Liam nodded. A brief silence fell over us, perhaps him believing I had more to say. But in this meeting, I wanted him to be the one to speak more. I had merely set him up to say whatever it was that he wanted to.
“Well, I will admit I can be a bit stubborn and hardheaded in moments like that,” he said. “I could have done better.”
It wasn’t easy to get him to actually say “I’m sorry.”
“Why did you act the way you did?”
Liam shrugged, but the way he did told me that there was a lot more to him than he was letting on right now.
“I can’t say anything for sure, but I’m certainly trying to figure it out,” he said. “I can tell you that I never thought I would have kids. I’m not the kind of guy that would do so.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a widower and an orphan and I don’t know a damn thing about my past.”
I raised an eyebrow at that, but I didn’t say anything. I figured the less I said, the more Liam might fill in the gaps.
“I was once told that my parents were British Secret Service. I was born in England, but I couldn’t tell you a damn thing about it. And obviously, you hear an American voice. I was raised out here, but my parents died when I was young. Went straight to an orphanage, and I literally had to learn how to scrap and fight to survive.
“Was a hot mess until I got to my twenties, still was then, actually. Got into a fight with this big, beefy guy who’s as much of a hardass as I’ve ever seen. He said he respected my tenacity and wanted me to join his team. But being the type of guy I was, I told him to fuck off. He gave me his card and said to call him if I ever needed it.”
He laughed to himself as if feeling like he’d been an idiot in his youth.
“I thought nothing of it until my wife died. After that, I just needed a way to keep busy. And I’ve kept busy ever since. The job got me a lot of gigs. One of them eventually turned out to be your friend Emily. After I took care of her, I drove all the way back here, settled into the bar…”
And that was how it got to where we were now.
“And that was the night I met one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.”
Wait…what?
I had not expected that.
“I know you haven’t forgotten how that night went.”
I could feel the tension rising. Was he really making a move? Was this really happening? Part of me wasn’t opposed to it by any stretch of the imagination, but…
“No, I—”
“And I know that you enjoyed the hell out of it.”
He stood and walked over to me. Once more, I fell under his spell. Once more, by his own mere decision, he was compelling me to do as he wanted.
And once more, I was more than willing to go along with it.
“I—”
“And I know you wouldn’t say no if we experienced that again.”
He grabbed my hands and pulled me out of the chair. He placed his hands firmly on my hips and pulled me in close to him. I was ready to give in. I was ready to succumb.
I was ready…
He leaned in…
And…
Chapter 14: Liam
Crying.
I heard it just inches away from Kelly’s face as I took in her scent.
Seconds before, I’d become intoxicated with the idea of taking her once more. Being back in the memory of that night two years ago had triggered the arousal that I’d felt for her. And once I decided to have someone, nothing stopped me.
I could tell as I approached Kelly that she wanted it too. She may not have been willing to say it out loud, but I could see that I had her consent to take her as she wanted to. She would have clawed at me all the same.
But the noise made one problem immediately apparent and a second one creep to mind.
First of all, there was a baby that was begging for attention, that apparently did not need a nap as badly as her mother had thought. I wouldn’t blame Kelly for that oversight, as it wasn’t like I had any knowledge of when or if a child could be forced to take a quick nap.
But second, what the hell was I doing?
We hadn’t had a serious talk at all. We’d learned more about each other, but I had to be better than this. If I was to be a father regularly around and who knew what with Kelly, it was a bit more complex than just dominating her again and producing the most memorable fuck ever.
But boy, as I hovered there, looking at her swollen, pink lips, my cock stiffened so much that it became nearly impossible for me to say no to this.
“I…I should get you back,” Kelly said.
Neither of us clearly wanted that. Even though we both understood that we couldn’t rush into it, that didn’t also mean that we were looking to back the hell away from it. It was time for the dom in me to come out—just not quite the overt, sexually charged one.
“No, it’s fine,” I said. “Let’s stay here through the evening. We have some catching up to do.”
“You’re sure?” she said. “I guess I could cook you dinner, I just—”
“Kelly,” I said, gently grabbing her arm. “We need to talk like adults. I’m not going anywhere.”
She bit her lip. She almost looked
