Getting Off

He was interested. No doubt now.

My heart pounded.

‘Can I get you another beer?’

I didn’t even look to see if my last one was finished. ‘Sure. Thank you.’ I sucked in oxygen as he looked away from me to get the barman’s attention, trying in vain to make the heat die down in my cheeks. And body.

I saw that he left a couple more dollars than required as the tip and said with some embarrassment, ‘I forgot...about leaving the tips here. We don’t do that at home.’

I noticed that his hands were big and masculine looking as he pushed the bottle of beer toward me. They looked like the kind of hands that could do some serious manual labour and those clever long fingers looked as if they could stroke a woman to an effortless orgasm.

Face burning at the rampant image of those fingers exploring my body, I vaguely heard him ask something. He was looking at me expectantly. Mortification burned me up. I was never this distracted by a guy.

‘I’m sorry, what?’

‘Where are you staying?’

His voice was so deep I felt it in the pit of my belly. Just like in my dream.

Seizing on banal conversation as if that might restore some sanity, I said, ‘Not far from here...my aunt’s apartment. I’m looking after it for a few weeks while she’s in India, until I find my own place.’

Liam frowned. ‘Is she from Ireland, too?’

I nodded and explained, ‘My father and aunt came to look for work when they were barely out of their teens, they got green cards. My father met my mother here—from home, too. Me and my older brother and sister were all born here, but we moved back to Dublin when I was still a baby. My aunt stayed on. She’s a bit eccentric.’

Liam quirked a half smile. ‘Plenty of those in New York. So what kind of work are you looking for?’

I had to rip my eyes off his mouth...that smile had just distracted me all over again. I dragged my wanton gaze away, focused on my beer.

‘I’ve got a degree in marketing and business...so I’ll be looking for an internship somewhere and then hopefully a job...but in the meantime I’m looking for waitressing or bar work to tide me over.’

‘So you’re staying awhile?’

I snuck him a look and all I could see were those amazing blue eyes. I nodded. ‘There’s not much going on at home. Recession.’

Jesus. I could hardly string a sentence together. In a bid to get his focus off me, I asked him, ‘So what about you? What do you do?’

Liam took a swig of his beer and I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. Cue yet more heat between my legs. Was there nothing this man could do that I wouldn’t find a turn-on?

‘I manage a bar.’ He grimaced slightly. ‘Well, that’s to say, I sort of own it. It’s the family business. We do food during the day and then it’s a full bar at night. A good old-fashioned Irish American bar.’

Now I frowned and turned toward him. ‘Sort of own it?’

His eyes flashed as if he regretted letting that slip out. ‘I do own it, it’s just complicated because my old man is still alive, but he hasn’t been involved in the business for a long time.’

He looked away abruptly and I felt the keen sense not to push. Then he looked at me again and his eyes were searingly blue.

‘Do you want to get out of here?’

His words detonated any slim chance of me clinging onto any sense of sanity when I felt as though I was burning up from the inside out. No man, ever, had made me feel so aroused...or aware of myself.

I huffed a weak joke. ‘You’re not a psychopath, are you?’

He smiled and it was feral. ‘Would I tell you if I were?’

I swallowed and saw nothing but a heat haze of desire that seemed to cocoon us. I wanted this man’s mouth on mine...all over. I wanted to press against him so hard my body would leave an imprint on his.

He smiled then, making little bombs of sensation explode all over my skin. ‘No, I’m not a psychopath, Caitlin, although my buddy Mike might disagree when we watch the Knicks and they’re losing.’

I melted even more. Excitement seized my insides, making them tight. I wanted this guy. With a hunger I’d never experienced before. It was physical, visceral. Before I could lose my nerve, I said, ‘Yes, I’d like to leave.’

And then, just in case he was in any doubt I’d suddenly decided to leave without him, I added, ‘With you.’

Those blue eyes glittered.

‘I have a ride outside. Come on.’

He stepped from his stool and I knew there was no going back. He had to be at least six foot four. Broad all over, but lean. Clearly defined pectorals, flat belly. Slim hips. And the faded jeans. Clinging low to those hips. Muscled thighs.

I hadn’t even realized I’d been giving him such a thorough once-over until I heard a dry ‘Ready to go?’ and looked up to realize that he was holding my bag. My head nodded jerkily, blood pounding. I slipped off the stool and landed close to his body, and felt every inch of my very average five foot four next to his towering height.

His sheer size and masculinity overwhelmed me for a moment. He was too perfect. This couldn’t be happening. But I really hoped it was. He took my hand in his and I felt calluses on the palm. My legs were like jelly as he tugged me through the heaving bar.

The thought that I was being a complete slut to leave a bar with a guy I’d only met a scant hour before entered my head, but I quashed it. There was something different about him, trustworthy. No matter how desperate I was to embark on a pilgrimage of sexual adventure, I wasn’t completely stupid or without morals. Yeah, right.

He opened the door and we stepped out into the warm balmy Manhattan evening. The sky was a stunning dusky violet colour, completely clear. He was still holding my hand. He was even more gorgeous now, shadows making his face look all lean and stark. Dangerous. But in a sexy way. Not in a psychopathic way, I hoped, in spite of his joking.

His thumb swept across the pulse point at my wrist, and my legs wobbled. Right then I was prepared to take the risk.

The air seemed to sizzle between us, like a live current. He came close and let my hand go to lift his and slide it around the back of my neck. Every nerve point in my body sat up and vibrated gently, none more so than in my pants.

‘Caitlin...?’

The deep voice made my insides clench. I was fixated on his mouth.

‘Hmm?’

He cursed then, but I barely heard it before his head dipped and his mouth settled over mine. I had to clutch onto his T-shirt to stay standing. It was the kiss of my dreams. Forceful yet gentle. My mouth opened under his, eager to taste him, and his tongue touched mine in a teasing caress before his teeth nipped at my lower lip.

I fisted my hands in his T-shirt, the backs of my fingers grazing that hard wall of steel, and I went up on tiptoe. Angling my head, the kiss suddenly became deeper and I stroked my tongue along his. His hand clasped my head tighter, holding me captive.

I was drowning in sensations, eddying and swirling through my lower body. I wasn’t even aware of pushing my breasts against him, seeking to ease the stinging of my nipples.

After a long drugging moment when the entire world could have gone up in flames and combusted around me, Liam pulled back. I opened my eyes and felt dizzy. My lips were swollen, tingling. Those stunning blue eyes looked at me and he uttered, ‘Holy crap.’

Chapter Three

My thoughts exactly...if I could articulate a word. Suddenly he was pulling me by the hand toward a motorbike parked nearby. My insides turned to mush. Any vague resistance I might have put up died a death. He drove a freaking motorbike?

He let me go to reach for helmets and handed me one, an intent look on his face that was seriously sexy. I took my bag from him, too, which I had totally forgotten about and hung it diagonally across my body.

Once our helmets were on, he swung his leg over the bike and a fresh spasm of lust made me feel weak.

He held out an arm and I clasped it to steady myself as I swung my leg over the bike, too. His muscles bunched under my fingers. And then I was behind him, sliding down until his hard butt was right between my thighs, my throbbing clitoris practically singing for joy. The prospect of a first-time multiple orgasm was not that fantastical.

He turned his head and said, ‘Hang on.’

I needed no encouragement. I wound my arms around his torso, clasping my hands just over the waistband of his jeans. I felt his washboard abs contract as he turned the bike on and pushed down to make it roar. The friction against my jeans and between my legs was delicious torture.

We were about to move off and then he stopped and turned his head again. I heard him huff out a small laugh. ‘Your address?’

I called it out to him, relieved that he sounded as thrown as me by this. And then we were off, roaring down the quiet streets, block after block.

We weren’t that far from my apartment, so we were parking again just minutes later. I don’t think I could have lasted for much longer on the bike without sexually molesting him. The bulge in his pants had been grazing my fingers provocatively.

I got off first and pulled off the helmet, smoothing my hair. I felt nervous all of a sudden. But then he was getting off the bike and nerves dissolved as I devoured his tall lean form.

Please don’t let him be some rat who’s cheating on his girlfriend, I prayed silently. But to my shame, I wasn’t prepared to jeopardize this night and ask him to confirm he was single. I just trusted that he was a moral guy. Yeah, who takes a stranger home from a bar to shag her brains out. With any luck! I answered my snarky conscience.

He’d stashed the helmets again and was looking at me. It took me a second to act. I rooted around in my bag for the keys and went to the door, opening it.

I led the way upstairs, very conscious of him looking at my bum. I did a quick mental inventory of personal hygiene. I’d showered that afternoon between job hunts. And I’d done a complete body-hair-removal overhaul before leaving Dublin, mindful of being prepared at all times.

I now thanked God for my foresight. Even though, I worried my lower lip as my aunt’s brightly painted door loomed, I wasn’t an advocate of the completely shaven nether regions...so I hoped he wasn’t one of these men who fainted with shock to see that a woman actually grew pubic hair between her legs.

I had been with a guy in college who had literally gone green at the sight. Needless to say, that relationship had fizzled pretty quickly.

I opened the apartment door and the faint familiar smell of incense assailed my nostrils. I walked in and held the door back and waited, holding my breath.

Liam’s eyes met mine as he passed me and the air seemed to crackle with electricity. He smiled, slow and sexy. With a definite hint of wickedness. I sucked in a breath once he was in and closed the door and followed him, turning on lamps.

I realized then what he must be thinking as he looked around, and I said rather redundantly, ‘I did say my aunt was a bit eccentric.’

His voice was dry. ‘No shit.’

I had to smile at his tone. Each wall was painted a different colour. One wall sported a mural that looked suspiciously like a woman’s vulva, not that I even knew for certain what a vulva looked like even though I had one.

There were crystals in every window, dream catchers swinging in the warm breeze. Beaded chiffon throws over chairs and the couch. A big fat Buddha statue sat in a corner surrounded by unlit candles. It was bohemian-hippie chic, to say the least.

‘This is one hell of an apartment.’

My mouth was still quirking as I came to stand beside him. ‘My aunt is about seventy, even though she could pass for fifty. She’s on a yoga-and-meditation retreat in India right now. And her name is June, but she’s currently answering to the name Star. Last year it was Lakshmi, after the Indian goddess of abundance. She has a tattoo on her back of the phases of the moon.’

I was babbling now. Liam turned toward me. My pulse zoomed skyward again. Mouth dry, I forced myself to try to remember social niceties. ‘Do you...would you like a drink?’

He shook his head, ‘I don’t drink.’

I frowned. ‘But you were drinking in the bar.’

‘Nonalcoholic beer.’

‘But...why bother going in the first place?’

He shrugged minutely, and drawled, ‘Maybe I was hoping to run into you.’

I rolled my eyes, even as my pulse was going haywire. ‘Smooth, very smooth.’

He smiled. ‘I do try.’ And then, ‘I do have one question...’

I had to stop myself saying, yes to anything, if he would just keep smiling like that, and said, ‘What?’

He reached out and tugged me into him, and all my erogenous points zinged to life.

‘Do you have protection here? Because I wasn’t exactly...expecting this, and I’m so hot for you that I didn’t think to stop on the way.’

I’m so hot for you.

I think I actually fainted with shock for a few seconds, while staying standing. I couldn’t be entirely sure I wasn’t going to wake up any minute now, masturbating myself again...but I blinked, and he didn’t move. I wasn’t dreaming. I was sizzling.

I liked the fact that he obviously wasn’t some lothario with a string of condoms in his pocket, while also feeling thankful that I’d bought a hopeful stash yesterday. And I was on the pill, but knowing most guys’ predilection for going without, given half a chance, I kept that to myself. Safety came first, even when auditioning for the starring role in Caitlin Does Liam.

I nodded, my voice was rough with desire. ‘In the bathroom.’

His eyes darkened and his hands tightened on my waist, fingers touching my bare skin underneath the hem of my T-shirt. ‘Good.’

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