Crashed into Love: Boxed Set (20 page)

The Samoan dancers chose that exact moment to finish
in style. The men thundered on their drums, the women leapt into the air and,
one brave man spit fire. It rained over Nikolai’s retreating back.

A fraction of indecision filled me. I belonged by
Liam’s side in this. He needed me in his grief, but I couldn’t let Nikolai walk
away so ruined and broken.

Kissing Liam’s cheek, hoping he’d understand, I
dashed after Nikolai. I caught him as he entered the night-shrouded gardens.
“I’m sorry you’re hurting so much.”

He stopped, shoulders tensed before he turned to
face me. “It’s my own fault. I should’ve paid the price ten years ago. I should
never have let Liam take the blame.”

I stepped closer. “I hope by talking about it, you
can move on now. You need to move on, Nikolai. You both do.”

He looked up, locking gazes with mine. “Do you know
why I was so drawn to you? It was because you reminded me of Charlotte.
Charlotte was a dreamer. Her and Liam shared a passion for the skies, but
Charlotte was the only one who could dance.”

He sighed, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “I’d hoped
I’d found a second chance. With a woman who could finally replace my loss of
her. It was the first time since that horrible night my heart started beating
again.” Stepping forward, he brushed a non-existent strand of hair off my face.
“I’ll never forget that night in Sydney. Thank you.”

I couldn’t speak. My heart obstructed my throat and
all the air in my lungs turned to soupy fog.

“Liam’s been alone for as long as I have, and I’m
happy he has you.”

“Does Joslyn know?” My voice wavered. Did Liam’s stepsister
know of the gaping hole in Liam’s chest? Had his parents shared with their new
partners that horrible dark night? Had it tainted the entire family?

He shook his head. “She knows she died, but I don’t
think she knows the full story. The death was hushed up. Liam’s parents had a
lot of clout with the areoclub, and it wasn’t mentioned again. Charlotte died
nine years after the divorce so it was easier for his mom and dad to pretend it
didn’t happen; to throw themselves into their new families and forget.
Pretending was easier than mending a broken heart.”

I never imagined what I learned tonight would be so
catastrophic. Both Liam and Nikolai suffered with guilt. They needed to grant
themselves peace.

I wrapped my arms around him. “I hope you find someone
to help you heal. You deserve to love again.”

He shrugged sadly, pushing me away. “I’m sure my
future will bring another Nina Poppins into my life when I deserve her.” He
pecked my cheek, his face ashen. “He’s a great guy, Nina. I couldn’t have picked
a nicer girl for him.” His eyes glittered in the lantern light before he turned
and dissolved into the gardens.

S
he left.

After everything I’d been through—losing Charlotte,
living a life shadowed with guilt and shame—nothing hurt as much as when Nina
disappeared after Nikolai.

My entire body clenched with abandonment. My worst
nightmare had come true. I was an accomplice in murdering my own sister, and
Nina couldn’t bear to look at me.

Tears clogged my throat as my head swelled with
pressure. I hadn’t let myself break down since that night. Even at her funeral,
I refused to shed one tear, but now, here at a table in a bar alone in Samoa, I
wanted to gush it all out. I wanted the heaviness out so I had room to breathe.

The pressure in my head didn’t subside, morphing
from emotional pain to physical. I moaned, clutching my temples. White lights
flickered like comets, and my tongue turned into a brick inside my mouth.

A lacerating burn sliced along my injury.

What was happening to me? Why did every inch of me
weigh heavily with sickness? Lethargy and weakness all added weight to my
shoulders, pressing me closer to the table. Pain roared and I would’ve given
anything to be free of it.

Something pulled at me to leave, to escape the
island, to run far away.

Don’t give up, Liam. Please!

Whose voice was that? My own false wish that Nina
cared for me? I let myself slip a little, succumbing to the urge to fold into
myself like a discarded mannequin. To become lifeless and no longer suffer the
jagged pain of grief.

A hand feathered on my shoulder. “Liam… are you
okay?”

Nina’s voice was a lighthouse in the dark seas I
floundered. I slammed back into my body. My eyes opened and I struggled to
bring her into focus.

“Come with me. We’re leaving.” She tugged me out of
the chair, and I winced as trumpets blared in my head—a death march with added
cymbals and drums.

She came back.

I cleared my throat, allowing her to tuck herself
under my arm and guide me away. The bar faded behind us and the fale’s
flickering lights became beacons in the night.

My headache ebbed with every step. I clutched her
harder. She was still here. With me. Not Nikolai. I wanted to crush her to me,
to prove she wasn’t a figment of my imagination. My heart flopped at her feet
in gratitude.

She pulled the key from her pocket and unlocked her
door. I glanced across the path at my own fale. Should I leave her alone so she
could wade through my messy confession? Did she want me here? Or was she just
being kind when I was at my lowest?

Nina took the decision from my hands, pulling me
inside. The moment the door closed, she was in my arms. Her head tilted up and
she kissed my lips with a reverent urgency that let my grief unlatch a little.

I kissed her back, hesitant at first, but harder as
she whimpered, pushing her hands under my t-shirt and rippling over my stomach
muscles. Her fingers tickled across my sides to my back, pressing me closer.

Something released a trapdoor inside, and I gave
over to the tidal wave of emotion. I groaned against her mouth, kissing
fiercely, bruising my lips against hers. Her tongue speared into my mouth. I
was consumed by her taste.

I broke the kiss as she walked me backward to the
bed. I needed to know she was doing this for her. Not me. That this wouldn’t be
a pity fuck. I needed to see her eyes when I asked her. Holding her chin, I
whispered, “Why are you doing this?”

She frowned. “What do you mean? I want to be with
you. Let me… please.”

It wasn’t enough. I couldn’t see the answer I
needed. “Are you doing this for me or for you?” I couldn’t stand it if she only
slept with me out of concern. Nothing would satisfy me unless she wanted me for
me. No other reason.

She raised her hands and cupped my cheeks, staring
hard into my eyes, truth blazed in her blue irises. 

She kissed me before whispering, “I’m doing this for
both of us.”

I tackled her to the bed.

She allowed me to be in control for only a moment,
before her hands rolled me over onto my back and straddled me. Her eyes glowed
as she pushed my t-shirt up. I obliged by ripping it over my head.

The instant my shirt was off, her eyes fell to my
jeans. I’d worn a belt tonight. Since we’d arrived on the island, I’d lost a
bit of weight. I put it down to healthy island food and sweating out detoxes,
but I hated to admit stress was a factor too.

Nina bit her lip as she unhooked the leather,
pulling it through the belt loops in one sharp tug. The noise of the buckle
clattering on the wood floor echoed.

She undid the top button. Her fingers grazing the
highly sensitive skin below my navel.

I shuddered as she brushed my cock, pulling the
zipper down at an agonising slow pace. When the last tooth unzipped, she
hitched her fingers over the material on my waist.

“Off.” Her voice was husky, laced with desire. My
stomach clenched as my cock responded to her need, swelling even more with
overheated blood.

I raised my hips with Nina still on top of me, and
jerked my jeans off. They thudded against the wooden floor on top of my
discarded belt. 

My white boxer shorts strained with my erection, and
I almost catapulted off the bed when she grasped it through the thin material.
I’d never been so exposed or controlled before. No woman had reached for my
cock but touched my heart instead. Every stroke resonated deeper, wove around
my soul with every caress.

My balls tightened as she brought me right to the
precipice. I knew I should’ve rid myself of my sexual tension. I’d look like a
teenage boy who couldn’t control himself.

Capturing her hands with mine, I stilled her.
Breathing hard, I gazed into her eyes, my lips desperate to kiss her.

She leaned over me, hair cascading over her
shoulder. She bit my lower lip with sharp teeth before rearing back to slink
down my body. She stopped at the foot of the bed, on her knees.

Oh fuck. She wasn’t kidding when she said she wanted
to pay me back. My eyes slammed closed as every nerve, every sense, exploded to
acute sensation.

Her hot mouth descended on my cock and she breathed
heavy through the material. I almost came with no other stimulation required.
My hips jerked. “Shit, Nina…”

Slowly, she reached up and tugged my boxers down. I
sprang free, the heavy weight landed against my stomach. I was the only one
naked and it was an odd dynamic. It turned me rather powerless. My brain
misfired trying to perform x-ray vision, looking for the tight pink nipples I’d
tasted. 

Thoughts detonated out of my head as her lips
encased my tip. Her tongue flashed out a moment later, tasting, licking.

“Your mouth feels amazing.” It was true what they
said about dancers. Rhythm was everything, and Nina had it down to an artistic
flare. All I could focus on was her tongue lapping, her lips sucking, copper
strands tickling my upper thighs and stomach.

I delved fingertips into her hair, trying not to
press down. I revelled in her head bobbing, bringing me such pleasure.

“Fuck.” I shivered as a sharp band of the beginning
of an orgasm grabbed me around the balls.

I jerked my hips away from her mouth, hating the
cool wetness left after the hot slickness. I leaned forward, dragging her up
the bed. She came willingly, licking her lips.

“I can’t wait. I need to be inside you.” I kissed
her and tore her shirt off.

I
’d unlocked a passionate
monster. Liam was all hands, and mouth, and touch. His eyes blew wide as he
ripped my blouse off.

“Holy mother of God, what are you wearing?” His
fingertips reached to trace my nipple barely visible in the shimmery material
of my corset. I hated how restrictive it was. It wasn’t a matter of tearing it
off so I could have his hands on my naked burning skin. Each hook and eyelet
had to be undone.

Liam fixated, running hands down my waist, his
thumbs tracing the boning. “Did you wear this just for me?”

I shivered under his touch, grinding my hips against
his. It wasn’t fair he’d stopped me from sucking him. I was intoxicated with
his scent. His musky taste, the sharp saltiness of pre-cum. I’d boiled with
lust as he’d rippled in my mouth, I could’ve made him come then, but he’d
stopped me. Spoil sport.

I shook my head. “I wear them every day. Well, most
days. It’s a little hot here.”

He swallowed. “You dress like this all the time?
Under your uniform? When serving tea and coffee? When working with me?” His
questions all came in a rush. I loved how I affected him.

I leaned forward, arching my back. “Yep. And now you
know. You can imagine me serving you coffee in the cockpit in nothing but
stockings and a corset.”

He growled and flipped me on my back. My shorts were
off a moment later, my knickers followed a nano-second after. 

I wriggled as he pressed his weight on me. The heat
and length of his body erupted me from flame to bonfire. I moaned. Needing
more. Needing him.

Liam disappeared and fumbled with his jeans on the
floor. He popped back on the bed with a silver packet in his hand.

I sat up as he prowled toward me on the sheets. My
hands unlatched the first hook and eye of my corset. “Should I take this off?”

His chest rose and fell as his eyes caressed every
inch of my exposed and corset- wrapped body. “Do you mind if you keep it on?”

My heart threw itself against my ribs as a thrill of
sexiness made me blush. “I don’t mind.” I stole the packet out of his hand and
pressed his shoulder. “Lie back. Let me.”

His arctic eyes softened to look like sparkling
rain. He obeyed, stretching out his long legs, his abdomen toned and taut, his
erection jutting from the darkness between his legs.

Straddling him, I was tempted to lick him again. But
the urge to have him inside me was unbearable. I fumbled with the foil,
managing to get the rubber out. With shaky fingers, I rolled it down Liam’s
considerable length. He swallowed a growl as I cupped the base of him, adoring
the silk encased steel of flesh.

He reached up to flip me again, but I slapped his
hand away. “I’m in control. Let me take you.” The words sounded so foreign, I’d
never been so strong willed in bed. Normally, I was meek and submissive. My
other partners were boring. They didn’t activate lust inside me. I went through
the motions in the past, but it never transformed my world. Liam was different.
He’d turned my world inside out, re-sewed it together, making the ground the
ocean and the ocean the ground. I didn’t know who I was anymore, only that I
was a woman in love with a man who owned a heart as priceless as diamonds.

Liam smiled, but his eyes tightened with need. “I
can’t promise how long you’ll have me. I can barely control myself as it is
looking at you.”

His words sent little quivers pinpricking all over
my body. My nipples tightened even more. I was unbelievably ready for him, and
he hadn’t touched me. He didn’t need to touch me. That was his power over me.

Sucking in a breath, I placed myself above. Grasping
him through the warm latex, I angled him up to connect with my entrance.

We both froze. My thighs burned as his eyes locked
me in their trance. Liam broke the spell by placing his hands on my hips and
gently pushing down.

His erection entered millimetre by millimetre,
claiming me, possessing me. My head fell back as I sank onto him.

The fullness of having him inside was everything I
dreamed. In that moment, my life was complete. I knew it might be a mistake,
and I shouldn’t admit my feelings so early on, but I couldn’t help myself.
Opening my suddenly very heavy eyelids, I murmured, “I think I’m falling for
you.”

His chest rose with a sharp breath as his hips
jumped in surprise. Then his face melted into blinding happiness. I knew I’d
never be able to walk away from him. Career be damned. The entire world be
damned. I needed nothing and no one while I had Liam.

He murmured, “You’ve given me everything I could’ve
hoped for.” His hands captured mine, our fingers interlocked. Using his grip to
stabilize myself, I began to move. Pushing up and letting gravity pull me down,
rocking my hips. Every ridge of me relished with the invasion of Liam. His
forehead furrowed, eyes snapped closed as I moved faster. Straining to the
all-encompassing sharp fireworks that teased me.

I breathed harder, inhaling the musky scent of male
and sex.

Liam groaned, “Fuck, you look amazing.” He pulled my
neck forward so he could kiss me. My skin rasped against his five ‘o clock
shadow as our lips crushed each other. Tongues duelled, breath mingled.

Our fingers unlocked, and Liam reached up to caress
my nipples through the corset. I clutched his chest, moving closer to the
release I so craved.

With a grunt Liam rolled me over, unable to take my
pace anymore. The moment I was on my back, I hooked my legs over his hips and
he drove into me. It wasn’t the delicate passionate rock I’d kept. It was
fierce and demanding, and skin smacked against skin.

His mouth captured mine and I struggled to breathe
as my lungs filled with his flavour and urgency. I locked my ankles, prisoning
him between my legs.

Warm hands sent shocks of need along my skin as he
caressed me. Eyes smouldered as he gazed at my corset. This was why I wore
intricate lingerie—so I could capture Liam’s world. So I could be his every
fantasy—beguile and enchant forever.

My stomach knotted into an orb of sparks as he
groaned and kissed me so hard my teeth cut my lip.

His hips jerked faster, harder, relentlessly
claiming me. His erection inside bruised while at the same time pleasuring me
more than anything in my life. It was fierce, passionate, feral in the need to
be closer together. I wanted to merge—to become one so we’d never be apart
again.

He gasped in my ear as he thrust harder, harder. The
precise moment where the firework found me, Liam whispered, “I’m yours.”