She grabbed his arm. “Careful.”
“What did you say?” he asked again.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to be uttered aloud—not ever again. In fact, Mia figured she was going to take it to her grave, bury it in the coffin with her.
“Nothing,” she muttered.
“Mia.”
“I said nothing,” she repeated.
Playful gray eyes, less storm cloud, more tendrils of ocean fog teasing at the ends of her hair.
“I like your ass, too,” he whispered huskily.
God, she wanted to kiss this man, to grab hold of his ears and tug his head down and just kiss him until she forgot to breathe.
But she also wanted . . . fluff.
To play. To forget. To do something that didn’t necessarily fit in with the rules she’d used to structure her life.
Why?
She wasn’t prepared to consider that last one too closely.
So, just as Liam slipped through the gap, she plunked the cardboard down, parked her ass down onto it, and pushed off. “Last one down buys lunch!” she called, flying down the concrete, not wholly understanding where the words came from, but knowing that this man unlocked something inside her. Mischief or hell, maybe it was just as simple as yearning to have some fun for a change.
Either way, she was tearing down the slide, her ponytail whipping behind her, the morning air a cool kiss on her lips, her nose, her cheeks.
She was almost to the bottom when she sensed him coming up behind her.
Too fast.
Because she was slowing down.
Instinctively, she leaned forward, trying to gain speed, but physics and gravity were against her.
Liam was heavier, and his weight combined with them carried him farther.
She continued to slow as he slid by her, his feet finding the ground, and he was standing by the time she made it to the bottom. Her legs flew off the end, but before she could rise, he was there, toes of his shoes pressed to hers. He put out a hand. She didn’t need the help, but took it anyway, let him tug her up, allowed her body to press against his.
“You owe me lunch,” he breathed, his lips a hairsbreadth from hers.
He ran the back of his knuckles lightly over her cheek, and she shivered, heat spearing through her, filling her with such want and need that she half-expected to be reduced to ash.
Instead, she looked down to find she wasn’t.
Instead, she looked down to see his hand resting on her hip.
And . . . God how she liked seeing it there, wanted it on her breasts, slipping between her thighs, and—
“What just went through your mind?” he asked, turning his hand over, cupping her cheek, the rough pads of his callouses against her skin making her shiver.
Mia didn’t answer.
Instead, she gave in.
Seven
Liam
He was contemplating if Mia would let him stroke his hand down to her neck, to touch the glossy black of her hair, to run the strands over his fingers and see if they were as silky soft as he’d been dreaming about.
Then . . . she kissed him.
Electricity.
The contact exploded across his nerve endings, and Liam moved, one arm banding around her waist, pulling her tighter against him, using his tongue to part her lips, to slip inside her mouth and to taste her more completely.
She tasted of mint and sugar. Logic would reason it was the mocha that sweetened her mouth, but he knew it was just Mia. That she was soft and sweet and pure on the inside, even though it was hidden beneath cool steel on the surface.
Her hands tightened in his hair, tongue darting forward to dance with his.
And Liam lost himself.
There was no learning her. There was just . . . knowing this woman, somehow instinctively understanding what she liked, as though his mouth had been made to kiss hers.
She moaned when he drew her closer, melted when he nipped her bottom lip, gasped when he tore his mouth away and trailed it along her jaw, her throat.
He let her tug his head back up, pull him toward her for another kiss.
Fire.
The touch of her lips had it exploding within him, holding her tight, kissing her with an intensity that had no business being present on a first date.
That was the thought drawing him back to himself.
Or enough to gentle his hold, his touch, anyway. Enough to remember that though this woman was steel on the outside, she was fragile inside. She needed soft and coaxing. She needed that fluff. She—
Needed air.
Mia tore her mouth away, resting her forehead on his shoulder, the hot puffs of her breath seeping through the cotton of his hoodie, his T-shirt, imprinting themselves onto his skim. He wanted to feel her mouth on his bare skin, to taste her everywhere, to—
Patience.
Gently, he cupped the back of her head, brushing his hand through her ponytail in long, slow caresses, waiting until both their breathing calmed, for him to be able to suck in enough air to speak.
“I think after a kiss like that, I owe you lunch.”
She froze, went stiff as a board in his arms, and Liam cursed mentally. Fuck. He shouldn’t have—
Then her shoulders shuddered in his hold, a soft giggle reaching his ears.
“I think so, too,” she said.
As he was reeling from the sound, loving the wave it coiled inside him, warming him from the inside out, Mia twisted from his embrace, bent to retrieve her cardboard. “Let’s go again!”
She ran with cat-like grace up the incline, was slithering between the gate and the bar by the time he got into motion.
Was flying down the concrete as he made his way up.
He stuck his hand out for a high five, was surprised and pleased when she reached over and their palms smacked together as she slid past. He managed to snag her waist as she ran up for another turn, to steal a laughing peck before she escaped, and then they were both sliding down again. Then cajoled another kiss out of her before they headed back up to go another time.
And then they repeated the process again. A slide. A bone-melting kiss. Rinse. Repeat. Again. And again. And—
“Hey!” came a male voice. “You can’t be here—”
They’d just landed at the bottom of the slide, cardboard floating to the ground behind them, both their chests heaving from the twin exertions of running up the incline, of them making out at the bottom for several long minutes. Mia’s lips, reddened and slightly swollen, were a teasing temptation that continued to draw him in.
But the sound of the man yelling from the top of the slides made them both jump.
And it made panic crowd into her expression.
“The park is closed—”
“Oh my God,” she gasped, going pale when he’d much rather see the pink staining her cheeks, from the cool air, from the sliding, from his kisses.
He didn’t give her any time to continuing panicking, to keep going pale.
He just snagged her hand and tugged her forward.
She didn’t struggle, just ran alongside him, keeping pace with him easily, even though he worked out daily and had a team of trainers to make sure his body was in top shape.
“Oh my God,” she said when he’d stopped them several blocks away, pulling them down a quiet street.
The man didn’t seem to have pursued them, but Liam had liked her clinging to him way too much to immediately let her go when he’d realized they were safely out of the park. Even now, her back pressed to the brick wall behind her, his body flush against hers, she didn’t shy away. Instead, she clutched at his shoulders, breathing fast but not so much that she couldn’t talk.