Her Heavy Cross

Chapter Twenty-Five

I loved that I lived in a country where a guy can interrupt the Prime Minister giving a press conference. He can tell the media to get off his front lawn because he just reseeded it, and the PM says, "Sure. Let's just move back." When they move, the guy just says, "Sorry mate," to the PM, who replies, "All good." No security involvement, no guns, just mutual respect.

Another of our PMs once held the world record for fastest skol of a yard of beer while at Oxford, and until he died, he would skol a beer at the Cricket in summer to cheers from the crowd. We aren't a perfect country. There's a lot I don't like. But that, that I loved.

When he had finished dressing, I shooed Liam out of his room so I could get dressed. He seemed a bit disappointed, but I insisted. I put on a short, black body con dress with tight lace sleeves and black pantyhose. I put on a pair of black six-inch heels to top it off. I reapplied my makeup with dark and sultry eyeshadow and deep red lipstick. I fixed my hair which I let hang free down my shoulders and back.

I was nervous about going down to see Liam. He hadn't seen me dress like this before. I was dressed up last Friday when we met, but it wasn't a sexy outfit. I preferred to wear pants. Usually, jeans and t-shirts, and most of my dating profile pics depicted that. But I also loved getting dressed up and wearing something sexy. It made me feel sexy, confident, as well. I wanted to show Liam this side of me too, but I was scared of his reaction. What if he hated it? Preferring my more casual look. Or what if he liked it and wanted me to dress like it all the time. I decided fuck it, I would dress how I want to dress, and he can go jump if that's not good enough.

I went down the lift and took a deep breath. I pushed as many of my negative thoughts out of my head as I could and went into the lounge room.

Liam was sitting on his lounge with Cole reading what looked like a script. One of his ankles was resting on his knee, and he was writing on the pages. He said, "Hold on a minute, Lana, just making some notes." He looked up briefly before dropping his head to the page. He froze then slowly looked up, his face blank. A smile slowly appeared on his face revealing his teeth. He put the script and pen down.

His reaction so far was close to what I had hoped for, so I did a little turn for him. "Do you like it?" I asked.

Liam stood and started to walk over to me. No walk wasn't the word; he stalked over to me, his body tense as if ready for a chase. My knees felt weak watching him move like a predator, knowing what his strong limbs could do if he caught me. Heat bloomed between my legs. I wanted him to catch me.

It took everything I had not to hide in fear or shame of my desire. I didn't look away as I watched Liam look me up and down as he approached. I wanted to, but part of me didn't. Part of me knew how good I looked, knew the reaction I wanted, knew I wanted him like this, feral and dangerous.

"Lana," he breathed voice slightly above a whisper. He was close to me, and I saw that, with my heels on, we were closer in height, and my eyes were in line with his mouth. He lifted a hand to my face, almost touching me but stopping himself. He looked down at my body and gingerly placed a hand on my waist. His other hand took mine, and for a second, it looked like he meant to waltz with me.

When he spoke again, his voice was almost normal. "Sweetheart, I don't know whether to lock you in a room so only I can see you like this or if I should ring the paparazzi myself so everyone can see how fucking sexy my girlfriend is." He smiled at me then, "you look amazing. I didn't think you were going to go to all this trouble."

I raised my eyebrows at the girlfriend comment, but I ignored it, not wanting to ruin the mood. "Sometimes, I like all this trouble." I put my arm on his shoulder, and now it really was like we were dancing. He pulled me in closer, moving his hand from my waist to the small of my back. He rocked us side to side, weight shifting from foot to foot. Then he raised our clasped hands high and turned me beneath them before holding me again. Gone was his animalistic look; now he looked at me, and he just seemed happy.

"Can I kiss you?" Liam asked. I was surprised that he had asked. Liam usually just says he wants to. My surprise must have shown on my face because he said, "you look so beautiful. I don't want to ruin your make-up."

I kissed him, more like a peck than a proper kiss. "Make-up isn't going to stop me kissing you."

He took a few steps, and I followed. He led me around in a circle, guiding my hand to his neck and moving his hand to the middle of my back. Then he dipped me. He leaned down and kissed me and drew me back up. "You can dance." He stated, not asking a question.

"Not really. I took a few lessons with Riza before she got married. She wanted to surprise Jen by knowing how to dance for their wedding."

"I should take you dancing one day, and you can show me what you've got."

I smiled and pulled away, embarrassment coming back. "We should get going. It's getting late."

Authors note:

Thanks for reading. Please vote or comment if you enjoyed this chapter. It's much appreciated!