“Shut up.”
“I’m serious, Em. You’ve evolved. You’ve become this woman… it’s… it steals my breath to see.”
I picked up my left foot and tried to sensually kick at his chest.
I missed and kicked his jaw.
“Why don’t you just call it a night, babe?” Liam asked as he rubbed his jaw.
“You should call it a night,” I said and laughed.
“Okay. I will.”
Liam got my shoes off and then took my shirt off.
I grabbed for his jeans and felt the forever bulge of his amazing cock, but he swatted my hands away.
He helped me down to my pillow and covered me up.
I closed my eyes and pictured Liam fucking me back at the bakery.
Except in my mind we were both naked and I was riding him on the counter.
Begging him to fill me… like I was… I don’t know… some kind of baked good…
That made me smile as I drifted off to sleep.
A hand touches my shoulder. Then lips.
A soft kiss.
I feel warm and safe.
I’m not sure I’ve ever felt this safe in my life.
“Hey, babe, it’s me,” Liam’s voice whispers. “I know you’re sleeping, but I just have to tell you something. I can’t hold this in anymore. I’m in love with you. Okay? I don’t want to tell you when you’re awake and make you nervous. I know there’s a lot happening around us right now. There’s a lot of questions to find answers to, but there is one thing I know for sure. I am in love with you. Maybe I’m the worst kind of person… pushing away that love for another kind… if so, then I have to own that. But I can’t keep swallowing the feeling down. I don’t want this to ever end, Em. This feeling. Laughing. Touching you. Holding you. Tasting you. Fucking you. This isn’t a week-long thing for me. This has got to be forever, or else I don’t believe in forever anymore. I love you, babe. I can’t wait to see your eyes in the morning.”
Another kiss to my shoulder.
I hear and feel Liam take a deep breath.
He drifts off to sleep…
I opened my eyes and licked my lips.
I was still very much drunk.
But I was pretty sure that wasn’t a dream.
I slowly rolled around so that I faced Liam.
He was sleeping.
A gorgeous man in my bed.
A man who meant the world to me.
A man who…
I inched forward and kissed his forehead.
My heart raced.
“I love you too, Liam…”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Liam
I watched Emily shuffle out of the bedroom and go right into the bathroom.
Her feet literally sliding on the floor.
Wearing my shirt.
Her hair looking like she stuck her finger into a light socket.
Yawning.
Her nipples hard, showing through the shirt.
Yes, I was the guy who noticed that from across the apartment.
She shut the bathroom door and I touched my jaw.
I went back to cooking breakfast, well aware of the location of the smoke detector in the kitchen.
Yesterday I tried to sneak to make Emily breakfast and I set off the smoke detector. She laughed at me when she caught me waving a towel at the damn thing. She even teased me, saying if I wanted to stand on a step stool, I could. She’d catch me if I fell.
This morning, I had a better system in place.
Yesterday morning. This morning.
My work bag was on the counter. I had a bag of clothes in her bedroom.
My actual apartment was kind of a glorified closet at that point.
I went there to get work clothes.
Or to drop off or pick up laundry.
Or get my mail.
There were a few apartments I had found I liked but…
I liked this.
Emily came out of the bathroom and shuffled her way across the apartment.
Casually looking down, smiling as she did so.
I stopped cooking and turned to face her and my arms opened.
She walked into me and I wrapped my arms around her tight.
She groaned and bent her knees.
“Why are you awake, babe?” I whispered.
“I smelled the food. And I knew you’d be shirtless.”
“Are you suggesting I wear more clothes when I cook?” I asked.
Emily lifted her head. “You can make breakfast… that’s about it. Let’s not start calling you a cook…”
I smiled. “I’ll let that slide because you’re beautiful.”
“This is not beautiful,” Emily said as she shook her head.
I touched her hair and then her face. “Oh, it’s beautiful, Em. It means sleep. You and me in bed. It means sex.”
“Is that all I’m good for, Liam?”
I smiled at her. “Hey, Em. I love you.”
“I love you too,” she said. She pushed away from me. “Going to give me breakfast in bed?”
“If I do that, the food will get cold.”
Emily pointed down between my legs. “Get him calmed down until I get something to eat.”
“You’re lucky I love you.”
“You like saying that, don’t you?”
“I do. I love you. I’ve loved you for years. I’ve loved you…”
I trailed off and Emily laughed at me.
There were still some things we had to talk about.
We’d get there in time.
Right now, I just wanted to watch her walk back to the bedroom so I could finish making her breakfast. Steal every second of her time she was willing to give.
And keep telling her I loved her.
Emily stood at the bathroom sink with a toothbrush in her mouth. She pulled her hair back and quickly wrapped a hair tie around her hair a few times. Whatever it looked like, that was her hairstyle for the day.
Yeah, I loved that about her too.
She wore a white t-shirt (not mine) and panties (also not mine - haha).
I leaned against the doorway to the bathroom and when she looked at me in the mirror, she took the toothbrush from her mouth and spit.
“What?” she asked.
“I like this,” I said. “Being comfortable near each other like this.”
“I’m brushing my teeth.”
“It’s turning me on.”
“Here I thought you were some tough business guy, able to control yourself,” she said. “You’re just some horny guy, aren’t you?”
“Horny for you, babe.”
“Well, since you refuse to leave my apartment, you’re going to have to deal with this kind of stuff…”
“Fair enough. You’re going to have to deal with certain stuff too.”
“Like what?” Emily asked.
She went back to brushing her teeth.
I pushed from the doorway and moved closer to her.
My hands touched the lines of her panties as they squeezed against her ass.
Our eyes met in the reflection of the mirror.
Her cheeks slowly turned red.
When my fingertips touched the top of her panties, I gently pulled them down.
She opened her legs and shivered.
I helped her step out of her panties and as I stood up, I pushed my pants down.
No boxers meant my cock hung free, already throbbing, already thickening.