5. Liam

Liam

Chapter five

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re needy?” I said to Ollie as I got out of my car. We’d spent a lot of time attached at the hip, but this divorce would elevate it even more.

He’d asked if I wanted to come over and game. Honestly, I’d wanted to veg out at home, but I’d caved when those soft brown eyes had met mine. And the clinginess I’d expected. Ollie had always been that way, and for some reason, he was the one person where it didn’t bother me. Being around him didn’t leech out the energy from me like it did with everyone else.

Part of me was fucking thrilled to be spending more time with him.

The other part was terrified at what would happen when he fell for a new woman.

“We already knew that.” Ollie said, his keys jangling as he pulled them out and loped toward his house. Josie’s car was absent from the driveway, but he’d said she hadn’t been home all day.

“Come on.” Ollie placed his hand on my lower back as he gestured me inside. He had always done things like that, so I tried not to read into it, but the constant possessive PDA had made me swoon from an early age. Even at dinner earlier, the way he’d rested his hand on top of mine and kept it there—fuck. My heart hurt just thinking about it.

Ollie clicked the door shut behind me and ushered me farther into his house. The cozy rancher, a few streets away from his parents, fit his personality to a T. I’d always been jealous of Josie, but I never hated her. She was chill, and we could shoot the shit about the medical industry, even though we worked in different sectors. She was pharma, like Aislin. When I moved back to the area, I’d expected to not see Ollie as much, but I swung over to hang with Ollie, or he came over to see me most nights. I might have seen more of him than Josie did.

Clearly, that strategy hadn’t worked for their marriage long-term, though.

I wrinkled my nose as I took in their living room. The faded spaced on the walls indicated where some of Josie’s weird art deco paintings had been, and the bookshelves had some sizable gaps.

“Did Josie start moving stuff out?” I asked as irritation flared through me. “Where’s she staying?” She’d dropped the bomb on him yesterday and was already pulling shit off the shelves?

“Fuck if I know,” Ollie muttered, scrubbing his palms over his face. “Probably her mom’s or something.”

I shook my head. “How are you this calm right now? She, what, overturned your life yesterday, and she’s already making a dent in the house?”

Ollie let out a long, slow exhale as he all but deflated. “I should be freaking out, right? And a part of me is, but…” He chewed on his lip and dropped into the big black sectional but didn’t elaborate.

“Come on, Ollie,” I said, plunking down next to him. I didn’t keep any space between us, knocking my knee against his. I knew how physical he was, something I adored that killed me in the same breath. “If there’s anyone you can talk to, it’s me.”

“Fine.” He stared at the floor, resting his elbows on his knees. “Part of me is just…relieved.”

“I think that’s pretty normal,” I murmured, flicking him in the side. “Newsflash, but you guys never got along great, even back in high school.”

Ollie’s brows drew together. “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

I crossed my arms. “Wasn’t my place, man. You chose her, and I was respecting your decision.”

Ollie slumped farther forward, looking dejected in a way I couldn’t stand. “I’m aware we were never the ideal…like Mom and Dad. But I don’t know. I thought if I kept trying, we’d eventually get to a better place.”

My best friend, the perpetual optimist. Even though it drove me crazy sometimes, his sunshine attitude was something I loved about him the most.

“Well, you’ve got a chance to find the ideal person now,” I said. The words tasted bitter on my tongue.

Because the truth was, that ideal person would never be me.

“Whatever. I’ve got plenty of time before contemplating the wilds of dating.” Ollie pushed up in his seat. “Let’s play Mortal Kombat and blow off steam. I could use the distraction.” He cast me a sidelong glance. “Though a game’s not nearly as distracting as wondering if you’re still wearing those panties from this morning.”

My face flushed, a whole-body torrent of flames. Ollie stared at me with an intensity in those brown eyes that was very different from his normal, affectionate looks. This close, his plush lower lip begged for my attention, and his broad shoulders were such a goddamn turn-on. My best friend had no right to be so fucking hot.

“That’s my business,” I said, trying with all my might for casual while my insides swooned. “And since when did we talk about underwear?”

“Since one of us had underwear worth talking about.” Ollie leaned over to his coffee table where he had two controllers sitting there. He flashed me his slightly crooked smile that made my heart skip a beat. He thrust one of the controllers at me. “How about this? I’ll earn your answer. Whoever loses each bout loses an article of clothing.”

This wasn’t real life, was it? The sexy dip in his voice, his gaze focused on me. Hell, this was every daydream I’d entertained for years.

I swallowed, my throat dry. “So, strip Mortal Kombat? Can’t say I’ve ever played that.”

But I sure as hell wouldn’t pass up the chance to see Ollie stripped down—especially now that he was single.

“You in?” he asked, the cocky tone to his voice offering relief. When he’d shown up last night to announce his divorce, I thought my sunshine best friend would sink deep into depression. However, the last few years, Ollie and Josie had been heading that way, whether he’d realized it or not. The increasing distance between them, the lack of communication, doing more and more without the other involved.

I knew Ollie, and when he got invested, he got attached.

Kind of like he’d always done with me.

“Guess you better prepare to strip down,” I responded, hoping Ollie hadn’t noticed how my cock was growing harder. I’d switched my purple panties to a pink satin pair, and the idea of Ollie scanning me down like he had this morning—fuck, my erection already tested the fabric.

“Right, like you’re that great at Mortal Kombat.” He settled into place, his knee nudged against mine, our legs touching like they usually did. Except now I was more than aware he wanted to see what I wore beneath my clothes, and my hopeless heart didn’t know what to do with that information. My cock was one thousand percent on board, though.

The familiar opening screen kicked on, and we chose our fighters, each of us sticking with comfortable territory. I picked Mileena, while Ollie went with Sub-Zero. He was better at this game than me, and to be honest, the thought of that thrilled me a little. Indulging in any of this wasn’t healthy, especially not the day after Josie had told him she was leaving, but I’d been yearning so long for him to even look with the slightest flash of something…more.

I just wanted his eyes on me a little longer.

Before he threw himself back into the dating pool. Before he found the love of his life and married some new woman who’d steal him away.

“Round one…Fight!” came from the screen, and I snapped my attention to the game. We both launched into the bout, the tap-tap-tap of button-mashing fast and furious. Ollie might’ve refined a technique, but I tended to spam the same moves over and over again until I got lucky. He usually won when we played, and we both knew it. Despite the familiarity of our normal rhythm with this game, tension percolated through the air, awareness prickling across my skin.

I launched in with Mileena, a flurry of kicks and hits, but within moments, Sub-Zero was wiping the floor with her.

“Feeling cocky now?” Ollie asked as we waited for the next round to cue up.

I licked my lips, which were suddenly too dry, and I didn’t miss Ollie’s gaze zeroing in on the motion. Fuck.

“Round Two…Fight,” announced the speaker, dragging me back into the match. I’d played with a hard-on before, and I would play with a hard-on again.

If anything, I lost even faster this time.

Ollie crossed his arms and stared me down.

I lifted a brow, fixing him with a look as I removed my sneaker and took off a sock. “If you thought I was starting with anything else, you were sorely mistaken.”

“Fine, be like that,” he teased as he gripped the controller. “This is only the first bout.”

I settled in, down one sock, and Ollie started the next round. Wearing a single sock felt weird, but it made me more aware of the end goal. Which was Ollie getting me out of my pants.

If only that meant what I wished it did.

What had started his obsession with my panties was beyond me, but I wouldn’t pass up the chance to have this big bear of a man fixated on me.

The next match passed in a blur, and Ollie focused like hell on the win, which just got me hotter. I ditched my other sock. I’d been barefooted in Ollie’s house plenty of times, but the intent behind it had my skin prickling and my heart thumping harder.

“It’s like you want to strip down for me,” Ollie murmured. “Get prepared to lose more—in both regards.” His dark eyes were dancing, and his lips curled up in a mischievous grin. It was hard to believe this was the same guy who’d been all rain clouds last night.

I chewed on my lower lip as I wiped out at yet another round of Mortal Kombat. Truth be told, I loved having Ollie’s eyes on me like this, and I knew the more skin I showed, the more he would be looking. He’d always been physically affectionate, but the slight darkening of his gaze, his heady focus turned my way? Never.

The screen flashed my loss, and I sucked in a sharp breath as Ollie set down his remote on the end table and propped his arms against the back of the sectional.

“Your choice,” Ollie said, the confidence radiating off him. I swallowed hard, trying to ignore how my cock woke the fuck up at those low words. The huskiness in his voice, the heat blazing in his gaze was nothing I’d ever expected to be leveled my way, and I still questioned this freak anomaly in our friendship.

However, I was here for the ride.

I pursed my lips and grabbed the hem of my polo, which wasn’t the sexiest thing I could’ve worn, but I’d work this as best I could. Trying to shut out that Ollie—my Ollie—was the one watching me, I lifted the shirt up my waist the way I would if I was getting flirty with a hookup. Just a slow glide of fabric along my already sensitized skin from the sheer magnetism of Ollie’s gaze on me. My mind spun, and this close, I got a lungful of his scent, all metal and patchouli.

My cock was at full-mast now, but I ignored how my jeans strangled my erection as I brought the hem up higher, flashing a nipple, then sneaking it back down.

“Tease,” Ollie said, his voice hoarse and warm. Lust coursed through me like a sip of whisky.

My lips quirked in amusement. Even when I vibrated with this cocktail of adrenaline, somehow Ollie made this easy, natural. He’d seen me shirtless a thousand and one times before, but it had never felt like this. Then, it had been a circumstance, but in this moment, I was stripping down solely for him. I flicked a few buttons of the polo open, soaking in the way his gaze glued to my chest, how his breathing came in a little heavier, how his pupils were blown out.

I finally slid the hem of my shirt up and over and tossed the shirt onto the ground.

“Well, damn.” Ollie let out a low whistle. “Why haven’t we been playing strip Mortal Kombat sooner?”

Ollie’s shoulders froze, and I knew the realization of why snuck in, threatening to shatter the tension between us. However, I didn’t want this moment to end, for him to draw his gaze away from me.

“Well, you’re single now.” Yeah, I was playing with fire.

“Oh?” Ollie said, his gaze sliding from my chest to my eyes, and a shiver rolled through me at the intensity in his gaze. “So, what other games have I been missing out on?”

His intent was crystal clear, and oh, holy hell, I was burning up from the inside out.

I opened my mouth, not sure how to respond with how my entire body reacted to Ollie’s attention. I’d yearned for these sorts of looks from him for so damn long that I couldn’t even process my reality. However, the fact we were sitting so close didn’t escape me, my knee still brushed against his thigh. The music for Mortal Kombat’s loading screen blared in the background, but it was drowned out by the roar in my ears as neither of us looked away.

Ollie licked his lips, which made his lower glossy. My breath hitched in my throat, and the steady thump, thump, thump of my heart grew in volume with every passing second.

“I can think of one,” he said, his voice all sex and gravel.

I’d seen my best friend every which way over the years from top-of-the-world exhilarated when he did parkour to the infrequent moments when his sunshine faded and the rain clouds rolled in, but I’d never witnessed him like this. Imagined it, yes, a thousand times, but the heat banked in his gaze and the lust dripping from his tone—fuck, it was plucked out of so many wayward daydreams, and the gravitational pull between us was unstoppable.

He began to lean in and close the distance between us. My heart threatened to leap out of my chest as the thrill of this moment roared inside me.

The front door opened with a loud bang.

“Ollie, are you home?” Josie’s voice shattered the tension between us like a baseball through glass.

Ollie sat straight as if his spine was an iron rod, and panic flooded through my veins. Shit, I was sitting here without a shirt on.

We’d been about to kiss a mere day after Josie announced she wanted a divorce.

Fuck, what kind of friend was I? Hell, what if Josie had shown up to tell Ollie she’d changed her mind? I swallowed bile as I leaned down and swiped my shirt from the floor.

“In here,” Ollie called, his throat a little hoarse and unsteady. He wasn’t pushing me away, but he wasn’t looking my way either, and if he told me to get out or that this was a mistake, I’d pretty much die on the spot. I grabbed my own life jacket.

“I’ve got to go.” I slipped on my socks and shoes in a record time as all the heat, the comfort, and the thrill withered away like magnolia petals at the first frost. My throat tightened, and I couldn’t say anything more to Ollie. I didn’t even bother patting down for my keys before bolting for the door.

Josie was dressed in a white tee and jeans, her blonde hair pulled into a low bun. She looked tired, but who wouldn’t, given her situation? “Hey, Liam,” she said, but I didn’t stop to chat. What if she could see right through the shame burning my cheeks?

“See you, Josie.” I tried not to be a complete jackass, despite the way my mouth didn’t want to work right now. I burst out the door into a night threaded with the kiss of rhododendron and freshly mowed lawns that had mere hours ago smelled like a summertime promise.

Now the shadows twined around my limbs, making every step toward my car drag.

I’d let those hopeless longings get the best of me, but Josie’s arrival had delivered the splash of ice water I needed.

No matter how much I wished it were so, Ollie would never be mine.