HDU #2: Dirt (24 page)

“Not yet.
 
You’re still being punished,” Amanda
said briskly as she began unpinning her wig.
 
Once finished, she gladly tore it off, closing her eyes with
relief while shaking out her hair and feeling her scalp tingle.
 
“God, that feels good,” she groaned
quietly, opening her eyes to see Liam’s lips parted as he shook his head at
her.

“You weren’t
kidding about punishment.”

“Hm?”

“That tiny
little top.
 
Doing that thing with
your hair while you’re just out of my reach.
 
You’re only safe because I can’t move.”

“I’m well aware,”
Amanda grinned as she massaged the pads of her fingers against her scalp, her
eyes on Liam as he simply watched her, smirking because there was nothing else
he could do.

“Smart ass,” he
murmured as she flipped her hair forward, massaging her scalp for a few more
seconds before flipping it back, letting her auburn tresses graze the tops of
his shins along the way before they tumbled down to frame her face.
 
Leaning back against the headboard,
Liam rubbed his lower lip as Amanda stretched, rolling her neck and arching her
back as far as she could.
 
“Really?”

“I had a long
flight,” she defended herself.

“Fine.
 
Just get your ass over here.
 
I’m in enough pain as it is.”
 
When she didn’t immediately move toward
him, Liam nodded.
 
“Okay.
 
Two can play this game.”
 
Sitting forward, he reached behind his
back and whipped off his T-shirt, tossing it aside on the mattress.
 
Still kneeling a few yards in front of
him, Amanda blinked at his hard chest and cut abs.
 
There was a row of butterfly strip bandages below his
bruised right collar bone and his smooth skin looked a shade more golden and
tanned than it had the last time she’d seen it.
 
She watched the defined sections of his six pack ripple as
he sat back, leaning against the backboard to study her.
 
With his healthy foot, he pushed one of
her knees apart from the other so that she suddenly knelt before him with her
legs spread wide.

“Or I’ll just
enjoy this view,” he said with a smug grin, perking Amanda’s eyebrows as hand
grabbed hold of his hard shaft through his boxers.

It didn’t take
long before she found herself crawling over to him.

“Thank Christ,”
Liam exhaled with a quiet laugh, cupping her cheek once she was close enough
and pulling her in for a kiss.
 
He
rumbled something low and deep when she straddled him, her face above his as
she knelt over his lap for a few seconds, letting Liam try to tug her down onto
him by the back pockets of her shorts.
 
Giggling against his lips, she quietly undid her button and zipper,
giving him a surprise when his next tug of her pockets pulled her shorts
halfway down her thighs.
 
He pulled
away from their kiss with raised eyebrows, eyeing her lacy black boy shorts as
she gripped the backboard behind him to stand up and over his lap, letting her
shorts fall the rest of the way down so she could kick them off.

He didn’t
hesitate once she hooked his fingers into the top of her underwear.
 
Pulling them down as she stood before
him, Liam sat eagerly forward, letting his mouth travel opposite the southbound
path of her boy shorts, drawing an instant gasp from Amanda as she felt his
tongue where she’d never felt it before.
 
Her knuckles turning white as she gripped the headboard, her knees grew
closer and closer to giving out.
 
Thankfully, Liam steadied her.

With one strong
hand on the back of her thigh, the other reached to free himself from the
confines of his charcoal boxer briefs.
 
Grateful for its firmness, Amanda’s toes curled against the mattress,
her eyes squeezing shut as Liam’s hot mouth continued to unravel her.
 
Once secure on her feet again, she felt
his hand leave the back of her thighs to run between them, his fingers sliding
gently into her, parting her to joining his tongue in a matching rhythm between
her legs.
 
Amanda’s jaw dropped
though no sound came out of her lips.
 
She could hardly even breathe anymore.
 
Her body frozen stiff, she felt Liam’s steady pace quicken,
working to release her muscles along with the breath caught in her throat.

Soon, with a
loud, ripping gasp, Amanda’s knees buckled hard.

And though the crashing
pleasure rendered her body briefly limp, it took only minutes for her to find
herself with an energy so resurgent that she briefly wondered where it had even
come from.
 
Only briefly though.
 
She was too busy to entertain the
thought for too long.

“Stay like
that,” she panted, laying on her back and catching her breath as Liam moved to
climb on top of her.
 
Flattening a
palm against his broad chest, she pushed him back in his sitting position.
 
“You need rest,” she breathed, rolling
onto her stomach and grabbing her denim shorts from the floor.
 
She reached into their pockets till her
fingers felt what she’d slipped in there during the plane ride from New York.

“Really?” Liam
lifted a pleased eyebrow as he watched Amanda return to a kneeling position,
her hair tumbling around her face as she looked down at her fingers, which
unwrapped the little gold packet.
 
Tossing the wrapper aside, Amanda returned to a straddle over Liam, his
hungry eyes on hers as she watched her own fingertips gingerly slide the condom
over his length.

His chest
heaving, Liam nodded.
 
“Just sit
here then,” he confirmed, lifting his awed gaze up to her.

“Yes.”
 
Amanda lifted her hips above him, her
hand wrapped around the base of his shaft, positioning him just so.
 
She watched his unblinking eyes and the
way his mouth lips parted wider and wider with every second she waited.

Biting the
corner of her lip, Amanda finally lowered herself onto him.

“
Holy shit
,” Liam groaned immediately,
trying desperately to keep his eyes open and fixed on Amanda as she began to
ride him.

She exhaled
hard, her hands squeezing his shoulders and her fingers digging into his skin
as every last of him filled her.
 
Her head rolling back, Amanda felt the ends of her hair touch the tops
of his thighs.
 
She closed her
eyes, burning hot all over her body, completely lost in her bliss and savoring
every last pleasured sound that escaped Liam’s throat.
 
Slowly, she picked up the pace of her
rocking, her muscles relaxing, her arms letting go of Liam’s shoulders to
instead wrap themselves around his neck.
 
She felt him hands grab a hold of her hips as she ground on top of him,
opening her eyes to relish the image of his knitted brows and gnashed teeth.
 
She lifted her hips higher now, sinking
down harder on him, over and over until she could hear the growl building in
the bottom of his throat.
 
With one
arm wrapped tight around his neck, Amanda held Liam’s jaw with her free hand,
watching his wild eyes slice into hers as she rode him hard.
 
Her lip curling, she could feel her own
pleasure building and twisting, too, parting her mouth wider and wider as it
clenched in her muscles.
 
Squeezing
her eyes shut for a second, Amanda dug her nails into Liam’s back, letting out
a soft but long moan.
 
She opened
them to see him studying her, awe gleaming in his eyes and a smirk dancing on
his breathless lips.
 
“Shut up,”
she exhaled.

“Make that sound
again,” he breathed.

“Make me.”

He complied,
gripping her hips tighter, lifting them just a few inches.
 
“Come,” he panted, pulling her into a
hard kiss and giving deep upward thrusts into her so that she had hardly any
choice but to do what he said.
 
He
groaned as she let out a hot, pleading breath into his mouth.
 
But just before she let her entire body
collapse onto him, Amanda tore away from Liam’s kiss, swatting his hands off of
her sides and pressing her own palms against his chest.
 
She pushed him against the backboard,
her hips moving in hard figure-eights until she felt her pleasure build to its
highest peak, shattering the moment Liam grabbed a handful of her hair,
bringing her moaning mouth to his for a deep but brief kiss that broke apart
for the pleasured growl that tore from his own lips.

And finally,
Amanda let every last muscle of her body relax and melt against Liam’s hard
chest, laying on him, closing her eyes, her mouth wearing a faint smile as she
caught her panting breath.

Chapter 15

Didn’t quite think this through.

Amanda laughed
to herself as she climbed out of Harper’s car in front of the Waltman Global
building, noting the time on her phone.
 
Just a little past 8:30AM.
 
For once, she wasn’t outrageously early for work — though probably
only because her flight from Nebraska had landed thirty minutes ago.
 
If anything, she was cutting it
entirely too close.
 
But it’d just
been hard to leave Liam in the morning.

Rifling through
her bag full of Harper’s clothes, Amanda tried to find an outfit appropriate
for work.

This’ll do
, she snorted as she pulled out
a lightweight black leather T and a pair of black skinny jeans.
 
The outfit was bound to draw a comment
or two from her snark-happy coworkers but she didn’t care.
 
She was riding enough of a high to
laugh off a week’s worth of sarcastic jabs and insults.

Despite how
vigorous the first round had been, Amanda and Liam had still found the energy
and need for a second before falling asleep around 2AM.
 
Laying on his chest, Amanda had stirred
awake around four, oddly enough because the TV had finally turned off.
 
Attempting to open her groggy eyes, she
had heard the sound of Liam setting the remote quietly down before feeling him
run a gentle hand through her hair.
 
His touch alone relaxed her heavy lids back to a state of slumber.
 
She’d felt his light kiss on the top of
her head just before dozing off once again, about certain she had heard him
whisper something with the word “love” in it before falling back asleep
himself.

When she awoke
again several hours later, she couldn’t bring herself to wake him up.
 
He had looked entirely too peaceful
— uncharacteristically sweet, even.

And so with a
note on his nightstand, Amanda left for her flight home.
 
She had a feeling he wouldn’t like that
but she hadn’t had much else of a choice.
 
Following their workout, he was bound to sleep in and she had work to do
in New York, what with
Leadoff
’s
premiere party taking place in a day and its first episode premiering on
television in just a week.

After changing
in the bathroom of the bagel shop across the street, Amanda walked quickly in
her own black heels — the pair that she had been wearing to brunch with
Ian before receiving the word on Liam’s injury.

“These are a
different pair, huh?”

Amanda’s step
quickened before the rest of her could react.
 
But she didn’t even have to look up to know who was standing
to her side.

“I like these on
you, Amanda.
 
More casual.”

Her heart
pounding, Amanda speed-walked toward the entrance of the Waltman Global
building, ignoring the camera-less paparazzo in the green Mets cap, who
obviously didn’t mind being recognized considering his conspicuous headgear.

“Where’s your
camera?” Amanda finally let herself blurt, though she refused to make eye
contact with the man.
 
A second
ago, her heart had been the calmest and most peaceful Amanda had felt in
awhile.
 
Now, her shameless little
stalker had her pulse racing, beating hard in her throat.

“Shoot.
 
Forgot it,” came the man’s reply just
before Amanda pushed through the shiny revolving door of the building.
 
“Don’t be mad,” she heard him call after
her as her palms shoved the glass door so that her heels could meet the safety
of the marble lobby.

She didn’t dare
peer over her shoulder under the elevator doors opened, guaranteeing her an
escape from the man’s view.
 
She
knew he’d still be standing outside the doors and upon looking, confirmed that
he was.
 
Her hands shaking as she
pressed her floor number, Amanda heaved a shaky sigh, grateful to at least have
the elevator to herself.

Taking her phone
out of her pocket, her fingers flew as they typed a hurried, panicked text out
to Liam.

Liam I didn’t tell you this the past few
weeks because I didn’t want you to worry but there’s been a paparazzo following
me for awhile and he doesn’t have a camera — all he does is say these
weird things that suggest he watches me closely.
 
He just approached me right outside of waltman global and
he’s starting to really

The elevator
dinged.
 
Amanda looked up,
distracted by the suited woman who stepped in, flashing her an odd look.

“You okay?” the
woman asked slowly, as if Amanda were in a state flustered enough that she
might not process the regular speed of human speech.
 
Amanda cleared her throat, holding the screen of her phone
against her stomach.

“I’m fine.
 
Thank you.”

“Don’t be
embarrassed.
 
I’d be nervous working
with that boys club at
Leadoff
, too.”

Amanda’s eyes
fluttered, remembering that people knew well who she was and whom she worked
for.
 
Her lips cracked into a short
laugh.
 
“I’m not nervous about
that,” she said as politely as possible.

“Right.
 
Well.
 
Good luck to you guys,” the woman offered her own strained
smile as the elevator dinged again.
 
“I read that you’re in a bit of trouble.
 
I’ll make sure to watch the premiere for you next week.”

With a nod, the
doors opened once again and the suited woman stepped out into her office,
leaving Amanda in the elevator with a curled lip and her finger held down on
her phone’s backspace button.

You’re fine
, she told herself.
 
You
can handle this on your own.

~

“
Goddamnit
, Bird.”
 
Skip chucked a pen cap at Bird with
exaggerated fury.
 
“Did I miss the
memo for Dominatrix Mondays
again
?”

In case she
hadn’t caught onto his jab, Skip shook his head at Amanda’s outfit as she took
the only available seat at the table — next to Connor, who of course
snorted.

Though Bird blinked
cluelessly while rubbing the spot on his forehead that the cap had hit, Fish
and a couple others laughed loudly at the joke, making it a point to look at
Amanda while doing so.
 
Unfazed,
she kept her eyes on Skip.

“I know
repetition is a popular concept in writing but I think you’re overusing it on
the memo joke,” she said through her polite smile.
 
“On that topic, you could afford to repeat a few other
things a little less too,” she said, nodding at his ratty Yankees jersey.

Bird snorted
loudly as the rest of the group silenced.

“I do think I
smell that thing from here, Skip,” Tom mumbled tiredly without looking up from
his phone.
 
“We all remember that
you once coached minor league.
 
You
can go ahead and wear something else now.”

 
Bird buried his face in his hands so as
to hide his laughter.
 
Stunned
herself, Amanda peered over at Skip, whose mouth snapped shut.
 
Postures stiff and frozen throughout
the room, all that moved were everyone’s darting eyes.

“Sorry.
 
Not everyone’s into wearing shit from
the S&M store,” Fish said, breaking the silence and once again doing so
while staring dully at his computer screen.

Really? Couldn’t just let it go?
Amanda
stared at him and his stupid yellow plaid button-up with the stupid Brown
University T-shirt underneath.
 
“To
each his own,” she said, clipped.
 
“I guess my taste in clothing has just actually changed since college.”

Fish’s eyes
finally flew up to meet hers.
 
“I’m
sorry I actually went to college.”

“I went to
college.”

“Hardly.”

“Gentlemen,” Tom
interrupted with a groan.
 
“And
women.
 
Gentlewomen.
 
Fish and Amanda.
 
Shut up.”

Amanda chewed
her lip, forcing herself not to say anything back to Fish or his stupid pompous
smirk.
 
But she could feel her lip
curling out of the grasp of her teeth as Skip turned over to Fish with a snort.
 
“Whattaya say she majored in? Theater?
Acting?”

Fish
smirked.
 
“Gold-digging, according
to Schaffer.”

Amanda’s eyes
blazed.
 
“
Excuse
me?”

Tom pounded his
fist on the table.
 
“Jesus Christ,
you fucking children, can you calm the hell down for two minutes?”

“Gold-digging?”
Amanda turned to her left, cocking an eyebrow at Connor.
 
Through her hot rage, even Tom’s
booming voice couldn’t daunt her.

“Do any of you
realize that we have no season finale and the premiere party is tomorrow? And
in case you forgot, the show premieres on television in one fucking week, on
the same fucking day as Casey Mulreed’s show.”

“You know damned
well what I’m talking about, Amanda,” Connor muttered, his eyes on his phone as
he checked sports scores.

“You’re kidding
me right?”

Once again,
Tom’s fist met the table — this time hard enough to make the mugs and
water bottles jump.
 
“Get out, both
of you.
 
We don’t have time for
this right now so go outside, squabble it out and come back when you’re not five
fuckin’ years old anymore.
 
Go
.”

Connor was out
the door before Amanda could even push her chair out.
 
Ignoring the stares, she rose to her feet, marching out of
the writers’ room and after him.

“I don’t care if
you don’t like me for your best friend, Connor, but leave me the hell alone at
my job.
 
My job has nothing to do
with me and Liam,” she called down the hall.

“Except the fact
that you wouldn’t have gotten it without him,” Connor snorted without turning
around.
 
Seriously? You passive-aggressive tool.
 
Amanda quickened her speed until she walked side-by-side
with Connor, who rolled his eyes and kept his gaze forward.

“You know what,
I know that Liam told you everything that happened in the past six months
— with the contract, with Ian, with Casey, with
Dylan
.
 
I get that you
wouldn’t trust me for him, especially after all the things you two have been
through growing up.
 
But whether
you care to notice or not, I’ll eventually prove you wrong about being right
for Liam.
 
In the meantime, at
least have the decency to leave me alone at my place of work.
 
I have enough trouble trying to gain
anyone’s respect around here without you telling them that I’m a
gold
digger.”

Connor finally
stopped in his tracks, smirking at Amanda’s inability to halt her step as
suddenly.
 
“It was just easier than
saying what you really are.”

Amanda did her
best not to roll her eyes to the back of her head.
 
“Maybe try not being completely cryptic for once,” she said,
following Connor as he stepped into an empty room at the end of the hall.
 
Slamming the door shut, he sneered.

“You’re not this
sweet, innocent girl, Amanda.
 
You
know your way around this industry a lot better than you let on.
 
You might actually be the same fucking
person as your little ‘friend,’ Casey.”

“Oh my God,”
Amanda couldn’t help laughing straight in Connor’s face.
 
She hardly felt any guilt over the
instant indignation clenching his jaw.
 
“How.
 
Please tell me how
I’m like Casey.”

“You’re a cancer
to other people.
 
You suck the life
out of them to feed your own.
 
You
used up all of that kid Ian’s advice to get famous.
 
And then you left his ass behind to get preyed on by someone
that you
insisted
on being friends
with even when Liam warned you she was toxic.
 
You screwed over your friend and then both of you screwed
over Liam — and then even Dylan,” Connor laughed bitterly.
 
“Christ.
 
At least the one person Casey’s close to knows what she’s
really like.
 
Jamie knows.
 
But you still put on this act for Liam
so you can keep manipulating him into getting you everything that you need to
be famous for no damned reason.
 
You got the contract out of him, you got him to bring you to New York,
got him to bring you to all the nice parties so you could meet Wendy and Dylan
and Casey.”
 
Connor touched his
curling lip.
 
“Then you did God
knows what with Dylan in the bathroom after Liam fucking put his ass on the
line for you because of your cokehead friend.
 
You can go ahead and try to tell me that Casey was behind
that but something tells me Casey wasn’t behind how damned fast you jumped into
Dylan’s arms when Liam ended it with you.”

Amanda felt her
unblinking eyes go dry, a lump forming in her throat.
 
She tried to retort but nothing came out.
 
Connor nodded, satisfied.