Chapter 4

It wasn’t like thinkinglike this about a man was a new thing for me. While it hadn’t been common knowledge to everyone, I had always been bisexual. I’d had boyfriends and girlfriends before I met Phillipa. It was just that she was the person I thought I was going to spend my life with, and I hadn’t looked at anyone else, male or female, in that time.

But then the divorce happened. And then Annie moved out to go to university, and while I hadn’t seen anyone seriously, I’d had a handful of encounters with a handful of other humans while my house had been empty.

What was insanely new for me was that this was my child’s best friend. I had been around Liam since he was three. I watched him and my daughter grow up together. He had been in my house as much as he’d been in his own. And there I was, lying in my bed in the dark with my cock rock hard, thinking about every inch of his handsome face. Thinking about how my body had reacted to his touch, to his closeness. Thinking about what a fucking dirty old man I was for lusting after him like that.

I tried to shake the thought that he was lying on the other side of the wall from me. I tried to put out of my mind the notion he might be right there, thinking similar thoughts about me. I pulled my pillow over my face and growled my frustrations into it. I’d text my ‘friend’ tomorrow and see if his house was empty so I could relieve some of my frustrations with him. It wasn’t ideal, but wasn’t that kind of the point of a friend with benefits?

* * *

There wasa knock at the door, and I knew who it was before I even answered. Annie had mentioned Liam was going to be calling over to meet her coming out of work. It had started to feel like he had been coming over a little earlier each time. Part of me wondered if that was because he was coming to see me. The other part told me to remember I was old enough to be his father and to get a damn grip of myself.

I grinned when I answered, trying hard not to notice the twinkle in his eyes, that his mouth looked utterly kissable, and the smell of his aftershave was teasing me as he walked past me into the kitchen.

I offered to make extra food for him, and he accepted, sliding gracefully onto a stool at the breakfast bar as he watched me move around the kitchen. I felt his eyes on me as I shifted around the space. I couldn’t deny it was affecting me to know he was there looking at me.

“Any luck on the job front yet?” I asked, trying to distract myself from the fact he was making my jeans feel a little too tight at the front. I kept my back to him and talked to him like I did when he was younger, giving myself a verbal cold shower.

Christ, Rich. He’s too young for you. Catch yourself on.

“Not a bloody thing. I’m starting to think I’ll never get a job. Maybe I’ll have to find myself a sugar daddy.”

He laughed, and I felt it prickle over my skin. I swallowed, closed my eyes, and tried to calm my physical reaction to him. A sugar daddy, indeed. In my distraction, I let my wrist get a little too close to the pan I was cooking the chicken in.

“Shit!” I jumped, and in an instant, Liam was beside me, grabbing my wrist.

“What did you do? Here, let me look.”

He blew over the burn on my skin and goosebumps rose all over my body. He pulled me to the sink and turned on the cold water, shoving my arm under the flow.

“Keep it there,” he ordered and went back to the cooker to turn down the burner under the pan and check the chicken wasn’t burning as well as me. He moved back beside me and touched my arm again, puling it back out of the water to check on it. “Have you still got that first aid kit?”

“It’s not that bad.”

He glared, and I admitted defeat. “Yeah, it’s in the same cupboard as always.”

He nodded and headed for the upper cabinet on the other side of the kitchen, ordering me to sit down. I sat, doing as I was told and letting him take care of my burn.

He moved against my knees as I sat on the stool and watched him play nurse with my burn.

“It’ll be fine, you know.” I winced as he covered it with an antiseptic spray.

“It will be once I’ve finished, yes,” he agreed.

I laughed and shook my head, watching him bandage my arm, trying not to think of his body brushing against my knees and just how damn close he was. He ran his fingers over the bandage, lifted my wrist, and kissed it better with a little smirk. When his eyes made it to mine, I felt like I was being pulled towards him.

He licked his lips, and my gaze fell to his mouth. I knew where this would end up; I felt it in every inch of me. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to sample what his lips tasted of. I could see his breathing quicken, and he moved ever so slightly towards me too.

His phone rang. He pulled back and reached into his back pocket to answer it. I took the chance to escape and went back to the stove where the pan of chicken waited for me.