Page 61 of Holiday Home 3

“Okay,” he said. “That works for me.”

There wasn’t much else to discuss, though he hung around a bit longer. Avril knew why, and she rewarded him with an approving smile while the two of them distracted Anna from her family troubles.

A little before it started getting dark, he made plans to depart, and Anna saw him to the door. Much to his chagrin, he’d missed out on his cozy afternoon with Tess. However, after he’d let her know where he was and why, she’d immediately supported his plans to stick around a little longer. Once he made it back, he’d fill her in on all the unpleasant details, just as Avril would with Victoria.

If there was one silver lining to be found in all this, it was that they were all now united.

Anna’s eyes gleamed with myriad troubled emotions at her front door. Concern, unease, hesitation. Even with his and Avril’s combined efforts, the pall of her father had hung above her for most of the day.

“It’ll work out,” he promised. “I’m not worried.”

She inhaled deeply before responding, as if she hoped to draw in some of his feigned confidence. Her eyes lifted to his.

“I really want it to.”

Liam dragged a smile onto his face. “We’ve got plenty of backup on our side, and if we can get your mother on the team, we’ll be set.”

“I hope we will,” Anna said, eyes falling.

Reaching out, he took hold of one of her hands. As he tugged on it, he pulled her attention from the floor. “We will,” he assured her. “It’s going to work out.”

His words couldn’t dissipate her trepidation, but she smiled bravely and nodded. It was the best he could hope for, given her situation.

As he began to release her hand, she suddenly tightened her grip. He first looked at her slender hand, and he almost missed her whispered request as the heating in their house kicked on simultaneously.

“Would it be okay to… practice being a real couple a little before you go?”

Her eyes now gleamed with a different suite of emotions than they had moments ago. The old ones hovered deeper within the alluring green coloration of her eyes, forced away by a mix of embarrassment and hopefulness. They weren’t gone, just repositioned.

Liam didn’t want to see them move back to the forefront of her lovely gaze.

“That’s a really good idea,” he whispered, glancing past her.

Anna did the same and saw the same thing that he did. Avril remained in the living room. The hallway was theirs.

They kissed moments later. Quiet though they might have been, after the first tentative seconds, they were anything but hesitant about it.

Their lips sizzled as they pressed into one another, as though they were instead outdoors and needed to huddle together for warmth. His hands gravitated to her hips, and she threw her hands together behind his neck. Their entangled mouths barely parted, and Anna shivered with delight as he pulled her body into his.

Her eyes sparked with passion, and her grip tightened as if she hoped he would never pull back. For almost a minute, that was true. For nearly a minute, they continued to dissolve the falseness of their relationship. Liam wondered if some of the fierceness behind Anna’s kiss was due to her father’s actions.

And if his attempt to separate them had only brought them closer together.

When, at last, they ended their kiss, their bodies quaked with need. Liam’s hands nearly moved around from her hips to her butt, with the intention of pulling her off her feet. However, he hastily reminded his eager palms that Anna wasn’t Avril or Tess. This was all still relatively new to her, and he didn’t know how she’d respond if he escalated things so suddenly.

“One more before I go?” he instead asked, mouth askew as he smiled.

Anna quickly nodded, and their lips reconnected. He moved his hands away from her hips, bringing one up to her cheek while the other rested lightly on the small of her back. Anna’s magnificent breasts pressed into his chest, and her frenetic passion nearly unraveled him.

When they finally agreed that they didn’t have much longer like this—Avril would eventually wonder why she’d never heardthe door open and then close with his departure—the separation of their bodies required great effort. Almost grimacing as it happened, his hands left her sensual body. Anna needed several seconds more before she finally loosened her arms around his neck and dropped back to her heels.

Quietly, they stared at one another. Two smiles ignited, and they traded one final kiss before he finally saw himself out. Anna lingered in the door’s threshold, smiling after him as he departed Ashgrove Apartments.

Now, all he needed to do was make sure he could preserve that smile when he met her mother.

Chapter Twenty-Two

One Cookie at a Time