“I can't imagine that.”
“Tori, though, she's like you. She can literally eat and drink as much as she wants, and she always looks the same. She's looked like that since the eighth grade,” Katya said.
“Jesus, she had those tits in eighth grade? She must have been really popular.”
“Nice, Liam. Real nice.”
“Aw, don't be jealous, angel cake,” he teased, cuddling in close to her. “You have nice breasts, too.”
It was a nice moment. Feeling comfortable with him again, being in their special place together. She loved that no one else had never been up there. Not Wulf, not even Tori. It was the one place that only belonged to her and Liam.
“I'm glad we're friends again,” she sighed, looking across the rooftop.
“Me, too.”
“You sure?” she asked, glancing at him. “Even if I only ever want to be friends?”
“I'm sure,” he said, then his hand was sliding into her hair, gently pulling her close to him. “But I'm still not positive that's what you want.”
“I'm not even positive what I want,” she replied.
“That's good. Take your time. Figure things out,” he suggested. She smiled at him.
“Thank you.”
“Aaaand … maybe I can help you a little,” he offered.
“Oh really? And how do you -”
He was kissing her. Of course he was. And it was nice and lovely and she felt warmth blooming in the center of her chest. But tainting the whole thing was her dirty secret. The feeling that what she was doing was very wrong.
“Liam,” she breathed, pulling away. “I have to tell you something.”
“Something about love, devotion, free meals for life,” he mumbled, rubbing his nose along the side of her neck, breathing her in.
“No. I want us to be honest with each other, always.”
“I know, that's how you know I'm telling you the truth when I say you're the one for me,” he chuckled, then his teeth were nipping at the tendon in her neck.
“Yeah, soooo …. I should be honest, too, and I feel like I need to tell you something. It's about Wulf, he -” she tried to confess, but Liam backed away suddenly. Two fingers were pressed over her lips, effectively silencing her.
“I don't want to know,” he said simply.
“Hhhmph?” she mumbled.
“I really don't. This isn't about him – he doesn't matter to me, not when I'm with you. I don't care what he's scheming or how many kisses he's stolen, or whatever. This is about us, right now. I don't want him to ruin it,” Liam insisted. She frowned and pushed his hand away.
“That's very sweet, but I really feel like -”
He leaned back in and kissed her hard, forcing her to swallow her words.
“I don't care,” he whispered, moving so both hands were in her hair. “This is us. Just be here with me.”
She wanted to be insistent – to argue and demand that he listen, so the situation couldn't come back to haunt her. But she couldn't get another word out, his tongue was taking up all the available space in her mouth.
*
Though Liam had pulled out some of his best moves while kissing her, Katya managed to escape the roof unscathed. Her father's words were still strong in her mind – she needed to make a choice. Sex would only confuse things more than it already had, and she didn't want that; she didn't want to string these men along.
She tied up everything neatly at the bakery before heading home the next afternoon. She wouldn't be going in the next day, which was okay because Sunday was typically slow, anyway. She went home feeling guilt free about taking a day off so soon after her sabbatical and tried to get excited about the party that evening.
Since she'd only gotten to wear it for such a brief amount of time, she changed into the Herve Leger dress she'd worn to her dinner with Wulf and Liam. The black and beige fabric clung to her body in a way that probably should've been obscene, but fell just short of it and stayed nicely in sexy.
She went to pull her hair up into a bun, then paused as she looked at her reflection. She thought for a second, then smiled and started digging around under the sink, searching through Tori's enormous supply of make up and hair products.
Almost an hour later, she'd blown out, flat ironed, and put waves into her dark auburn tresses. Definitely a different look for her, she felt like it even changed her face. It really highlighted her apple cheeks, her narrow chin. She did her eye makeup a little darker than normal, but stuck with a pink gloss for her lips. Happy with the overall look, she grabbed her special-events-only Burberry trench and made her way downstairs before ordering an Uber.
When she walked into the club, she was a little blown away. It looked like a New Year's party was being thrown – there were fancy gold and black balloons everywhere, coating the ceiling. She was shocked to see that the door to the super private downstairs bar was propped open, and Timmy the bartender explained that for the party, all illicit activities had been put on hold.
It was only around seven at night, but the party was in full swing. A lot of people had turned out for the event, she was happy to see. Liam had pumped a lot of money into marketing the party, and the chance to be in a real live sex club had been too much for most people to resist their curiosity. When she got downstairs and walked around, she saw people giggling and pointing at the private apartments that had all been opened up, and gasping over the sex toys that were for sale behind the downstairs bar.
“Kitty Kat!”
She turned around at Tori's high pitched voice, then gasped as her roommate approached her. Tori normally dressed super sexy for work, but she'd really outdone herself that evening. She wore a black sequin pair of underwear – “they're booty shorts!” – with a black jewel encrusted push up bra. Her wavy brown hair had been pinned away from her face, but fell in curls down her back. Knee high boots, fishnets, and fingerless leather gloves completed the look.
“What do you think?” she laughed, turning around and shaking her very perky, and very exposed, butt at Katya.
“Uh … I think you look like a prostitute,” Katya was honest. Tori just laughed harder.
“Thanks a lot.”
“I mean, the sexiest one I've ever seen. Probably like super expensive,” Katya tried to fix her comment while she took off her jacket.
“I take that as a compliment. The more tit I show, the bigger my tips. Eventually I'm gonna talk Liam into letting me wear pasties,” she joked.
“I'm pretty sure if you just say 'pasties', he'll say yes.”
“Right!? That man, oi vey. C'mon, you can stash your jacket in his office.”