I never held back.
Twenty years of friendship, and I never held back. Liam knew everything there was to know about me, because why hide? I had no secrets.
Liam, apparently, had some secrets.
The sheer scale of this place was ridiculous. And even my untrained, uncultured eye could see that everything around me was top of the line. When I thought about the tasteful but modest old Victorian on Main Street where I’d eaten so many dinners, it was hard to comprehend that this place belonged to the same family.
To be able to afford the house on a public servant’s salary, Bill Mulligan had to be on the take. Maybe that’s why he guarded his position as mayor so jealously.
That realization was like a blow to the head. I’d never put Liam’s gregarious backslapper of a father in the same slimy category as my snake of a Dad. But how else would he have done it? This kind of over-the-top luxury wouldn’t go over well in Crown Creek. No wonder he’d made sure the family retreat was several hours away.
I stood there in the gleaming, top-of-the-line kitchen and debated calling Liam and demanding some answers. Just how rich are you guys? I imagined asking. And what the hell were you talking about when you said you could never repay Willa?
My hand was at my pocket, ready to pull my phone out. And I would have if I hadn’t heard the sound of a creaking floorboard upstairs.
Willa.
All of my confusion about the Mulligans flew out of my head. Irrelevant, my brain insisted. Completely unworthy of your attention when you’re alone with Willa.
Alone.
We had never been somewhere without another set of watchful eyes. Now would be a great time for me to go up there, hash things out. The look she had given me on the porch… I hated how she’d looked at me.
I heard the creak again. She was upstairs in the bedroom. Probably going to sleep, I reasoned, giving myself an out for why I shouldn’t go up there and apologize. For… something. Making her cry. I’d made her cry before, but for some reason this time really made me feel shitty.
Yeah, no. She needed to rest. That was the whole reason we were here. She needed to slip into a soft, pretty nightgown with a bit of lace at the hem. Maybe it would hike up a little as she bent to get under the covers. I’d seen her legs plenty of times, but it had never occurred to me how fantastic they were, strong and shapely and still tanned golden even after a week in a hospital bed. The curve of her calf would fit perfectly in my hand, if I knelt down to touch it. I could kneel down right at the edge of her bed and smooth my hands up both legs, parting them a little and then looking up to see her face. She wouldn’t be wearing that pained expression anymore. Her eyes would be shining, and not with tears. They’d be gleaming as she watched what I did next.
What was I going to do next?
Pulled like a puppet on a string, I lurched toward the sweeping curved staircase with its carved rails. But when my foot sank into the deep pile carpet on the first step, I came back to myself all at once and stopped, gripping the railing hard.
“Fuck,” I hissed. Not cool, asshole. She’s alone with you in the woods, and she’s hurting to boot. How’s she gonna feel if you show up all horny at her door? Not cool at all.
I spun around. With a growl, I flung open doors until I found the cavernous bathroom. We were separated by a whole floor now, but it still wasn’t enough to erase the feel of her body in my arms. Or the kiss that still burned hot against my lips.
With a groan, I reached into my boxers. I was already so hard that the barest touch had me nearly cumming in my pants like a middle schooler. The creak of the floorboards above me nearly sent me over the edge as I imagined her lifting her shirt over her head, the coil of her curls bouncing as they fell about her naked shoulders. I imagined siding my fingers into those curls, holding her tight as I kissed her until she was breathless and panting, then holding her down with my hand pressed to her belly as I licked her until she screamed my name. How would she sound when she came? Was she one of the silent ones, who shook and vibrated without saying a word? Or did she make noises, little moans and gasps of pleasure that slowly built on each other until her cries became deafening? Just thinking of Willa falling apart, of her carefully guarded shell falling away, of her finally showing me her true self, of her being so helpless with need that she couldn’t hold back…
I grunted, my fist pumping harder and faster until I came with a sound I didn’t recognize at all. Then I flushed away the evidence and avoided the mirror, unable to look myself in the eye. I found the bedroom that was the furthest away from the one she had chosen.
Then dreamed about her all night long.