Page 51 of Holiday Home 3
She forced him to stand there, feeling how phenomenal her body was, for too long. He hated the silence in the room, though he wouldn’t break it until she replied. Because he was confident he’d receive an answer he’d like.
Imitating a grandfather clock’s pendulum by tilting her head from side to side, playing at being deep in thought, her eyes drifted everywhere but back to him. Just before his impatience boiled over, she finally leveled her gaze at him. And she still wasted another five seconds before grinning.
“If that’s what you want, you’ll have to come this way.” She sidled away, and Liam almost refused to let her go. But there were only so many minutes until Anna returned, and his body yearned for anything it could experience from Avril Knight.
“Where are we headed?” he asked, keeping in step with her as she glided away from the couch.
“Well, I’m not going to fuck you outside, so you’d better not be hoping for it. It’s fucking cold out there. And seeing as how we’re on a bit of a time crunch, we’re not going to do it anywhere out here, where we might be screwed if we can’t clean up in time. So, no living room, no kitchen, no hallway.”
She continued walking, and he continued following. They entered the hallway where they wouldn’t be having sex together, then kept going. Toward a bedroom, he assumed, though first they passed by a spacious bathroom where soothing floral scents emerged, and then another on the other side of the hall a few seconds later. Avril glanced over her shoulder as she reached the next door in the hallway. This one was shut.
“Now, you get one guess. Process of elimination says…?”
“Yeah, yeah, just let me see your bedroom,” he grumbled, though he almost couldn’t hear his own voice above the adrenaline pumping blood past his ears.
“I’ll let you see more than that,” Avril purred, undoubtedly aware of the anticipation gnawing at him. He could see a bit of it in her, too.
She opened the door, flipped on a light, and led him inside.
Chapter Seventeen
Double or Nothing
Her spacious bedroom was about how he expected it to be, sans one or two noteworthy alterations. Directly to his left stood a relatively cluttered vanity, mainly because the storage shelves on either side of the square mirror had long ago overflowed with nail polishes, lotions, and perfumes. Beyond it hung a column of six identically dimensioned square portraits. Each held a picture of a different gorgeous beach in them.
His eyes continued trailing clockwise around the room, passing by further décor, a wide dresser with an oval mirror hanging above it, and one of the room’s two windows, which was hidden behind dark curtains. Locating her queen-sized bed, whose covers hadn’t been made since its owner had climbed outof it this morning, he found several discarded outfits hanging out on one of its corners. He also spotted the Bandits’ World Series Champion banner hanging above it, with the year 2016 and numerous silver signatures covering its felt body. He didn’t know how many players were on an MLB team, but she just might have gotten them all based on how covered it was in scrawl.
All in all, he’d expected to find a little more haphazardness in her room, though maybe it was all just hidden away behind the closed closet door to his right. Pictures, more than just the first six he’d seen, covered her walls, some depicting other idyllic locations while others showed off sports cars. Anna was part of several of them, including one in front of this very apartment, presumably on the day they’d moved in. One image that caught his eye gave him a peek into the past.
“Is that…?”
“Wild to see her smiling, isn’t it?” Avril said, nodding.
It was. Enough so that he squinted at the picture of the almost sisters-in-law standing together on a golden-sanded beach, half expecting to see Victoria’s smile vanish like one of those cards that changed images when you rotated it in the light.
“She looks happy,” he commented.
“We both were,” Avril said, smiling wistfully at the picture.
In it, an adolescent Avril stood beside the woman he only knew was capable of piercing stares and unwavering composure. The bikini Victoria wore proved every opinion he’d ever held of her: she had a body designed to haunt the dreams of any man who laid eyes on her.
Beside him, aware of how he was focusing on the image a little too much, Avril loudly cleared her throat. “Rude boy,” she said, elbowing him.
“Sorry,” he said, finally tearing his eyes away from the voluptuous body of the world’s most severe professor.Fortunately, the woman standing beside him was nearly as full-figured.
“You can ogle Victoria’s tits later, or in a few days—you’re welcome. We’re in a bit of a rush tonight.”
He nodded, aware that their time was limited. Aware that it was strange, as well.
Almost twenty-four hours ago, he’d resigned himself to the fact that he’d need to end things with Avril. Now, he had Tess’s blessing to do just about anything with her. A lot really could change in a single day.
“Here’s the deal,” Avril said, moving behind him and then propelling him with both hands toward the foot of her bed. “We don’t have that long, so tonight’s not going to be all lovey-dovey and heavy on the foreplay. One of us here’s the expert, and you’re going to heed her advice. Got it?”
Liam glanced over his shoulder while she ushered him toward her bed. Once they reached it, she allowed him to turn around.
“I’m in your capable hands,” he said, knowing it’d only burn more of their already stout candle if he argued.
“Yes, you are. Now, strip.”