Chapter 153: Stay the Night

Liam was already at the door when Victoria’s hand closed around his wrist.

Her grip was firm. Not desperate. Certain.

"Why not stay." He turned.

Victoria stood close, eyes still dark from the kiss, blouse slightly disordered where his hand had been.

"It’s been a long time, Liam," she said. "You don’t get to walk in, do this, and leave just like that. It’s been long. Stay the night."

Liam didn’t answer immediately.

He knows that somewhere beyond this house, Dexter was doing some research.

Someone who had watched him sit across from Peter in an empty warehouse was still unnamed. The practical move was to leave.

But Victoria’s hand was warm around his wrist, and the look in her eyes was not strategy. It was history. She was one of the few people who had ever occupied real space in him.

He turned his hand in her grip until his fingers closed around hers.

"Alright." The word settled between them.

Victoria’s shoulders eased. She stepped closer, rested her forehead against his, and breathed like she had been holding the same breath since he first walked through the door.

"Come on," she said softly.

She led him deeper into the house.

Their fingers stayed linked as she walked him into her bedroom. The light inside was low and warm. She closed the door, then turned back to him as if confirming he was still there.

Liam lifted a hand and brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. Victoria leaned into the touch without thinking. He traced the line of her cheekbone with his thumb, slow, unhurried, and felt the way she quieted under it.

"You really were going to leave," she said.

"I was." but now am here.

Victoria’s eyes closed for a second. When she opened them again, the earlier heat had softened into something heavier.

She reached up and rested both hands against his chest, not pushing, just feeling the solid reality of him under her palms. Liam covered one of her hands with his.

They stood like that for a long time. No race toward the bed. Just the quiet fact of proximity after too long apart.

Victoria’s breathing gradually matched the slower rhythm of his. Her thumb moved in small, absent arcs against his shirt.

He bent and kissed her forehead. Then the place between her brows. Then the high point of her cheek. Victoria’s eyes fluttered shut.

A soft sound left her when his lips brushed the corner of her mouth without fully taking it. She turned her head and caught his lips with hers slower than the first kiss in the living room. Deeper. Less about heat and more about confirmation.

They kissed until the urgency mellowed into something that could stretch.

Liam’s hands settled at her waist. Victoria’s arms slid up around his neck. The embrace was full and unhurried.

He could feel the steady beat of her heart against his chest. She smelled like the same subtle scent she had always worn, the one that used to linger on his clothes on the rare nights they had managed to steal.

When they finally parted, Victoria rested her head against his shoulder.

Liam’s hand moved slowly up and down her back.

Victoria exhaled, long and quiet. She stepped back just far enough to look at him properly. Her fingers found the edge of his shirt again, not to remove it, only to hold on.

"Stay with me," she said. "Just like this."

Liam nodded.They moved to the bed without urgency. Victoria lay down first.

Liam settled beside her, fully clothed, and pulled her into the curve of his body. She fitted against him like the shape had been waiting. His arm settled around her waist. Her hand rested over his forearm.

He pressed a slow kiss to the top of her shoulder. Victoria’s fingers curled lightly against his skin. Neither of them spoke.

The silence was full of everything that had not been said in the months between their last real conversation and this one.

Liam’s thumb traced idle patterns along her stomach over the fabric of her blouse.

Victoria shifted closer, her back fully against his chest, and let out a breath.

"You’re still the only person who can walk into a room and make everything else go quiet," she said eventually, voice low.

Liam didn’t answer with words. He simply tightened his arm around her a fraction and rested his mouth against the back of her neck, breathing her in.

Outside, the day continued without them.

Inside, the board could wait.

Victoria’s breathing slowly deepened. She was not asleep, but she was no longer braced against the possibility of him leaving.

Liam stared at the far wall over her head and allowed himself, for once, to remain exactly where he was.

Time stretched.

At some point Victoria turned in his arms so they were face to face. Her eyes were soft in the low light. She lifted a hand and traced the line of his jaw with her fingertips, studying him as if memorizing the version of him that had stayed.

"I used to hate how easily you could disappear," she said."I know."

"And I used to hate how much I noticed when you did." Liam caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the center of her palm. Victoria’s breath caught quietly.

He kept her hand there against his mouth for a moment longer before guiding it back to his chest.

They talked in fragments after that. Nothing about Charles. Nothing about business. Small things. Old things.

Victoria smiled once real, unguarded and the sight of it settled somewhere deep in him.

Later, she fell into a light doze against his chest. Liam remained awake, one hand moving slowly through her hair, listening to the steady rhythm of her breathing.

The house around them was silent.

Just Victoria.

And the rare, deliberate choice to stay.

The night was still ahead of them.And for the first time in a long time, he had no intention of being anywhere else.