I smiled at him and he smiled back. “That was my first kiss too, and I do remember it,” he said softly, winking at me teasingly.

“Well you’ve had plenty more since then, and then some,” I stated, meaning all of the girls that he had slept with.

“Yeah, but that was still the first and the best,” he whispered, kissing the top of my head and pulling his arms tighter around me, tucking my head in the crook of his neck. We just laid there in silence; I didn’t know what to say, so I just kept quiet.

After a little while I was still awake because of the noise coming from the party, it was only one o’clock so it would probably go on for at least another hour. I rolled over to see Liam watching me. “You can’t sleep though that either, huh?” he asked, smiling.

I shook my head. “Why don’t you go back out and make the most of it. There’s no point in us both laying here awake.” I pulled away from him so he could get out of the bed.

He shook his head and pulled me back to his chest. “I’m fine where I am.”

After about half an hour, I raised my head and looked at him, he was asleep and looked really peaceful and sweet, and not to mention hot. I’d never really looked at him that way. I knew he was gorgeous and had an awesome body, but it just never occurred to me to look at him in that way. My eyes moved to his chest. He really was incredible and had a perfect six pack. I reached out one finger and traced the lines of his muscles on his stomach, just wondering what they would feel like.

He shivered. “I’m feeling a little violated,” he stated, making me jump and pull my hand away quickly.

I giggled because I’d gotten caught. “Welcome to my world, you make me feel like that all the time.” I shrugged.

“I suppose I do, sorry,” he said casually. Immediately I wondered why he wasn't like this all the time, if he was then I would probably be in love with him like every other girl was. “Hey, seeing as we can’t get to sleep…. how about we play a game?” he suggested, sounding excited about it - which was probably a bad sign.

I rolled my eyes, trying not to imagine the stupid games that he would come up with. “I’m not playing a game with you, it’ll be something like a strip game, or something else crude that’s going to involve you seeing me na**d,” I said, frowning and pouting.

He laughed and gripped hold of my pouty bottom lip between his thumb and forefinger. “Don’t pout, Angel. If the wind changes you’ll get stuck like that,” he joked, running his thumb along my lip. The movement made my mouth water for some reason. I stuck out my tongue and licked his thumb jokingly, expecting him to pull away and say it was disgusting. He didn’t. Instead, he made a little moan in the back of his throat. The sound made something deep inside me tingle and throb.

He moved his head closer to mine and then stopped, his lips were a few millimeters away from mine. I couldn’t breathe, my heart was racing, but it wasn’t the usual fear I had, it was because I wanted him to kiss me. He seemed to be waiting for me to give him a sign to say it was OK. I gulped and closed the distance, pressing my lips to his lightly. It felt like he gave me a shock, my body started to tingle and throb with the need for him to touch me. A thousand butterflies seemed to take flight in my stomach, but I knew it wasn’t because of the alcohol.

He responded immediately, pulling me closer to him and running his hands down my back. I raised my arms and put them around his neck, tangling my fingers into his silky brown hair. His lips were soft and fit perfectly with mine. He sucked lightly on my bottom lip and I opened my mouth, not really knowing what to expect from my first proper kiss. He slipped his tongue in my mouth and massaged mine slowly, tenderly. The taste of him was amazing as he explored my entire mouth; my whole body was burning, wanting more.

Suddenly, he pulled away making me whimper and wonder what I’d done wrong. He snapped his head up to my door, clamping his hand over my mouth to keep me quiet. “Shout that you’re fine,” he whispered. I looked at him confused.

“Amber! Open the door!” Jake shouted, banging loudly, making the door rattle.

Liam nodded at me and took his hand off of my mouth. I cleared my throat quickly. “Jake, I’m fine. I’m tired so go away!” I shouted, trying to make my voice sound angry.

“Ambs, have you seen Liam?” Jake asked through the door. I looked at Liam, horrified. What on earth was I supposed to say to that? Yeah, actually he’s in the bed with me, half na**d, and I’ve just had my tongue down his throat. Now can you go away, you’re interrupting? Yeah, I don’t think that will go down too well with my brother!

“I went home,” Liam whispered, nodding encouragingly.

“He said he was going home, Jake. Now go away,” I shouted, biting my lip and hoping he’d buy it. Liam bent his head back down and touched his soft lips back to mine again, pulling away with a sigh when Jake shouted again.

“Amber, are you OK? You sound a little strange.”

I giggled. “Yeah. I got sick so I came to bed, but I’m fine now. I’ll see you in the morning. Oh and by the way, I’m not cleaning up, so you need to do it all,” I teased, smiling at the thought of him cleaning the house on his own.

“Whatever, Ambs, we both know you’ll help me anyway,” Jake replied, laughing.

I looked back to Liam who smiled his beautiful smile at me and pressed his lips back to mine again, making the tingle come back instantly. His hand slid down my side slowly as he slipped his tongue back into my mouth, his taste exploding onto my taste buds. He reached the bottom of his t-shirt that I was wearing and slipped his hand underneath, running his hand up my thigh and touching my hip. His fingers traced along the material of my thong, so that his hand was on my ass. My skin seemed to be burning wherever he touched me.

It was at that point that I snapped back into myself. This is way too fast. I pulled my head back and put my hand on top of his to stop him from moving it any further up my top.

“Oh sorry. Too fast, right?” he asked, looking a little guilty. I nodded, trying to get my breath back and calm my body down. “That’s OK, Angel. Let’s just get some sleep then,” he suggested, with a huge smile. He moved away from me slightly and laid on his back, pulling me tightly to his side.

I put my head on his chest and slung my leg over his and my arm across his waist; he reached down and took hold of my hand, intertwining out fingers. His lips grazed the top of my head and I closed my eyes, feeling happier than I had done for a long time. Just before I fell asleep I had a horrible feeling that this was a mistake that I would end up paying for tomorrow. I mean, I’d just made out with my brother’s best friend, who is a total man-whore, and who only cares about himself.

Chapter 5

I woke in the morning with a pounding headache. My cellphone was ringing somewhere nearby. I stretched out my hand to get it, but I couldn’t reach. I stretched a little further and managed to knock it onto the bed so I could answer it.

“Hello?” I yawned.

“Amber! Where the hell are you? We’re supposed to be practicing,” an angry male voice shouted. I winced away from the sound and tried to get up, but Liam was near enough laying on top of me. He was pinning me on my stomach, his arm and leg thrown over me, and he was using my back as a pillow. It was actually surprisingly comfortable.

“Justin?” I croaked, looking at my alarm clock, but the numbers were all blurry, I couldn’t make it out. I squeezed my eyes shut then opened them to see that the time was now 8:42 a.m.

Shit!

“Yeah. Who the hell else do you think it’s going be? You were supposed to be here at eight thirty, Amber. Are you coming or what?” he asked, clearly annoyed.

“Um, yeah, I’m on my way.”

Liam groaned. “Tell him it’s Saturday and I’m tired, Angel,” he moaned into my back, making me giggle.

“Listen, Amber, kick that hot piece off ass out of your bed and get over here! We have a new routine, and you need to learn it,” Justin said, sounding amused now, he’d obviously heard Liam. Justin was the only person that knew that Liam stayed with me, he didn’t know the whole story as to why, but he knew that he did.

Liam drove me to my dance practice every Saturday, hung-over or not. His two stipulations were that I buy lunch, and not tell my brother. Both of which were fine with me. Jake knew I danced but he had never actually seen me do it, I had a feeling he wouldn’t like it too much if he did. Liam and Justin got on really well, which actually really surprised me at first, because I wouldn’t have thought that a macho ice hockey player could be friends with an openly g*y guy who likes to wear something pink every day. Shows how much I know.

“I’ll be there in a bit and I’ll bring doughnuts to apologise, OK?” I offered sweetly. I didn’t want him annoyed with me all morning; he would work me twice as hard.

He sighed. “Fine, just hurry up.”

I wriggled a little and pushed my cellphone back onto the side. “Liam, Justin said I need to kick your hot ass out of my bed and get there, fast.” I chuckled.

He groaned and buried his face into my back. “Damn Saturdays are a pain in my ass,” he muttered, rolling off of me onto his back. I turned my head to look at him; he was giving me his trademark smirk. “Your t-shirt’s ridden up a bit there. Want me to get that for you?” he asked, looking down at my backside. I quickly shot my hands down to feel that his t-shirt that I was wearing, was now up bunched up around my waist, which meant he had a clear view of my ass in my thong. I didn’t quite know where we stood after last night, but I think I had the right to tease him a little. It’s not like he’d never seen me in my underwear before, he saw enough of me last night while I was being sick in just my underwear!

“No thanks. I got it.” I climbed out of the bed and stripped off his t-shirt, throwing it in his face so I was just standing there in my bra and panties. “Thanks for the loan,” I said with a smirk, walking seductively over to my closet, trying to find some sweatpants or something I could wear to dance in. I heard him gasp then moan quietly and I bit my lip to stop the giggle escaping. The bedsprings creaked; suddenly his hot breath was blowing down my neck, making my whole body break out in goosebumps.

“So, am I allowed to touch you today?” he asked quietly.

Jeez, is he really asking for my permission? I turned to face him; he was standing directly behind me in just his boxers, looking like a Greek God.

“Um…. I don’t know…. do you want to?” I asked, a little unsure of myself. He’d been with so many girls before, all of them probably prettier than me, and that was my first real kiss last night for goodness sake, I bet I sucked royally at it! He nodded his head eagerly; his eyes were locked on mine. He wasn’t even looking at my body even though I was almost na**d, which made my stomach do a flip for some reason.

I stiffened as he lifted his hands, slowly, giving me the chance to stop him, he put them on my hips. His touch sent a hot flush to my skin and butterflies to my stomach. He pulled me forwards into his chest, and trailed his fingers slowly around to my back, one hand going up to grip the back of my neck lightly and the other hand tickling its way downwards. He brushed his hand over my ass gently, just once, before bringing it back up and putting it on the small of my back. His eyes didn’t leave mine the whole time. Nervous excitement was racing through my body and I just stood there, frozen, not really knowing what I should do. This was all so totally new to me and I was almost scared to death, but in a good way somehow. He bent his head slowly and I felt my eyes widen, waiting for his soft lips to make contact with mine.

Just as they were about to connect, my cellphone rang again, making us both jump. We both looked at the phone, my heart was slowly returning to normal rate as I started to come back to reality. Liam was glaring at it, and I had the impression he was trying to shoot lasers out of his eyes to make it stop ringing. I giggled at his exasperated expression and pulled away from him to answer it. The caller ID said Justin, again.

I sighed and flipped it open. “I said I’m on my way!” I rolled my eyes even though I knew he couldn’t see me.

“Just making sure you and your hot ass friend didn’t go back to sleep,” he said with a chuckle as he hung up. I snapped the phone shut and looked back at Liam; he was still watching me but was getting dressed at the same time. I smiled at him and he smiled back, it was nice. Usually, he changed into as**ole daytime Liam in the morning, teasing me almost as soon as I wake up, but today he seems different. I couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last. I went to my closet and grabbed a pair of black leggings and a tight white top that just covered my ass; I grabbed fresh underwear and went to the bathroom to change.

As I walked past him, he grabbed my hand, making me stop. “You know you have the sexiest ass in the world, right?” he whispered, just before he pressed his lips to mine lightly, sending what felt like lightning bolts around my body.

When he let go, I just looked at him a little shocked. “Yeah, I bet you say that to all the girls,” I mumbled, shaking my head and walking into the bathroom closing the door and taking a deep breath.

What’s wrong with me? Why was he making me feel like this? That’s Liam for goodness sake! He’s going to crush you and you’re going to end up like that damn slut Jessica, begging for his attention once he’s finished and got what he wanted.

But he wouldn’t do that to me. He’d spent every night with me for the last eight years. I needed him to be able to sleep, he kept my nightmares away. He wouldn’t hurt me, would he? I trusted him to keep me safe, but could I trust him with my heart? I knew the answer to that was no, I couldn’t, but for some reason I wanted to.