Текст книги "On the Record"

Автор книги: K. A. Linde

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Текущая страница: 4 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

“Liz Carmichael,” Clay drawled.

Oh, shit! Sandy Carmichael had been the fake name that she had used with Brady when they had been hiding their relationship, and Clay was the only person who knew that Carmichael was associated with her, even if he had no idea what it referred to.

Liz sighed heavily, not even able to hold it in. “Clay Maxwell.”

His smile only brightened. Was she smiling? No way. She wasn’t happy to see him. He was just another reminder—

Liz stopped herself and focused on the present . . . like how to get far away from this situation.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time,” he said.

“If you missed me, Clay, you could have just called,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. Clay had never used the number he had begged her for back at Brady’s fund-raising gala late last summer. For some reason, besides the blonde bimbo he called his girlfriend standing behind her, it wasn’t a surprise.

Clay chuckled at her comment, and opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. Her last thought had made her painfully aware of exactly where she was. Andrea could come over any second, and Liz didn’t want to deal with her. Not to mention Hayden could walk up. How was she supposed to explain all of this?

“We’re in the way,” Liz said, walking into a corner on the other side of a wall from Andrea. She didn’t know what to do about Hayden, but she had to eliminate her problems one at a time.

“Already hauling me off to a corner alone.”

Liz shook her head. “What are you doing here? I wouldn’t have guessed that you were into art.”

“Andrea’s a big fan of the artist. She keeps buying her work,” Clay said with a shrug. “What are you doing here? I haven’t seen you since Hilton Head. I thought you were going to be my date for the primary after-party, but you never showed.”

Liz swallowed hard. Shit. She could not handle this right now. Not after just seeing Brady on TV and having a mental breakdown in the bathroom. She needed to keep the banter light and move away from the topic of Brady. But then again, all they had ever talked about was Brady.

“You were probably there with your girlfriend anyway. Hardly matters.” Clay opened his mouth for what Liz assumed was going to be another arrogant remark, but she kept going. “Anyway, I happen to know the artist. She’s my boyfriend’s sister.”

“Ohhh,” Clay said with that same knowing smirk. “Is that why I haven’t seen you at any of Brady’s events?”

“Something like that,” she said noncommittally.

“Is the boyfriend here now?” he asked, his eyes searching the room for the prime suspect. “I’d love to meet the guy who is going to be knocking down my door after I take you home with me.”

Liz bit her lip and laughed softly at Clay. It was strange to feel as if she had missed him and his antics, when she hadn’t ever really spent all that much time with him. But staring into his handsome face, she realized that she definitely had missed him. It made her stomach clench and roll at the life she had given up.

“So full of yourself,” she murmured.

“Oh, come on. You’ve been dying to get in my bed since the first time we met.”

“The first time I met you I was having a panic attack.”

Brady had just given a speech at a Fourth of July festival and Liz had suddenly realized how much he meant to her, how much the campaign meant to Brady, and that he had won her vote. The feeling had overwhelmed her and Clay had found her, though she hadn’t known he was Brady’s brother at the time.

“I did say you were dying,” Clay said, reaching out for her hand. She took a step back, letting his hand just barely graze her before retreating out of arm’s distance.

“You never cease to amaze me.” Her tone was light. It wasn’t as if she was actually angry that he was here. She just needed to get away before Hayden came looking for her.

“I’ve heard that before.”

Liz rolled her eyes. As cocky as they came, and yet she still hadn’t walked away.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to your girlfriend,” Liz said, the emphasis on girlfriend.

“Are you really going to turn me down again?” he asked, stepping closer to her once more.

“One day you’ll get the hint.”

“But not today,” Clay said with a smirk.

“There you are, Lizzie,” Hayden said from behind her.

Her face fell. She had been so close to leaving, but not close enough.

And the way Clay was looking at her just then spoke volumes. He knew that something was up, or at the very least that she didn’t want to be seen with him. She could punch him for that smug look, and she just hoped he kept his goddamn mouth closed.

Hayden wrapped an arm around her shoulders and planted a kiss on her lips. Huh. Was he showing signs of jealousy? Oh, it was so cute on him.

“Who’s your friend?” Hayden asked.

“This is Clay,” Liz said.

Hayden stuck his hand out in introduction. “Nice to meet you. I’m Hayden Lane.”

“Clay Maxwell,” Clay said, shaking Hayden’s hand firmly.

Hayden looked back and forth between Clay and Liz in surprise at the name. Liz bit her tongue. She would let him figure it out, and hope he didn’t ask her questions later about how she personally knew Clay Maxwell.

“Maxwell. Like Senator Brady Maxwell’s brother?”

“Ah. Representative Maxwell,” Clay corrected.

Oh, so now he was going to defend his brother?

“Well, it’s great to have you here,” Hayden said, producing that smile that always won everyone over.

“Thanks. You’re the brother of the artist, correct?”

“Yes, that’s right. Jamie is wandering about here somewhere,” Hayden said. He glanced around the room as if thinking about her would make her materialize before his eyes. And that was when it hit her: Hayden had stopped the jealous-boyfriend act as soon as he realized that Clay was potentially influential.

“I’m sure my girlfriend would love to meet her,” Clay said.

“I’d be happy to introduce the two,” Hayden responded.

And that was how Liz’s night turned torturous. She could see written all over Clay’s devious face that he was going to use the opportunity to stick close by.

They located Andrea, who didn’t seem to remember Liz from that chance encounter on Hilton Head back in August. That was lucky. Then they went to find Jamie, who was incredibly excited to finally meet her favorite fan. Apparently they had been chatting back and forth between the curator of the gallery who had procured Jamie’s artwork for Andrea.

Liz followed them around for another hour as Andrea gushed over Jamie’s talent. Clay and Hayden spoke cordially about everything from the newspaper to Brady’s election to Clay’s experience at Yale to the weather. Liz interjected only when she thought that it was veering too close to talk of Brady, but Clay didn’t know that she had been with Brady over the summer, so it wasn’t like that could come up. It turned out by the end of the conversation that she had freaked out for nothing.

Andrea purchased ten of Jamie’s paintings out of a single collection, and told Jamie that she would be a collector for life. Liz couldn’t even think of ten walls in her house where she could hang artwork. Then again, Andrea had a trust fund, and was dating a man who would most certainly move on to become a very prominent attorney . . . she probably had a bigger house than the one Liz lived in.

Clay shook Hayden’s hand as Andrea started for the door. Liz moved forward to say good-bye, but Clay pulled her aside. Hayden moved to talk to Jamie and didn’t even object to his girlfriend being taken away. She figured Clay must have charmed him in a way that only the Maxwell men were capable of.

“So,” Clay said as they walked slowly toward the exit.

“So,” she repeated.

“He’s in love with you.”

“What?” Liz snapped. She hadn’t been expecting that at all. Which was likely why he had said it.

“Yeah. I’ll be in town the next two days. We should find time to meet up again.”

Liz shook her head, still dazed from his assumption. “I’m not going to meet up with you. I know what that entails.”

“But you don’t love him,” Clay said, turning to face Liz.

“We haven’t been dating that long. Ugh! Why am I even justifying any of this to you?” she asked, turning to go.

“Hey. Don’t be angry.” He grabbed her elbow. “It really is good to see you.”

“Still not going home with you, Clay.”

He smiled in that way that made his dimples appear. “Next time then.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Good luck.”

“I don’t need luck,” he said with a wink as he walked back toward Andrea.

Liz watched him walk out of the art exhibition. Her whole body trembled with the exertion of keeping herself together. Clay riled her up so easily, but she wouldn’t let him get to her.

So she didn’t love Hayden. She didn’t have to love someone she had only been dating for two months. It didn’t matter that she had fallen for Brady in a similar amount of time. She couldn’t compare the two men. She needed to stop doing it. Right. Now.

“Hey,” Hayden said, walking up behind her and whispering into her ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin and he just laughed. “Come with me.”

“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath and turning away from the exit.

“Thanks for introducing me to Clay. He seems like a good guy.”

Liz held in her hmph.

“Jamie is freaking out about his girlfriend’s purchase.”

“That’s good,” she said. At least someone had gotten something out of the day’s events.

“Will you just stand over here with Jamie for a minute?” Hayden asked.

“Why?”

Hayden smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, drawing her into a hug. She breathed into him, feeling every ounce of what Clay had said washing over her.

Christ, he loves me.

“Just trust me,” Hayden said softly. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Okay,” she agreed.

Liz walked over and stood next to Jamie, who was chatting enthusiastically with Meredith about the event. Liz heard Andrea’s name come up at least five times while she was waiting.

The room had cleared out already. Liz hadn’t realized it was going to be such a short event, but apparently the exhibition stayed open for a couple months. The grand opening was just the initial preview. Jamie said that she had never sold more than one piece opening night. And besides Andrea’s purchases, two other couples had each bought a painting from the collection. Jamie was stunned and excited that her work was finally gaining momentum, and she couldn’t stop bouncing from foot to foot like a little fairy.

Hayden reappeared a couple minutes later with James, holding on to a nice bottle of champagne and some glasses. He popped it open and handed out the glasses. Jamie giggled the entire time, glowing radiantly from the celebration and forgetting how badly champagne had treated her the night before.

“I would like to propose a toast,” James said, his hand shaking lightly as he held his flute out. Everyone followed his lead and raised their glasses into the air. “To my beautiful girlfriend . . . and her successful art exhibition. Just the start . . . to a long-lasting career for the . . . brilliant artist I have come to love.”

Liz smiled at the glowing couple. James had had trouble getting some of the words out; he was practically stammering. It was the most adorable thing she had ever seen. He was so proud of her that he could barely even speak. Jamie let out an aww at his speech.

“To Jamie!” the group chorused, and they all tipped their champagne glasses in a toast.

“Y’all are too sweet,” Jamie crooned.

James handed Hayden his glass of champagne and then sank to his knee right in the middle of the art exhibition. Jamie stared at him, shocked, and then looked around as if she couldn’t believe what was going on.

“Jamie,” James began softly, “I’ve loved you since the first day I met you. I have loved you every day since. And I want to love you every single day after that. Would you do me the honor of marrying me?” he asked, producing a black box from his pocket.

Jamie screamed at the top of her lungs and launched herself at him. Her glass toppled to the ground, discarded in her haste. It landed on the wood and shattered, but Jamie didn’t give it a second glance. Her arms were wrapped around James’s neck and he was struggling to stand as he laughed at her enthusiasm. Liz could see that through her excitement, Jamie’s body was shaking with tears.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” Jamie said over and over again. “I can’t believe this. Yes! I want to marry you. Yes!”

He laughed and kissed her full on the mouth.

Without even knowing it, Liz had moved closer to Hayden. He was looking straight at her and Liz just smiled. “You knew,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Of course.”

Liz watched as James plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto Jamie’s finger. Jamie jumped around in circles before thrusting her hand out to Meredith and then Liz in between squeals.

Liz couldn’t think of a couple that she thought should be married more than Jamie and James. They just worked. They weren’t rushing into things, and they weren’t doing it for the wrong reasons. Liz could tell that it was going to really last. And she was so happy to have witnessed their moment, even if she had this strange feeling creeping through her . . . as if she couldn’t imagine herself going through that anytime soon.

She shook that thought away. It was probably just residual jitters from Clay’s comments. Who really knew whether they wanted to marry someone after only two months anyway?

Chapter 5

ALL THE WRONG REASONS

Thank you all so much! Next week we will be discussing the new digital age, so please be sure to read chapters six and seven in the textbook and the three articles assigned on the syllabus,” Professor Mires yelled over the shuffling of students stuffing everything into their backpacks at the end of class. “Please remember to turn in your assignment here on my desk. I’ve graded last week’s papers and they are sitting in alphabetical order over here.” She placed a stack of papers, likely bleeding red ink, on the other side of the desk. School had started three weeks ago and this was already their third round of papers.

Liz closed her computer with a sigh. Professor Mires had recommended that she take her upper-level political journalism class in the spring after Liz had excelled in the news writing and editing prerequisites and then the special topics class she had taken over the summer. She had wanted to take the professor’s class anyway, so it was an easy yes, but she wasn’t quite prepared for how much extra time she would be spending.

Professor Mires had also engineered an extra three-hour course as a field credit to prepare for the political journalism colloquium that she and Liz were orchestrating at the university for the end of the semester. Plus Liz had research hours assisting the professor with the papers she was sending out for publication. Add aiding Massey with running the Washington division of the newspaper and Hayden’s insistence on pushing for her to be editor, and it was no surprise that Liz was a bit overwhelmed.

The only thing that really bothered her was her slacking on tennis practice, but school and her career came first.

Liz pulled her paper out of her backpack and placed everything else back inside. She walked down to the front of the classroom and waited as everyone rifled through the stack of papers to claim theirs. She smiled at Professor Mires and handed in her draft.

The benefit of seeing her professor all the time was that sometimes she gave Liz ideas for what to write about or looked over the copy before she turned it in. A lot had changed since last summer, when Liz had been terrified of getting a C in her class.

“Thank you, Liz,” Professor Mires said, taking the paper out of her hand. Her professor had dropped the formality of calling her Miss Dougherty once Liz started working for her, but Liz still couldn’t get used to calling her Lynda. “Will you stay after so we can review the incoming submissions for the colloquium together?”

“Sure.” She had been expecting that. Last semester they had put together panels, and the call for papers had gone out near the end of the semester. Professor Mires had also sent some personal invitations to prominent professors in the field, journalists at top newspapers and news broadcast venues, as well as some politicians. Since then they had been flooded with inquiries and responses to their call, and Liz had been tasked with sifting through the mountain of messages.

The rest of the class slowly filtered out, leaving only the papers of students who hadn’t shown up. Liz’s was sitting at the top, and she grabbed it, reading through the notes. She had received an A. From the looks of the students who had left before her, not many others had. Another benefit of taking Professor Mires’s summer course.

Once everyone left, Liz followed the other woman back to her office. She took a seat across from the professor and waited as the computer booted up.

“That was great work this week,” Professor Mires said.

“Thank you,” Liz said cautiously. Those words normally came with a but.

“Do you feel challenged in my class?”

Oh boy! It wasn’t that she didn’t feel challenged, but she enjoyed the subject so much that it didn’t feel so much like work.

“Um . . . yes?” she said, it coming out more like a question. “This is the subject I want to move into. I find it very interesting and valuable for my future.”

“Good. Good,” Professor Mires said absentmindedly as the computer brightened before her eyes. She took the distraction to filter through her emails and Liz just waited. “This colloquium is very important to me and to the university. It is truly part of my life’s greatest work to be able to bring together my colleagues along with prominent journalists and politicians to foster more research and development, as well as the potential for great educational and networking opportunities for everyone involved. I want everyone to benefit from this, and I want you to participate.”

Liz sat frozen. How could she participate more than she already was?

“I would love for you to present some of your own research at a special topics in undergraduate research in political journalism on Friday afternoon.”

“Me?” Liz asked, excitement bubbling up in her chest.

Professor Mires looked back at her from behind her horn-rimmed librarian glasses with a smile. “Yes. I thought I would include your final research paper for the semester. Of course, that would mean it would be due a couple weeks early, but we could work with the preliminary drafts, if that suits you.”

“That would be . . . wow,” Liz said, speechless.

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

“Yes! Absolutely.”

Professor Mires’s face brightened further. “Are you sure you’re set on becoming a reporter? You would do wonderfully in graduate school.”

Liz’s head buzzed with the compliment. “I’m open to different options, but I’ve always wanted to be a journalist.”

“Well, don’t rule grad school out,” she said with a nod of her head. “Now go on. That’s all I wanted to talk about. You can respond to these emails tomorrow during your research hours.”

Liz blew out a sigh of relief. She really just wanted to get home and see Hayden. Massey was covering the paper this afternoon, so Liz had the night off.

“Thank you again,” Liz said, before darting out of the room.

When she left, she was walking on cloud nine, with a bounce in her step and everything. Liz took the stairs two at a time and pulled out her phone to text Victoria. She was supposed to meet with her after class to walk home, but she had forgotten to let her know she would be late. She jotted out the message to ask her to wait.

As she hit Send, her phone started ringing. Shit! Had she had that on loud all class?

Then Liz noticed the name flashing on the screen. Justin. That wasn’t a name she had seen in a while. After he had gotten a DUI last summer, lost his scholarship, and left the school, no one had really heard much from him except to know that he was taking a semester off to “get his life back together.” Sometimes he didn’t even return the messages she left for him, which was why she wasn’t expecting him to call back now.

“Justin, hey! How have you been?” Liz asked.

“Hey, Liz. Not too bad actually. Yourself?”

“Good. Professor Mires is working me into the ground and Hayden wants me to be editor-in-chief next year, but you know, nothing big.”

Justin laughed. “You still dating Lane?”

She hadn’t heard from Justin in weeks. “Yeah. We’re still together. What’s up?”

“I’m coming into town for work in a couple weeks. Do you want to catch lunch next Friday?”

“Sure,” she said immediately.

Liz’s classes were over early on Friday, but she usually had plans with Hayden. No biggie. He wouldn’t care if she rescheduled. She almost laughed at the thought. Only a couple months ago she had gotten out of a similar lunch with Justin at the thought that she might see Brady, and now she was dropping her lunch with Hayden with equal ease.

“Sounds good. Aren’t you back in school? What has you traveling to Chapel Hill for work?”

“Yeah. So about that,” Justin said. She could practically see him shrugging through the phone. “I got a job with a software company. I’ll tell you all about it when I come into town.”

“Just text me when you get here and we can figure out where to meet.”

“Sounds good, Liz. Catch ya on the flip side.”

“Bye, Justin,” she said, trying to hold back an eye roll.

Liz dropped her phone into her purse and rounded the corner. Victoria was standing under the tree in the middle of the Pit, talking on her cell phone. She hadn’t even noticed Liz walking directly toward her.

“No, seriously, you’re ridiculous,” Victoria said into her phone. “I am never going to do that.”

“Hey,” Liz said, waving at Victoria as she approached. Victoria still ignored her.

“You can try if you want.” Victoria tapped her foot impatiently. “Yes, I might be amenable to that, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you bring one of your friends in on this. If I’m having a threesome, I want some double penetration.” Victoria glanced up then, smiled and waved. “Hey, Liz is finally here. I’ll call you later.” Victoria snapped her phone shut. “Ready to go? I’ve been waiting all fucking day for you.”

“Trouble in paradise?” Liz asked.

Victoria shrugged. “I’m giving Daniel a hard time. He wants to threesome with some other chick, which I’m down for, but not one of his friends. Ew. Gross. Let me find the chick if it has to be a chick. You know?”

“I just can’t believe you are still dating the Duke Fan,” Liz said the name with disdain, “let alone sleeping with him.”

“Oh, lay off. He’s not that bad. And anyway, at least I’m sleeping with someone. How come you haven’t fucked Mr. Perfect yet?”

Liz shrugged. “Not ready.” How many times had they had this conversation? Victoria didn’t want details if she did sleep with Hayden. She just wanted it to happen already so that she could tease Liz.

“It’s been a couple months. It’s kind of weird. You’re not going to fucking save yourself for marriage or anything, are you? I might disown you.”

“Oh my God, no. I’m not saving myself. I just . . . I don’t know. I’m not ready.”

“How are you going to know when you’re ready? When he puts his dick inside of you and you don’t tell him no?” Victoria asked. “I think you should just let him fuck you and then you’ll know if you were ready or not.”

“That does not make any sense. At all, Vic.”

“Try it out and then it’ll make sense.” She stopped midstride and gasped. “Oh my God, is he impotent?”

Liz rolled her eyes and picked up her pace. “I’m never talking to you again. We’ve ceased being friends.”

Victoria laughed boisterously and jogged to catch up in her mile-high heels. “I’m fucking with you. Slow down. Slow down.”

“You’re a real bitch. You know that, right?”

“Class A act. The one and only.”

“Class A tramp.”

“I love you, Lizzie,” Victoria said, trilling the name affectionately.

“I love you too, Vickie,” she said, in the most annoying singsong voice she could muster.

They turned the corner onto their street with a relieved sigh from both of them. It wasn’t a far walk, but in chilling temperatures and high heels, it sucked. Liz changed the topic and told Victoria about her conversation with Professor Mires. Victoria was happy for her, and even managed to hold in her sarcastic comments until the very end. Victoria knew how important this was to Liz, because Victoria’s success was just as important to her in her genetic research laboratory. Both girls were on the right track to getting any job they wanted after graduation.

Once they finally made it to the house, Liz dropped her backpack in her room and quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and black sweater with her black riding boots. She was glad she had the night off to hang out with Hayden. It had been a while since they had just relaxed together. School was sucking the life right out of her, and he was loaded down with coursework, the newspaper, and applying to jobs at the same time.

“Heading over to Hayden’s,” Liz called out to Victoria.

“Tell Mr. Perfect I said hello and to fuck your brains out,” Victoria yelled back.

She cringed. Liz had used the phrase with Brady the first time they were together. She did not want to think about Brady. It felt wrong to even think about them in the same sentence. But Victoria was kind of right. It had been a long time since she and Hayden had started dating, and why was she holding back anyway? She should want to be with Hayden like that. Maybe if things felt right tonight . . . maybe.

Rushing out the front door, Liz hopped into her car and drove the short distance to Hayden’s house. His car was in the driveway, but his roommate, Kevin, was missing.

Liz parked behind Hayden, and then walked up to the front door. She knocked and then walked inside without waiting for him to answer. He was halfway to the door when she stepped across the threshold.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Hayden said with a bright smile plastered on his face.

“Hey,” she said, closing the door behind her.

She walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her against him and dropped his lips to hers. Liz let him take over, feeling the energy of his kiss and losing herself in the electricity that passed between them. She let her mind wander to that moment at the Lincoln Memorial, how her body had reacted, how a part of her even then had wanted that kiss. She had wanted that kiss for a long time, and now that she had it, she let the tingles run up her spine and opened her mouth to him eagerly.

Their tongues met and massaged each other. His hands gripped the thick material of her sweater and pulled it up so he could feel her skin. She clutched the longer strands of his medium brown hair, not even thinking for a second of letting him go.

But slowly his kisses became pecks and he stepped back, laughing, as if he was surprised he had lost himself so completely in the moment. “I guess you missed me,” he said, keeping a hold of her hand and walking her toward his bedroom.

“I think you missed me too.” Her eyes darted to the outline of him now visible through his jeans.

He chuckled again and nodded. “I always miss you.”

She walked into his room and kicked off her boots while he closed the door. “How was Professor Mires’s class?” he asked, as he flipped on a side lamp.

Now was not the time for talking, but that was what made Hayden, Hayden. He was not an act-now-and-think-later, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. Normally she really liked that about him. It was definitely different from most guys, who thought with their dicks and wanted to talk only after they got it wet.

“Good. I got an A on my paper. After class she told me that she wants me to participate in the political journalism colloquium and include my research paper in the undergraduate research panel,” she told him proudly.

Hayden broke into another huge smile. “That’s awesome, Lizzie,” he said, wrapping her in a hug.

Not an ounce of jealousy. If something similar had happened to him, Liz knew she would have been jealous. But Hayden wasn’t like anyone else. He was genuinely happy for her.

“What a great opportunity for you.”

“Yeah, she’s trying to get me to go to grad school, I think. She told me she thinks I’d conduct great research.”

Something did flash in his eyes that time. Anger? Frustration? Liz wasn’t really sure.

“You’d give up being a reporter after working on the paper all this time?”

Oh. That.

“No. I wasn’t planning to.”

“I just . . . well, I wouldn’t want to put in all of this time preparing you to be editor after I graduate if you’re going to drop out of the paper after I leave.”

After he leaves. She hadn’t really thought about him leaving in a while. It didn’t sit well with her. She didn’t want him to leave.

“I have no intention of going to grad school if I can get a job as a reporter,” she consoled him. “I just thought it was a nice compliment on my work.”

“It is,” he agreed.

She reached out and took his hand, stroking it gently with her thumb. “Don’t talk about you leaving.”

“What?” he asked, staring down at her pressed into his bed. She saw his eyes take in the position of her body in a sweeping motion, and then he adjusted the way he was sitting.

“I like you here,” she told him. She had never really said anything like that to him before, but as soon as it was out of her mouth she knew it was true. She certainly wasn’t ready for Hayden to get a job and move away.

“Well, I’m here right now,” he said, leaning into the bed and letting their lips meet again.

She groaned deep in her throat as need took her where she hadn’t been before. Hayden’s weight shifted, and his body pressed down on top of her. Liz’s hips swayed side to side enticingly. Her hands found his belt and tugged on it to bring him closer to her.

Her breathing grew ragged as their bodies moved in time together. Between her circle eights and his thrusts up toward her, Liz felt like her clothes were going to melt off with the heat they built between them. His body kept up the rhythm in a way that made her eyes roll back at the thought of what he could do to her without the clothes on.

And in the dim lighting he seemed to be exploring her everywhere at once. His lips urged her to continue and his tongue made her body tighten in all the right places. His hand jerked in her hair and she felt her legs spread open to accommodate him further. She could feel his thickness pushing against her. His other hand had found the seam of her sweater and was pushing it out of the way. He unclasped her bra and immediately grabbed her breast, kneading it and then pinching her already hard nipples.