by Lisa Shelby
For some reason her reply hits me like a hammer, and the weight of her love presses on my heart in the best way imaginable. I move so that both of my forearms are on the bed, framing her perfectly freckled face, and stare into her eyes.
I’m afraid to speak. To ruin the moment.
We just stare at one another for a few seconds, and the love and passion reflected from her emerald eyes seer deep into my soul, and as if she knows what I’m feeling, her hand presses over my heart. She can tell that it’s taking me a minute to wrap my brain around the fact that she feels this way about me.
“Liam, I have never loved nor will I ever love another man the way that I love you. With you, I know that I will never have to wonder if I’ve settled because you are everything I’ve ever dreamed of and so many things that I never imagined I wanted or now need in my life. You get me. You don’t want to change me. When I’m with you, I feel safe. Loved. Complete. I have never known a man as good as you. And the way you kiss me…well, I know that no other man will ever compare.”
I kiss her deeply to give her a little bit more of what she loves, and when I come up for air and back to the hypnotic view of her face, I seek reassurance. “You want a family?”
She gently holds my face. “Only if it’s with you.”
Fuck, if this woman isn’t my everything.
“You sure?”
She nods her reassurance and let’s go of me to pull her shirt over her head. I feel her kick off her flip flops, and as she does, I pull my shirt off. I love the fact that her eyes nearly eat me alive when they take in my bare skin. I know how she feels because I can’t get enough of her soft, porcelain skin that glows in contrast with my dark skin.
She lifts her body so I can unclasp her bra, and the moment her breasts are exposed I take one of her pink nipples into my mouth and use my tongue to bring it to its full potential. When I release it and my breath breezes over it, I can see her skin pebble, and she shivers.
While I give her other nipple the same special attention, I slowly finish undressing her, and she unzips me and pushes my last remaining bit of clothes over my hips.
Looking down at her, seeing her breathtakingly beautiful bare body, I can’t help but feel like she is baring more than her body. Suddenly, being with her feels new. This is not our first time together, but it feels different.
Stronger.
My hand lazily skims over her body, not wanting to miss a spot. Needing to brand her skin with the want and need I feel for her so there is never any doubt of how deep my love and lust for her goes. My hand finds its way to the apex of her thighs, and she is wet with desire, and her body reacts to even the slightest touch of my fingers.
When I enter her soft warmth, she gasps and breathes my name like a prayer. I can’t help but watch as my fingers move in and out of her. She is writhing on the bed, and I don’t hide the fact that I am sitting back and enjoying the way she looks arching and squirming as my hand brings her to a frenzy.
When she is close, she huffs, “Liam, please.”
“Talk to me, baby. Please what? Do you want to come?”
“I need you inside of me.”
“Oh, you’ll have me inside of you in a minute or two, but first I want to watch you come apart on my hand. I want to feel you on my fingers before I feel you do the same on my cock. I want you to show me just what my touch does to you, baby. What I plan to do to you for many years to come. Show me, baby.”
My words have added to the intensity I can feel building, and the orgasm that is just a few seconds away. I can’t help but take myself in my hand and pump my fist up and down to the same rhythm of my hand that is taking her to the edge so I am ready as soon as she is.
“Liam.” She all but pleads it as she throws her head back and grinds herself on my hands so my fingers are even deeper inside. I feel her body start to pulse around me and just as she is hitting the high of her climax, I remove my hand, and I gently slide inside her.
“Oh. My. God. Yes!” she screams on a whimper as her orgasm continues its pulsating contractions around my cock that is now gliding in and out of her slow enough to keep her at the peak of her frenzy and drag it out so she rides her high as long as I can keep her on it.
I feel her start to come down from her high, and I take my thumb and start to rub her in just the right spot. She holds back her scream, and she starts contracting around me again.
“That’s it, baby, keep coming for me. You feel so good, Cami. I love to know that I can make you feel like this.”
“Please don’t ever stop!” she begs, sounding like she is going slightly out of her mind.
She reaches the peak of her climax, and as she comes down from her high and her body goes somewhat lax, I roll her on her side and take her from behind. I know that she is spent after what I just put her through, and this way I can pull her tiny body tight to mine and hold her close. My hand massages her breast, and I whisper words of love into her ear as the feel of the two of us together, skin to skin and soul to soul, shake me to my core. It’s something I have never felt before, and it makes it so much better than anything I have experienced.
It’s special.
Breathing heavily, I thrust into her one last time and find my release. As I do, I pull her back tighter to my front. After, I hold her and nuzzle into her neck. I could stay here forever, but I know I need to clean us up, and I reluctantly pull myself out of her and kiss her shoulder. I have to leave the bed long enough to get a warm washcloth to clean us up, but I do it quickly to not waste a minute with her in my arms.
Once we’re all cleaned up, she lays her head on my chest, above my heart and I bring my lips to the top of her pretty little auburn head. “Thank you.”
“For what?” she asks.
“Loving me,” I reply simply.
“Oh, don’t thank me, baby. There isn’t anything either of us could do about it.” She turns to look up at me with a sexy little smirk.
“Is that so?”
“Sweetheart, what I feel for you isn’t something that I have any control over. It’s fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it, but I don’t have a choice in the matter. Besides, if anyone should be giving thanks that would be me. That was amazing. I feel a little sex drunk, though, and we have a baby to take care of.” I feel her giggle on my chest, and as if on cue Matthew starts to stir, and Cami reaches over me and grabs the monitor.
She lies back with her head on my shoulder and raises her arm so she can hold the monitor up above us where we can both watch our godson squirm in his crib. He fusses a little bit more but never fully awakens.
“I’ll take the first round if you want to go to sleep,” I whisper. “I doubt I’m going to get much sleep anyway. Between being on alert to take care of that precious little boy in there, worrying about his baby sister, and the fact that I have you in my arms…well, I don’t see much sleep in my future.”
We watch the baby monitor for a while longer, and when he squirms again and starts to fuss, neither of us can take it, and we both spring from bed at the same time. She slips on my t-shirt, and I put on my shorts, and together we tiptoe into the nursery.
We spend the next thirty minutes talking baby talk while Cami holds Matthew in her arms, and I hold her in mine while we rock back in forth in the nursery’s glider. Matthew gets the occasional kiss on the head, and I get sweet kisses on the cheek. I know Matthew doesn’t know how lucky he is to have this phenomenal woman in his life, but I do. The moment is perfect, and to say that I am content would be an understatement. To hold my girl in my arms while we rock our godson back to sleep is peaceful and perfect.
We finally break down and leave him in his crib to sleep, but neither one of us do the same. I can’t get enough of her, and she can’t keep her hands off me. We don’t want to waste a minute sleeping, and the night goes by in a flash.
We talk.
We change a diaper.
We kiss.
We snack.
We make out on the couch
.
We make a bottle.
We make love.
We live each second of our night together to the fullest.
Eventually, Ireland wakes up, and we make her breakfast and get her ready for school. We change the baby again, and Cami is sitting at the kitchen table feeding him a bottle when my mom arrives to take over her shift. She stayed at the loft last night so she could get some rest. She is spent. She had just gotten back to Atlanta and flew back as soon as we got word that Caroline was sick and being admitted to the hospital. She has been a rock for Jonathan and Emily, but I can tell she is emotionally drained and physically exhausted.
“Good morning, you two. How did it go last night? Did Matty sleep for you?”
“He was great, Fiona. He was up a time or two but nothing we couldn’t handle.”
My mom, like most moms, knows all…sees all…feels all.
She can tell by the smiles on our faces and by the way Cami said we that tonight was great for more reasons than a sleeping baby. She looks to me with the slightest of grins—one that says, I’m so glad you two fixed things.
“Well, I’m happy to hear it. You two can skedaddle if you want, and I’ll take it from here.” She gives the universal sign for gimme and demands the bundled bambino from my girl.
Yes. My girl, is handing our godson to my mother, and it is a freaking beautiful sight. Now if only Matthew’s baby sister were here too. Then it would be perfect.
Cami, walks past me on her way to the spare room to get her bag, and as she does, her fingers gently tease mine. As subtle as she is, my mother doesn’t miss a thing. Even with a newborn in her arms, she is aware of everything going on around her and her smile widens.
Holding the baby in one arm, my petite mother wraps her other arm around my middle, and once she knows that Cami is out of earshot, she glances up at me and smiles. “You look happy.”
“She loves me, Mom. Happy doesn’t come close.”
“Sweet boy, you make my heart swell.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
She steps away from me and shakes her finger at me. “You take good care of her.”
“Yes, ma’am. That’s the plan.”
Cami is back. “Okay, I’ve got all of our stuff. Let me give my little snuggle bug one more kiss before we go!”
We say our goodbyes to Matthew and my mom, and Cami and I head outside.
She unlocks her adorably tiny—just like her—Prius, and I open the door for her.
“Thanks for a great night, little lady.”
“The pleasure was all mine, big guy.”
A sweet, sloppy, wet kiss follows.
With a grimace on her face, she pouts. “I would love to spend the day sleeping off our all-nighter, but I have a meeting and two showings today. Can I see you tonight?”
“I have a big meeting with a potential client tomorrow and need to prep. Why don’t I pick you up at six and we can run to the hospital and check on Caroline, and then we can have another sleep over?”
“Your place or mine?”
My fiery little redhead is beaming from ear to ear, and the thought of getting in our cars and waiting another ten hours to see each other is excruciating to imagine, but go our separate ways for now we must.
“My client meeting is early tomorrow morning. If you don’t mind staying at my place, it means I get that much more time to uh…fix you breakfast in the morning.”
“And by breakfast you mean, make me scream your name while you make me come like only you can?”
And just like that I am harder than is appropriate with my mother holding a baby inside the house just mere feet from us.
“Woman, if you keep talking like that you aren’t going to make it to your showings.”
She steps into me and kisses my heart through my shirt. “I love you, big guy. Have a nice day at work?”
I tell her I love her into her hair, and she beams up at me like she’s won a prize.
She gets in her car, and I shut her door for her.
She starts the quiet engine of her eco-friendly car and backs out of the drive, and our perfect night has ended.
Luckily for me, I have many perfect nights ahead of me.
Just so she doesn’t forget I send her a text.
Liam: Daily Reminder…I fucking love you, little lady.
Chapter 22
Cami
Two months later…
“Hey, baby. What’s up? You better be hands-free if you’re calling from the car.”
“Yes, mister over-protective…I am using my Bluetooth. But I think you sent me the wrong address. I just realized that I am headed to the property and not happy hour, silly.”
“Nope, that’s the place. Keep driving, baby.”
“Liam, what exactly are you up to?”
“Just keep driving, little lady.” His voice whispers into my car.
“But, what about happy hour?”
“You almost here?”
“Just down the road but tell me what’s happening. You know I don’t do well with surprises, Liam.”
“Can’t a man plan a romantic evening for the woman he loves?”
“Yes but…”
What in the world?
I pull up the long gravel drive, and my headlights shine on something out of a fantasy.
Standing on the porch of his breathtakingly beautiful home is an even more breathtaking man. The walkway to the porch is lined with vases filled with candles and leads to the exotically handsome man in the black suit.
His deep voice fills the inside of my car. “You made it.”
By the time my car is in park, he is standing beside it, slipping his phone into his pocket and ever the gentleman, opening my door for me.
“It’s done?”
“It’s done.”
I find myself staring at the house. I can’t help but find it familiar. I take in the wrap around porch with the swing out front. The black shutters. The red door.
Oh, my God! He didn’t…
“What do you think?”
“It looks familiar,” I say confused.
“Does it?”
He places his hand on my lower back and gently guides me up the steps to the porch and to the front door.
My front door.
The moment I walk into the entry way and my heels step onto the walnut floors, the tears fall from my eyes in a steady stream.
This can’t be happening.
How did he do this?
When we walk into the great room that is complete with the living space I have been dreaming of for years, there is a fire burning and candles lit at every available turn. I’m looking at my dream book come to life.
“What have you done?”
He’s leery and takes a step back as if he’s afraid of my reaction.
“Well, back when I first asked you to move in, I may or may not have stolen your dream book and made copies,” he says sheepishly. “I knew then that I was going to build a life with you and wanted you to have everything you had ever dreamed of. Our time apart cemented it, and I kept going with the plans while I got my shit together. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Speechless.
I, Cameron Holsted, am speechless.
“Babe, you okay?”
Still speechless, I slip off my shoes and step onto the gray shag rug that sits in front of the fireplace. I wiggle my toes in the soft material while my eyes search every corner of the room.
“Okay, I don’t think I have ever heard you go this long without talking. You’re scaring me, little lady. You with me? You mad?”
I feel him take my hand in his, and he’s now standing right next to me. Still not speaking, I just nod and let the tears keep falling.
I feel like I am in a dream as he takes me from room to room, and I take everything in.
The granite countertops and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen.
The kitchen nook with the perfect bay window with a view of
the mountain.
The special-order tile in the master bath.
The artwork ordered and hung in just the right place.
The feminine bedding on the king-size master bed.
He did this all for me?
There isn’t a thing I would change.
We’re back to the main living space, and it’s then I notice all of the candles and hanging lights shining from the back patio. He leads me though the full-length glass doors to the outdoor living space, and this is the first area of the space that isn’t exactly as I had envisioned, but the differences are small.
“I know this isn’t exactly what you wanted. I added some of my own manly tweaks.”
I can’t help but gawk at the outdoor lights that make the space somewhat fantastical, and I can’t help but giggle when I see the outdoor television that has been added to the design.
He sees me chuckle at the TV. “I just figured I’ll be grilling out here, so a TV was in order.”
The theme of the decor is bees, though.
I finally find my voice. “I like the bees,” I say, nodding in the direction of the throw pillows and other outdoor decor.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
At my mention of bees, he suddenly seems nervous.
“Baby, have a seat,” he requests as he motions toward the sofa. I take my seat, but he continues to stand.
Yep, he’s nervous.
“I know you know this, but you saved me from myself. You made me realize the man that I was, and you made me feel worthy. Don’t get me wrong…sometimes, the way you make me feel overwhelms me. It’s just so much all at once that it can take my breath away but in the best kind of way. Baby, I know that you don’t need me, but dammit if I don’t need you. I need you to breathe. You are my air. You are the blood in my veins that makes this heart of mine beat each and every day.”
He stops in front of me, and as if in slow motion my dreams continue coming to life as I watch this kind, funny, gentle man bend down on one knee and pull a spectacular emerald cut diamond out of his pocket.
