“Wait! Don’t open it,” Molly warned. She hobbled past him and opened the door just three inches, snaking her hand inside and flipping a switch on the wall. “Sorry. Come on in.” She had not been anticipating company, and worried at the state of her room. A cast aside sweater was on the floor. Notebooks, blueprints and various papers were spread out on her desk, and her bed was not made perfectly. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting guests. I don’t usually… No one comes up here. I’ve never had a man in my room before,” she admitted, then winced, wondering if she should have revealed such a thing. She felt gangly and awkward, and like she was ruining the most amazing moment before it had even properly begun.
“What did you reach your arm inside to do?” He looked at the wall near the door and saw that connected to a switch was a nearly invisible wire that stretched along the drywall and up onto the ceiling. He craned his neck and saw it was attached to a small white packet in the center of the ceiling. “I give up. What is that?”
“It’s nothing. Just more of me fiddling with my chemistry set. You know how I get with those beakers.” Molly tried to keep the edge out of her voice.
“Man, you’d think high school would’ve ended at some point, but they all seem determined not to grow up. It’s a shame, really.”
“They are who they are. I try not to look too closely at the mess. It’s a classic case that disproves the evolution of the species.”
There was a chair at her desk and the bed as options for places to sit. Molly began calculating the awkwardness in the room, stressing over the smallest detail. Old dresser, nothing hung on the beige walls and a general lackluster in the room announced that even though this was her address, it was not her home. Were it not for her cluttered desk, one might think it a worn-down guest room. She twisted the hem of her shirt as she stood in the center of the small expanse, resorting to going mute to avoid saying the wrong thing.
Liam sensed her tension and did his best to diffuse the time bomb of nerves Molly was turning into. “I didn’t eat yet, and I’m starving. What do you want from the kitchen?” He held up her makeshift ice pack from the frozen foods section. “Peas?”
Molly smiled a true grin of relief. “Just some takeout would be great. Thanks.”
He escorted her to the bed, even going so far as to lift her legs for her to the mattress. He grabbed a throw pillow and propped her injured foot up on it. “Do you have ibuprofen for the swelling?”
Molly shook her head. “No. I don’t keep pills in the house.” She glanced at the door to confirm it was shut. “Kyle had a little problem a while ago, so it’s best not to have anything around.”
“I wondered why Nate and Kyle grew apart, but the more I learn about him, the more it all makes sense. Nate’s grown up a lot since high school. Shame Kyle hasn’t.” He adjusted the pillow at her back, taking pride in being able to make her a little more comfortable. “I’ll be back in a minute with food.”
“Yes, doctor.” Molly smiled up at him, her long black lashes blinking with innocence and happiness.
Liam’s chest swelled as he looked down at her. “That… was sexy.”
Molly had never been accused of being sexy in her entire life, except by Nate when he was trying to make her uncomfortable, but she didn’t count that. “Really?” She tried to keep the glee off her face.
“Mm.” He brushed her barely damp black wisps of hair from her forehead, leaning down to really appreciate her beauty. He was amazed he never noticed before. Of course, she was so much younger than he, and back in high school, things like that mattered. Now her untouched face called out to him like a beacon, drawing him in unexpectedly. So much time was spent in the company of well-toned gorgeous women athletes, but none of them held his attention like Molly’s shy glances and awkward movements.
Liam sat down on the edge of the bed and continued to explore her face with his hands. He searched out every slope, attempting to figure out what it was that kept him captive in her room, on her bed, in her big brown eyes. “Screw dinner,” he mumbled, casting aside the insignificant space between them.
His lips caressed hers, which were frozen with shock. He was instantly flooded with all the things he’d been pretending it was fine to live without. She was alluring, and he wanted more. After a few melty beats, Liam pulled away, despite the desire to further claim her. “Is that okay?” he asked in a husky whisper.
Molly nodded, and then turned crimson. She covered her face with her hands. “I… That was my first… I don’t know how… I’ve never been kissed before.” She shook her head furiously into her hands. “I’m sorry! I messed it up! I know I did!”
Liam waited patiently, steadying his heart rate and libido as best he could. “That was your first kiss? How is that possible? You’re twenty-five, right?” A slow creeping dread filled him with horrifying words like “statutory rape” and “barely legal”. Those fears were thankfully snuffed out the moment Molly nodded vigorously.
“Yes, I’m twenty-five, but I don’t exactly fit in anywhere. This sort of thing doesn’t happen to me.”
“What sort of thing?” he teased.
“You know, the damsel in distress saved by the sexy doctor. Kissing on my bed. Kissing at all.” She pulled the pillow from behind her back and lay supine on the bed, smothering her face with the downy covering to escape the look of amusement dancing on the experienced man’s face.
“Molly,” he chided, removing the pillow from her. His shoulders hovered above hers as he waited for her to calm down. “Do you want me to kiss you again?”
“Yes, but I also want to run away so I can die of embarrassment somewhere private. It’s a tossup right now. I can’t decide which seems like a better option.”
“How about we let your ankle decide? I don’t think it wants to run.” He touched her nose, and then ran his finger down to her chin. He traced the slope of her neck, reveling in how easily her body arched for him. A shiver ran through him as goosebumps broke out on her skin at his touch. “Just relax,” he cooed, leaning down toward her. His arm snaked under her back, elevating her torso so he could kiss her at a more perfect angle. Cradling her did nothing to erase the age difference, but it did cocoon her in his scent.
Liam’s lips brushed against Molly’s to test their want for him. When he sealed the kiss, her need was clear. Her mouth moved with his in a slow rhythm that melted them both with its tenderness and desire.
Liam could not recall his first kiss with much accuracy. It was more than seventeen years ago when he began collecting the seasoned experience that made Molly gasp in breathless wonder at the world she had been missing.
He would show her. He vowed that he would make her first kiss a thing to be remembered until she was old and gray. If her memories slipped from her aged mind, he made sure that would be the last remembrance to go.
Deeper he drove the kiss when she summoned up the courage to weave her hands through his short brown hair. She pulled him closer. His muscular arms now wrapped all the way around her slight frame, pressing her chest to his.
Then it happened.
An explosion of kinetic passion burst from Molly and ricocheted through Liam, intensifying their fervor for each other. Her delicate fingers transformed and scraped across his neck and back, increasing the barometer of passion with little warning. Years of pent-up sensual urges culminated in the kisses they ravished each other with, panting and silently begging each other for more. Her tightly held body became pliable in his arms. Liam’s tongue danced with hers – not a waltz, but a tango. They tasted, moaned, clawed, licked and bit until clothing became a nuisance that separated them by unwelcome millimeters.
Without thinking it through, Liam pulled back and tore his black t-shirt off. The momentum was broken at Molly’s wide open mouth that could not make sense of the solid muscle hovering above her. His hands were on either side of her, locking her into the submissive position on her back as he kneeled between her legs that had somehow fallen open in invitation.
She was suddenly reminded of the vast difference between them. He was a well-built football star who worked all over the nation as a doctor for the best athletes in the country. She was an interpreter who, apart from her stellar finger and brain muscles, could not see her body or herself as anything but average. “I… I… You’re…”
She motioned to his chest to indicate their difference, but Liam did not take her meaning correctly. He placed his hand over hers and moved it to caress his taut pectoral muscles. “Do you feel that?” He ghosted her short fingernails over his left nipple, hissing at the disproportionate electricity the simple stimulant caused. “If you want me to keep going, do that. That’s the green light.”
Molly’s eyes widened when it suddenly dawned on her the insane things she was contemplating. Who was she to him? They knew next to nothing about each other, and yet here he was, hovering over her, half naked and ready for the more she could not give him just yet. She retracted her hand to slam on the brakes at the red light.
Liam’s labored breathing began to slow when he took in her fear. “Hey, it’s okay. That’s fine. We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. My fault for rushing things.” He sat up next to her legs and placed his hand over his heart to slow the excited rhythm. “Whoa. That was a crazy kiss. Who knew you had that in you?”
Molly shook her head to indicate she had not predicted the intensity either. Using her quaking arms as leverage, she sat up, leaning against the headboard as she stared at the beautiful man in her bed. “I’m sorry,” she began, wishing her ineptitude was less of an issue. “That was my first kiss. More than that is maybe too much in one day for me. Especially a kiss like that. I had no idea what’s what I’ve been missing out on. Incredible!” she breathed
He held up his hands in surrender. “That’s perfectly fine.” He felt his heartbeat again, amazed at the difference twenty minutes alone with her made. “Honestly? Hands down, best kiss of my life just now.”
Molly scoffed. “At least I know what you look like when you’re lying to be nice. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Before her pretty lips could utter another disparaging remark, his were on hers, lighting the fire anew. Her hands were back to tugging on his hair, driving him wild with lust for her innocent form. His arms went under hers, wrapping around her ribs and lifting a little so he could grip the headboard and press her lower back against it. She pulled him closer with her good ankle.
Liam broke from her lips to kiss a fiery trail down her neck, pushing aside the collar of her shirt so he could nibble on her shoulder. He loved the sound of her delicate moans and nearly inaudible noises of pleasure. It sparked a long-dormant desire in him to see what other kinds of utterances he could coax out of her. He had to know, to see how far he could make her back arch.
Different. She was not the same as the other girls he invited back to his hotel room for one night apiece. She could not be taken and cast aside. She needed to be gently worked out of her shell, and then treasured once she was exposed. There had been too much trampling done to her throughout her life for him to add his name to that wretched list.
Though her body was raring to go further, he was not sure her mind was completely onboard with this spur-of-the-moment decision. He slowed his kisses, gently lowering her back down the few inches he had lifted her. Like melting chocolate, he sucked on her tongue, introducing her to the sweet pleasures of tender seduction as opposed to the ravishing she was becoming well-versed in.
Her lips molded to his languorous rhythm, leaving her completely under his spell. She whimpered when he pulled back to lean his forehead to hers. Liam smiled at her dizzied expression. “Little Molly Luco.” He tsked her and shook his head. “You might just be my undoing.”
Molly could not form words, but responded by slumping forward into his strong arms. The urge to both laugh and sob came over her, and she did not trust her mouth to open.
He dispersed delicate kisses into her hair and on her cheeks as he spoke. “If I don’t get some air, it’ll be very bad for my self-control. If you have any off-putting bulky sweaters, or perhaps a clown Halloween costume, now’s the time for it.”
Molly sniggered, her eyes still closed. “Would you believe my clown costume’s at the cleaners? I was using it just yesterday to entertain the masses.”
He shuddered. “Clowns are terrifying. I always expect one’s going to pull a bloody knife out of his pocket and come after me.”
“What? The great Liam DiNatali’s afraid of clowns? What’ll the other kids say?”
“No more clown talk. I’m already too shaken up by you as it is.” He felt her cheek against his stubble, and he ran his fingers across her ponytail. “You alright?”
She nodded, her breathing still unsteady. “I’m just embarrassed. I’m not like this, I promise you. I don’t know what got into me.”
Liam grinned with pride. “Truth? You’re getting under my skin, too. Why I need a breather. Got to figure out what to do with this. With you.” He kissed her mouth lightly, just once more before pulling away. “I’m going to bring up some Chinese. I feel like I could eat a horse now.”
“I’m going to jump in the shower, so just let yourself in when you come back up.” Molly swung her legs off the bed and hobbled to her dresser to pick out the least unappealing pajamas she could find. Cotton tank top and shorts. Not terribly sexy, but also not flannel pants and an old ratty t-shirt of Kyle’s, which was her usual nighttime attire. She turned around and found Liam staring at her longingly. “What?” She looked down at herself to make sure the cuts on her knees had not started bleeding again.
“Nothing.” Liam swallowed the lump in his throat, but the obvious desire could not be as easily pushed aside. “I just like the look of you.”