laying Games (Games #2)(21)
Author: Jessica Clare

I moaned and wrapped my legs around him, raising my h*ps with his movements. "Oh god, that’s good. Oh, god."

He chuckled at my reaction and leaned in to kiss me again, h*ps continuing to rock against my own short, jerky movements. "It’s called an apadravya."

I bit my lip to bite back the rather animalistic groan rising in my throat Was apadravya a foreign word for drive you f**king mad with pleasure? Because it was. Every stroke of his c*ck inside me was just a little bit wilder than I was used to, and that strange little piercing rubbing against me was driving me wild. I dug my fingers into his back and began to raise my h*ps harder, encouraging his strokes to become rougher. "More."

Liam pulled back and thrust into me so hard that the entire bed bounced.

I screamed. Oh damn, yes. I threw my head back and gave myself over to the sensation, eyes closing. There was nothing but Liam’s body rocking over mine, his c*ck thrusting deep inside me in rough, hard motions that I loved, and that infernal piercing that I wanted to claw out of his body and rub up against at exactly the same time.

"No," he said softly, and grabbed my hand. "Look at me, Katy. I like it when you look at me." He pressed my hand back over my head, pinning me to the bed and pinning me against him.

Like I was going anywhere? Not when this felt so incredible. I opened my eyes and watched him as he thrust into me again, concentration and intensity in his dark eyes. It felt incredibly intimate, feeling him thrust into me while I stared up at him, his mouth hovering inches from my own.

And as he pressed my hand to the bed, his fingers jerked in a strange motion, and I realized he was trying to tap out a frantic beat on my hand. Our rhythm in the bed had inspired him, maybe. Or maybe he could never get away from the music, but the intensity in his eyes was making me lose what little control I had.

I felt the tension rising in my calves, and gave a loud whimper as I felt my body start to lock up with pleasure. The next orgasm was cresting fast, and I didn’t want this to be over. I clenched my internal muscles around him, trying to fight the sensation, to extend this crazy pleasure just a bit longer.

He bit out a curse and slammed into me, harder, as if surprised by my response.

And then I lost any hope of control. I cried his name out again, and my release flooded through me like a tidal wave.

Liam thrust into me again, hard, and those fingers pressed down as if in an intense cord, his face tightening, eyes closing, and I realized he was coming, too. I watched him as he did, awed by the expression on his face. For a moment there, it almost looked like it had when he’d been doing the guitar solo in the video.

And I couldn’t help it – I giggled at that thought.

His eyes flew open, and a sated half-grin curved his mouth. "What?" he panted.

I ran my hand down his sweaty chest, still feeling the aftershocks of our lovemaking even as he relaxed against me. "I was just thinking that your o-face looks the same as your guitar solo face."

Liam snorted and rolled to the side of me, pulling off the condom. He tossed it into the nearby garbage and then cleaned off with a towel he’d brought, then dragged me against him. "Anyone ever tell you that you need to quit laughing at a guy when he’s coming inside you?"

"Nope," I said smugly, and then teased him. "Usually they’re thinking, ‘holy shit, Katy, that was amazing.’"

"It was," he said, and kissed my shoulder.

And really, how could I refute such a sweet thing? I curled up against him, enjoying the feel of his nak*d flesh against mine. God, he felt good against me.

He pressed another kiss to my neck. "You got quiet. Thinking about the race?"

"I haven’t thought about the race in at least a half an hour," I told him lazily. "Though I guess we should be spending this time planning."

"I’ve got a plan," Liam said, pressing his mouth to the soft skin on my arm. "I figure we have at least one more round we can squeeze in, as long as you let me get my stamina back. Then, we shower. Then, we sleep for a few hours before returning to the starting line. And that’s about as far as my plan goes."

As plans went, it was an excellent one. "I like the way you think." I ran my hand along his arm. "Plus, this gives me the chance to see how you look in pink."

"I aim to please."

CHAPTER EIGHT

"What did Katy and I do last night? None of your business. Turn off that camera." — Liam Brogan, Turkey Leg of The World Races

We had to leave for the finish line in the middle of the night. It sucked, but my internal clock was so incredibly messed up from bouncing around Europe that I probably would have been tired no matter what time we left. Holding Liam’s hand and sneaking kisses when we thought the cameras weren’t looking, though? Kinda helped my mood and I didn’t mind that it was two in the morning, local time.

We’d stopped to snag cups of coffee and headed back out to the dock at Alexandria, where the starting mat was. It overlooked the harbor, and I stared down at it, feeling the air ruffle my hair as we waited for the clock to tick down to our start time. "Who do you suppose got booted?" I asked Liam.

He thought for a moment. "Joel and Derron, I think. They were big guys and I’m betting one of them had trouble with the pyramids, too. Those were some cramped spaces."

I shuddered at the memory.

"Two seventeen am," an assistant announced, and tapped a watch. On cue, our cameraman hovered, light shining in our faces. A local came forward, camel reins in one hand (nice touch there, World Games) and our disk in his other.

"Thank you," I murmured to him and took the disk with a small smile. As was our usual, I turned it over and Liam read over my shoulder. "Make your way to Canakkale, Turkey. There, look for the marked car lot at…." I wrinkled my nose at the unpronounceable street name, and then skipped it. "You will find five marked vehicles and your next destination. You have one hundred and ninety-eight dollars for this leg of your journey." I looked up at Liam. "Is it just me, or are they giving us a lot of money?"

"How so?" He took the disk from me and pulled off his backpack to slip it in.

I thought back to the prior seasons I’d watched, frowning. "I don’t know. I just seem to recall that on a lot of the shows, no one ever got much money for each leg of the journey."

"Maybe we’re going to expensive places," Liam suggested.

Or maybe they want us to keep getting hotel rooms, I thought, but didn’t say it aloud. That was just Cranky Katy being cynical all over again, no doubt. I’d keep my suspicions to myself.

Plus, I liked getting a hotel room with Liam. It was kind of a win-win as far as I was concerned. I just hoped my parents didn’t watch our season of The World Races. Ugh. I tried not to think about that. The last thing I wanted was my parents to see me hook up with a rock star while in a game.

Once we arrived at the marked car lot, I counted the marked cars that were left. All five. "We’re still in the lead," I told Liam. "But we shouldn’t be." All five teams that were left had been on the same flight, though separated into different parts of the plane. Liam and I had snagged two seats in the very front, while Brodie and Tesla had been in the back of the plane. Too bad for them. The Olympians – Summer and Polly – and Joel and Derron sat together on one row. They put their heads together and I knew they were plotting on how to overtake the lead. It worried me a little…until Dean and Abby got the seats behind us. Seeing them made me feel better, and we’d planned on following each other out to the next destination so we could tackle our tasks together.

But at the airport? We’d gotten separated when our cab driver had stopped for gas and we’d had no way to flag down Dean and Abby and let them know. They’d zoomed on past while we’d waited at the gas station, and I’d felt first place slip away. Liam hadn’t been concerned, though. He’d only squeezed my hand and then pulled me in for a long kiss while our driver went in to pay.

And I found I couldn’t be all that concerned about last place, either.

Still, it was weird to get to the car lot and realize we were the first ones there. Had everyone else gotten lost? We paid our taxi and picked out our car, settling in even as the cameraman sat in the passenger seat to film us. Liam sat in the front seat and I slid into the back, picking up the packet of paperwork back there.

It was the next clue. I tore open the paper seal attached to the map and began to read. "Make your way to the village of Hisarlik, just outside of Tevfikiye. This is the site of the ruins of the ancient Homeric city of Troy. There, you will meet a Greek soldier at The World Races flag who will give you your next clue."

"Off we go, then," Liam said, and our little car sped out of the parking lot.

The ruins were not all that difficult to find, or that impressive. I guess I’d been expecting some sort of massive city, but it was really just a bunch of half dug-out hills, tumbled stones, and areas that had been roped off that we weren’t allowed to see. Nothing at all like Pompeii, and since we’d just come from there, they paled in comparison.

There was an enormous fake Trojan horse at the entrance of the ruins, though, and sure enough, the flag and The World Races station was there. Liam parked the car and we bounded out, racing for the flag.

Our next disk was handed to us. A team task, and one that didn’t surprise me, given the five stations and blocks of colored wood set aside. Our team task was to build a duplicate of the Trojan Horse. Once we had our wheeled contraption built to the specifications of the Greek soldier supervising the task, we had to push it across the ruins on the marked path. Once we’d arrived at the end of the path, we’d receive our next disk and clue.

We set to work, heading for the pile of wood that had been colored black to match our team shade. As we did, I glanced around at the four other piles that still had no one working on them. "Liam," I said quietly. "While we’re the only ones here, should we talk about the Ace?"

He picked up one of the four wheels on our mat of pieces and examined it, glancing over at me. "What about the Ace?"

"There are only three more eliminations," I told him. "Should we make a team decision on who we want to use it on?"

He gave me a serious look. "Katy," he murmured, moving closer so no one could overhear us. Not that it mattered. We were wired and mic’d for sound. Had been the entire trip. "The only team I think worth saving that would help us out is Abby and Dean. But…"

"But," I agreed. There was that whole ‘Tesla and Brodie’ thing. "So basically we can either play the Ace to be nice and save Brodie and Tesla if we need to, save Abby and Dean to try and propel ourselves ahead, or be dicks to everyone and not use it at all."

"Heh. That about sums it up."

I considered, then sighed. "Abby promised me that if she got an Ace, she’d use it to save us."

"Did you promise the same thing back?"

"No. It didn’t come up in conversation. But I’d feel bad if we had an opportunity to save them and we didn’t."

"Well," Liam told me, handing me the wheel and then picking up another, considering it. "The way I look at it, someone’s feelings are going to get hurt. We can use it to push ourselves ahead in the game, or we can use it to salvage relationships outside of the game."