Seven Letter Words #Wattys2016

Part 38

Juliet

There certainly wasn't as much judgment here as in the small town in Texas. The woman behind the counter never even gave us a second look when Liam asked for a room with a king sized bed. She handed us the key card and Liam carried our stuff to our room on the third floor. This hotel was very nice compared to the others we'd been in and I stood at the end of the bed that was covered in a big fluffy duvet, holding my arms out to my sides before falling backwards into the giant heap of bedding.

Liam chuckled as he watched me. I scooted back so that my feet could be up too, and then held myself up on my elbows. "Isn't your back tired from sitting so long?"

"Maybe a little," he answered, taking his shoes off and placing them nicely by our bags. It made me smile at how neat everything always was with him. I remember my brother telling me stories about the drill sergeants in boot camp completely destroying all the order one day. Bunks were turned over, footlockers and their belongings tossed all over the place. Perhaps it was a lesson that men like Liam would never forget. "Are you laughing at me?" he asked as he turned around. I hadn't even noticed that I was softly giggling at the memory.

"Maybe a little," I tossed his answer back at him.

"Is that so?" he asked, stalking over to me and crawling up the bed and over my body. I didn't give in to the need to fall all the way back, but he pressed on anyway. When his lips brushed against mine, he lowered his weight so that I felt it all over. His tongue dipped into my mouth and the scratch of his jaw against my skin was a pain that felt blissful.

Liam didn't rush the kiss, he just kept a slowly torturous pace as his lips moved against mine and our mouths found a rhythm that had my skin heating all the way up from my toes to the tips of my ears. Just being that close to him made my body feel like it was humming with energy. I'm not sure why lust feels the way it does, but when he made a deep sound as he cupped my face with his palm and tipped my head as his drew my lips in closer, the lust pushing down on us wasn't just heavy enough to close my eyes, it made my arms give way until I was laying flat on my back.

He never missed a beat, lifting his chest so that it boxed me in as his knee slipped between my legs. I would have been far more impressed with his next move if I weren't already ten steps ahead of him in my head. Why did we still have so many clothes on? His knee between my legs rose, spreading my own apart as he shifted his weight opening up the side of my body for his hands to roam over.

I felt his fingertips first, lightly dancing across my skin on the inside of my knee. As they seemed to chase each other, one light graze followed by the slow drag of another, my desire for him began to build. His touch moved higher and higher, barely connecting to the place that made my world go black before moving on to grip at the flesh above my hip. He used the leverage to slip me closer to his body making his own desire known.

I moved my hand from where it had been fisted in his shirt, something I hadn't even realized I was doing, and dropped it to the waist of his pants. His palm was now around my breast and while it made it hard to think, my next move seemed to be instinct and my fingers dipped inside his boxers. When I took him in my hand, his lips stopped moving. I heard air being pulled between his teeth before getting trapped when I wrapped my fist around him. As I stroked up, he exhaled with a powerful groan that sounded like relief and pleasure all at once.

I was so focused on his reaction to my movements it took me a minute to realize our lips still weren't moving. Our mouths were just pressed together, slightly parted as we breathed. Watching him like that was hot, and where I had been insecure before, I was now confident. Every sound he made, every thrust of his hips as my hand moved along him, every pull I felt at my scalp as his fingers tangled in my hair seemed to stoke the fire inside me. I was doing this to him and knowing that made me feel invincible.

"I should take you to dinner," he said out of nowhere and I couldn't help the giggle that slipped from my mouth.

"Am I boring you?" I teased, tightening the grip my fist had on him and stroking upward more quickly. He closed his eyes and held my hair at the nape of my neck.

"No. I just think..." he gave my hair a tug, "we should probably..." My hand circled the tip as I watched him trying hard to focus on the sentence that pleasure was chasing away. "Fuck." He groaned again just before leaning in and capturing my mouth with his. It was hot and hard, powerful and so enticing. He bit my lip slightly as he pulled away. "I want to take you out." He kissed me again quickly and dropped his hand so that it wrapped around my own.

He was trying to be a good guy, and maybe if I couldn't see how hard it was for him to stop me and do the right thing, I would have been hurt. Instead, inside my heart I felt pressure as joy and relief seemed to expand its walls. The important words I'd been told years ago were to choose someone that wanted to be better for me, and in that moment I knew that was exactly what Liam was doing. He was taking away the randomness of just hooking up and giving me more. But did he even know that was what he was doing?

"Don't get me wrong, sweetheart. I plan on picking this up right where we leave off. I just want to help you see that not all foreplay has to be so physical. Let me take you out. Let's spend some time getting to know a little more about each other," Liam softly pleaded.

I couldn't tell if he was doing it because he truly wanted to or if he felt he had to. I'm not sure what exactly that thought did to my expression, but he seemed to wince a little. "Juliet, sex is awesome," he laughed softly, "One of my favorite things actually, but if I only get a few days with you—I want more." He pressed a soft kiss to my lips. "I get this feeling that I'm going to look back on this trip a few years from now and be really disappointed that I only remember the sex. I want to remember you. All of you."

I nodded my head because I knew I wouldn't be able to speak. The thought of him years from now trying to remember this time together made my heart ache. Is that what this was going to become? I wanted to remember more too. I wanted to know about the man that had given up his leave to help me deliver Ken's tags to my father. I wanted to know why he found it so easy to sacrifice some of the best years of his life to his country. I wanted to know if he had any regrets. And I guess most of all, I wanted to know if I would be one of them. 

****Sorry it's been so long. I have lots of edits that have to be done for my book being published. I will try to get another chapter up as soon as I have a chance. I already know the ending so it's just a matter of taking you to it. Hope you're enjoying the ride!