Playing Pretend by Cassie-Ann L. Miller
Fifty-Five
Liam
The minutemy flight from Reno landed, it was straight back to the office. With the stink looks my employees are still shooting at me, I’m tempted to tear the Kline-Simmons Realty Developments plaque off the wall and rename the place Everybody Hates Liam Inc. They’re all still angry about the community center thing.
Fuck it, though.
I do my best to brush it aside, telling myself I have bigger fish to fry. I can’t spend my time catering to a bunch of whiny employees when I’m the one keeping the lights on and signing the paychecks.
My day revolved around meetings with legal and reviewing the thousands of new documents Varner’s assistant keeps faxing over.
By evening time, I was seated at a conference table with Varner, finally signing the damn contract. I could tell that he was pissy about Eliza not being there in person when that’s what we’d initially agreed to. But after I put him in his place the night of the dinner at my home, Varner has never dared utter my wife’s name aloud to me.
After everything Eliza has been through, I wanted her to take it easy. So I let her take the rest of the day off and I handled all the work I’d normally ask her to cover. It was a lot more crap on my plate but after the past few days she’s had, the woman could clearly use a break to get herself together.
If I’m walking around like a stressed out basket case, I can only imagine how hard things have been on her.
Whenever there’s a lull in my hectic day, everything my wife recently revealed to me about her past comes roaring back. Her sick sister. The family’s money issues. The loan sharks. I don’t need a fucking PhD to figure out that Eliza was forced to grow up way too quickly, likely without much attention from her parents, when her sister fell sick.
Although it was no one’s fault, it pisses me off that she had to go through that. And now, I just want to do everything in my power to make it up to her.
Because I’ve been so distracted all day, my work obligations have spilled over into the evening. It’s now past nine at night, and I’m working from my home office. I’ve been on the phone with Nadia for the past half hour, pacing the seventeenth century Persian rug in front of my desk while instructing her on how to respond to the final twists and turns the Varner deal have dealt. That shrewd man didn’t become as filthy rich as he is by making things easy on his business partners, that’s for damn sure. I’m no stranger to late night meetings, but now more than ever, I’m ready for this mess to be over with.
I end my call with Nadia, toss my phone onto the desk, and move to my laptop. I get busy firing off an email to the PR department, instructing them to prepare a press statement in case the community center drama gets out of hand.
Though she tries to be quiet, I sense Eliza’s presence the second she approaches the threshold to my office. Hell, I’d have to be a cold rock not to notice this woman. I feel her inquisitive chocolate eyes on me, like she’s trying to gauge whether or not to interrupt me. I make the decision for her, gently closing my computer and pushing it aside. I feel like she’s been walking on eggshells all day and I want her to know that she’s more than welcome here. I want her to know this is her home.
“Is now a good time to talk…?” She’s leaning tentatively against the doorframe, barefoot, in one of my T-shirts.
She’s not even trying to be charming. Her seductress superpowers are all natural. She’s effortlessly tempting, and I’m man enough to admit that I’ve fallen deep into her trap.
My chest pulls and I smile. “Always a good time for you, Baby.”
We haven’t had a chance to discuss the community center issue. In fact, where we last left off, she was angrily storming out of my office and disappearing into the night after reading the email that laid out the the demolition plans. I don’t know if her stance on the topic has changed or if she’s still going to give me shit for it. Either way, I’m prepared to talk it out with her instead of shutting down or walking away.
I lean back in my chair and watch her take hesitant steps toward me. So graceful, so nimble. She’s killing me here.
Eliza stops short of my desk, seemingly intent on keeping a safe distance between us. Her voice is soft when she speaks. “I know you’re angry that I wasn’t honest with you and I just want to apologize for all the drama I’ve brought into your life. I’m sorry for dragging you into this.” Her doe eyes fall to her toes. “It’s just that…committing fraud isn’t exactly something you just go around admitting all willy-nilly to strangers.”
I growl, immediately frustrated. “I don’t want your apologies. I’m your husband.” Forget that stupid contract we signed. I have a duty toward her. Why is it that I’ve got to keep reminding her of that?
“Yes, and you’re a stranger.” Her eyes lift to mine. “We hardly even know each other, Liam.”
Why does this impossible woman act like she’s no one to me? Is this what she really believes? Do the long, stressful days and hot, passionate nights we’ve spent together mean absolutely nothing?
I grind my molars, pushing out of my office chair and leaning across my desk. “We spend ten hours a day together at the office. And now we spend our nights together, too. Even if we weren’t married legally, I’d say we’re a bit more than two people who don’t know each other.”
It’s just her insecurities speaking, right? Deep down she knows how I feel about her? She has to. I may not have ever uttered the words but I think that, with my actions, I’ve made it pretty damn clear.
Her voice tinkles softly in the air. “Why did you move me in with you, Liam? The deal is completed now, right? I saw the emails coming through all day. It’s done, and now Mr. Varner will be building his resort in Sin Valley.”
That has me pivoting toward her. This woman has lost her mind. “You think I could just leave you out there in some crumbling basement apartment knowing you had loan sharks and prosecutors after you day and night?”
She bobs her head slowly, pulling at the hem of her T-shirt. “Right. The loan sharks. The prosecutors.” Her eyes drift up to mine. “You’re probably ready to be done with this whole mess and kick me out on my ass but—”
“I don’t want to kick you out!” I roar, my palm connects with the tabletop. “I want to protect you! I want to take care of you! Always. You’ve changed my whole life. Can’t you see that?” My fists pull at the roots of my hair, and I stalk around the desk, eliminating this foolish distance between us. “I fucking love you, Eliza!”
I half-expect her to tell me to go to hell. To remind me that our agreement is temporary. To remind me of the idiotic terms of our marriage contract.
But a shudder visibly runs through her at the force in my words. Her knees crumble and my arms shoot out, catching her before she melts to the floor.
Her head tilts upward, and I don’t fight the temptation to brush aside the tears I see welling in her gorgeous eyes. “Say that again,” she begs in her buttery voice, a little smile on her lips.
“I love you.”
Now that the words have broken free from their cage, I feel liberated. I feel fantastic. I feel my own smile spreading across my face.
“I love you. I love you. I love you.”
“I…I…” Looking deep into my eyes, she stutters in between heavy breaths. “I love you, Liam. So fucking much.”
I’m so happy hearing her say that, it’s an actual physical sensation inside my chest. “I love you, Eliza.” I take her face between my hands and I kiss her. “You’re so beautiful. You’re my angel.”
Our lips and hands are all over each other as we frantically try to get closer. The emotional walls are down between us and now, it’s time to take off our goddamned clothes.
I yank Eliza’s T-shirt over her head and get rid of her lacy g-string with a violent tug that snaps it in two. She strips me out of my button down before attacking my belt and zipper like they’re offending her somehow.
She kisses down my throat and torso. She licks my skin, bites it, takes it between her perfect lips. I’m paralyzed by pleasure, feeling absolutely helpless with her all over me like this.
Before I know what’s happening, she’s on her knees in front of me, lips parted, breath fluttering over my cock. One hand closes around my rigid erection as the other tenderly cups my heavy balls.
Awareness buzzes in every cell of my body. She’s never done this for me before. She’s never…
When she puts her sweet mouth on me, every thought in my brain evaporates. Her lips purse around my shaft and she slowly pulls my manhood along her tongue.
“Liam…” The sound of my own name vibrates around my cock. “You taste so good.” She groans and then suctions me harder, deeper.
“Fuuucckkk!” I rasp out, my fingers gripping the edge of the desk so I don’t do something stupid. Like grab her by the hair and slam myself into her throat again and again until I come.
As I said, I’m a gentleman.
Even when I’m getting my cock sucked by the woman of my fucking dreams.
Or at least that’s what I’d like to believe.
But when her head starts plunging, hard and fast and so deep my crown hits the back of her throat? I take a moment of silence to pay my last respects to my self-control.
I snatch her by the back of the head and start pounding like I’ve lost my mind. “Jeez. Fuck. Baby, do you…do you…need me to stop?”
She looks up at me eyes wide and watery, but she shakes her head stubbornly, taking everything I’m giving her. The desk rattles behind me, pens and paperclips and highlighters crashing to the floor as I fuck my wife’s perfect strawberry lips.
Eliza teases my balls as she sucks me and when her fingertips accidentally brush my anus, I feel everything inside me constrict at the unexpected contact.
“I’m fucking coming!” I roar up at the high ceiling.
I try to jerk my cock out of her mouth, but my naughty bride grabs my thighs and bares down harder. She doesn’t stop what she’s doing until I’m emptying myself into her mouth and my release is dripping from her lips. Depleted, I drop my weight against the desk.
“Baby…” she whispers, rising to her feet and wrapping her arms around me, clinging to me like she needs me more than she needs her next breath.
“Eliza, I love you.” Chest heaving, I breathe into her sweet-smelling hair.
“I love you, Liam.” Her fingers sweep up and down my skin and there’s something so vulnerable about the touch in the aftermath of how she just pleased me. I’d protect this woman with my own life.
When she touches me like that, the lust inside me is too urgent. We won’t make it to the bedroom. I spread her out on the luxurious carpet and I eat her until my entire face is sore. Eliza grips the foot of my office desk for leverage, her fingernails digging grooves into the expensive oak. She comes in a shuddering climax.
Then, my cock is deep inside her, rutting hard and relentless until we both come again.
And I can’t separate the carnal act of fucking her from my instinctual need to care for her, to defend her, to love her.
I actually love her.
Not just because it felt phenomenal when she put her mouth on my body. Not just because her pussy tasted better than frigging strawberry compote when I ate her in return. Not just because my name on her lips has become my favorite sound in the world. I love her because she’s sweet and genuine and determined. She’s strong but soft. She’s selfless. She’s sharp-witted. She tries to be many things—tough, bold, sassy—but at her core, she’s…good.
Now—and forever—I want her to be mine.