“Yeah,” he said, running that same thumb up and down my spine.
“Who is this?” his friend Vince asked, interrupting our interlude.
“This is Tori,” Liam said, not taking his eyes off of me.
“You’re not letting go of me,” I said, not knowing why I made such a statement. It wasn’t like I wanted him to let go—hell to the no. But it surprised me nonetheless. This was supposed to be a simple dare: kiss a stranger in a bar. But Liam felt less like a stranger and more like someone I wasn’t ready to leave just yet.
“Do you want me to?”
“No.”
“We are in agreement then,” he said, and reached around to sign the check the bartender had deposited for him. After signing, he looked at Vince once and then leaned into me. I thought he was going to kiss me again, so my eyes closed but his lips found their way to my ear.
“I’ve got to get my buddy to his room. Walk with me?”
I could only nod. Holy shit. Was I going to go to his room after this? Was that what I’d agreed to? Granted, I’d gone to a guy’s room after knowing him about as long as I knew Liam, but I wasn’t ready to get down and dirty just yet. He unsettled me in the most delicious way, as evidenced by the way he looked at me as we led his friend out the door and to the bank of elevators I’d seen him disappear behind the day before, but I wasn’t eager for the thrill to end.
“That doesn’t count!” Katy screeched from behind us, interrupting the seriously intense eye contact Liam and I were maintaining. We both looked over our shoulder at her and Bekka who stood just outside of the bar. “You know him!”
“Uh.” Technically she was right; I knew Liam’s name before I kissed him. But he was also still a stranger. “Not really…” Liam’s arm didn’t leave from around my waist.
“You have to do the other dare then,” she added.
“The other dare?” Liam whispered to me.
“No, I don’t,” I said, trying not to feel guilty at Bekka’s face falling.
“What’s the other dare?” Liam asked, this time loud enough for Katy to hear.
“She was dared to marry a stranger,” Katy said, looking so fucking confident that this would scare Liam away. In truth, he was a stranger—he could very well be scared away by these kinds of shenanigans. A random kiss in a bar was one thing; a fake wedding was entirely another.
“Not a real marriage,” Bekka added. “Just like one of those cliché ceremonies. With the fake Elvis or whatever. Just for photos”
But Liam surprised me, pausing to look between Katy and me for a moment as he considered this dare. “Well, am I a stranger or does she know me?”
Katy's eyes looked as big as the fucking moon. Bekka looked pleased and shocked and as for me? Well, I think my feet had glued themselves to the carpet and maybe I’d also accidentally swallowed my tongue. What did he mean by that?
“You’re a stranger,” Bekka said when Katy hadn’t said a single thing. “So, you’ll do.”
“I’ll do,” Liam said, and nodded as if he was still considering. The elevator doors opened, and Vince stumbled inside. “We’ll be back in a minute.” At some point, his hand had traveled away from my back to clasp mine. He led me into the elevator and pressed a button.
“Where are you going?” Katy asked, but the doors closed before we could answer. Not that I would’ve, anyway. It gave me a lot of satisfaction that she didn’t know. Miss control freak had to sit on her ass and wait for our return in a minute, according to Liam. Which meant we weren’t going back to Liam’s room.
Part of me was grateful for that and maybe a slightly bigger part of me was bummed. Slightly.
“You actually agreed to that dare?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“I wouldn’t call it agree as much as I was coerced into it. Kissing a stranger was my compromise.”
“Can’t say I’m upset by that compromise,” he said, bringing our clasped hands to his mouth, making eye contact as he landed a kiss on my knuckles. I wondered how dirty my hand would get if I just never washed that area ever again.
“Can’t say I am either,” I said.
“What are you guys even talking about?” Vince asked from behind us. It had been easy to forget about him for the moment, but as