Billionaires Dollar Series

“And you never let on,” I whisper.

“You kissed my brother.” Liam’s voice is muffled against my skin, his head still bowed. “Of course I didn’t tell you.”

If I’d been shocked before, it’s nothing to what I am now. Something that I so rarely thought about-the kiss behind the hedge, Ethan’s voice businesslike throughout-had influenced Liam’s behavior?

“I know I’m arguing semantics here, but it’s really more accurate to say that he kissed me.”

Liam snorts, sitting up between my legs. A simple look down shows what I’d already felt against my thigh-he’s hard again. “I know. But I was eleven and unreasonable.”

I reach down, wrapping my fingers around him. Liam closes his eyes as my hand strokes. “It didn’t mean anything,” I murmur. “And if I could go back, you’re the one I would have kissed.”

The skin under my fingers is so soft, the hardness beneath like steel. I run my thumb over the head and his hips buck into my hand.

“I want you inside me.”

Liam reaches for a condom, his eyes on mine as he rolls it on. We both moan as he pushes inside, the deliciously full feeling spreading through my lower body like water through sand.

I hold on to him as he carries us both past the point of no return. It isn’t until after, when he pulls me against his side, that we speak again.

“I’m sorry for that.”

“For what?”

His hand settles at my waist, smoothing up the curve of my hip. “It was just plain missionary.”

I smile against his shoulder. His skin smells good, like man and soap and faint sweat. “I’m not about to file a complaint.”

“Thank God.”

I sling my arm over his chest and close my eyes. It feels perfect like this, when it’s just the two of us and no expectations or pressure.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” Liam says.

I raise myself up on an elbow. “Hit me.”

“What do you think a four-year-old girl would want as a birthday gift?”

I snort. “You’ve been meaning to ask me? Because I’m a four-year-old girl?”

Liam reaches over to flick me on the nose. “You’ve been one. I have not.”

“One of your nieces?”

“Yeah, it’s her birthday party on Saturday.” He runs a hand over his face, like this is the biggest challenge he’s ever faced. “My brother already gives his kids whatever they want, so he has no advice to offer.”

“Well, what does she like?”

“I don’t know.”

“Liam,” I say, reaching over to slap him on the shoulder.

“I know, I know. I’m a bad uncle.”

I smooth my fingers over the skin I’d just playfully attacked. My hand can’t help itself, it seems. “How often do you see them?”

“I don’t exactly run down their door. Ethan and I see each other more often now, but that’s because we work together.”

“That’s good.” I reach past him to our wineglasses, half-forgotten on his bedside table. The bed is large enough that I have to stretch. “Hey, that reminds me-I told my parents about you, by the way.”

“You did what?”

I sit next to him, leaning against the headboard. “I didn’t give them the full lurid tale.”

“Good thing, or Mr. and Mrs. Webb would be breaking and entering this apartment right now.”

“They would do no such thing, even if they knew.”

Liam raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that? Because you’re the apple of their eye.”

“I’m sure.”

“The banana of their heart,” he continues, his hand walking up my bare thigh. “The pear of their ear.”

I laugh, clutching the wineglass in both hands to keep it from trembling. It’s been years since I’ve seen the silly side of Liam-and it’s miles from the man who’d walked into the woods to hunt with Albert Walker.

“What have you been drinking?”

“The same wine as you,” he informs me. “What did you tell them?”

“That we bumped into one another. They were really intrigued to hear you work as an investor.”

“They were?”

“Yeah, I wasn’t being sarcastic.”

“Hmm.”

“Dad even searched you on the internet while we were speaking.”

“He did?”

“Yeah. He was mightily impressed, and not a little proud, I think.”

Liam leans his head back against the headboard, his hand curved around my thigh. “Would you look at that,” he says.

“He also informed me about the sheer amount of money that Carter, Park and Porter invests.”

A twitch of his lips. “Porter, Park and Carter,” he corrects me.