Escaping Reality

pleasure and
    spreads through my entire body. I am there. I am falling, tumbling, and
    finally, I crash into that sweet spot. He pumps into me again, and I feel the
    shudder run through his body, or maybe it is me who is shuddering. I do not
    know how long it is before we melt into one another.
    He reaches up and unties my hands and my arms fall around his neck.
    Liam shifts us and strokes the hair from my eyes. “We aren’t anywhere near
    finished. You know that, right?”
    “Promise?”
    “Oh yeah. I promise. And I never make a promise I don’t keep.”
    He shifts his weight and somehow stands up with me still wrapped
    around him, him still inside me. I bury my face in his neck, inhale the scent
    of him, the prickling of memories trying to surface fading into his words
    earlier tonight. Tell me who’s scaring you and I promise you, Amy, I will
    make them go away. Or they will make him go away. I can’t let that
    happen.

    ***
    I wake to the morning light and the soft rumble of Liam’s voice from
    someplace not far away, and I smile with the realization that I am naked
    and I did not have a nightmare last night.
    Thanks to Liam, I am certain who spent the night with his big body
    wrapped around mine. His big, sexy body, I amend. I am sated and relaxed.
    Safe . I feel safe with Liam.
    Rolling over in the big, comfortable bed, I watch the curtain flutter
    over the sliding glass window only a few feet away, confirming Liam’s
    location. “I’m not meeting with him today, Derek,” I hear him say, sounding
    more than a little displeased. “Forget it. I have plans I’m not giving up for
    that jackass. Monday.” A pause. “Yeah, well, he’s lucky I’m motivated to
    stay around Denver for a few months. And no. That’s none of your
    business.”
    Motivated to stay around Denver for a few months . I revel in these
    words, savoring them like I would fine wine in a bottle soon to be empty.
    But he will eventually return to New York , where you can never go again, I
    remind myself. Eventually he will be gone.
    “Good morning.”
    My gaze lifts from the bed where it has fallen, to where he has
    parted the curtain and is standing in the opening of the door, dressed in
    nothing but a pair of blue pajama bottoms. I sit up, hugging the sheet to
    myself, but I am not shy in my inspection of his body, gobbling up every
    detail of this hot man I’ve had the pleasure of waking up to, from his lean,
    hard body to his lightly shadowed jaw line that only makes his goatee
    sexier. “You, Liam Stone, are too good looking for the safety of womankind,
    and I probably look bad enough to scare small children and a few timid
    animals, too.”
    He laughs, and it is deep and wonderful and far better than sunshine
    or cinnamon rolls in the morning. He starts toward me and I hold up my
    hand. “No. Wait. Stay right there.”
    Stopping in his steps, his brow furrows, and I can’t believe I’m about
    to do this, but that savor-him-until-he’s-gone thing is ripe in my mind.
    Throwing aside the sheet, I expose my naked body, and I don’t let the blast
    of heat from Liam’s inspection slow me down. I rush forward and stand in
    front of him and I am as I was last night. Exposed in the most erotic of ways.
    Liam arches a brow, a question in his gorgeous blue eyes I could
    drown in, and probably will before he goes back to New York. I answer his
    inquiry by dropping to my knees and pressing my mouth to his tattoo, my
    hands settling on his lean hips. He sucks in a breath, his body tensing ever
    so slightly, and I smile against a taut muscle. I have surprised him and this
    pleases me.
    My gaze lifts to Liam’s and the heat I see in his stare only serves to
    empower me. I lick his stomach and drag my finger down the line of
    numbers until it dips beneath his waistband, a quick tease before it is gone.
    “Now,” I say, “I am going to have to kiss my way down—”
    A knock sounds on the door and Liam groans. I jump to my feet. “You
    have company?”
    He wraps me in his arms. “Room service. I thought waking you up to
    breakfast in bed
    was a good thing until you started licking my tattoo.”
    “You were going to wake me up to breakfast in bed?”
    “Then make you the second course.” Another knock sounds and he
    gives me a quick kiss.
    “Just to be clear. Sexy is me waking up to you in my bed and looking
    just like you do now, tattoo licking optional, though not discouraged. Grab
    one of my shirts. I don’t want any sneak