Wicked Heart (Starcrossed #3)(80)

“Liam?” I whisper, as his breathing evens out.

“Hmmmm?” He’s barely conscious.

I can’t help but smile as I listen to the hypnotic rhythm of his heart beneath my ear. “Thank you for being my lobster.”





SEVENTEEN


COMING CLEAN


The next morning I wake to find Liam wrapped around me like a boa constrictor. I try to ease myself away from him, but his arms tighten.

“No,” he says, his voice dark with sleep.

“No, what?”

“Wherever you think you’re going that doesn’t involve staying in bed with me—no.”

“What if I need to go to the bathroom?”

“Hold it.”

He throws his leg over me for good measure.

“What if there’s a fire?”

“I’m sure New York’s Bravest will get here in time to save us.”

“Liam—” I squirm, and before I’ve even registered he’s moved, I’m slammed onto my back with my wrists pinned aside my head. When he settles between my legs I’m very aware of how extremely naked we both are. And how impressively hard he is.

“Elissa,” he says in a dangerous tone. “This is not up for discussion. I haven’t woken up with you in my arms for nearly six years. I’m not letting go anytime soon. You can either get on board with that, or I’m going to have to subdue you. Understand?”

“Define ‘subdue.’ ”

“Kiss you until you submit to my will.” He lowers his face so that his lips are almost brushing mine. “Make you come until you can’t move.”

“And this is supposed to deter me? Psychology—you’re doing it wrong.”

His face turns dark. “Doing it wrong?” He tightens his grip on my wrists. “Right. That’s it, woman. Prepare to be mauled.”

He growls and shoves his face into my neck, and I squirm and giggle as he nips and bites. When my struggling gets extreme, he lays his full weight against me to keep me still.

“Concede,” he orders.

“Never!” I try to buck him off, but it’s impossible. All those muscles weigh a ton. I huff in defeat and go still. “Okay, fine. You win.”

“Right answer.” He gives me a smug smile before rolling off and pulling me back into the cage of his arms. “On a related note, how suspicious would everyone be if we both called in sick to rehearsal today?”

“Very. But it might be worth it.”

He closes his eyes and holds me tighter. “Yeah, it would.”

With his right arm wrapped across my chest, I can finally get a good look at his tattoo. It looks like a coat of arms, but instead of animals, it’s made up of names. I lightly run my finger across the dark ink.

In the middle, “Jamie” is written in the shape of a heart. On either side, his parents’ names, “Angus” and “Eileen,” scroll around, and they’re surrounded by vines and flowers, just like the pergola Liam built for them. And beneath it all is a banner with . . .

“Oh, my God.”

Liam cracks one eye open. “I was wondering when you’d notice that.”

“When did you get this?”

“After the first Rageheart movie. Hollywood was getting me down, and I . . .” He strokes my back. “I wanted a permanent reminder of all the people I loved who I couldn’t be with.”

I run my finger over the letters etched into the scroll. At first I thought it was a generic compliment about his parents and brother: “My Bliss.” But then I noticed the capital L.

BLiss





I remember his phone message from years ago. “My beautiful Liss. My Bliss. See what I did there?”

He looks down at me. “I thought that if I had you tattooed on my skin, you’d always be with me, one way or the other. Stupid, right?”

“Not stupid. Beautiful.” I palm his cheek and kiss him softly.

We just lie there and kiss for a while. The sort of deep, languorous kisses which suggest we have all the time in the world.

“Every day I was away from you,” he says, in between teasing me with his lips and tongue, “I’ve dreamed of this mouth. Every time I had to kiss Angel, I closed my eyes and imagined it was you.”

Breathless and horny, I check the clock.

6 a.m.

I’m due at rehearsal at 9 a.m.

“So,” I say, and put a hand on his chest to stop him distracting me further. “Have you put any thought into how we’re going to handle things today?”

He flops onto his back and pulls me into him. “I’ve thought about it. Haven’t really come up with a solution yet. We’ll have to break the contract. There’s no way I’m going through with this wedding. I had issues with it before I saw you again. I can’t even pretend to marry Angel now.”

“What if Angel has a problem with it?”

He closes his eyes and rubs his forehead. “She may be disappointed about not having her princess moment, but realistically, she’s a victim in this as well. Neither of us have been able to have a proper relationship since this whole thing started, and I know she really wants one. She’s lonely. She wants a man to love her for real, and as much as I think I’m a great kisser, I can feel she’s sick of pretending with me.”