29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Liam

" T hat was so much fun !" Sage walks into her apartment, and I follow close behind her before she sinks into the wall. "I wore my cute heels, though, and my feet hurt." She tries to take them off, but I grab her hand when she stumbles.

"Here." I give her my phone to hold and kneel down to take her heels off. I unwrap the string around her calf and kiss the mark it left her. When I slide her first heel off, I kiss her foot softly before grabbing the other one.

"So sweet."

I glance up at her, and she has my phone pointed at me. "Are you recording me?"

"Mhm." She puts her other heels on my chest, and I shake my head at how she smiles behind the camera. I start unraveling the string around her calf but glance up at her dress and slowly push it up.

"What are you–"

I drag my tongue along her inner thigh, and she shoves me away with a laugh when I try to push her legs open. "Stop that!"

I look back up at her, and the phone is suddenly nowhere in sight. "What happened to recording?" I tease, and when I hear her laugh in the video, I know she caught me on camera.

"Well, now I can't post this." She shakes her head with a smile, and I take her second heel off before lifting one of her legs onto my shoulder.

"Why not?" I push her legs further apart as I kiss my way under her dress.

"Liam, what–"

I can only imagine her face when I tug at her underwear, and I'm sure she's looking everywhere but me. "Liam." She whispers now, and I feel myself smiling as I kiss her heat through her underwear.

"Hmm?"

She moans in response, and with one more tug, her underwear snaps right off. I let it fall to the ground as I slide my tongue exactly where she likes it.

"Liam, you look really hot on your knees for me, but let's go to bed." When she tries to move me, I keep her in place, and she doesn't voice another protest as I work my tongue along her folds. She tastes heavenly , and I can stay here on my knees for her all night, but within minutes, she's coming over my face.

When I glance up at her, she's trying to catch her breath with her head tilted up to the ceiling. I know little to nothing about relationships, but I do know you shouldn't say those three words I was just thinking after the first date. I don't know what clicked, but being around Sage altered my brain chemistry.

This woman consumes my every thought. The only place I want to be is in her presence, and the only thing I want to do is satisfy her. Whether that be on my knees, adopting cats, or watching her walk in million-dollar fashion shows.

"If you pull out a ring, I might need to decline." She laughs softly, and I have no clue what she's talking about, but I can't pull my gaze from her pretty smile.

"What?" My eyes bore into those green ones, and I just decided she's somehow prettier from this angle. I should be on my knees for her all the time.

"You're looking at me like you're going to propose. Get off your knees." She laughs again as she takes my hand, dragging me to my feet.

"Why would you say no if I did?" I don't mean to sound so offended, but a part of me is.

"We only accept big gestures, Lee. I don't see ‘marry me' spelled out on a billboard." She walks past me, and I can't help but smile at her insane standards, but I'll climb the moon to reach them.

"Billboard proposals are all you accept?"

She looks like she's thinking before she shakes her head. "No, I was kidding. If it's something small and intimate, I'll accept it, but I want a photographer there."

I follow close behind her as she walks for her room but then she glances at her wall full of pictures before adding, "And my siblings. They need to be hiding somewhere."

I want to be with her for every second, dare I say forever, but her siblings will not be anywhere near us. I almost voice that but quickly remember our conversation from last night. I genuinely don't think she'll break things off with me if she finds out her brothers and I can't stand each other, so I just need to rip this bandaid off.

When we make it to her room, a playful grin plays on her face, but I pull her in before ripping her clothes off. "I want to apologize for last night." I plant a kiss on her nose before wrapping my arms around her waist. "I don't like opening up… I never had to, so this is new to me, but I promise I'm going to try with you, Dory, because I want to let you in."

A smile touches her lips, and I steal a kiss before continuing.

"My mom had an episode and flipped out on her nurse, and I know her bad days don't excuse my bad attitude, but it was still fresh, and when you started asking about my family, I shut down, but I shouldn't have. I should've communicated with you, and I won't brush you off like that again because you don't deserve that, so I'm sorry. You're not exhausting, Sage, and I'm sorry for the attitude."

I hate apologizing. It never came easy to me, but as I stand in front of this woman, saying sorry is like breathing, and I swear to myself that I won't hurt her again and have to apologize more in my future with her.

"Thank you for that." She kisses me slowly, but I regrettably pull away to tell her one more thing because if I want to be with her, she needs to know the truth, and my mom was right; she'll be more upset if she hears it from someone else. It'll hurt more, and I never want to hurt her again.

"Dory." I hold her hand, and as I look down at her, she looks so damn happy. I hate that I'm about to crush that spark in her eyes. "I need to tell you something, beloved."

Her brows slightly pull together as I pull her to sit with me on the edge of her bed. "Why do you look like that? What's wrong?" She asks warily.

I try to offer her a smile and tell her it's nothing she needs to worry about, but that'll be a lie.

Sage

I feel my heart sink at the worry on Liam's face. "Is it your mom? Is she okay?" I squeeze his hand a bit tighter before he shakes his head gently.

"She's okay; I just need to talk to you about something, but before I tell you, I want you to know that my intentions were pure, Sage." He shakes his head, clearly lost in his thoughts. "Well, not pure since I wanted to sleep with you from the moment I saw you in that lingerie set, but I saw your sweet smile and innocent soul first, then the way you said please made me want to give you the sun and moon, but nothing between us had to do with your family, I swear, Dory, and-"

"Wait," I stop his quick rambling as my brain catches up. "What about my family?"

He looks down at where our hands meet before visibly growing anxious.

"Lee, what is it?" I ask again, getting a bit scared now.

"When you asked if I knew your brothers, I didn't tell you the whole truth, Dory."

I feel my brows pull together as I watch him, but his eyes don't meet mine. "You lied?" I try to pull my hand away, but his grip tightens as he looks up at me.

"I didn't lie. I just didn't tell you everything…"

"That's lying." I pull my hand away harder. "You always go on and on about how disrespectful it is to lie, and you've been lying?"

He looks like he regrets saying anything which makes me more upset. "What's the whole truth?" Whatever he wants to say clearly isn't good since he has that look on his face.

His shoulders drop before he turns to me. "I met your brothers in college. We went to rival schools."

He watches me carefully, but I'm clearly missing something. "That's it? You already told me you went to UCD. I didn't think you knew my brothers, but I thought the rivalry between those colleges was over something silly. Either way, that was years ago; why lie to me about that?" My mind races with a hundred other questions as his worry grows.

"Because your brothers and I aren't the best of friends, and it's more than college rivalry."

"Okay… what does that mean?"

He shakes his head now as he grabs my hand. "It was stupid, Dory. They did some fucked up shit, I did stuff back. It's dumb and doesn't matter. I just wanted to tell you because I realized today that I want to be with you for a very long time, and I didn't want you to hear it from someone else."

I watch him for a beat, but if whatever happened was so dumb, he wouldn't have lied. "Tell me what happened, and let me decide what matters."

"Sage-"

"Tell me, Liam," I say more sternly. After needing to confront Helena tonight and now hearing he's been lying to me for months, I'm done playing nice when it's clear no one cares enough to return it.

He keeps his eyes on me, and when he realizes I'm not backing down, he gives in. "Your brother tried to create peace between our schools, specifically between the baseball teams."

I don't ask which brother since I can guess who put in that effort.

"I guess he thought the rivalry between past classes was dumb, and at first, our schools didn't want to go with it, but most of us came around. I was hanging out with your brothers a lot, playing scrimmages, practicing, racing with Sire on our cars and with August on our bikes."

"You were friends ?" I almost don't believe him because it's so rare for my brothers to fall out with any of their friends. "What happened?" I almost ask what he did, but I don't want to place blame.

"When the season started, they were winning games left and right. There was foul play involved, so we flipped the tables."

My brain tries to make sense of what that means, but that doesn't make sense. "I highly doubt my brothers were cheating in a sport they were recruited by the best college to play."

He looks offended now as he leans away to look at me. "You think I'm lying ?"

"I never said that, but I know my brothers and-"

"And you know me."

"Not as well as I know them, and you've been lying to me," I counter, and as much as it hurts me to say it, it's true.

He lets out a scoff as he faces forward. "They were cheating, and no one was doing anything about it, so we made sure they went down for something else."

I watch him for a minute, but he's being serious. "That genuinely sounds so silly. What do you mean you made sure they went down ?" I try to voice another question, but he continues.

"We suggested they throw a party, but as athletes, we weren't allowed to smoke and drink. One of my teammates took pictures of them and sent them to the dean, but while I was there, I may have picked a fight with August-"

"You may have?"

He ignores me. "We knew Sire would jump in if August was getting jumped, so one of my teammates hit him and stepped away once Sire joined in. They filmed the short minute of your brothers jumping me to send to the dean before my team… jumped them."

I wait for him to tell me he's joking, but he sits on my bed with a serious face. "Do you even hear yourself?" I stand from the bed as he looks up at me. "You set them up? All for a dumb baseball game?"

He rolls his eyes at me. "It meant more than that. Nothing ever happened to them since your parents paid off the school."

I open my mouth to counter but remember the boys getting in trouble, and everything makes sense now, given the full story. "That was you ?" I say, thinking out loud as memories of August's rants about this from years ago come back. "They were going to get kicked out of school for that. Not just benched from a few games. Why would you do that?"

His brows pull together as he focuses on me. "No, they weren't."

" Yes, they were. I was there, and if they had scholarships, they would've lost them because of you." I watch Liam, unable to believe he'd do that. Sire and August were offered scholarships but didn't take them because they wanted kids who needed them to have them, but that all would've been gone over a dumb game because of Liam.

He looks like he thinks of something before he shakes his head at his thoughts. "I didn't know that, and either way, they're not saints. They jumped me multiple times after that."

"You jumped them first! Why don't you sound the least bit remorseful?"

"I'm aware that it was wrong, but-"

"No, there are no buts." I put a hand up, stopping him from trying to justify this, but I stop myself from making this into a bigger fight when I feel myself getting angry. "This is all so dumb." I shake my head at myself. This doesn't deserve my energy, at least not right now.

The tension in his shoulders eases as he stands from the bed and grabs my hand, but I pull away and take a step back. "I'm still upset that you lied , Liam. Go home." I have no idea what he thought my reaction was going to be, but I certainly don't want to share a bed with him tonight.

He looks as if I just said I never wanted to see him again, and I'm genuinely surprised he really thought I'd forgive him that easily.

"You said it yourself that it's disrespectful to lie and that you hate it more than anything, yet you've been lying to me for months ." I cut myself off as I realized something. "A few months ago, you came here with a black eye." I take another step back as the pieces fall together. "That was Sire who you got into a fight with, wasn't it? I didn't think you guys were still fighting? And you've just been sleeping with me like nothing? Do you know how stupid that makes me look?"

I nearly yell now, and his face drops.

"Get out."

"Dory-"

"No, you're such a hypocrite , Liam. Get out. Right now." I walk out of my room, and he follows me into the living room. The smell of all of the flowers wraps around me, and I shake my head at how ridiculous this is. When I open the front door, Liam doesn't walk out.

"I don't want to leave." He watches me like I should really take his request into consideration.

"Well, I do want you to leave, Liam." I keep the door open, but he doesn't budge.

"I'll sleep on the couch," he tries to negotiate, but I shake my head at him. "Please?"

"No, sleep in your own bed. I don't want to be near you."

He tries to say something, but I beat him to it.

"Do you not understand how much it hurts that you casually came to my house to sleep with me after busting my brother's lip? You really expect me to believe you didn't get with me simply out of spite or some sick payback?" I blink my tears away, forcing myself not to cry, especially not in front of him.

I see his face morph into anger now as he closes the distance between us. "Don't ever say that. That's not why I got with you. I have way too much respect for you to-"

"But not enough for you not to lie to me?" I let out a scoff as I step away from him. "Did your friends know?"

When he doesn't answer quickly enough, I have my answer.

"So you all just treated me like an idiot."

"That's not-"

"Liam, get out, or I'll call my brothers to get you out. Leave ." I look away from him and force myself to keep my eyes forward. For a minute, he stands there watching me before walking past me.

"I'm sorry, Dory."

I hold my head up as I keep my tears at bay, and when he walks out, I let the door shut.