Jaz swallowed, the memory from that night in the mountains choosing this moment to ripple through her. The things Liam had done to her and her body. Her desperate, uncontrolled arousal. She felt her nipples stiffen, her pulse picking up the pace no matter how cool she tried to sound. “Sebastian double dog dared me, all right?”
Liam didn’t move a muscle, yet the air seemed to chill around him. “Yeah. No. We’re done with this discussion.” He started to turn away.
“I enjoyed the shirt thing,” Jaz blurted toward his turning back. She didn’t know why she did, though it was the truth. The kind of truth no one sane shared with a man who was turning away. “I didn’t think I would, but I did. A lot. I want to know what else exists.”
Liam froze. Cursed under his breath. Then slowly turned back. There was no mockery in his gaze, but there was no pleasure either. He stared at her, his hazel eyes tight. Intense. “Do you know what Kyan will do to me if he finds out I took his baby sister to a sex club? That I touched her?”
Jaz flinched, ice slithering through her to douse all hints of arousal. Kyan. Of course. She’d been an idiot to think that something had changed between her and Liam. That they’d forged a bond that survived the night.
They hadn’t. As he’d been in his teens, Liam was Kyan’s friend first and foremost. The climax he’d given Jaz might have been the first of its kind for her, but to him, it was another night of play. She was another night of play. A fun diversion. A client. A favor to her brother. Irrelevant for her own sake.
But she’d set herself up for this, hadn’t she? She knew who Liam was, and this time around, she had no one to blame but herself.
“Forget it,” she said, pulling herself together with that same trained skill that let her walk onto a film set and beam smiles no matter what was happening inside her soul. “I was just playing Sebastian’s dare.” She started back to her room.
“Wait.” Liam caught up with her, his hand closing around her elbow.
Jaz spun, breaking his grip. Her stomach was clenched in a knot already, and it took more self-control than she wished to keep the hurt and humiliation out of her voice. “I said, forget it. You’re right—you didn’t sign up to teach sex ed to your friend’s baby sister. I’m sorry to have put you on the spot.”
“It’s not that clear-cut, Jaz,” Liam snapped.
“Yes, it really is.”
“No, it— Goddamn it.” He slammed his palm on the kitchen counter, his eyes shutting for a moment. “I’m not relationship material, all right?” His eyes opened, his chest heaving as he found Jaz’s gaze. “I can’t have a relationship with you. With anyone. I’m just not built that way. Or maybe I was and got twisted around. But it’s just not something that I’m capable of. I brought up Kyan because he knows that about me.”
There was enough hurt and sincerity in Liam’s face that Jaz froze where she stood, her attention shifting from her own tightness to the tension now saturating the air between them. She didn’t believe Liam’s stupid self-assessment for a moment—of course he was capable of a relationship—but the sudden vulnerability in his eyes, that was real. Not that she knew what to do with it.
Well, when all else fails, try the truth. “I wasn’t fishing for a relationship. I’m not particularly in the market for one either.” And if she was, she knew it wouldn’t be with Liam. They weren’t compatible in the long term. “Point is, what we did in the mountains, it was fun. That’s what I was talking about. Fun. Pleasure. Sex. You’re capable of sex, aren’t you?”
He snorted, then shook his head, pointing a finger at Jaz’s chest. “We are not having sex in a club.”
“If the next words out of your mouth have anything to do with Kyan—”
“Forget Kyan. I simply don’t usually enjoy having sex in public.”
“Oh.” A speck of heat touched Jaz’s cheeks again, then her gaze narrowed. “Wait, you only objected to the sex part. Does that mean…”
“Yes. Fine. You win.” Liam threw up his hands, then ran them through his short hair. “One night of everything you ever wanted to know about sexual play and were afraid to google.”
21
Liam
Friday night, Jaz sat in Liam’s Land Rover, her hands rubbing along the seams of the tight black jeans she’d chosen to wear. Liam wished she’d picked something a little less flattering because he was going to have a difficult enough time keeping his hands to himself without that shapely body outlined to perfection and within fingers’ reach for the whole evening. Why couldn’t she have picked, say, a burlap sack? Though the damn woman would probably turn even that sexy.
Pulling out onto the interstate, Liam still couldn’t believe he’d let himself get talked into this. He was already having a hell of a time getting the woman out of his mind, and a trip to Shadow Cove wasn’t going to make it better. Despite Jaz’s heady declarations about casual fun, he wasn’t certain that things would be quite so simple. That she wouldn’t get hurt once she discovered that he was damaged goods.
Seeing his hand tighten around the steering wheel, Liam made himself release a tight breath. He was getting ahead of himself. Jaz had responded with wild, wide-eyed wonder to gentle play, and if she wanted to explore her sensuality with him, it would be his absolute pleasure. Fun. Exploration. Discovery. That’s what the night was supposed to be about, not Liam’s personal hang-ups.
Provided that Jaz hadn’t changed her mind. Liam checked his mirrors, then glanced sideways at Jaz. “It’s not too late. We could go rock climbing instead.”
“What?” She jumped a little at the sound of his voice. “No. We stick to the plan.”
Liam made a noncommittal sound in the back of his throat, then looked pointedly at Jaz’s thighs, which she was gripping for dear life.
She yanked her hands away.
Liam swallowed a chuckle.
“So where is this place?” Jaz asked, all business.
“Shadow Cove? About an hour and a half from here.”
“That far?”
“Minimizes the chances of running into mutual acquaintances.” Plus, Dior, who ran the place, was a friend and a former Green Beret. Shadow Cove was as clean and safe as the clubs got. “At least I presume you would rather this little field trip remained anonymous?”
“Good point.” Jaz sat in silence for a while watching the mountains streaming along in their glory. Liam had seen her clinging to rock faces, dangle hundreds of feet in the air with only her body and her gear keeping her alive, and yet he was certain that this drive felt far more nerve-racking to her. Which wasn’t altogether a bad thing.
“A few ground rules,” he said, breaking the silence once they were off the highway and navigating the smaller roads. “Stay with me, don’t interfere with anyone, and do not—under any circumstances—pull your phone out inside. Not even to check the time.” Dior had zero tolerance for anything with a camera that might jeopardize the guests’ privacy, and the penalties were severe.
Jaz pulled out her phone and set it on silent, fiddling with the controls until he parked near a low-profile building. With a clean beige brick exterior and dark, drawn-closed windows, Shadow Cove looked like a closed business, only the silver mailbox with the street number outside certifying that they were in the right place. Liam grabbed a bag from the back seat and put his palm against Jaz’s back to guide her to the door. Through the thin fabric of her turquoise crop top, he could feel her muscles tighten with the mix of anxiety and anticipation that rolled off her in waves.