Lust seized Liam, hot and hard, huge. He shook with it, seized Katherine’s shoulders, and thought of little elsenow but taking her, mastering her, and enslaving her to him with the force and power of his body, as she had enslaved him with her beauty, her pride, her determination and intelligence. “Katherine. I want you.”
She clung to his shoulders, swaying against him, her loins soft and inviting against his. She met his gaze, whispering his name, whispering, “Yes.”
He wrapped his arms around her, groaning, pressing his face into her neck, savoring the pulsing heat that coursed between their bodies for one more instant. He was huge now, ready to explode, but that was unthinkable, even though her invitation was clear. Even though, despite his determination to live, he might very well die.
“Liam, I am so afraid, please.” She undulated against him, kissing his forehead, and running her fingers through his hair. “I want you, too, darling.I need you.”
He had no defenses left. Every single last one of them, erected to guard his heart, were shattered by her words. Liam gazed into her sea green eyes. This was no pretense; there were no theatrics. Desire shimmered in her eyes, desire and something much more powerful. Something irrevocable, something eternal. Something that was meant to be from the very start. Something ordained by fate, that two human beings could not defy.
The words were there, on the tip of his tongue.I love you. I always have. I always will.
He caught her mouth with his. Katherine cried out. His lips sucked her, his hands as greedy, touching her everywhere, exploring her curves, relishing them. Then, his palm flattened upon her belly and he froze.
It was hard and round and protruding.
Katherine half laughed, half sobbed. “Yes, Liam, I am going to have your child.”
He raised his head and gazed into her eyes with disbelief, while his hand slid over her swollen belly a dozen more times. He was stunned. His gaze slid to the mound he caressed. “My child,” he whispered hoarsely. And through the haze of shock came a piercing pleasure—Katherine was giving him a child.
Her gaze met his, and although she was crying again, she was smiling, too.
And then his pleasure died. He stared at her, remembering his childhood—all of it. “Oh, God,” he said, torn between utter joy and sheer hopelessness.
Her smile faded. “You are not pleased.”
He stepped back from her. “You do not understand.” Suddenly he was that boy again, filled with pain, and he could hear the taunts, cruel and mocking,Shane O’Neill’s bastard son.
She touched him. “I do understand. Liam—I will protect this child. He will not suffer as you have suffered, I swear it to you.”
“You cannot stop the world from cursing him, and you can not change the fact that he is my son.”
She said nothing.
He jerked. “What do you plan?”
She turned pale. Except for two bright spots of pink upon her cheeks, the signs of her guilt.
And he recalled her treachery again, and thought of how clever she was—how determined. “What do you plan Katherine?”
“The queen is furious. Hawke says you will hang.”
Hawke. John Hawke—her other husband. “I am not dead yet, Kate. Nor do I intend to die anytime soon—or have you already buried me?”
“I do not want you to die!”
“And I will not die. I will escape this prison, return to the seas, and finish the game I have begun. Do you hear me, Katherine?” he shouted. “And you will be with me. You and the child,” he cried.
She did not answer him. Her silence told him everything that he needed to know. “You are my wife,” he said, his chest heaving. And suddenly he could not stand it, not his captivity, not the powerlessness of it, and he was consumed with rage. He gripped her chin, forcing her to face him. She was shaking her head no. “Has he taken you to his bed, Katherine? Has he?”
“No!” she cried, frightened.
Liam did not relax. She was deceiving him now, damnher soul. Suddenly the walls of the cell felt as if they were closing in on him. He was acutely aware of being reduced to a state of impotent wretchedness. Frustration made him shake. “You have not answered me, Katherine.”
“Hawke says you will hang. I am doing everything in my power to prevent that, but I do not know if I can succeed,” she cried in a rush. “Hawke says…” she stopped.
Hawke. Hawke. Hawke. “What else does he say?” he snarled.
“He will give your child his name—even if it is a boy!”
