Page 17 of Backup Plan

But that doesn’t mean I’m ready to write a tell-all to his sister just yet.

Some things are meant to be kept under wraps, and I’ve never been huge into spreading the news about my sex life. But there was also nothing to tell before.

And now…

Well, sleeping with an NFL star seven years my junior is certainly some good gossip that I’d normally want to share with my best friend, sort of like how Everleigh called me at two in the morning after the first time she hate fucked the man she’s marrying in a few weeks, and I asked her to tell me about his monster cock.

It’s not like I can share the details about the monster cock of the man who just railed me, though to be fair…it is definitely a monster.

And I definitely want more of it.

We lay lazily in his bed, talking quietly about nothing and everything, about San Diego and divorce and kids and fears. Somehow he makes me feel seen. He makes me feel like I’m important, like what I have to say matters.

At some point we both fall asleep.

When I wake, it’s with a headache. I’m thankful for the water I chugged before we had sex, but it wasn’t enough, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

I have no idea what time it is because he has black drapes in his room that make it seem like night in here, and I don’t see a clock. I pad around the room until I realize I left my phone in my purse downstairs, and I search around for my clothes and head into the bathroom to get dressed. There’s light streaming into the window there, so I’m guessing I’m definitely late for work.

Shit.

I head back out to the bedroom, and I find Liam sitting on my side of the bed, legs on the floor, waiting for me. He’s still naked. Still gloriously, fantastically naked.

“You got dressed,” he murmurs, and I swear I spot a bit of disappointment in his eyes.

It surprises me.

I figured he’d wake with regrets this morning, that last night to him was just a drunken mistake, when to me it was a loud, clear symbol of the fact that I’m ready to move on with my life. I’m ready for this goddamn divorce to be finalized, and I’m ready for whatever comes next.

I’m just…ready.

“Come here,” he says, and I walk over to him. He wraps his arms around my waist, and he rests his head on my stomach. I allow my fingertips to dive into his hair for a few beats, his messy hair that’s a bit shaggy, a bit too long, a bit too unlike his older brothers, a bit too sexy for his own good. “Last night—”

“It’s okay, Liam,” I say, cutting him off. “We don’t need to say anything about it.”

He turns so he’s looking up at me, and I’m gazing down at him.

“But I want to.”

I press my lips together as the shields go back up, and I nod as I wait for him to tell me how much he regrets what happened and how it can never happen again.

“Last night, something changed for me.”

My brows pinch together as I wait for him to go on, and when he rises to a stand, I see that his cock is hard. Probably it’s because it’s morning. He takes me in his arms, and he towers over me.

“What changed?” I whisper.

He leans down and presses a soft kiss to my lips, and then he pulls back. “I don’t know. But my life has been filled with indecision lately. I have no clue where I’m going. Where I’ll land. What’s next for me. But being with you…hell, even just lying in bed talking to you. You are the first thing that’s felt right in a long time.”

I know exactly what he means, but it’s not like I can say it back.

I have a reality to return to. Two young boys who are with me ninety percent of the time. A job that I’m going to be late to today. A cheating husband who I’m still technically married to and who is drawing this divorce out.

Last night was like something out of a dream, and while his words this morning are both surprising and sweet, while I’d love to revel in him and lie beneath him naked again…it just isn’t reality.

“It was an incredible night for me, too, Liam. Thank you.” I pull out of his arms and locate my boots. As I beeline for them, I say, “I’m so sorry, but I need to get to work.”

I still don’t know exactly what time it is. I still need to stop home first and take a quick shower and change clothes.