“What's a girl gotta do to get a drink around here?” Kitty teased, her words and tone suggestive.

“Whiskey?” Liam asked in return. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it on the sofa beside her, then made his way to the side table that housed his decanters and glasses. “Or will ya have another go at the gin? What's your pleasure tonight, Kitty?”

“Oh, you know what's my pleasure, Liam,” she answered, languidly crossing one long leg over the other. Her eyes were hungry as they followed him across the room. “Tonight and every night. But to drink, I'll take gin.”

He nodded, reaching for the decanter of clear liquor that sat modestly on the side table and poured a generous amount into a pair of handsome glasses. “Gin, it is. I'll have the same.”

Distilling his own gin was still something of a new endeavor for Liam. The recipe required a bit of tinkering, therefore the more often it was tasted, the wider array of opinions he received. Kitty knew her booze. She'd already made many a useful suggestion over the past few months.

Crossing back to his guest, Liam handed Kitty one of the glasses and held the other aloft toward her. “To good gin, and the bootleggers in the States who wanna buy it,” he toasted.

“To good gin, and profitable returns for Mercer Industries,” she agreed with a flirtatious smile. She clinked her glass against his and took a long pull.

Liam sipped carefully, his gaze on Kitty's face as she drank and swallowed in order to gauge her reaction.

“You changed it,” she remarked with a demure smack of her lips.

“You noticed,” he commented.

“Mm. It's...what? Sweeter?”

“A bit, aye,” Liam confirmed. Following his conversation with Mickey Sullivan, he'd made some adjustments. “Mickey told me that women in the States drink as much as the men, but they prefer the clear liquors to the dark. And apparently, they fancy their gin sweet.”

She took another drink, her expression thoughtful. “I like it.”

“It's not too sweet?”

Kitty shook her head, her hair swishing in a languid sashay against her shoulders. As she stared up at him, her eyes shone with a seductive gleam. “It's just right. Just my taste.”

It wasn't only the gin she was talking about, and they both knew it.

Liam reached out and gripped her chin gently, caressing her jaw with the pad of his thumb. That was enough business for one night. “Ya look good,” he murmured, dropping all pretenses. “In my study, drinkin' my gin. I missed you. I hope y'know that.”

“Oh, you missed me, did ya?” she questioned. Her coquettish expression turned a bit defiant. “You got a funny way of showin' it, Liam.” She jerked her chin out of his grasp and took a slow pull from her glass, never breaking eye contact. “Not sure I believe ya. I don't s'pose you're willin' to prove it?”

A challenge. And an invitation. Kitty was as anxious for a fuck as he was. Good.

He took another sip of the gin, then set his glass on the end table and perched beside her on the arm of the sofa. With a deceptively delicate touch, he reached out and began to stroke the back of Kitty's long neck with the tips of his slightly callused fingers.

“O'course I'm willin',” he told her. He felt his eyes become hooded and glassy with lust, and he grabbed her chin again, his grasp more forceful than before. “That's why you're here. You can have whatever ya want from me, Kitty, so's long as ya give some back.”

【♖】

With her face held fast in Liam's firm grip, Kitty felt her stomach twist in anticipation. It always excited her when he got a little rough. Used a little force. A bit more than an upper-class woman like Clementine — or Rose, for that matter — could comfortably handle.

Kitty could handle it. She longed for it. And she knew men like Liam didn't enjoy being gentle.

The promise made by his words and his touch lit a fire within her. She polished off her drink, set the empty glass on the end table next to his partially full glass, and ran the palm of her hand across Liam's thigh.

“O'course I'll give some back. I fucking relish it,” she stated, her fingernails digging into the muscular flesh of his upper leg. “You should know that. But it's been awhile since we had a good romp in your study. The desk could do with a re-christening, I expect.”

She didn't want to go upstairs to his bedroom. That was Clementine's domain. Her ghost still haunted the halls of this house, and Liam likely thought of her every time he was in that room. In that bed. The bed they'd shared as husband and wife.

Well, he wouldn't be thinking about Clementine tonight. Kitty would make sure of that.

Winding her fingers around his tie, Kitty yanked Liam's head down and met his lips with her own in a fierce, hungry kiss.

He made no utterance or motion of protest, but instead hummed a soft sound of longing against her mouth as their lips moved together in desirous need. 

Her eyes drifted shut, and Kitty felt his hand migrate from her chin to the side of her face, his thumb caressing the smooth curve of her cheek.

Capturing his lower lip between her teeth, Kitty bit down just hard enough to cause Liam to startle. He muttered a curse that was more lust than anger, and jerked his head away from her.

“That you bein' mad?” he asked. “Or playful?” 

His voice had taken on the husky quality that caused her whole body to vibrate with promised pleasure, and she offered him a smirk accompanied by a blasé shrug. “Bit o' both,” she teased. “You deserve it, after the recent foul treatment you've given me.”

“S'pose I do,” Liam agreed, shifting on the arm of the sofa to better face her. “So? Stop playin' games and lemme make it up to ya.”

Kitty took their momentary separation to stand. Her fingers still tangled around his tie, she pulled Liam to his feet, then pivoted and perched on the edge of his desk, giving the tie a demanding tug.

“Come here,” she ordered, her voice low and assertive. A sly smile graced her lips and she smoothed her hands up the length of his waistcoat and crisp white shirt to his collar. “I'm not playin' games, Liam, and I'm done waitin'. I wanna feel how much you ‘missed me.’ Now.”

Kitty lured Liam toward her until he was positioned in between her legs. He laid the palms of his hands atop her thighs and gave them a possessive squeeze.

She eased open the buttons of his collar, loosened the knot of his tie, and pulled the garment free of his neck. Tossing the tie aside on the desktop, she then closed the distance between them and pressed a heated kiss to the side of his bare throat.

A shiver of pleasure wracked through Liam's body as her lips grazed his skin, and she smiled to herself at his reaction even as his hands slid up beneath the fabric of her skirt. She felt the calluses of his fingertips tease the skin just above the hem of her thigh-high stockings, and his action brought forth a shiver of her own.

Kitty's breath hitched as Liam's hand passed across the inside of her thigh. With a snap, her garter released, and a muted gasp escaped her. It was absolute torture, the way he knew every last one of her wants and weaknesses. The way he could tease her. Bait her. Have her mad with desire. The baser part of her ached for him to just bend her over the desk, pin her down, and rip off her silky undergarments. But to another part of her — a deeper part that only Liam could touch — the slow, methodical pace was far more fulfilling than a quick utilitarian fuck.

Liam's hands slid beneath her bum, gripping the cheeks of her buttocks firmly with his fingers. He kissed the side of her neck in a mirror image of what she'd done to him.

Kitty took his firm touch as an invitation to continue. She squeezed Liam's hips between her thighs and shifted her weight, trapping his body flush against hers.

With a gentle forward tug to his collar, Kitty pressed her lips to his Adam's apple, then to his jaw, then to the sensitive spot just in front of his ear. She caught his earlobe between her lips and let her teeth graze across the skin.

Liam responded in kind, snaking one arm tightly around her waist and employing the opposite hand to caress the back of her neck.

His hands and mouth on her body made her shiver even as her temperature rose. Eyes closed, Kitty raked her fingers through his hair and pulled him closer, breathing in his scent. A familiar mixture of soap, whiskey, cigarette smoke, and an intoxicating cologne that lingered on her skin long after he left her. Just like before, all those years ago.

Liam released her neck and took her chin between his thumb and forefinger once more. He used this leverage over her to angle her face toward his own, then leaned in and captured her lips in a hungry kiss. 

Kitty moaned softly as his mouth moved against hers. She felt the slight pressure of his teeth on her lip, and it caused a frenzy of arousal to shoot through her body. With steady, deft movements, she made short work of the buttons on his waistcoat.

His teeth released her lip and his face retreated from hers just far enough to look her in the eye. Though she ached to have him back, she took this look of his as a question. Perhaps regarding her enthusiasm, perhaps asking whether or not she wished to continue, perhaps confirming that she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. In truth, it didn't matter. The answer to everything in that moment was:

“Yes.”

She whispered the word, then closed the distance between their mouths once more, kissing him deeply, and abandoning the restraint she'd been employing to keep herself from getting carried away. She wanted to get carried away. She wanted him. Now. Always.

His waistcoat hit the floor.

“Liam…” she murmured between kisses. “I want you...so fucking bad.”

Her fingers fumbled blindly with the buttons of his shirt, and in her impatience she was tempted to rip it off. Anything to feel his skin against hers.

【♖】

As soon as the wrought-iron gate came into view, Rose instructed Sam to stop the vehicle.

“You sure?” he asked, his eyes wide as he gawked at Warwick Hall through the windshield. “Dunno how I feel about leavin' ya here. How ya gonna get in?”

“Never mind about that,” Rose reassured him. “Clara's expecting me. She'll sneak me in through the kitchen door. Around back.”

“You've done this before, have you?” Sam asked, a hint of mischief coloring his tone.

“I may have,” Rose skirted, just as mischievous.

Sam shook his head, awed. “You're full of surprises, Miss Appelbaum. G'night, then.”

“Good night, Sam. Thank you for the ride.”

Rose pretended to approach the house with stealth until the headlights of Sam's vehicle vanished in the darkness. Satisfied, she abandoned her act and skipped to the front door. Despite Jimmy's best efforts to get her indecently drunk, she'd managed to consume just enough alcohol to put her in a state of carefree giddiness. She could scarcely believe it, but she was anxious to find William. The information she had gathered on her first day as a spy was certain to intrigue him.

Rose entered the house and deposited her lightweight coat in the armoire of the front hall.

She sped through the foyer and adjoining parlor at more of a run than a walk. As she neared the study, she saw a strip of light beneath the door. She heard a soft thud from within, confirming the presence of an occupant. Of course William was in his study. Likely, at his desk, face set in concentration, a cigarette between his lips.

“Perfect,” Rose whispered to herself. Given his performance that morning in his en suite, she much preferred to have this conversation in the neutral ground of his study rather than anywhere upstairs.

With vigor renewed, she grabbed the door handle and let herself in. “William!” she exclaimed. “You simply will not believe what I—!”

Rose halted in her tracks.

William was indeed at his desk, but not seated behind it.

Nor was he alone.

From her unwanted vantage point, Rose could see William's bare back and shoulders, his head tilted at an angle that would only be warranted for an aggressive kiss. A woman's hand was wrapped around the back of his neck, and a pair of long, stockinged legs squeezed his hips in a snug, amorous embrace.

At the sound of her intruding voice, William stiffened and craned his neck until he was looking at Rose over his shoulder. A dark-haired woman peered around him, her piercing eyes ablaze with fury.

Under the intense scrutiny of the two sets of affronted eyes, Rose faltered and took a step back.

“Oh, I—” she began, completely mortified by the intimate entanglement she'd walked in on. “Forgive me. I didn't realize you had...company.”

Now that their faces were no longer fused at the mouth, Rose could see that the woman perched on the desk with her legs wrapped around William was none other than his rather curt secretary. The secretary who already disliked her.

Kitty. Her name was Kitty. And if her irate expression was any indication, her dislike of Rose had just multiplied tenfold.

This was not ideal.

“Can't you fuckin' knock?!” Kitty demanded, her voice livid and shrill.

Rose's mouth opened and closed in a series of failed attempts to explain herself. “I— Um—” she stammered, all signature eloquence gone. She looked back and forth between William and his secretary, at a complete loss for words. “That is to say... Apologies?”

【♜】【♞】【♟】

ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ!

ᴘʟᴇᴀꜱᴇ VOTE! ☆