Liam's Secret

by Jadyn Chase

  My heart plummeted into my shoes. This was it, the end of the line. Ethereal calm filled my heart and soul. It resembled the certainty I experienced when I confronted Dean with nothing but a tree branch I picked up off the ground.

  This unearthly quiet pervaded my entire being. It settled all the tension and stress of the last few years. I released my hold on everything I ever wanted and hoped for. I could love Daddy. I could even love Liam. I could love everything about this life and still give it up. I was ready to go. I did my best to live a good life and now it was over.

  I turned around to face my foe. His radiant red body occupied my whole awareness, but he didn’t scare me anymore. He was Death come for me at last. Everybody dies sometime. Now it was my turn.

  Dean swelled himself to three times his size. His gargantuan body covered the sky. He leaned forward to consume me when, out of the gloom behind him, two curved wings spread on either side of his shoulders.

  Glowing golden wings swept above his head. Out of nowhere, another dragon rocketed over Dean’s head. My mind took in the sight from a detached distance. I noticed the iridescent detail of the dragon’s chest swooping low over Dean. Its talons flexed. It snatched Dean by the neck, and with one bone-shattering snap, it flung him over my head.

  I ducked. Dean somersaulted head over heels and soared into space over the cliff. He let out a spine-chilling screech. He hovered there in mid-air for an eternity. The next minute, gravity caught him and ripped him out of sight. He howled to the ends of the Earth and vanished into the void.

  I stared down at nothing. In the blink of an eye, he evaporated out of my life. Now that it happened, I didn’t want to let myself believe it was real. Could he really be gone? Was I really safe at last?

  I turned around. The golden dragon crouched a few paces away. His burnished scales glowed in the gathering dusk. He drew himself down into a ball and looked away.

  The radiant form rippled and contracted even further until it collapsed into a compact shape. The head, wings, and tail submerged beneath the scales—the scales shining with an inner light.

  Before I could fully realize what happened, the dragon became a man, a man I knew only too well. He glanced toward the cliff once. Then he turned away. He nodded down at the ground, glanced up to meet my eyes, and let his chin fall on his chest. He murmured under his breath, “I love you, Amy.”

  He turned his back on me and started to walk away. My soul broke out, “No!”

  He froze and looked over his shoulder at me. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t stand by and watch him walk away. I came too close to losing him, not just once but too many times. Never again.

  “Liam!” I cried. I bolted across the ground and flung myself on him. I hurled both arms around his waist and buried my head in his chest.

  I held onto him with all my might. I couldn’t let him go. I could never let him go again. I loved him too much. I had to come within a few seconds of losing my life before I let myself realize that. Now I had him and I couldn’t lose him, not ever.

  I crushed him in my arms. I would give anything to absorb him into my body where I could carry him always.

  Out of nowhere, his hand closed around the back of my neck. His fingers threaded into my hair and my heart caved with aching love for him. If he found me worthy to love him, I would ask nothing more.

  He pushed my shoulders back and straightened me up in front of him. I came face to face with him for the first time since…..I saw him at the Lynches’ house. I even saw him in the woods when we ran away from Dean, but I didn’t really see him.

  My eyes met his. His warm palms surrounded my cheeks and he steered my mouth toward his. That kiss vaporized all the danger and heartache of my life. I was with him. I would always be with him. Nothing and nobody could part us again—not in this lifetime.

  Just then, a snap of breaking wood startled me away. I broke the seal of his mouth and we both wheeled around at the same instant. We stared into the darkening woods but nothing came.

  “We better get out of here,” Liam whispered.

  “Where did you say you parked the Jeep?” I asked.

  “I don’t dare drive,” he murmured back. “If the other Lynches realize I killed Dean, they might all come after us.”

  “But they didn’t agree with him,” I explained. “They wanted him to do this alone because they didn’t support him.”

  Liam shook his head. “None of that matters now. He was their kin. They might not have liked him snatching you, but a Kelly killing him is an act of war. We have to get out of here now.”

  “How?” I squeaked. “We can’t walk. It’s too far.”

  He peered down into my eyes. “I’m going to fly you out. I’m going to shift. You get on my back and I’ll fly you home to your place. Can you handle that? I know it’s…..”

  He didn’t continue. I waited, but he lowered his eyes and wouldn’t look at me again. “It’s what?” I asked.

  He didn’t say anything. He shook his head and averted his gaze.

  I saw it all in a split second. “Do you think you were too scary for me like that? Did you think I wouldn’t want to….to be around you if I saw you as a dragon?”

  He shrugged. “I wasn’t sure after…. after what happened in the alley.”

  I had to think hard to remember what happened in the alley. Then it all came back to me. He shifted and bellowed at me in rage. Maybe he thought he had to be as ugly and horrible as he could get to express the depth of his anger.

  I couldn’t let him think that. I couldn’t let another minute pass without expressing how I felt about him. Now I laid my hands on either side of his face and lifted him up to look into his eyes. “It’s okay, Liam. I want you like that. I want you all ways.”

  His brow furrowed for a second. “Really?”

  I stepped away. “Shift. I want you to.”

  He hesitated just long enough for me to get out of the way. He didn’t seem to give it a second thought. He crooked his back and contracted forward. His spine twisted and he landed on all fours. His legs bent the opposite way, and huge, golden wings unfurled from his back.

  In a second, I found myself standing next to the huge dragon that threw Dean over that cliff. He fumed and seethed in colossal power. A sulfury smell came from his mouth and nose when he breathed. His scales radiated heat and sizzling electric energy.

  He hunched low to the ground. Much as I would have liked to admire him up close, we had to get out of there. Never mind. I would have plenty of time for that in the years to come.

  He bent one leg to make a step and I climbed onto his back. Mysterious dominant force infused between my legs and seeped suggestive daydreams into my core when I sat down on his neck.

  The next minute, his muscular frame undulated under me. His scales licked and slithered against my thighs and he took wing over the mountains.

  He circled the cliff, but I could see no sign of Dean anywhere. A tiny pinprick of light buried in the woods marked the Lynches’ house, but no one came after us.

  Liam’s sinuous coils unwound against the steel-grey clouds. Each pump of his bright wings carried us farther and farther from the nightmare of that awful day. In a few minutes, the highway came into view far below, but he didn’t descend close enough for any motorists to see us beyond their headlights.

  He angled his wings over Road 28L. He followed it to the little cabin lying dark and abandoned against the dense trees.

  Liam landed in the yard and I slid down. My heart pounded racing up the steps. Daddy’s chair sat empty and the door stood wide open for any stranger to walk right in.

  I took one look at the porch and charged into the house, yelling, “Daddy! Daddy, where are you?”

  No one answered. The place yawned in silence, black as the grave. My mind spun from one worst-case scenario to the next.

  I barreled back out to the porch and collided with Liam. “He’s gone,” I blurted out. “The Lynches must have taken him. They must have gotten here befo
re us and taken him in retaliation for you killing Dean. We have to find him! We have to go after them and get him back. He won’t survive the stress.”

  I raced around him to charge down the driveway, but Liam grabbed me by the shoulders and wrestled me back. “Hold it, Amy. Don’t go off half-cocked.”

  “You don’t understand!” I shrieked. “He’s weak. He’s frail. He can’t stand the excitement. He needs routine. He needs comfort. He’s…..”

  “He’s all right,” Liam insisted. “He’s safe.”

  “He’s gone!” I screamed at him. “He’s…..”

  “I took him,” he interrupted. “I came here looking for you. Your father told me Dean threatened him to get you to go with him. I couldn’t leave him alone, so I moved him to a safe place.”

  I gave one more ineffectual tug against his grip before I stopped long enough to understand what he was saying to me. “You did? Where is he?”

  “He’s up on Smokey Ridge. He’s at my Ma and Pop’s place. Ma will take care of him as long as you need. Your Daddy’s safe. No one will go after him there. You have nothing to worry about.”

  When I finally let myself comprehend the truth, my voice cracked in relief. “Thank you.”

  He put his arms around me and hugged me in the dark. “You have nothing to worry about. He’ll be just fine.” His hands caressed down my arms to soothe the tension out of my limbs. “You don’t have to run off to find him. He’ll be all right where he is for now.”

  My mind refused to accept what he told me. I tried to break free. “Come on. Let’s go get him.”

  Liam restrained me. I couldn’t see his features in the dark, but his bulk blocked my way. He whispered under his breath, but I could never mistake the meaning behind those words. “Not yet.”

  The shadowed outline closed in front of me, and his mouth came to rest on mine. Deep heat swam into my brain. All my old instincts and habits told me to run off and get Daddy, to attend to every little need he might have, but Liam’s overwhelming presence told me something else.

  I didn’t have to rush off and find Daddy. I didn’t have to think about him. I didn’t have to hold myself tense and ready every second worrying about him. I could just stand here and enjoy the rapture of Liam kissing me. I could let someone else take care of Daddy for a change. I could experience this blissful moment, just for myself.

  I could let myself love someone and let someone love me. I could experience some pleasure in my life without having to sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice all the time. I deserved that. Liam told me so, even if I couldn’t quite believe it.

  The delicious swirls of warm delectable delight glowed through me. It poured down my lips and neck to the boiling center that awoke when I rode on his back. His presence fueled my darkest desires that lay dormant all these years.

  The instant he started it, he drew away. He hooked one arm behind my back and eased me toward the door. Without turning either of us around, he marched me into the dark house and down the hall.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off the mystical shade in front of me. His outline suggested so many forgotten fantasies I never allowed myself to acknowledge. Now he embodied them all. He represented every man I ever wanted, and even ones I hadn’t met yet. My imagination clothed him in every fermented daydream I never let arouse my natural lusts.

  Now they all erupted to the surface with unstoppable force. My body churned in an agony of desire for him. My flesh ached for him inside me. My heart and soul sobbed his name in the silent reaches of my mind.

  He swiveled us into my room. The black woods blotted out the window. No one could see us. He held me close to him in the dark. My unquiet brain scuttled from one distraction to another. I had to turn on the lamp. I had to shut the curtains. I had to shut the door.

  Those thoughts and a thousand others like them streamed across my brain, but Liam refused to release me. I couldn’t see his eyes in the dark, but his steady gaze locked me to him with no possibility of escape. He conquered me with that dark gaze of his.

  I didn’t want to be released. I wanted to remain there in that shadow world with him. I wanted quiet. I wanted peace at long last, and I found it with him.

  He eased me down on the bed. He stood above me, massive and all-encompassing. I needed him now more than ever. I needed him like I needed the blood in my veins. He made my life make sense. I couldn’t go back to the insanity of everyday survival without him. I couldn’t cope with it alone.

  He stroked my cheeks with his maddening hot fingers. He held my face up so he could see me. His eyes bored into my very soul even when I couldn’t see his expression. I didn’t need to see it. He was here. He was mine and I was his. His expression wouldn’t tell me anything else.

  He leaned forward and propped his knee on the bed. He lowered me onto my back and crawled onto the bed next to me. We shuffled onto the pillows before we both settled into the mattress. Nothing existed in the world but him and me in this room.

  Just one night. That’s all I asked. Just one night alone with him before I had to face the cruel reality of finding Daddy, arranging to bring him home, making sure he took his medications, making dinner, straightening his oxygen tubing…..

  Dear God, just give me one night with Liam. Just give me one night of being a real girl, a living, feeling girl who needs this man. Just one night of his arms around me and his tongue exploring my mouth. Just give me one night to let my body experience what it feels like to be alive.

  Liam’s lips prodded my mouth open. His slippery tongue probed into my being and sent sparkles of intoxicating desire shooting to my core. The heady wine of craven hunger ate away at my insides until my flesh cried for him to satisfy me.

  His hands slithered down my chest to my stomach. I lay back and relaxed when he pulled my shirt out of my waistband. His palm landed on my belly and I gasped in open lust.

  God, I wanted this so bad! How could I live without it? How could I go through so many years without tasting the sweet delirium of him tracing around my navel and inching toward my hips? How could I not scream in my mind for him to unbutton my jeans and rub me between my legs?

  Damp nectar saturated my panties inside my secret crevice. The heat begging for his touch got hotter and more maddening, but I never wanted him to stop. I ground my hips against his hand and whimpered into his mouth for more.

  Every tooth of my zipper popped with deafening noise when he slid it down to reveal my panties. I wanted all of him—his mouth, his hands, his back, his arms. I wanted his manhood to fill me up and carry me away.

  He got onto his knees to pull my jeans off, and when he returned to lie by my side, we both burst into a fever of activity. I ripped my shirt off and set to work on my bra clasp. He peeled his t-shirt over his head and grabbed his fly. He kicked his boots onto the floor with a clump.

  I couldn’t stop devouring him with greedy eyes. He drove me to distraction with his unnatural heat and his smoldering presence. I couldn’t rest until my hands closed around his bare back and his weight sank down on top of me. His mouth blistered my tongue and lips with its hot moisture tickling me to wild mania.

  His silky skin submerged between my legs, and I wrapped my thighs around his hips. God, yes! That felt so impossibly good. I clenched my ankles behind him to pull him in tight, and his distended shaft came to rest on my wet cleft.

  For one mind-blowing instant, we both froze staring into each other’s eyes. The dark made him appear so much more titanic and enigmatic, but that only fired my craving for him even more. He became all I ever dared to dream. He became a god at that moment, a being worthy of worship and reverence and all my most devoted attentions.

  I starved for any taste of his body, for the penetrating lash of his tongue in my mouth. I screamed for him in every pore.

  He arched back. His length dragged over the engorged petals surrounding my opening. Before I could stop it, that primal scream of naked desire exploded through me in a soul-destroying climax.

  The next i
nstant, he plunged to my very center. My satiny folds swallowed him to the hilt, but it was too late for me. My being rocketed into the unknown of dizzy bliss, but I dared not give voice to my own release.

  I heaved my head off the pillow and sank my teeth into his neck. I muffled my shrieks of satiated fulfillment to his molten flesh in the delirious hope that maybe he would understand.

  I scratched his back trying to inhale him into me beyond the bounds of human form. I clutched his pelvis between my legs. Every cruel stroke of his piston into my channel awoke a burning wave of rapture and exhilarating pleasure almost too intense to stand.

  I screamed out his name again and again, but that scream echoed only in my mind. It never escaped to become real in the world. I whispered it. I thought it. I rode one crashing breaker after another on that name, but it remained locked in the chambers of my heart where he belonged. No one had to know but me. That name could drive me to the stars with a simple thought.

  God, how could anything feel as good as this? How could I hover in the clouds without ever coming down? How could the human body harbor such passions and never know it?

  He made it possible. I never experienced them before because he wasn’t with me. He acted as the catalyst that released the energy from its prison.

  He contracted his muscled back over me. He buried his face in the pillow where my hair scattered across his cheeks. He rotated his head and his tortured roaring drifted into my ear.

  So it wasn’t only me. He tried to communicate the cataclysm to me. He prayed in the silence of his own rapture that I would hear him, that I would understand, that somehow the message would translate from one heart to another.

  I grasped the back of his neck and clasped his mouth against my ear. His hot breath scorched my brain to boiling lava. I couldn’t hold back the flood of emotion and catastrophic power surging through me.

  Somewhere in the sea of noise and surf crashing in my ears, I heard Liam howling the same tortured song of completion and release. The union of flesh and bone between my legs seethed with sizzling hot juices flowing back and forth from him to me and from me to him.