GRIND: A Stepbrother Romance Read online

  My heart ached for him. "I'd love to watch you play, Liam," I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

  Something changed as he looked back up at me, and for the briefest of moments, I thought I saw something way more that pushed the envelope of just the lust we shared. "I'd play for you. I'd win for you."

  It was a simple enough statement, but I felt my heart swell twice its size.

  We headed back toward the Satterwhite's house in silence, as if something big had shifted between us. Whether it was for pure conversation or whether he was just curious, Liam finally got to the question I was worried about. "So what was with you and the ex, anyway?"

  I groaned. "It's kind of a long story."

  Liam glanced at me as we continued walking, raising a brow. "I've got nothing but time on my hands this weekend."

  Knowing that he wasn't going to simply let it go, I sighed and explained briefly how I wasn't happy with the way Josh treated me, and especially wasn't looking forward to the promise of life with the Banks family. "Annnd… He never once gave me a single orgasm."

  Liam let out a low whistle as we finally made it inside. "Not once? Not even a little one?"

  I quickly shook my head. "Nope, and you… You've given me already too many to count, so it's not like it was impossible or something."

  Glancing around to make sure we were still alone as we headed into the kitchen, Liam leaned in closer. "So let me get this straight. You did a guy for like four years and he never once made you come? Ever?"

  "I know, it sounds so pathetic."

  "Did he even try?"

  "Kind of?" Embarrassment flooded through me. I almost felt ashamed not on Josh's behalf, but on my own.

  "He just… I don't know how to explain Josh," I said, wishing we could change the subject. "He's a rich, entitled, lazy lover for sure. I don't know, that's just who he is."

  I could hear my mom and Randy moving around somewhere in another part of the house, and Sage’s loud snoring upstairs again. I felt like if we were too close, if anyone overheard the conversation… They'd know somehow what was going on between me and Liam. I didn't exactly know how to feel about that, either.

  Liam shed his over clothes, stepping quickly out of his boots. "Okay, but why did you… How did you fall in love with him, Al?"

  I sucked in a quick breath, trying to study myself. The way Liam softly spoke my nickname surged through me like something intimate. I loved the way it sounded on his lips. "I was in college. And Josh, he was the talk of the town, or sorority, I guess. Maybe I was just drawn to his prestigious family… Who knows?" I knew that wasn't really the case, because like I’d said before to my own sister, I'm no gold digger.

  Something flashed in Liam's eyes again, and without turning to see if anyone had suddenly sneaked up on us, Liam pulled me close, hoarsely whispering, "Come here, now." Wrapping his hands deep within my hair, which was damp from the melted snow, he pulled me behind the corner of the room to where the door to the large garage was, hiding us from view of the rest of the house.

  "I can't take this torture," he whispered against my cheek, pressing his mouth against mine. And just like that I let everything go, giving every thought in my head a quick push to the left as Liam consumed my attention completely, his mouth hot on my frozen lips.

  I gasped for air but Liam never pulled back, only dragging his lips further down along the sensitive skin of my neck. "You… Me… Fire… Scotch. I'm going to show you how a man should take his sweet time tasting the sweet nectar of his goddess."

  Chapter 10

  LIAM

  * * *

  In the back of my mind I knew that at some point someone was going to wonder where Aly and I had gone off to. No one else realized that we had been spending so much time together just in the past two days, so surely someone would get a little curious. But it hardly mattered to me. Sage was up in her room again, practically comatose as sick as she was, Dad and Kay were probably up in their room doing the same damn thing that I wanted to do with Aly, although I tried not to think about it, which led me to having even more fun alone time with Aly herself. You couldn't ask for a better set up than that.

  In my head I saw the perfect way to spend the next couple of hours, and grabbing my favorite bottle of bourbon from the liquor cabinet, I imagined just how amazing it would be to be able to do this anytime I wanted to with Aly.

  When she had told me before that she'd watch me play… It sent shivers down my spine. The random women that I’d been with since my mom had died… None of them had given a damn about me like Aly had. None of them would offer something like that, and I wouldn't have expected it nor wanted it from them, either.

  Feeling extra frisky, I grabbed that same bottle of maple syrup and headed upstairs to where Aly was waiting in my bedroom, hopefully completely naked if I had anything to do with it.

  Yes, I would be proud to play again for Aly, and imagining her cheering me on in the bleachers was giving me an incredible hard on. It just didn't make sense that a beautiful goddess like Aly, perfect in every way, it seemed, had never had a man truly take his time going down on her. I glanced down at the bottles of syrup and bourbon in my hand and grinned to myself. I really was going to be taking my sweet, sweet time with her.

  ALY

  I rushed around the room, feeling like a chicken with its head cut off. Liam would be returning to the room in any moment, and I was only half undressed, wondering if I should just stay in my bra and panties or take it all off and wait for him in my birthday suit. Did I want him to strip me of my clothes slowly, seductively like last time? Or did I want him to dive in, quite literally, and take me right away? Both options seemed incredibly delicious in my head, but I wasn’t even given a chance to think it through fully when the door slowly cracked open, Liam's beautiful blue eyes peering around as he took in my half-naked form.

  Slowly stripping me, that is.

  He emerged through the door, quickly pushing it shut without taking his eyes off of me, letting them rove all along my body from head to toe. Sucking air in between his teeth, he slowly shook his head from side to side. "My, my, you are a gorgeous spectacle to be seen."

  His words trickled down from my brain to my heart, slowly, tickling along the way and sending a want flooding right between my legs. I don't know how it was so easy for Liam to know just the right thing to say to me, but he had a certain knack for it, that was for sure.

  "Over here," he said to me, pointing to the small fireplace on the other side of the room. It wasn't nearly as large and intricate of a mantle as the one in the living room downstairs, but it was small and quaint, and easily roared to life as Liam switched on the gas.

  I followed him, sitting down beside him, looking at him curiously as he produced a pillow and tucked it back behind me.

  "Lie back."

  Two simple words, a command that seeped through my bones, lighting every nerve of mine on fire. I couldn't move but somehow I did anyway, slowly reclining until my head was on the pillow behind me. I couldn't see what Liam was doing, but I heard him moving, and when my feet were being pushed apart, my thighs being opened until I was fully exposed to him, my breath wheezed out of my chest. The anticipation was already killing me. What was he going to do?

  The soft blanket under us was warm, but it was no match for Liam's hot hands on my thighs, his thumbs gingerly stroking the apex between my already swollen mound and my thighs. "It's hard to believe that someone couldn't give you the kind of pleasure you deserve. I just want to let you know, if I could, I'd make you come over and over again, all day, if you let me. It would be my pleasure."

  I quickly blinked, feeling as though I was both trapped in my own skin and my pulse was racing. The fire was only furthering the heat that was brewing inside of me.

  Liam nestled his face against my covered mound and I cried out, biting at my fist when his warm breath breached the gauzy fabric of my underwear. He hadn't even really touched me and I was already so close…

  I
could feel his smile against my leg, and his fingers slowly slipped under the waistband of my underwear, tracing the soft skin there before slowly pulling it down, exposing the tiniest bit of skin. But instead of pulling them down all the way, Liam's tongue dragged slowly along the hem, on each side of my panty-clad pussy, his tongue both rough and soft at the same time. I was shuddering.

  "How upset would you be if we ruined these?" he mumbled against my skin, lightly tugging at my underwear.

  They could've been the most expensive, designer pair of underwear I’d ever bought, and I would gladly pay him to rip them right off me. "Not at all upset," I managed to reply, my voice breathless.

  "Mm, good." I heard the sound of a bottle pop open, and Liam sat back on his knees, making me want to cry out in agony just from the absence of his face between my thighs. "Bourbon?" he asked, offering a small glass of it to me.

  I looked at him as if he were crazy, but Liam just laughed, shrugging his shoulders as if to say oh well, and drink it down in one gulp himself. I laid my head back just in time to squirm like mad when the unmistakable feeling of maple syrup dribbled down the exposed skin of the crease of my leg. I peered down my body and saw Liam holding the bottle of maple syrup a few inches above my stomach, the sticky, viscous fluid slowly sliding down along the pulled back edge of my underwear.

  I swallowed hard. There was nothing but the feeling of the syrup moving across my skin, Liam's warm breath nearby, and his content sigh as he tugged at the underwear, pulling it down even more. Propping myself up on my elbows to watch, my heart skipped as the honeyed amber color syrup slid out of sight, underneath my underwear, as Liam pulled it away from my skin. The tiny drop kept slipping down, and I shivered even more.

  The silence between us and the look in Liam's eyes as he watched my face was intoxicatingly erotic. I held my breath when he finally pulled my underwear down to mid-thigh, exposing me, but leaving me unable to move of my own accord.

  Drip. Drip. More light traces of syrup were slowly dripped over my skin, and I finally laid my head back, squirming so much from the anticipation of him finally doing what he came here to do. Liam took another sip of the bourbon, and swallowing it, leaned in, inhaling the sugary sweetness.

  I felt his fingers rubbing the crease of my thighs from the outside in, coming dangerously close to prying my folds open. God, his breath was nearly enough to send me over the edge!

  Trying desperately to calm my breathing, I closed my eyes and waited. And waited.

  I gasped loudly. The very tip of Liam's tongue followed a trail of sugary sweetness, licking it all off of my mound, his tongue delving into my slit with precision, careful not to touch my clit just yet. I bucked against his face, unable to control myself, ready to hump the hell out of his mouth, wishing, begging him. "Please, please."

  Despite my cry out of desperation, Liam leaned back, taking another sip of his glass and catching my gaze. "Pardon me, I know I'm not playing fair… I just want to draw this out. You’re so God damn sexy that it hurts, Aly. Forgive me."

  And with that, Liam parted my folds just as I hoped he would, his fingers sinking into my aching hole, forcefully stroking my inner walls in a way that made me shake from head to toe.

  All thoughts were abandoned, all I knew was that this was the very best thing… The most beautiful, erotic, delicious thing I'd ever felt in my life. I wanted more, so much more.

  "Mmm, so sweet," he mumbled against my pussy, lapping up the sweetness from both the syrup and myself, carefully. I cried out, moaning louder and louder the closer his tongue got to my swollen bud. Each time he traced his tongue around my clit, I thought he would finally send me over the edge, but he kept pulling back, teasing me.

  It was the most amazing frustration.

  "Say it, Al. Tell me what you want, baby."

  How was I supposed to form words at a time like this? "I-I-I want—I want you to lick—ugh."

  "Oh yeah? What do you want me to lick? Right here?" he asked, trailing his tongue down the apex of my thigh, moving further away.

  I quickly shook my head. "How about here?" he murmured against my navel as he brought his head back up, dipping his tongue into my bellybutton.

  I shook my head again faster this time. God, if he didn't hurry up… I was going to burst from agony!

  "Oh, maybe…"

  Stars bright as giant balls of fire blazed behind my eyelids as I screwed my eyes shut from pleasure when Liam shoved his fingers deep inside my pussy and his mouth finally enveloped my clit, his tongue laying flat against it, lapping at it over and over, circling it, darting out at it, flicking against it until I fell apart in a million pieces slowly, sure I was not even attached to my body any longer.

  I didn't care what kind of noise I made, I didn't care that my feet were pounding the ground on either side of Liam's body, and I damn sure didn't care that I nearly suffocated him, holding his face firmly between my thighs as I rubbed my mound up against his mouth, never wanting him to stop, praying that he would lick me into absolute oblivion. I'd be totally cool with dying this way.

  I finally fell back, unsure of when he’d even stopped, when his face had appeared by my side, the most satisfied grin on his face yet. My body was like jelly, and I couldn't get up if I even tried.

  There were so many things I wanted to say, but my mouth was dry, and as if on cue, Liam handed me a glass full of freshly poured bourbon.

  Once we were cuddled up in bed together, me still trying to catch my breath from the insane job Liam had just done on me, I ran my hand along his chest. "Tell me more about what it was like when you were playing tennis." I found myself thirsting to know more about Liam. If he could know my most private things, the least I could do was ask him about his life…

  Liam's fingers found a strand of my highlights and twirled it around unconsciously. "I used to think it was the only thing I was any good at. A lot of my friends were more into the rougher contact sports, but I saw something different, felt something different every time I stepped out onto the court. This kind of, I don't know, adrenaline buzzing around my head… I became addicted. All I wanted to do was be the best. And I was, for a while there anyway."

  He recalled his favorite moments over the years, how he nearly won his very first match, how he was beside himself when the Queen of England ended up at one of his Wimbledon matches, why he always felt like the black sheep of the family. "Jackson was the guy to follow in Dad's footsteps, there was never any question about it. But my Mom never pushed me to be like anyone but myself."

  I let his words lull me into near-sleep, so relaxed and blissful. Whether it was just the afterglow or what, I wasn't sure, but I knew I'd hate when it ended.

  After a few more minutes of quiet, Liam gently rolled me off his chest and looked down at me. "Would you want to play?"

  I lifted a brow at him. "Play?"

  "Yeah. Tennis, I mean." He looked at me as though it were obvious.

  "In the snow? It's freezing outside, not to mention I don't think I packed a tennis skirt," I replied sarcastically, grinning.

  "No, inside. We've got an inside tennis court connected to the game room."

  Chuckling to myself because how could I not, I held my hand to my mouth, hiding my smile. "Of course you do."

  I hated having to separate even if only to get dressed in my room, but I met Liam outside in the lavish indoor tennis court, looking over the professional tennis ball machine.

  Guiding my form for the first few strokes, Liam showed me how to hold the tennis racket for both my backhand and forehand strokes, pleased when I finally hit the first ball that was launched in my direction. I squealed with delight as it sailed just over the tennis court net and rolled up to his feet.

  "I win!" I shouted, laughing as he shook his head across the way. "No, I totally do!"

  Being Liam, he had to get me back for me winning the race down the slope earlier, and proceeded to kick my sorry butt, each ball he whipped my way nearly taking off a limb as I hurried out of
the way.

  He let me win. A few times, in fact, but only because each time I won I blew him a kiss and winked at him, I was sure. My face was red from exertion when Mom and Randy walked in, watching us and laughing along as well.

  I nearly collapsed after one desperate dive to hit the tennis ball back his way, and missing it, shrieked indignantly, sticking out my tongue at Liam when he looked my way again.

  "I believe I'm the winner," he declared, walking over to where Randy and Mom were standing outside.

  "Hardly fair. My trainer was completely biased. I need more practice," I said, smiling.

  "You can say that again," he teased, giving me a wink once Mom and Randy turned toward the sound of Sage peeking her head inside the cavernous space.

  Feeling as though I had sweat out any bit of energy I may have possessed earlier, I trudged back into the main living room, pulling my hair into a messy bun on top of my head.

  "I'm going to hit the showers," Liam announced, his eyes staying on me for a moment longer than necessary. "Aly worked me over pretty good."

  "I'm pretty sure I'm the one who got worked over good," I replied, sneaking my best sexy grin at Liam when no one was looking.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head, and headed upstairs. I watched his fine ass move inside the shorts he had put on, enjoying the view.

  A hand clapped me hard on the shoulder, nearly scaring the daylights out of me, and I jumped, my eyes wide.

  "I haven't seen Liam touch a racket since the injury, Aly. Thank you for whatever you did to him. Thank you… I don't know how you did it, but thank you," Randy said, sounding sincere. He turned to my mom, who was looking at me funny, and continued, "Gosh, it would be great for him to train again and get back on the court to compete. Did I show you any of his awards? He's played at all the Grand Slams tournaments, the World Open, hell, even Wimbledon! So many matches, and he won almost all of them… Well, anyway…"