me?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
I bit my lip. I was so overcome with dizzy satisfaction that it barely occurred to me that I looked completely obvious walking out of Liam’s bedroom. My cheeks were flushed, my hair was a mess and since he’d torn my top off my body, I was wearing one of Liam’s T-shirts. Luckily, A.J and Max had already left to probably get food, since they ate about twelve meals a day, and Jenna had predictably followed, leaving Aria alone in the living room, twiddling on her phone till she glanced up. One look at me and her jaw dropped.
“What just…?” Her eyes flicked to Liam as he came up behind me. From the sound of it, he was only just pulling up his zipper. “Oh my – halle -fucking- lujah!” Aria screamed before bursting into a bunch of giddy squeals and proceeding to embarrass the ever-loving shit out of me. “Liam! Did you two just…? Omigod, you have no idea how long she’s wanted this, Liam! Since the day she walked in on you at the dinner party!”
The look he gave me suggested that he had no idea that had ever happened. A dirty smirk spread his lips and as my cheeks burned, I shook my head, trying but failing to get used to this bizarre new reality. I was fooling around with my stepbrother, my best friend had just found out and the rest of the world was about to as well. I had to laugh.
At least until I thought about my older sister, Riley.
I’d never told her about my feelings for Liam because she was the first to declare her love for him, meaning she had “dibs” if our parents ever divorced. But she was married now, so it couldn’t be a big deal – right?
Of course, my mother would probably still lose her mind.
Liam’s father, too.
Shit.
Suddenly, I remembered why Liam and I were so very wrong together. I wanted it. I was certain I needed it and honestly, I didn’t regret a second of it. But in my heat, I’d briefly forgotten how much chaos would come with it.
“Come on, let’s get something to eat,” Liam murmured to me, his hand on the small of my back as he ushered me out the door. I smiled at him despite my racing pulse, walking out the door and forcing myself to giggle with Aria as I reminded myself that it was all on me.
I was the one who had opened Pandora’s box.
Chapter Four
After getting lunch with our friends, I didn’t see Liam for the rest of the day, which was pure torture, especially considering the way his fingers brushed my thighs under the table all afternoon. I was worked up and ready to feel his hands all over my body but unfortunately, he held off on the sex and I knew exactly why. He was an absolute animal in the bedroom. He only ever gave his all and there was no giving his all in the gym if he’d already given it in the sack. It was why he generally slept with his girls at night. Train, eat, fuck, sleep. And repeat. He and his friends were all the same in that way and I’d known it for ages. So if I wanted him, I’d have to wait till evening, when he got back from the gym.
And that sucked. A lot. Luckily, I had a job to distract me. Not so luckily, I worked with the person I least wanted to find out about me and Liam – my sister.
Riley and I had pooled our savings last year to open our gastropub, The Queen. The Queen’s Lounge, really, but everyone called it The Queen. It was a cozy, fifty-seater in the not-so-glamorous part of SoHo, close to the tunnel into Jersey. It was all we could afford and we weren’t sure it would bring in much business but we became an instant hit when Liam started coming with the guys from the gym. After training, they’d swing by to grab a bite and a beer. Women caught on to the fact that The Queen was the unofficial bar of the city’s top MMA fighters and trainees and suddenly, they were coming in hordes. And with the pretty girls came the men so before we knew it, Riley and I were set in terms of business.
“Am I all tan and beautiful?” Riley asked, tossing her newly