“Liam,” I said, voice soft.
“Yeah, sweet—” His book dropped to his lap when he looked in my direction, every ounce of his focus now on me.
“I’m done waiting,” I said, sending my bathrobe to the floor in a pool of black silk.
His throat moved with a swallow. “Damn.” He sat up straighter, eyes locked on me as I sauntered over to his side of the bed.
I wasted no time and climbed on top of him, his sweats rough against my sensitized skin. He inhaled deeply when I slid my hands up his bare chest before settling in his hair. I leaned down, our noses brushing. “I love you,” I whispered, and then I kissed him.
The kiss was slow, deep, dizzying. A rekindling. A homecoming.
Liam groaned into the kiss. His hands roamed over my body reverently, as if he were discovering it all for the first time.
“I need you,” I murmured between kisses. My hips rolled against his, my nipples brushing against his chest and sending bursts of pleasure through me.
“You have me, baby,” he promised. He rolled us gently. Careful with my still-healing body. “Always have.”
He kissed me again. First at my temple, then my nose, my lips, and along my jaw. Then he lowered to my neck and downmy body. He kissed every bruise, every scratch, every place Marcus had touched, as if he could erase that violence with love.
He peered up at me from where he had just kissed my hip. Dark hair tousled from my hands. Eyes soft and full of enough love, I could feel it. “I love you, Steph. Loved you all my life.”
My chest tightened, and I swallowed back the knot in my throat. “Come here,” I whispered, voice hoarse with the effort to hold back tears.
He climbed up my body, the rest of his clothes coming off in the process. And when he settled on top of me, his weight heavy and skin warm against mine, I’d never felt safer.
I wrapped my legs around his hips, and he reached between us, notching himself at my entrance. He lowered his mouth to mine and rocked forward slowly. The welcome intrusion stole my breath. My head fell back against the pillows as he filled me, a low moan slipping past my lips.
“Perfect,” he groaned. “Always so goddamn perfect for me.”
“Yes,” I breathed. I arched my hips, meeting him thrust for thrust.
We moved together slow and emotional, every thrust a promise, every kiss threaded with goodbye and reunion, ending and beginning.
Liam’s pace quickened, small grunts leaving him. The old bed frame creaked beneath us. He grabbed one of my legs, pressing it back to rest over his shoulder.
“Oh God, Lee.” I whimpered at how deep he was at this angle. But he kept going, pressing further like he couldn’t get deep enough.
“You’re mine,” he grunted, kissing along my calf, his hips snapping against me. His eyes met mine, dark and near-feral with what I couldn’t decipher. “Mine,” he growled, punctuating the word with a thrust that stole my breath.
My pussy tightened around him, loving the possessive look in his eyes. I nodded and pulled him down on top of me. I framed his face in my hands, our foreheads touching. “Yours. Yours forever.”
His eyes rolled shut, hands fisted in the pillows on either side of my head. He lowered his head to the crook of my neck. “Baby, you’re gonna make me come.” The words came out broken and strained. Something between a whine and a growl that brought me right to the edge with him.
“Give it to me,” I whispered, trailing kisses along his neck. “Make me yours, Liam.”
“Oh fuck.” His hips stuttered, breaths quick and hot against my neck. And then he slammed into me, deep and hard, his cock jerking as he fell apart on top of me, taking me with him.
After, we lay tangled together, neither of us able to sleep despite the physical exhaustion. His fingers played with my hair while I traced patterns on his chest—hearts and stars and the letters of his name—both of us pretending morning wouldn't come.
The room was silver with moonlight, and I could see every detail of his face—the scar through his eyebrow from a childhood fall, the laugh lines that were deeper now, the way his lips curved even in repose.
"You changed me," I said into the darkness. "Before you came for me in LA, I was disappearing. Becoming less real every day, like I was fading out of existence. You brought me back to life."
"You were always alive. You just needed to remember."
"No." I propped myself up on an elbow to look at him, needing him to understand this truth. "You gave me back to myself. The ranch, your family, this life—it reminded me who I was before the world tried to make me into something else. Youloved me when I was broken, and somehow that made me whole again."
"Steph—"
