Crown Jewels (Off-Limits Romance #1)(12)

Then I’m easing off him, and he’s moving lithely off the bed. “Let me get you something.”

I sink into the covers, waiting for the fallout: for a shudder, for a sob. But nothing comes.

He returns smirking, and grins broadly when our eyes meet. Instead of handing me the warm, wet cloth, he delves under the covers, his knuckles grazing my belly as he spreads the cloth over me and lays his hand there, as if offering some wordless blessing over my vagina.

I start laughing, and he laughs with me.

“You’re a real prince, Liam.”

He grins. “I’ve been told.”

And it’s so natural, I don’t feel funny cleaning up under the covers with him there beside me.

I stretch out on my back, catching my breath. I’m thinking how sad I’ll be to get up when he lies beside me, his big shoulder bumping mine.

“You were incredible,” he says in a gravelly voice. And somehow, it’s not patronizing or weird. Just very, very genuine.

I giggle like a dumb teenager.

He turns over on his side, propping his head in his hand as he looks down on me. Then he lies back flat, wraps an arm around me, pulls me close, and kisses just under my ear. One of his legs rubs mine. He makes a soft, male sound, then falls asleep as if we do this every night.

I lie awake staring at him in the darkness. Who is this man? I run my open palm over his hair, which he let down sometime when I wasn’t looking. He relaxes just a little more against me, and I like it. That’s the last thought that I have before I wake up to an empty bed.





*





Liam

Several hours later





“I can’t believe you fucking did that.”

I shrug, wiping my forearm over my busted mouth.

“You know we have to leave now, yeah?” my cousin Heath asks.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I see little yellow starbursts, pulsing in time with my heartbeat. “We don’t have to.”

He sighs, gassing the Range Rover. “Ain says we do.”

“Fuck Ain.” My head of security is a world-class ball buster. I’m sure he’s shitting his pants if he knows what just went down.

“This is the wrong time for shit like that, and you know it.” For drama, Heath means.

He’s right. It’s definitely the wrong time for drama. Not that I give a fuck.

“Ain has our things loaded on the jet.”

I shut my eyes as he hangs a right, driving too fast in the direction of the private airport.

“I hope this was worth it,” Heath says.

I grin, even though it pulls my bleeding lip open.

It was more than worth it. Knowing what I’m returning to in Gael, I can’t think of another thing that would make me feel as good.





FIVE Lucy

Later that afternoon





“Have I seen that bathing suit before?”

I lower my iPhone, where I’m lost in an ebook. Even with my shades on, I have to squint at Amelia, who’s lying on the chair beside me, just a few inches from my family’s pool.

I give her a funny look. “Um, yesterday?”

“That one? The yellow?”

I smile. “Yes. This same yellow.” I set my phone on the table beside me and reach for my lemon drop martini. “You must have been drunker than I thought.”

“Did it have the little eyelet holes?” Amelia tugs at her white bikini bottoms, as if to reinforce she’s talking about my swim suit.

“Yesss.” I laugh.

She shakes her head, touching her lips. “I swear…you just look different.” Then her mouth drops slowly open. Her eyes pop. “Lucille Sutton Rhodes…” Her hand claps over her mouth, stifling a squeal. She starts to bounce. “You had been with Mags last time I saw you! Mags who came home in Dec’s jersey. When Char and I looked for you after we saw Bryce, we couldn’t find you. Not till 5 a.m. We weren’t worried because Mags was with Dec when he had Bryce thrown out. Charley kept thinking she’d seen you, but she was trashed out of her mind.” Amelia lunges out of her pool chair and slaps me on the bicep. “YOU DID IT! You got laid! Who was it? Dec’s cousin Trent? No! It was Stephen Reece!”

I swat at her. “He’s rude and has weird teeth.”

“Oh my freaking goodness, Luce! Who was it?”

I can’t stop myself from cackling. “You’ll never guessssss.”

“You better tell me, hussy! I’m your best friend!”

I can’t help the grin that splits my face. “That’s why I can’t,” I whisper.

“Noooooo you didn’t. No you didn’t! Oh my God, you didn’t tell me! LUCYYYYY!”

I leap off my chair, dash to the diving board, and cannon-ball into the pool. I feel Amelia’s fingers swipe my arm before I reach the surface.

“BITCH!” She dunks me.

I open my eyes underwater, grasping at her bikini top. I pull it off and kick away from her. She snags my hair and tugs.

“You better—” she gasps as we tread water— “tell me everything!”

“He’s a grower,” I shriek.

I’m not sure who’s louder, Am or me. We make it to the steps, smacking each other, doubled over in hysterics, me embarrassed and elated, Amelia cracking up the way she does for no real reason.