Spiralling Skywards: Falling (Contradictions #1) (7 page)

He pulled away from me and my stomach did a flip-flop kind of manoeuvre, instantly making me feel queasy. I’d said too much. We hadn’t even made it out of the taxi, and I was fucking things up.

“You wanna know a secret, pretty girl?”

Nerves got the better of me as I fought not to shudder in pleasure over what he’d just called me. It wasn’t just the term, it was that accent and the pure, unabashed look of lust in his eyes. It. Was. Just. Him!

“You’re having the same effect on me. I’ve never felt a reaction this strong, or is it an attraction? Anyway, whatever it is, it’s new to me.”

He moved back in, getting even closer to me, eyes still darting all over my face. I didn’t doubt for a moment the sincerity that I could see in them as they met mine.

“Since the second I laid eyes on you last night . . .” He tilted his head to the side, shook it slightly, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “I haven’t got a fucking clue. I just had to know you. Fuck, I don’t even have the words. Just believe me when I say, if you’re scared, I’m fucking terrified.”

Well shit.

“That’ll be twelve quid please, mate,” the taxi driver interrupted. We remained staring at each other for a few moments longer before Liam turned away. He slid his hand in his pocket and pulled fifteen pounds from his wallet.

“No worries, mate, keep the change.”

That fucking accent was enough to charm the armour-plated knickers off a nun. I should’ve known right then that me and my flimsy La Senza thong didn’t stand a chance.

She was funny,
intelligent, and interesting. She had the prettiest blue eyes and the palest complexion that flushed sexily the more she drank.

And that dimple. Don’t even get me started on that dimple.

I was fucked.

I was mesmerised and captivated by this short curvy English girl, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I’d been breaking my neck to use the bathroom for the past hour, but I didn’t wanna miss a single second with her. I felt like we’d only just ordered when we were presented with the bill.

“What are you doing?” I asked, when she twisted in her seat and reached for her bag.

She sat back in her chair and looked at me with glassy eyes. She’d had a couple of cocktails to start the night and we’d polished off two bottles of wine with dinner. That was a lot of alcohol for a small person like Sarah, even I was feeling the effects.

“Twenty-first century, dude. I like to pay my way.” She gave me a slow lopsided smile that went straight to my chest and made it feel strange.

“Well, little Ms Independent, you can put your money away and save it for another time. I don’t know how things work around here, but where I come from, when a bloke asks a girl out to dinner, he pays for the night.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Well, where you come from needs to get with the times, New South Austria is it?”

New South Austria indeed.

“Is that right?”

“Yep.”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m an Aussie then and
not
a New Zealander, a South African, or an Austrian. Even if I were, I’d still be paying, so put ya bloody money away.”

She sighed before leaning forward to put her wallet back in her bag. I could see right down the front of the black satiny top she had on. I shouldn’t have looked, but I couldn’t help myself. I was an Aussie bloke, not a saint.

Her bra was red and her perfect, soft round tits spilled out of it.

I cleared my throat, adjusted the raging hard-on happening in my jocks, and just kept staring.

“Do you have any idea how badly I wanna fuck you right now?”

I shouldn’t have said it aloud. I knew as soon as the words left my lips that I’d taken a misstep. However, thanks to my hard-on and the desperate need to use the bathroom, which I was still trying to ignore, my mouth neglected to engage my brain before coming out with such a crass statement.

Her eyes slowly rose from whatever she was doing with her bag at the same rate as the flush spread from her chest to her neck and up across her cheeks.

Her mouth was slightly parted, and she swallowed before licking her lips.

“Oh, pretty girl, do not look at me like that. Otherwise I’ll be throwing you over my shoulder and taking you straight home to my bed.”

“I-I was just. I have some cash in my purse, I’ll pay for the taxi home.”

“Home? To mine? Is that an offer, Sarah Carter? Would you like me to throw you over my shoulder?”

“No. I mean yes. What I mean is . . .”

“Do you have any clue how hard I am watching your gorgeous skin flush pink? How sexy you sound when you get all flustered?”

I watched the crimson-tinged skin of her throat move as she swallowed. I should’ve shut my mouth then, but I still kept pushing.

“So explain to me, Sarah, how come a gorgeous looking girl like you was free on a Saturday night? I would’ve expected you to have men lining up around the block, waiting to take you out.”

She gave a small smile and a shrug.

“I don’t really date.” She was staring down at the table, refusing to make eye contact with me. I thought it was to hide her blush. I was wrong.

“You don’t date? Just random hook ups then? Are you one of these modern women that likes to keep things casual, is that why you wouldn’t let me pay for dinner?” She didn’t seem that type but I’d just met her, so what did I know?

She finally looked up, her soft, glassy gaze from earlier was now hard and cold.

“No, it’s nothing like that. I don’t need a different man to take me out every weekend, or to stay in with for that matter. I’m more than happy with a girl’s night, or in my own company.”

I attempted to give her my best smile, hoping that she would realise that I was just teasing.

“Well that’s good to know, Luke did mention-

“Luke? You’ve been talking about
me
toLuke?”

She interrupted me with panic in her voice.

Her bright blue eyes turned stormy as she drew her eyebrows in together.

“What exactly did Luke say about me?”

“Nothing, this was way back when—’’

She threw her head back and laughed, but I knew in an instant it wasn’t genuine.

“Don’t lie to me.” She almost spat the words as she stood up and pushed her chair back loudly. “Don’t lie to me, and don’t fuck with me, Liam Delaney. You may be my brother’s boss or whatever, but don’t think that your status or your dirty talk impress me . . .”

What the fuck? I hadn’t heard her swear until then, she was obviously pissed off. Really pissed off.

“What the fuck, what are you talking about?”

The few people still seated in the restaurant seemed to turn in our direction at once, and I lowered my voice. “Sarah . . .”

“I’m not that kind of girl, Liam.” Her lips trembled as she spoke, and her eyes filled with tears. I remained silent as I looked up at her from my seat. “I’m gonna call a cab, you can share and let me pay for the fare home, or you can make your own way. Right now, I don’t give a fuck. I’m leaving either way.”

And with that, she turned and left.

I sat staring after her, not entirely sure what I did, apart from getting her sense of humour wrong. I’d
monumentally
misjudged that. I was teasing. I thought she was enjoying the flirty to and fro we’d had going on all night, but
fuck
me
if I hadn’t obviously got
that
wrong too.

I quickly paid the bill and made my way outside, unsure of what I was gonna find.

Sarah was standing on the very edge of the path between the parked cars. The collar was up on her coat and her arms crossed over her chest so she could hold her small bag against herself.

I ran my hand through my hair and then over my beard.

“Fuck,” I said aloud but aimed at no one in particular.

She was a nice girl. A good girl. I remembered her brother telling me that much. She didn’t date much, and he’d never heard of her ever even having a boyfriend, I was remembering all of this a little too late.

I knew I could come on a bit strong sometimes, but I honestly didn’t mean anything by it. Perhaps the age difference was a problem. I knew she was only twenty-two, but when I talked to her, I forgot about her age. She didn’t act anything like
most
girls her age.

“I’m so sorry, Sarah. I’ve no clue what I said or did back there, but it was never my intention to offend or upset you.”

She turned and looked at me, mascara running down both her pretty cheeks, and I felt like the biggest arsehole on the planet. Even bigger when she burst into tears.

“I’m not like
her
, Liam. I don’t know what he’s told you, but I’m not like
her
. I’ll never be anything like her.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, pretty girl. What the fuck, like
who
baby?”

I pulled her into my arms and held her against my chest as she cried. She didn’t just cry, she heaved out heart-breaking, wracking sobs, and I had no clue what to say or do to make it better.

A black cab pulled up alongside us. “Sarah?” the driver called out from the open window.

“Yeah, mate,” I responded, keeping her tucked against my chest as I guided her into the cab. Once inside, I pulled her into my lap and held her against me while I gave the taxi driver the name of the motel I was staying at.

“No,” Sarah stated as she looked up at me. “I’m not going back to your room with you. I’m not . . . I don’t do that kind of thing.”

Her voice trembled and her chest still heaved as she spoke, but her words were so quiet I had to strain to hear them. I palmed the back of her head and stroked up and down her spine with my fingertips under her jacket, trying to calm her.

“I’m not sending you home in this state. You can come home with me, and I’ll make you a coffee or something. I think we need to talk and get a few things straight.”

“No sex,” she mumbled against my chest.

“No, no sex. Not tonight anyway. Maybe in the morning, though not until you’ve wiped all that make-up off your face and cleaned your teeth. After all that garlic you had tonight, you’ll be able to strip paint with your morning breath.”

That earned me a dig in the ribs with her elbow, which was so much better than her tears.

***

With her body still tucked in tight against me, I opened the door to my room and threw my key card onto the desk. Her breathing was back to a normal rate and she’d stopped crying, but instead of pulling away from the comfort I was offering her, she let me lead her to the edge of the bed. When she sat, I knelt down in front of her.

“There’s a twenty-four-hour servo next door, I’ll go and get us some coffees, yeah?”

Her big blue eyes looked up from her lap and met mine. She still had tears caught on her lashes and the sight of them caused a lump to form in my throat.

She looked young and fragile, almost childlike, which didn’t sit well with me. I felt as if I were taking advantage of the age difference between us.

“What’s . . .” She cleared her throat, which sounded raspy from crying and sexy as fuck. “What’s a servo?” I couldn’t help but smile.

“The petrol station, as you call it here.” She smiled a little, and I spotted the merest hint of her dimple. Nodding her head, she said, “Coffee sounds good.”

“Don’t move, I’ll be right back,” I told her before grabbing my card and heading back out.

I’d used the coffee machine at the servo a few times, and it was passable, better than the instant shit they provided in the room.

I stood waiting for our coffee to brew and battled internally with what the fuck I was actually thinking. I’d taken her out for dinner tonight, made her cry, and now she was sitting waiting for me in my room. If Luke had any clue, he would crucify me, and I’d totally deserve it.

I made two coffees, and then, after noticing the tea and hot chocolate, I made one of each of those too. I grabbed extra milks and sugars before spotting the biscuits sitting on the shelf next to the machine. I’d discovered these things called Chocolate Hob Nobs my first night here, and the fucking things were addictive. I badly needed to find a gym to work off the ten kilos I felt I’d gained since I’d arrived four days ago. Or was it five? Jet lag and time zones suck. I’d had no clue which way was up since I’d been here.

I put the drinks in a cardboard tray, grabbed a packet of Hob Nobs, and just for good measure, a bar of Galaxy, a Twix, a Mars, and a Twirl. After all, girls liked chocolate when they were sad, right? At least my sisters did.

My heart dropped to my toes when I stepped back into my room and didn’t see her. It then catapulted through my chest, settling somewhere around my ears when she walked out of the bathroom with all of the make-up washed from her face.

I smiled.

She attempted to but instead managed only to stare at me while blushing beautifully. I almost mentioned how gorgeous she looked without all that shit over her face but decided against it. My big mouth had done enough damage for one night.

I put the cardboard tray down on the small table that had a chair on either side of it and pulled the contents out of the carrier bag.

“I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I got—”

“Everything?”

I laughed. “Yeah, I reckon I got a bit carried away.”

“Ya think?” She smiled again as she spoke, which at least made me feel a little better.

“There’s coffee there, but I got a tea and a hot chocolate too.”

“I’ll have the hot chocolate please and a Hob Nob, if you’re happy to share?”