passing on the street below. The low hum of the air ducts. The vibrations of the phone Liam wasn’t answering.
His eyes were on hers now, their gaze potent and dangerously powerful. But safe too. She’d never been in such close proximity to him until now, not even when he’d cornered her on his kitchen island. Her heart quickened, her lips parting with shortening breaths.
Liam’s fingers were frozen on her now. His entire body coiled into absolute stillness.
Jaz couldn’t tell who had moved first or if they each moved in unison, but the bit of distance remaining between them became less and less as their mouths zeroed in on one another. Closer. Hotter. As unstoppable as it was wrong.
10
Jaz
Their mouths connected softly, but once Jaz’s lips parted in invitation, Liam’s tongue invaded her with powerful strokes. One of his hands slipped behind her head, the other bracing her ribs with a strong hold. He held her with a secure, powerful confidence that washed all doubt from Jaz’s mind, letting her lose herself in the flood of sensations of the now. In the way heat pooled low in her belly and spread in waves of pulsating need all the way through her body.
Liam’s kiss was like nothing she’d ever experienced. His mouth didn’t ask permission, it laid its claim and took without hesitation in a way that made her feel wanted. Savored. Special. Jaz’s heart hammered against her ribs, her hands grabbing Liam’s shoulders and finding coiled hard muscle beneath. More heat built where his palms lay against her skin, the sensation joining with that in her belly and mouth. In this moment, she was alive and awake and present with every hungry fiber of her being.
Liam’s hold softened as he slowly pulled away, his own pulse beating strongly enough that she could see it in the side of his neck. For a long moment, he just looked at her, his hand still on her face. “That was…” He trailed off.
Mind-blowing. Erotic. Amazing.
The beat of silence between them stretched.
“Wrong.” Liam pulled his hand back and stepped away. “I was out of line. I apologize.”
It was ironic, but the apology somehow stung more than pavement smacking skin.
Jaz shrugged, giving her hair an irrelevant little flip that was right out of acting class. “It was nothing.” The distance between them suddenly felt miles wide. Like there was too much open air and no solid rock to anchor into. “Just that kind of night, you know?”
Liam slid his fingers into his back pockets, his gaze as intense as always. “Are you all right?”
Now wasn’t that a loaded question. She’d been assaulted for the first time in her life. And then been kissed just as potently. “I’m tired, is what I am.” Assuming her signature bouncy step, Jaz strode up to Liam, stood on her toes, and kissed his cheek. “My purse and I both thank you for the save today. I’m going to bed.”
Liam was already in his running shoes when Jaz slipped out of her room in the morning, her wet hair from the shower tied in a ponytail high on her head. They didn’t say much as they headed out to the elevator together and onto the sidewalk leading to the jogging path that started about half a mile from Liam’s building.
That was when the reprieve ended, with Liam pulling up to run beside her. “We should talk about last night.”
Jaz increased her pace. “You really want to hear me admit that you were right about a protection detail? I’m not sure a couple of drunk bums qualify as a world-shattering danger, but if you need to hear a word of undying gratitude, I’ll send you a Hallmark card.”
“Just to save your purse?”
“What else would I be thanking you for?”
“Sweeping you off your feet with my technique. I’m an excellent kisser.”
“And highly modest.”
“That too.” Liam’s voice lowered to somber tones. “Jaz. I meant what I said. I was out of line last night, and I know it.”
She ran faster still. “Last I checked, it took two to tango. Stop acting as if you forced something.”
“Not directly, maybe, but I knew you were vulnerable. It wasn’t right. Kyan’s sister deserves better than my behavior last night.”
Great. She was back to being Kyan’s little sister instead of a person in her own right. And here she’d thought the aftermath of the kiss couldn’t get much worse. “Just so I’m clear, what other privileges does Kyan’s little sister get as opposed to a regular mortal woman who walks the earthly planes?”
“I have to be nice to you at family functions.”
“You aren’t nice to me at any function.”
“I never said I was perfect.”
Jaz couldn’t take it anymore. Taking a quick few sprint steps, she stopped in front of Liam, who nearly stumbled to keep from crashing into her. “Look. Liam. You and I, we don’t like each other for a good reason. Yes, you’re physically attractive—my opinion on that hasn’t changed since you humiliated my little twelve-year-old self. But unlike that twelve-year-old, I’m perfectly capable of telling the difference between the heat of the moment and sincerity.” Lie. She was terrible at it. But she could fake it with the best of them. It was one of her Hollywood-brat superpowers. “Lots of things happened last night. We kissed. There are probably five seventh graders in that middle school a mile away who are doing the same thing right now. Don’t think I imagine it as anything more than it was—or that just because I’m a woman, I don’t enjoy a mindless pleasure.”
Jaz stepped out of Liam’s way before he could reply and picked up the run again, her sneakers landing softly on the dirt-packed trail. She couldn’t keep doing this. Pretending that nothing bothered her. It was better to put a nail into that coffin once and for all. That, and to wipe that whole bullshit thought line about how he was in charge from Liam’s mind. “I think it’s me who should be apologizing to you, if I gave you the impression that something could have meaning beyond the moment. For the record, I find how you treat women repulsive.”
Instead of flinching like he was supposed to, Liam cocked his head in humored curiosity. “You keep bringing this up. All right. Let’s have it out. What exactly is it that you think I do to women?”