And he knew exactly what that meant. “Our very own secret code words,” he murmured.
“Yeah.”
He wrapped his arms around her and guided her out to the dark hallway, closing the door behind them. Then he leaned her up against the wall, lowered his head, and quit fighting what he wanted more than his next breath.
* * *
Maybe it was the roller coaster of adrenaline she’d just ridden. Or the way Liam had taken over and protected them so effortlessly. Damn, maybe it was the fact that he’d slid his mother’s engagement ring on her finger in a dark car, showing a willingness to go to any length to help her.
Andi would find a list of rationales for this kiss, but the truth would never change.
She wanted him. And she was so damn tired of not having him.
Complicated and messy as sex might be, she didn’t care about anything but the sweet taste of Liam’s mouth and the tease of his tongue and the touch of his hands getting more and more familiar with her body.
Heat coursed through her, making her nerve endings sing and her hips rock against the hard ridge of a very aroused man. It was flat-out glorious.
She moaned as sensations sparked in her body, and they broke the kiss but not full-body contact. He had her firmly against the wall as his hands moved from her waist and hips over her breasts, and his lips left a trail of kisses over her throat and under her jaw.
“Liam.” She tunneled her fingers into his silky dark hair, gripping his head to press his mouth even harder against her skin.
He answered with a groan that came from deep inside his chest, the sound of resignation and desire and maybe a plea for no talking, only kissing.
Taking control of her mouth again, he plunged his tongue against hers, sliding his hands under her arms to raise them and pin her helplessly against the wall as he kissed her and let their hips roll against each other, building the heat to a frenzy.
“This isn’t going to stop,” she managed to say when getting her breath.
“Not unless you want it to.” He found a sweet spot on her neck, driving her crazy as he flicked his tongue and suckled lightly. “I can stop anytime.”
“I can’t,” she admitted.
He stilled for a second, very slowly lifting his head to look at her. “Can’t or won’t?”
She didn’t know how to answer. “I don’t want to stop.” She pressed a palm against his jaw, feeling the brush of whiskers and a pounding pulse. “I know I should, but I’m not strong enough. I want to sleep with you.” She mouthed the plea, only air and desperation instead of voice. “I want to have sex with you.”
“And you’re afraid I want to make love.”
“Isn’t it just semantics?”
His eyes closed a little as his body moved like it had a will of its own, rocking against her, hard and mighty. “I don’t care what you call it, Andi. Make the rules. Set the boundaries. Give it whatever name you want, but…” He used his whole body to press her against the wall. “Let me have you.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes.”
It was all he needed. In one easy move, he inched back, bent over, and scooped her in his arms, stealing her breath. Holding her as if she weighed no more than a cloud, he marched up to the next level, turned into her darkened bedroom, and walked her to the bed. There, he laid her down carefully, the only sounds their unsteady, rough breaths.
And somewhere downstairs, the soft padding feet of a protective dog.
She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the muted stream of light that spilled in from the hall, enough to find his face and see his expression as he leaned over her.
“What’d you decide to call it?” he asked softly.
“Why do you need to know?”
“Because it will tell me how you want to undress. Fast and desperate or slow and sweet.”
Oh, she wanted slow and sweet. She wanted achingly slow and insanely sweet. She wanted the undressing to take as long as humanly possible and wanted to allow him to touch and explore every inch of her before he entered her.
But then it would mean too much to him. And her.
“Fast and desperate.” She yanked at his shirt, pulling it up his back like she couldn’t stand for it to be on for one more second.
He obliged, pulling it off and tossing it to the floor.
“And these.” With shaking fingers, she unbuttoned his fly and unzipped his khakis, dying to get her hands on him.
He helped in that regard, too, he got out of his clothes in a smooth move that left him in nothing but boxer briefs on her bed.
“My turn,” he said, brushing her hair off her face and spreading it on the pillow under her head. “And I want slow and sweet.”
Her heart folded in half as he reached for the bottom of her short cotton top. Very, very slowly, he drew it up, taking his time to reveal her body inch by inch.
“I thought you’d want fast.”
“You thought wrong. I’ve waited too damn long to rush things.”
Liam’s kryptonite.
Chloe’s words floated in Andi’s head as she closed her eyes and gave in to his measured moves. He took off her top and laid it to the side of the bed. He grazed his fingers over the rise of her breasts, following the lace outline of her bra, for what seemed like a good long minute. A very good long minute.
With each passing second, her heart rate ratcheted higher and her breathing became more labored, and her poor lower half turned to a pool of liquid. Finally, he unhooked her bra and drew the straps slowly down her arms, his fingers caressing her skin as the bra came off.
His breath hitched as he looked at her bare breasts, and he let out a soft grunt when his lips took his first kiss.
She was immediately lost, moving and moaning and clutching and cooing as his mouth traveled south.
With more maddeningly deliberate hands, he took off her linen slacks and passed what seemed like an hour slipping her panties lower and lower and finally, finally touching her most private place with more reverence than anything she’d ever felt in her life.
“You’re killing me,” she murmured when she wanted to scream for more.
“I’m loving you,” he corrected, kissing her mouth before she could argue and taking her whole body to a place where she didn’t care at all what they called this, she just wanted more.
She could hear the low rumble from his chest as he—
He shot straight up, ripping his mouth from hers.
“What?” she asked.
He quieted her with a quick shake of his head, and then she could hear that it was Jag’s low, angry, threatening growl that rumbled from the first floor. Liam narrowed his eyes, his whole body frozen as he listened, and suddenly, Jag barked. Loud, sharp, furious. And pawed at something.
“The back door?” Liam muttered, rolling away from her in one move, wearing nothing but his boxer briefs. “Stay here.”
With that, he charged downstairs, the sound of his footsteps on the stairs drowned out by a wild frenzy of barking that would wake the dead. Certainly Christian. Without letting herself think about what was just interrupted, Andi jumped out of the bed, her son her only concern. She grabbed a robe hanging over a chair from that morning’s shower and wrapped it around a body still vibrating with need.
But her pulse was kicking for a completely different reason as she listened to Jag’s bark change in a way that made her guess Liam had him on the back patio. Why? Standing on the second-floor landing, she closed her eyes to listen, but Christian’s door popped open and he stepped out.
“What’s wrong with Jag, Mommy?”
Instantly, she circled him in a hug and stepped him back into his room. “I don’t know. Liam is checking on why he’s barking.”
“He misses me at night,” Christian said, wiping his eyes. “But he has to work.”
He sure was working now. Her heart still thumping, she led Christian back to bed. Was Nora trying to break in?
“Time to get back to sleep, honey,” An
di said, trying to stay calm and cool and not let Christian sense any tension.
“I can’t sleep without Jag.”
“Of course you can,” she assured him, noticing that the barking had slowed, but not stopped. “You know he’s doing his important job at night, making sure we’re safe.”
“Why wouldn’t we be safe?” His voice cracked, along with Andi’s heart.
“We’re completely safe.”
“We might die.” The pitch rose to a precry she recognized so well.
Andi folded her arms around him, rubbing his back, sliding him under the covers.
“I’m scared to die, Mommy.”
“Christian, you’re not going to die. You’re going to sleep.”
“Daddy died.” The words came out on a sob. “I’m scared to sleep because I might die.”
“Oh, honey.” She lay down next to him, holding his little body, transported back to the many, many nights she’d slept in here with a tiny boy sobbing and scared. “Don’t even think that.”
Jag’s barking had settled to a few sharp noises followed by a growl, then the low timbre of Liam’s voice issuing commands. Andi rolled to her left to listen, but Christian’s hand seized her arm.
“Don’t leave, Mommy. Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t, baby,” she promised, easing right back next to him. “I’ll be right here until you fall asleep.”
“But I’ll wake up. Those scary dreams will wake me up.”
“And I’ll be here. I promise.” She heard Liam’s footsteps coming up the stairs, so she kissed Christian’s head. “Let me talk to Liam and tell him I’m sleeping here with you tonight.”
“Promise? Promise you’ll be here, Mommy?”
“I give you my word.” With one more kiss, she slipped off the bed and into the hall to meet Liam’s concerned look with a questioning one of her own.
“Something on the patio spooked him.” He whispered softly so Christian wouldn’t hear.
Her eyes widened. “Nora?”
He shrugged. “It’s secure, and he’s on full alert. Did Christian wake up?”
“Yeah and…” She swallowed, tightening the robe a bit. “He needs me tonight.”
Liam’s eyes flickered, but the reaction was gone in a split second. “Of course he does. Stay here, and I’ll get…” He gestured to the robe. “I know what you sleep in,” he finished.
Grateful, she let out a sad sigh. “Sorry.”
“No. Are you kidding? It’s not…” He shook his head. “He needs you. Number-one priority.”
She gave him a silent nod of gratitude, stepping back into the darkened bedroom.
“Is Jag okay, Mommy?” Christian asked.
“He’s fine. He heard a car or something, nothing to worry about.” She sat down on the side of the bed, aching for a different solution but knowing this was the only one.
This was why she’d made her private vow in the first place: no man before Christian.
“Andi.” Liam tapped lightly on the doorframe, but didn’t step into the room.
“Hang on,” she whispered to Christian, going out into the hall.
“Here.” He handed her a tiny bundle that she recognized as her sleep shorts and a tank top. He was dressed again, too, in light sweat pants and a T-shirt. “I’m going to sleep downstairs in the living room,” he added. “Just…because.”
She sighed and put a hand on his chest, not surprised to feel his heart still pumping like hers. “Guess I’m not destined to thank you for all this.” She added a weak smile, but got none in return.
“That’s not what we were doing,” he said softly.
“I know, it’s just that…” She looked down at her hands, suddenly remembering the ring he’d slid on her finger in the car. “You’re a good man, Liam Kilcannon.”
He gave a dry laugh, as if being good hadn’t gotten him where he wanted to go. “Take care of Christian, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
She nodded and leaned against the wall, watching him go downstairs and into the shadows.
Chapter Sixteen
At the first hint of dawn, Liam got up from the living room sofa and took Jag out to the patio, curious to see how he’d act in the daylight. He’d been worked up as hell last night, desperate to get outside. When Liam had let him on the back patio, the dog launched himself to the wall, up on his hind legs, barking as if someone had just climbed that wall and barely escaped the dog’s wrath.
This morning, Jag sniffed outside like a drug-hunting hound, walking the perimeter of the small, grassy area, focused on one corner where the wall and house met, digging, barking, rooting for whatever his powerful scent glands had picked up. Then he’d peed like he was literally pissed off at not finding what he wanted.
Nothing looked unusual to Liam, and the lock on the back door wasn’t scratched like someone had tried to pick it. Had Nora come back?
Liam walked across the dew-damp grass to look at the six-foot wall again. The side facing the street had no foliage, which would make it really tough to scale.
From the inside, it would take some doing, using the vines for footholds, but getting out would be easier than getting in. If someone breached the patio, Jag would go nuts.
The latch clicked on the back door, making him turn and Jag cease his sniffing. Andi stepped outside, her hair still unbrushed and tousled, the same bathrobe she’d had on last night tied tightly around her waist, and the same question in eyes dimmed by sleep-deprived shadows.
“What are you doing out here?” she asked.
“Checking it out in daylight. Trying to figure out what had him worked up last night.”
She looked at Jag, who’d resumed his furious digging. “He’s still worked up.”
“He smells something.”
“Oh.” She stepped closer, inhaling and letting it out on a sigh, absently reaching for Jag, who stopped digging to nuzzle his nose against her leg. Who could blame him? “Do you think Nora tried to get in?”
“I don’t know how unless she had a ladder. Could have been anything, you know. An animal would make him crazy, too. A possum or a rabbit. Maybe not this crazy, but…” He shrugged and looked at the dog, because Andi was so damn beautiful it hurt his eyes to stare too long.
She lifted her hand, though, getting his attention, then turned it so the morning sun caught the light of the ring he’d given her last night.
“We haven’t discussed this yet,” she said.
“We were busy.”
A soft flush darkened her creamy complexion. “Was this your idea?”
“Uh, this might shock you. The Dogfather.”
She almost smiled, but that whisper of disappointment was in her eyes again. “Of course. I should have known.”
“He wanted me to give it to you at dinner last night.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He shrugged. “Bone-deep hatred of being the center of attention and handing my brothers reasons to mock me.”
She gave a dry laugh and stepped barefoot onto the damp grass, not answering him.
“Be careful where you walk, Andi,” he warned. “You might step in…”
“Kryptonite.”
Under any other circumstances, he would have laughed. Except he knew exactly why she said it. “I might have to kill Shane.”
She made her way to the wall, placing her hands on it, standing on her tiptoes but too short to look over it. The move showed him how difficult it would be for a woman her size to scale this wall.
“Am I your kryptonite?”
Behind her, he placed one hand on her shoulder, slowly turning her around. “Yes, Andi Rivers.” His voice came out husky as he lightly touched her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. “You are my weakness.”
She closed her eyes.
“You don’t like that.”
When she looked at him again, she searched his face, eye to eye, her brows drawn as if trying to find something she couldn’t. “Liam, you’re almost forty. Why haven’t
you ever married? And if you say because of me, I’ll know you’re lying. We dated for one month, and it was great, yes, but hasn’t there ever been anyone else?”
He swallowed hard. “My standards are high.”
“As they should be.”
“No, mine are ridiculous. I’ve met terrific women, yes. I’ve been involved and had relationships over the years, but they all fizzled out because…” Oh hell. What did he have to lose? “I think the world of my dad, as you know. And we laugh about him trying to get us all married, one by one. But, Andi, I have always wanted to be exactly like him.”
She waited, listening intently while he gathered his thoughts.
“He’s a lot of things, you know,” he finally continued. “A great father, a gifted vet, a good citizen. But first and foremost, he was Annie Kilcannon’s husband. He took that job to heart, lived it every day they were married, and shared something with her that I don’t think ten percent of the world’s population manages to find.”
He took a breath, the long speech so foreign to a man who despised talking, especially about feelings. But it was important she know that he took love and marriage so seriously.
“I refuse to settle for less than that.” He stroked the column of her neck with two thumbs, lost in her eyes as he made the admission. “You are the first woman I’ve ever met that makes me think that kind of life is possible for mere mortals and not just my parents.”
“Oh…Liam.” Her eyes misted, and she came closer. “That’s a lot of pressure for one single mother.”
“Don’t feel pressured, Andi. Be honored. And honest. Could you ever feel the same?”
“You know how skeptical I am about being so certain. Things change.”
“Like where you’re going to live?” At her frown, he added, “Nora said something about living in Charlottesville last night.”
“There are stipulations in the will that say I’d have to change Christian’s last name to Scott, he’d have to be raised in the family home in Charlottesville, and he couldn’t be adopted by anyone I marry.”
He made a face as the ridiculous reality of those stipulations hit him. “What the hell?”
Leader of the Pack (The Dogfather Book 3) Page 17
