Summary: Allie and Liam spend an evening playing board games.
Liam has an odd talent for winning board games. Allie discovers this a few weeks into their engagement, when they have a rare down night and she starts telling him about how she and her cousins always used to play Clue and Sorry during the holidays.
“Drake and Olivia and I used to play board games,” Liam tells her as they lounge on their bed. “We have quite a few here. We should play.”
They walk down to the library hand in hand. “I can’t imagine Olivia and Drake getting along enough to play board games together,” Allie says, laughing as she tries to picture it.
Liam chuckles. “It wasn’t always pretty, I assure you. Olivia used to make up her own rules to try and win, and Drake refused to follow them. He liked to cheat, too.”
“I’m surprised there were no injuries,” Allie comments as they reach the library, Liam’s hand warm on her back as he ushers her in.
“Ask Drake about the scar on his forehead sometime.”
“Okay, you have to tell me that story,” Allie insists as they look through the board games.
“I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” Liam says solemnly.
“Liam! I’ll just ask Olivia then.”
“Fine, fine,” Liam laughs. “We’d been playing Monopoly. Drake was the banker, and kept sneaking money, and insisting he wasn’t. So he won, of course, and kept taunting Olivia about how he beat her again. My father walked in the room right as she threw the board at Drake’s head and he started bleeding all over the new Persian rug.”
Liam sighs ruefully. “That was the end of playing board games together.”
Allie shakes her head, laughing at the image. “That sounds about right.”
She pulls a box out of the cabinet. “Ticket to Ride?” she suggests. “Some friends and I used to play this all the time.”
“Sure.” Liam grins at her as they settle on the plush carpet around a coffee table and set the game up.
“I’m a master at this game. You ready to lose?” Allie asks, narrowing her eyes at him playfully.
Liam chuckles. “We’ll see about that, my love.”
She raises an eyebrow as Liam picks up an additional destination card early in the game. “You sure about that?” she asks him, setting two orange railway cars down on the board.
“Are you questioning my abilities?”
“…are we still talking about board games?”
Allie giggles as Liam’s face turns red.
“No distracting me,” he scolds her. “That’s cheating.”
“I don’t recall that rule.”
Liam just shakes his head, then grins at her look of dismay as he goes on to beat her easily. She sets the game up again, determined to beat him, but he continues to win, again and again.
“You have to be cheating,” she says in disbelief.
“I would never,” Liam says with mock indignation.
“You’ve beat me four times in a row!”
“What can I say? I have a talent for winning board games.”
Allie scowls and sets the board up again. “One more.”
As they play, Allie inches closer to him, ignoring his raised eyebrows as he looks over at her.
“Your turn,” she murmurs, leaning in and letting her lips brush over his ear.
She grins as he swallows hard and picks up two railway car cards, adding them to his stack. On his next turn, she lightly presses her lips to his cheek as he draws two more cards.
“Allie,” he says in a low voice. “I said no distracting me, remember?”
“Me? Distracting you? I would never,” she says, winking at him.
Allie very deliberately leans over him as she places two railway cars down on the board, brushing her mouth across his neck. She hears his quiet groan and can’t help but grin, until he slips his hand under the back of her shirt and runs his thumb over her bare skin.
“No fair,” she grumbles.
Liam lets out a low chuckle, sliding his hand around her waist. “Two can play at this game, my love.”
He places three white railway cars down, sucking in a breath when Allie slides her hand over his thigh, squeezing, then presses a barely there kiss to the corner of his mouth.
“You were saying?” she asks, blindly grabbing for two railway car cards from the pile.
“Two can play at this game,” he murmurs, pulling her into his lap and kissing across her neck.
He gently tugs her shirt down, lightly sucking at her collarbone, and her hips press into his instinctively. She closes her eyes as his warm hands spread across her back and his teeth sink gently into her skin. Allie feels him shifting and opens her eyes. She looks at Liam incredulously as he reaches around her to place more railway cars down.
“Are you really still playing?” she asks.
“Not anymore,” he reassures her, leaning back and kissing her.
She looks at him curiously, then swats his shoulder as she looks back at the board and he gives her a cheeky grin. “Liam!”
“I win.”