Now Harper had long, long ago accepted the fact that she would never be a size two nor would the ever-coveted thigh gap be part of her anatomy. And that was perfectly okay with her. It had been a hard-won fight to get comfortable in her own skin.

But she had.

Adolescence hadn’t been kind. Harper’s family moved to Mirabelle right before the sixth grade. Starting over in a small town where most of the kids had known each other since birth—or at least kindergarten—hadn’t been the easiest. Then there was the added fact that she’d been a chubby eleven-year-old who hit puberty a little bit earlier than everyone else. The girls had been downright cruel. The boys had been relentlessly horrible, too. Well, right up until she’d grown into her curves and her boobs hadn’t been so weird.

But a man’s approval hadn’t been something that Harper had ever sought out. She was who she was, and her body wasn’t going to change based off of what someone else wanted. That being said, she was in no way immune to the look that Liam was currently giving her. Because no man had ever looked at her with so much desire.

His eyes raked her body, a look of reverence on his face that made her forget everything besides him and her, in that room, at that moment.

He reached out and traced a path up her knee, to her thigh, and across the front of her panties. They were navy blue cotton with an inch of cream lace around all of the edges. Her breath caught as he paused for just a moment at the very top, thinking that he might pull them down and touch her, but instead he moved up to her stomach.

“I was wrong,” he whispered, shaking his head. “It’s all of you that’s magnificent.” His fingers went around her belly button before he walked them up between her ribs and to the center of her chest. He leaned over her as he ran his hand along the swells of her breasts, starting at the side of her left and going across to the right.

He touched the tattoo inked just below her right shoulder, a lotus blossom with a floating heart hovering above the opened petals. He leaned down farther, pressing his lips to the tattoo, an open-mouthed kiss with his tongue on her skin.

Harper moved her arms from their stretched-out position above her head. She wanted her hands on him, unable to wait a second longer. Her fingers speared his hair and she tugged his head up, needing something else as well.

He didn’t resist for a second, and when his mouth touched hers there was a renewed frenzy in the way their tongues tangled and their breaths mingled between hungry kisses. His hands were everywhere, palming her breasts and finding her erect nipples through the material of her bra. Then on her thighs and sliding up to her butt for something to hold on to as he moved against her.

Their bodies were perfectly aligned, his jeans unable to hide the more than impressive bulge behind his fly. He was pressing into her and she was going to lose her mind in about three point five seconds.

She let go of his hair and started tugging on his shirt. She needed her hands on more of him. Needed to feel his skin on hers. The second he realized what she was after he assisted in the de-clothing mission, levering himself up on one hand while he reached behind his back with the other and grabbed a fistful of shirt. He pulled it off in one swift move and threw it to the side.

Now Harper was not one to under-appreciate the male form in all of its glory, and Liam had a lot of glory. His muscled arms were flexed as he hovered over her, making the tattoos scattered across his arms stand out even more.

He had a bar of music wrapped around his left biceps, and underneath it was a bird about to take off in flight. Its feet were perched on a letter “M” that was inked in solid black above the bend in his arm.

She reached up, tracing the words Then Sings My Soul that ran down the inside of his right biceps. And then she was touching both of his pecs, her hands gliding down. He had a light dusting of hair that ran all the way past the waistband of his jeans.

She moved down his happy trail, her fingers outlining his abs, but he stopped her hands before she made it to her destination. “Not so fast.” He smiled as he shook his head. “You got to see my chest, now I get to see yours.”

“Oh, so tit for tat?”

“Yup.”

If he kept grinning at her like that he could have whatever the hell he wanted. “Well, then what are you waiting for?”

She arched her back and he slid both of his hands underneath her, making quick work of the hooks. The second they were undone he pulled her bra from her body.

“Perfect,” he whispered as he lowered his head. His mouth landed on one of her breasts, a hand on the other. The double onslaught was almost more than she could handle: his tongue on one nipple, his thumb and forefinger on the other.

And just like that her hands were in his hair again, her nails raking his scalp. His mouth disappeared from one breast and landed on the other. His now free hand making a move south, traveling down her side before it made its way between their bodies. And then he was touching her through the thin material of her panties, his thumb finding her clit and making her body arch off the bed.

He pushed her panties to the side, his fingers running across her center before he slid two inside of her. She gasped, her head falling back onto the mattress. And she wasn’t the only one making noises, either. Liam groaned and as his mouth was still working at her nipple it rumbled through her breast. What with that and the added sensation of his fingers now moving inside of her, Harper couldn’t stop her body from bucking or her hands tightening in his hair.

But as good as all of that was, it was nothing compared to what he did a moment later. His mouth moved from her breast, his teeth grazing her ribs and his tongue trailing across her skin as he moved down.

Down.

Down.

Down.

And then he was off the bed, his fingers disappearing from inside of her as he knelt on the floor. He touched her knees, gently pushing her legs apart so that he could settle his shoulders between her thighs. His hands moved to her hips, pulling her body right up to the edge of the bed. The second she was in a position to his liking, he pushed her panties to the side and had his mouth on her.

Her body didn’t simply arch off the bed when he ran his tongue along her core. She was pretty sure she levitated in the air for a good couple of seconds. She let go of his hair and grabbed on to the quilt next to her, holding on for dear life.

As to the words that came out of her mouth? Well, those were mostly incoherent. She could barely get enough air into her lungs as it was, but when he put his hands underneath her bottom and lifted her up for better access she somehow managed.

“Ohmygodpleasedontstoppleasedontstoppleasedontstop.”

And he didn’t stop. The first orgasm was barely finished before he had her going off again. And he stayed with her until the end, bringing her down, with slow licks of his tongue before he pulled back and kissed the inside of her right thigh.

“Yup, magnificent,” he whispered as he looked up at her. He slid his hands up across her legs and to her hips where he wound his fingers in the sides of her panties and pulled them down. The second they were free he stood, kicking off his boots as he reached for his belt.

Harper sat up on her elbows and watched as he pushed his jeans, boxers, and socks off in one swift move. He stood before her entirely naked, and she wanted to use the word magnificent on him as well.

She took a few seconds to look him over, to take in the fact that he had toned muscular thighs and the most impressive erection she’d ever seen in her life. He walked over to the nightstand, pulling open the top drawer where he grabbed a condom. He opened it and rolled it down the length of his cock.