Because those eyes of hers, dark and innocent in the same beat, told him unequivocally that she wasn't here to join souls.
She was here to enjoy him
Physically.
And that had been all he'd set out to give her tonight, hadn't it?
Letting the door to their room close behind him, he reached out to cup her cheek and pulled her to him, dropping the room keys in the slot.
That kiss.
She kissed him liked her soul was in it, even if it wasn't, and it appealed to him on a level he couldn't talk down. Made him want more already, before he'd even had her. Maybe that was the greed in him. Maybe it was just fear.
The fear of loving something so hard you didn't think you could live without it, and coming to the very real conclusion that you'd have no choice if that thing didn't want to be kept in the "cage" of commitment.
Pulling back from her, he searched her eyes.
"How do you like the place?"
She grinned.
"I don't know. I haven't had a chance to look around."
He grinned back.
"Don't let me stop you."
He was paying a pretty penny for this because she was as top shelf as the experience he was giving her. Staying at the Dark Tower would have been corny, and Liam wasn't one to undervalue something or someone so obviously precious.
There was also the little matter of ego. He wanted to impress her memory with something a lesser man would be hard-pressed, or unwilling, to match. Fuck watching your wallet when you have a goddess in your line of sight.
A real man does everything he has to do to celebrate something fine with equally fine things.
No matter the cost.
He regretted the tug in his gut that told him, she might not give him the opportunity to spoil her more than once.
But fuck it.
He'd make the most of whatever time she'd give him.
~
Jackie wandered about the six-room suite with an elegantly-veiled sense of wonder that instantly made him want to give her more than he was giving already.
He could tell by the way she handled things that she'd come from humble beginnings, too. The way her eyes paid special note to fixtures that silver-spoon fed babies considered old hat. The way she appreciated the fine art hung in expensively, wrought frames on the walls of the study and parlor.
It was a pity the good ones had to know suffering and want as intimately as they did, but then, maybe they wouldn't be so good if they were raised with the idea that they were entitled to everything. Liam was pretty sure he'd have been a giant-sized asshole if he hadn't come from very strained beginnings, hadn't played nurse maid to his mother whenever she took too much and had all the makings of a burgeoning overdose, hadn't-
Enough. Tonight wasn't about that.
Liam eyed her as she ran her fingertips along the spines of the books in the "King's study."
Tonight was about the future. If she would have him.
Slipping a slow-poured flute of port into her fingers, Liam ran a fingertip along her cheek. Then his hand closed around her free hand, and he led her to the parlor, where he claimed the wine from her tongue as his fingers nimbly relieved her of her clothes. His kisses trailed to her neck where he nipped her almost to the point of branding and met her eyes firmly when she winced.
"Drink."
His words had an ominous ring to them, almost suggesting she'd need the alcohol to deal with what he had waiting for her, but the truth was, he was going to be gentle with her.
He'd dominate her but not in a way that scarred. He couldn't help that aspect of himself. It was a core part of his sexuality, but he would inch her into it slowly. Let her get used to him. The little bit of beast he'd already shown her had been received with the supplication of a wanton kitten, so the techno-fates weren't at all past the mark matching them up.
Drinking down her wine, she shivered at his nips and the portions of skin he sucked deeply into his mouth. Liam recovered the wine from her hands without skipping a beat, lowering it to the mantel over the fireplace. Gesturing down her dress, he led her to step out of it and continued his trail of kisses and bites, until he felt her legs quiver, jellied with overwhelm.
God, she was beautiful.
Her figure full and generous, breasts bursting ripe with bright gumdrops at their tips, hips swollen and wanton, making deep slopes down from her waist. Fucking perfection.
Art.
The Barbie-clones he'd made use of when he'd been younger and stupider paled in comparison, too scared to eat a sandwich, as they were to ever know the curves of a woman like Jackie.
Liam's cock jerked when his mouth descended to the split of her again and a breathy moan fell from her flushed lips. Eyes slipping closed with hunger and ecstasy, he covered her and ate her until he was sure she couldn't take another second of it.
Lapping her once more, he pulled back from her and met her eyes.
"Don't come."
Her brow quirked, but she nodded her slow agreement, and when he lifted her up, wrapping her thighs around him and pressed her to the wall, she nipped his lip with approval.
"Fuck me," she husked.
Oh, he planned to.
Jackie
She was right there at the line, sure she'd lose control as he pressed against her. He undressed slowly, almost daring her to make him rush, like he knew exactly what he was doing to her and relished it.
He, by all appearances, was in no hurry at all to get down to business, but Jackie was going to lose her fucking mind if he pushed her even an inch further past her limits.
And maybe he saw that in her eyes when he kicked the trousers fallen to his ankles off to the side and leaned in to kiss her, gently, permissively. It was almost... intentionally merciful the way he did it.
Then she felt the head of his length split her, so slowly she shivered against him involuntarily as he stretched her sex so wide, it pinched her skin to accommodate him.
He was massive.
Deepening their kiss, Jackie relished in the distraction of it, knowing what it was for now. He was probably accustomed to having to ease a girl onto his cock, and he already knew the fill of her intimately. Maybe he'd even been measuring her with his fingers to be sure.
Hissing with pleasure when he deepened his thrust, igniting a primal sway in her hips as the head of him brushed the sensitive spot that brought out the wild woman within, Jackie's eyes slipped closed and squeezed tight.
How was she going to let go of this?
Taking his thrusts as they increased their speed with the snake-like roll of his hips as he drove himself deep inside her, drenched in the outpour her sensitive spot released each time he hit it, Jackie cried out with abandon.
No man had ever made her cry out before. She moaned and writhed against him with a bodily hunger she hadn't known she had until that moment. She could feel him watching her, eyes gentle, deep-reaching, and intent, fixing on her as he rammed her against the wall, his hands cupping and squeezing her ass with each thrust.
Desire rolled over her in waves, and she found herself asking him with her eyes if she could come, yet. But she was met with a still, calm reserve.
He wasn't ready to be finished with her, and he was in control. Even as he was in service to her somehow. Jackie's head swam with overwhelm as her pleasure point pulsed, her sex flared with over-arousal, and when he finally leaned in to whisper, "Come for me," her peak tumbled out if her in a storm of wet.