10. Matthew

Over the next few days,Liam and I continue to fool around at every opportunity. The sex remains scorching between us. It's on another plane of existence to anything I've experienced before.

The working-off-our-animosity-in-bed theory turns out to be a great concept because it seems Liam and I work great together in every other aspect of our fake relationship.

The day after the sandcastle competition, the group activity is sailing.

Neither Liam nor I have ever sailed, but somehow, we just…click as sailing teammates. We're both competitive and seem to have a complementary set of skills. I'm tactical and have good attention to detail, while Liam has the physical fitness, coordination, and calmness under pressure. Both of our skillsets prove beneficial in learning to sail, and we end up winning the impromptu race.

"Not to brag or anything, but we are really kicking your colleagues' asses," Liam says after we get back to the marina. He gives me a cocky smirk. "Now you get to use that brain of yours to come up with some ideas of how to reward your captain now we're back on shore."

"Hey, who says you were the captain?" I ask.

I'm expecting my words to trigger an argument about which of us was the most important factor in our success, but instead, Liam shuffles closer to me.

"Fine. You can be the captain." He gives me a heated look. "A good captain goes down with his ship, wanna go down on me?"

I let out an agonized groan. "Oh god, and he went there."

"Honey baby, not only do I have a ship, but it's a long one," he says.

My groan now sounds like a wailing cat.

He gives me a wink. "Would you mind if I fired my cannon through your porthole?"

And that causes me to lose it completely, doubling over, almost wheezing with laughter.

"You two look like you had a good time," Henrietta says as she and Carl approach us. They're both grinning at me. I manage to control my laughter enough to straighten up.

"We certainly did." Liam slings his around my waist. He pulls me close to him. "Back to the villa?" he murmurs in my ear.

"Definitely," I say.

My cock throbs in anticipation as we walk up from the marina to our villa.

Once we're inside, Liam grabs my hand and puts it on his cock.

"You certainly put the shiver in my timber," he says.

"We've morphed into pirate jokes now, have we?" I ask.

He shrugs. "Well, you raise my Jolly Rodger." He gives me a nip to my lips, which morphs into a deeply hot kiss.

"I know where you can bury your treasure," I gasp when he draws back, and Liam laughs at me.

"You're guilty of being hot. I sentence you to walking my plank."

He slams his lips down onto mine again, which leads to us stumbling back to the bed, where we forget all about pirates for a while as we take each other apart.

* * *

The next day, the group activity is volleyball.

"Oh, awesome, another athletic activity," I mutter when we reach the nets set up on the sand. Why do I suspect Paul chose these activities with the anticipation I would be useless at them? I mean, nothing about me screams athletic, so he must have suspected they wouldn't be areas where I excel.

"Hey, don't forget you've got me as your teammate," Liam says.

"For some reason, I don't associate you being my volleyball teammate with positive memories," I reply.

Liam rubs the back of his neck, looking guilty, and I wonder if he's remembering how Ms. Beauton's strategy in sixth grade to try to stop us from antagonizing each other was to put us on the same team. Liam was a gun volleyball player, but when I was on his team, he lost the ability to serve the ball anywhere but the back of my head.

"Pretty sure that was the year I couldn't touch anything without getting an electric shock," he counters.

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about my little portable electric shock machine I'd rigged to turn anything metal into a shocking device.

It was a genius invention if I do say so myself.

"Tell you what, you refrain from hitting balls at the back of my head and I'll refrain from trying to electrocute you in retaliation."

"Sounds like a deal," he says.

Our eyes meet, and there's some emotion flickering in his hazel eyes that I don't quite recognize.

"But it still doesn't change my volleyball ability," I say.

"I can teach you how to play."

"Uh…you remember me in gym class, right?"

"It's pretty ingrained in my memory." He flashes me a grin, reducing the sting of his comment. "But you've never had me coaching you before."

I roll my eyes. "Brag much?"

"Yep. And I believe you know my physical abilities as well." He quirks an eyebrow at me.

"Some of your physical abilities are in the tolerable category," I admit.

"I'm totally taking that." He reaches for me, pulling me to him for a quick kiss, his lips soft and warm against mine.

This is what I've struggled with regarding my interactions with Liam over the past few days. It's not the having hot sex with him. It's the random affection he shows me at other times.

It's just part of the act, right?

"You're such a good fake boyfriend," I say when he pulls away.

He runs his hands through his hair, not meeting my eyes. "Yeah, I'm good at everything, remember?"

"You guys ready to play?" Paul asks.

"I was born ready." And Liam's back in his cocky persona as he engages in some good-natured shit-talking with my colleagues as we warm up.

But when it's time to coach me, he's surprisingly patient as he explains how to position my body and serve the ball correctly.

And when we go into the actual beach volleyball game, he's encouraging and supportive, giving me a high five every time I get the ball over the net.

Although it's fair to say that ninety-five percent of the reason we win is because of his superior athletic skills.

When we sit together at dinner, I find myself watching him be his usual charming self, but I'm not watching him in a resentful way. Instead, it's more in a holy hell, I get to go back to the villa and have sex with him way.

He sees my expression, and his hand moves to my lower thigh then rides up slightly to stroke the skin under my shorts.

"Stop looking at me like that, or I won't be responsible for what happens," he says in an undertone.

I give him an innocent look from under my eyelashes, and his eyes darken.

"So, Liam, tell me more about your plans to open a gym," Henrietta says, and Liam snaps his attention to her, pulling his hand away from me.

He shifts in his seat. "Um…what do you want to know?"

Henrietta gives him an encouraging smile. "I know nothing about the fitness industry. Is it difficult to start your own gym?"

"Well, I'm actually thinking of opening a therapeutic gym, so it's slightly more complicated than opening a standard gym." Liam plays with the napkin on his lap rather than looking at either Henrietta or me.

Henrietta's forehead creases. "What's a therapeutic gym?"

"It's one specifically aimed at people recovering from accidents, surgery, or illness. I've dealt with a few clients who have been recovering from severe illness or injuries, and I think there is a real need for a gym that caters specifically to their needs." He rubs the back of his neck, shooting a look at me. It's almost bashful.

"I love that idea," Henrietta says. "My mother battled cancer when she was in her forties, and she was so self-conscious going back to the gym after surgery."

"Oh, I'm sorry your mother went through that. How is she now?"

Henrietta talks to Liam about her mother's cancer journey, with Liam asking insightful questions while I attempt to digest what Liam confided in Henrietta.

How did I not know this? How have we been together so much for the past four days, yet I haven't asked any questions about what his plans for his life are? I mean, we have been occupied doing other things, but that's really no excuse.

I'm still mulling over Liam's conversation with Henrietta as dinner ends and everyone migrates to the dancefloor.

But I'm snapped out of my contemplative state by dancing with Liam.

This is unlike the first time we danced together when we held each other so gingerly.

Liam is so familiar to me now and our bodies are used to fitting together, so we have no hesitation getting up close and personal for the slow songs, our bodies pressed against each other as Liam steers me around the dancefloor.

For the faster songs, we separate. And yes, dancing is not exactly my forte, but I don't care because Liam is grinning at me.

"You have a very…unique dancing style," Liam says. "It's almost like you're trying to disprove the concept of rhythm."

I try to concentrate on my moves after that, but I get the feeling that concentration doesn't actually improve my skills by the way he breaks out laughing.

"Now you look like you're trapped in a spider web, fighting off imaginary spiders."

"I was aiming more for a short-circuiting robot, actually," I say.

Liam raises an eyebrow. "Maybe you should do something like this, then?"

Liam, of course, then starts doing the perfect robot dance, complete with some very realistic short-functioning spasms.

How the hell can someone look good pretending to be a malfunctioning robot? Somehow, Liam manages it.

"Well, I guess if someone is short a few circuits, it would be you," I mutter, moving toward him because I can't help wanting to be closer to this gorgeous, laughing man.

"Pretty sure you'll always be the robot boy of the two of us," he says, reaching over to muss my hair.

Which causes my breath to catch.

Because somehow it doesn't feel like Liam and I are insulting each other anymore.

Instead, we're amusing each other.

Which knocks my breath away.

Liam's always had such a clear-cut role in my life. Nemesis. He loathed me and I loathed him. Simple.

But now we've started blurring the boundaries, and I don't know how to define things between us anymore.

The unsettled feeling stays with me after we go back to the villa and have another round of steamy sex.

Liam's a cuddler after sex, which is something I very much enjoy. We're lying together, my feet tucked between his calves, a position we often seem to find ourselves in as he lightly drifts his fingertips down my side while I can't stop touching his incredible body. It's like my hands are only happy when I have them on his skin.

Running my hands over his perfect abs reminds me of something.

"So your gym idea that you discussed with Henrietta is really interesting," I say tentatively.

Liam's smile disappears instantly, and his muscles tense under my hands.

"Yeah, well, it's an idea anyway. I've still got to work out the funding and stuff." He doesn't meet my eyes.

My brow furrows. "What's stopping you? There's probably lots of funding you can apply for with an idea like that."

He blows out a breath. "I know I can do the training side of it. It's the running a business side I'm not so sure about."

My forehead crunches. "What makes you think you couldn't run a business?"

His eyes meet mine. "As you pointed out to me constantly when we were kids, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, am I? Wasn't that the constant theme of your Christmas stars for me? Wishing for a brain?"

His words are like a spike driving into me. Shame floods my body.

Shit. Did me insulting Liam about his intelligence leave him scarred?

I'm fully aware of my own scars from our battles, but I've never contemplated whether I left any in return. It doesn't make me feel good—the knowledge that this man doubts himself due to things I said and did when we were younger.

"I think your gym sounds like a great idea," I say quietly. "And I think you have all the skills to make it work."

His expression clears. "Really?"

"Yeah, definitely. How did you come up with the idea?"

Liam shifts over on the pillow so we're face to face. "I had this client who'd been in a car accident and lost the lower part of her arm."

We lie there, facing each other, our legs still intertwined, as Liam tells me about his client, Colleen, and how she was too self-conscious to go back to the gym after she recovered. And how he realized there needs to be a safe space for people after they'd recovered from illness and injury, where they could work out and not feel ashamed because their bodies were different.

As Liam talks me through his idea, his face becomes more and more animated, and I see a side of Liam I never have before. I'm familiar with cocky-jock Liam, and I've recently become acquainted with sexy-and-fun Liam, but this caring and kind side of him is new to me.

Something shifts inside me.

Deep down, Liam is a good person. A really good person. How did I miss that fact growing up?