HDU (32 page)

“
Close the door
!”
Amanda squeaked, jumping up as Liam pushed through.
 
She tried to close it for him when he froze, but priority
soon went to catching her towel, which unknotted when she sprang to her feet.
 
His eyes didn’t even attempt to avert
as the towel drooped down one side of her body like a toga.
 
She gathered it hastily.

“Close your eyes!”

He was laughing.
 
“Okay, okay, sorry.”

“Stop smiling!” Amanda ordered as she wrapped her
towel back around herself.
 
She
couldn’t be sure if she had exposed a boob or not, but regardless, she was
mortified.
 
“Oh my God, this is why
you’re supposed to
knock
, Liam!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry.
 
Can I open my eyes now?”

“
No
!”
Amanda darted into the bedroom to get dressed.
 
“Fine, now!” she shouted once she was safely out of view.
 
Red-faced and standing before the
full-length mirror, she opened her towel to get a glimpse herself of what Liam had
just seen.
 
Ugh, why, God, why
? Her stomach was far from flat and as had been
the case since high school, her right boob was bigger than her left and dotted
with a heart-shaped birthmark.
 
Well, I hope I flashed that one
, she
thought while simultaneously calling out, “I hate you!”
 

Liam laughed and quickly countered.
 
“I hate
you
.
 
Like I needed
this after what you did to me on Wednesday.”

She paused.
 
They both did.
 
It was the
first time they had acknowledged the fiery kiss since it happened.
 
It made her stomach twist in a
knot.
 
What was he saying? That her
size eight body actually had the power to torture his libido? And had he
still
not slept with anyone to relieve
his frustrations? Amanda stood clutching her towel in the middle of the room as
she tried to think of a response.
 
To her relief, Liam cleared his throat to break the silence.

“Anyway, I got the part in
A Soldier
.”

She blinked.
 
Amidst being walked in on naked, she had completely forgotten to ask
about the audition.
 
“Oh my God,
yay! I knew you would!” she called out the door, thankful for a change of
topic.
 
But when she finally
emerged clothed – in a slouchy, off-the-shoulder sweater and jeans
– Liam still had his lips bit back like they’d been when he was shielding
his eyes from her slipping towel.
 
His expression made Amanda look down at herself to make sure she wasn’t
suffering another wardrobe malfunction.
 
She wasn’t.

“
What
?”

“Nothing.”

She crossed her arms.
 
“You saw boob before, didn’t you.”
 

“Maybe.”

Amanda heaved a sigh and shook her hair into her face
to cover her flushed cheeks.
 
Liam Brody
had just seen her naked.
 
Awesome
.
 
He was probably comparing her body to those of his former
girlfriends – the Victoria Secret models, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
cover girls.
 
The mere sight of a
boob had probably reminded him of how much he missed
model
boobs on
model
bodies.
 
She hoped more than
anything that while gasping in shock before, she had inadvertently sucked in
her tummy.
 
It was still kind of
puffy from yesterday’s excessive
sitting-around-and-doing-nothing-while-eating-three-meals-of-delivery.
 
She grimaced at herself.

“Don’t look like that, I was just joking.
 
I didn’t see anything, really,” Liam
said, subduing his amusement as he squeezed her bare shoulder.
 
Amanda removed it so he didn’t feel her
shiver.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Fine,” she sighed, pulling on her jacket.
 
“Let’s just go so I can drink a ton of
alcohol tonight and forget this ever happened, okay?”

Liam grinned.
 
“Sounds like a plan.”

~

Going to Lilac made the night feel like an
anniversary.
 
A month ago, they had
visited the same spot for their first date together.
 
Then, Amanda had nearly suffered a panic attack over what to
wear, Liam was pretty much a complete stranger, and he had spent a decent
portion of the night ogling the hostess.
 
Five weeks certainly made a world of difference – as did the
extremely strong drinks that Amanda downed before even getting seated.
 
The memory of Liam walking in on her
naked swiftly washed away with the help of two vodka martinis.
 

It was quickly reduced to something just vaguely embarrassing
at the back of her head, and was easy to ignore with the hostess providing so
much entertainment.
 
It was the
same girl that Liam had winked at and flirted with on their first date, and she
seemed hell-bent on recapturing his attention.
 
Despite being seated in a corner booth far from anyone else,
the girl consistently made her way over to do something or another in front of
their table.
 
In her skintight,
black dress, she had even gone as far as dropping a menu in front of the table
and bending over slowly to pick it up.
 
The move had only been good for making Amanda giggle though since Liam
was for some reason preoccupied with running his fingers along her sweater and
picking at the pills.
 
She figured
he was tipsy, being on his third bourbon since he agreed to out-drink her.
 
Amanda couldn’t help giggling at the tickly
feeling of his hands on her body.
 

“Okay, I think I’m going to have to give you
permission to check this poor girl out,” she slurred a bit, laughing.
 
“She’s about to explode trying to get
your attention.”
 
Liam simply shook
his head, his free arm around her as they sat in their booth.
 
He had draped it over her shoulders
after the flirty hostess’s second trip to their table, for which she had no
purpose besides “checking in” and flashing Liam her brilliant smile.
 
“She probably has a bet going with her
coworkers that she could get you to wink again.
 
You’re going to make her lose money.”

Liam shrugged, his strong arm giving her whole body a
tight squeeze.
 
“I only have eyes
for my girlfriend,” he said, giving her a kiss on the side of her head.

“Aw, you’re like,
such
a good boyfriend,” she said in a ditzy voice.

He laughed.
 
“I’m serious.
 
I don’t have
any interest in checking her out.”

“Welp.
 
She’s not getting the message,” Amanda said, tossing back the rest of
her drink and leaning her heavy head into the crook of his shoulder.
 
Her eyes fluttered and widened.
 
She could feel his hard muscles on the
back of her neck.
 
He must’ve been doing soldier-type training
for the audition
, she mused as she bit her finger.

“Well, what do we need to do to get the message
across?” Liam asked.
 
Amanda
wondered if she was imagining the wicked smile she heard in his voice.
 
There were a lot of things she could
think of that would get the point across, but feeling up Liam’s muscles
probably wasn’t an appropriate thing to do in a restaurant, even a dimly lit
one.
 
Amanda bit her lip back
nervously.
 

“I’m sure this will do.”
 
She leaned up and gave him a hasty peck on the cheek.

“Mm, okay.
 
One-second kiss on the cheek.
 
Definitely gets the message across.”

“I’m not going to make out with you in public.
 
That’s super un-classy.”

“But that’s what we did on Wednesday.”

Amanda’s stomach did a little dance and a nervous
giggle bubbled from her lips.
 
Okay, so we are going to talk about this
,
she realized with a little thrill.
 
It would be a lie for her to say that she didn’t actually want to talk
about it, and now was a better time than ever to since she had liquid courage
on her side.
 
She tilted her head
up at him.
 
Only then did she
notice that his stubble had grown back out a little, and it looked cute on him.
 
“That was behind a curtain,” she said.
 
After a gulp of her martini, she pressed
her pointer finger into his chest.
 
“And
you
were the one who
kissed
me
first.”
 

Liam plucked her finger off of his chest and held her
hand in his.
 
“You told me to,” he
said.
 

“Did I?”

“Maybe not with
words
,
but…”

It was true.
 
That night, she had cast a look that had pretty much demanded a kiss.
 
Thinking back, Amanda was fairly
impressed with the fact that she had successfully given bedroom eyes.
 
Perhaps she wasn’t as hopeless in the
sexy department as she’d thought.
 
“I
think you just wanted to kiss me,” she teased, peering up at Liam from behind
her martini glass.
 

His voice was at a low murmur now.
 
“You wanted me to kiss you,” he
countered.

She scoffed.
 
“Well, I didn’t ask for you to pull my hair.”

“And I didn’t ask for you to grab my package.”
 

Amanda’s mouth opened and closed, unable to think of
a response.
 
He glanced at her
expression with amusement and took a drink.
 

“But I was definitely okay with the fact that you did.”

She blushed.
 
And she had been more than okay with him pulling her hair, but she
wasn’t about to admit to it.
 
“Speaking
of molesting you,” Amanda blurted.
 
“Did you ever tell me what exactly Megan did to put the moves
on you?” she asked, hoping to deflect attention away from her flaming cheeks.

“Oh man.
 
I didn’t.”

She bounced excitedly in her seat.
 
“Wanna share?”
 
He chuckled at her excitement.

“Not really, but I will for you.”
 
Liam grimaced as he recalled the
memory, trying not to laugh.
 
“Well.
 
She kind of held onto my face and tried
to stick her tongue in it, but I was like this.”
 
He pursed his lips tightly and flashed Amanda a look of
wide-eyed terror, making her giggle.
 
“And since I wouldn’t let her into my mouth, I got pretty forcefully
licked, and that’s when I ran out to look for you.
 
I was traumatized.
 
And then you yelled at me.”

Amanda burst out laughing.
 
“I know, I’m sorry,” she said, watching her hand
involuntarily move to rub his shoulder.
 
His skin felt warm underneath his sweater, just like her whole body
did.
 
He closed his eyes for a
second.
 
“I just didn’t want her to
have the satisfaction of… doing anything with you.”

He put his hand over hers.
 
“Well, you didn’t have to worry about that.
 
I couldn’t have found her less
attractive.”

Amanda blinked at him incredulously.
 
“Megan? Please.
 
I
still find her attractive.”

“Unless you’re hinting at a threesome, I’m never
going near that girl again.”

“
Ew
!”
Amanda smacked him, awakening from her tipsy haze.
 
“Like I’d ever sleep with her if I swung that way! That
girl’s still out to ruin my life.”
 
Liam raised his brows.

“Good.
 
Angry
sex is the best.”

“
Liam
!” She
smacked him again, harder this time.
 
“If I didn’t want her getting any satisfaction from you, I sure as hell
wouldn’t give her any myself.”

He bit his smile back.
 
“I think you were actually being possessive of me that night
because you like me.
 
Deep
down.
 
Like,
like
me like me.”

Amanda’s stomach lurched at the suggestion.
 
She snatched her hand from his shoulder
and tried to scoff.
 
“Yeah,
no.
 
I do not
like
you like you.”
 

“Fine, then I don’t like you like you either.
 
But I do like you.”

She gave a long blink.
 
“I’m too drunk to follow this conversation anymore.”

Liam took her martini glass from her and finished the
drink.
 
“Basically, you’re not the
wet rag I thought you would be,” he grinned, mussing her hair.

“That makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, thanks.”
 

“It’s a compliment, technically.”

“I don’t think so.
 
Try again.”