“We’ll be home in just a few minutes,” he assured her.
And then what? he wondered. She was his wife and though they’d chosen not to go to some exotic isle for a honeymoon, they were still newlyweds. How was she expecting things to be with them? Platonic? With the two of them merely sharing space like two roommates just tolerating each other’s presence?
Hell, Liam, what are you expecting from the woman? She’s only been in your bed once and since then all you’ve done is kiss her a few times. You think that’s enough to make her want to fall into your arms?
No, he should give her time, Liam mentally argued with himself. Time to get used to the two of them living as man and wife. Time to get accustomed to the idea of sharing the same name and same bed.
But oh, Lord, keeping his hands off her was going to be tough. Ever since he’d kissed her that day on the beach, he’d wanted her. And the days since then hadn’t dimmed his desire. In fact, the passing time had deepened his craving.
“I hope your girls got the kitchen stocked,” she said. “The wedding cake was delicious, but I couldn’t eat much.”
His girls meant Olivia and Edyta, the two hot walkers he’d brought with him to Hollywood. He sometimes asked them to do personal chores, if they could find time to break away from their barn duties, which mainly consisted of walking the horses by hand. Before he and Kitty had left for El Paso he’d given the two young women a list filled with groceries and household items, a credit card to purchase everything and the key to his house in the Westchester community. Liam was hoping Liv and Edie, as he called his two girls, had managed to get everything in place and in order for their arrival.
“You didn’t have much chance to eat,” he said, “Everyone was coming at you from all directions with kisses and congratulations.”
He glanced her way just in time to see the corners of her mouth tilt downward.
“I’m sorry we didn’t have much of a reception,” she said quietly. “Your family must have been disappointed. They’d traveled all that way and I’m sure they would have enjoyed some music and dancing and delicious food. Instead, they got a slice of cake and a swig of punch and a quick goodbye from us before we had to make the plane.”
“Don’t worry about it. There will be other occasions where we can celebrate. Something festive is always going on at the Diamond D. Especially at Christmas. And the baby will be here then.”
She sighed. “I’ve never experienced a Christmas without Dad. It’s not going to be easy. But I’m hoping the baby will fill most of the void.”
The more time he was with Kitty, the more he realized how much her life had revolved around her father’s. And he was beginning to wonder if the man had kept a restraining hand on his daughter, or at least tried to. He’d loved Will and the man had known the racing industry inside and out. But that didn’t mean he’d been perfect.
Wanting to reassure her, he reached over and squeezed her hand. “We have a lot to look forward to, Kitty.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said.
From the corner of his eye, Liam saw her head bow and her fingers absently fiddled with the heavy gold band he’d placed on her finger during the wedding. The pensive sight troubled him, but he hardly knew what to do about it. He could only hope that with a little time she would accept the idea of being his wife.
“I’ve not talked that much with you about your brother,” he said as they neared the street where their house was located. “He seems to care about you very much.”
“Sometimes too much.”
“What does that mean?”
“He’s a whole lot like Dad. He thinks he knows what’s best for me and he gets annoyed when I don’t go along with his thinking.”
“Hmm. And what does he think about you marrying me?” Liam asked.
He could feel her gaze sweeping over the side of his face as he steered the truck into the driveway.
“Why are you asking me that?” she questioned. “You talked with him. Surely you could tell whether he liked you.”
Grunting with wry humor, Liam killed the engine. “Like would be stretching it, Kitty. But I’m not going to let Owen bother me.”
She sighed. “You shouldn’t take my brother personally. It’s nothing against you, Liam. He thinks I’m incapable of making sound decisions, that’s all.”
He turned slightly to look at her. “And he thinks he could make better ones for you? Like not marrying me?”
A tight grimace twisted her lips. “He says he’ll break your neck if you treat me badly.”
Liam chuckled. “He must be more like Will than I thought. I think I’m going to like him.”
She looked at him with surprise. “It doesn’t make you angry that he made such a threat?”
“No. I’d say the same about my brothers-in-law. Even though I like all three of them, I’d enjoy breaking a jaw if he hurt my sister.”
With that he exited the truck then walked around to the passenger door to help her down. Once she was on the ground and standing close to him, he considered pulling her into his arms and kissing her. But already her gaze was straying to the front of the house and Liam quickly decided that whenever he did kiss her, he wanted her undivided attention. He wanted her focus to be on him and nothing else.
Tucking an arm around the back of her waist, he guided her forward across a small lawn landscaped with palm trees and flower beds. Massive bougainvilleas grew to the rooftop of the ranch style house and shrouded a portion of the ground level concrete porch. Except for the distant bark of a dog, the neighborhood was dark and quiet.
It wasn’t a tropical island, Liam thought as he unlocked the door, but here they would be alone for the very first time. What was she expecting from him? Wanting from him? At the wedding and in front of their families, they’d been pretending to be in love. But once they’d gotten on the plane and headed to California, she’d withdrawn from him. Was she trying to tell him that she wanted him to keep his distance? Or was she simply wondering what was next for them?
“It’s good to be home,” she murmured as he pushed open the carved oak door.
Liam hadn’t been expecting her to call the house their home and something about the word and the way she said it gave him the courage to turn and reach for her.
She gasped softly as he lifted her in his arms and cradled her against his chest. “I totally agree,” he said softly. “Welcome home, Mrs. Donovan.”
“Liam! What are you doing?”
Smiling down at her, he stepped into the house and kicked the door shut behind them.
“Carrying my new bride across the threshold,” he told her.
From a nearby window there was just enough light from a streetlamp filtering through the blinds to allow him a glimpse of her face. A shadow lay across one eye and part of her lips, but it didn’t hide the surprise he saw there. Or stem the longing he had to bend his head and kiss her.
“Oh, Liam,” she whispered. “I’m not a real bride.”
He lowered his face to hers. “You feel very real to me.”
As he settled his lips over hers, she made a needy groan low in her throat. At the same time he felt her arms slipping around his neck and the enticing invitation thrilled him, spoke to him as no words could have and before he could temper his desire, his lips were hungrily plundering hers, his arms crushing her even closer to his chest.
He wanted to absorb the taste of her into his senses, pull the intense pleasure inside him so that he could carry it with him forever. But after a while the pressure of her weight on his arms became too great and his lungs burned for a breath of fresh oxygen.
Forcing himself to break the kiss, he quickly carried her though the house until they reached the master bedroom. Inside the large space, a night-light was burning in one corner, illuminating a path to the king-size bed. Once Liam reached it, he set Kitty on her feet, but kept his hands firmly anchored on her shoulders.
“I’m not sure how you feel,” he whispered. “But it f
eels like our wedding night to me.”
Reaching up, she cradled his face between her palms and for a moment he saw raw emotion flicker in her eyes.
“Yes,” she softly agreed. “Our wedding night.”
Bending his head, he brushed his lips against her forehead. She smelled sweet, like a May flower and beneath the fabric of her sweater, the warmth of her flesh seeped into his hands. Just to be touching her in this simple fashion left him trembling with desire and aching for more of her. He was tumbling head over heels down a steep cliff, he thought, without any sign of a handhold to catch himself.
“I want to make love to you, Kitty. To lie beside you and sleep with you. Until I carried you through that door a few minutes ago, I didn’t realize just how much I wanted those things,” he admitted.
“I want the same things, too, Liam. And we are man and wife now,” she added, as though she needed to justify having sex with her husband.
He pushed his fingers into the fine hair at her temple and stroked the golden strands away from her forehead. “We’re going to make this work, Kitty,” he murmured. “We’re going to be happy. Together.”
Before the last of her sigh slipped past her lips, Liam bent his head to kiss her again. She clung to him and he wondered if her reaction was from desire or desperation. But in the end, he decided it didn’t matter. He wanted his wife. In every way.
“Kitty,” he whispered, when their lips finally parted. “Are you okay? I mean—will this be safe for you and the baby?”
“Don’t worry.” She began to undo the buttons on his shirt. “The doctor assured me it would be fine.”
With a groan of relief, he laid her gently onto the mattress then joined her, clothes and all.
After his mouth once again found hers, his hands delved beneath the hem of her sweater and slipped upward until he was touching the warm flesh above the waistband of her skirt. Her soft skin fed his senses and as his hands moved toward her breasts, he could hardly contain the desire that was threatening to overtake him.
This wasn’t like him. He never lost control. Never wanted anything this much. The desperate thoughts tore through his mind as the need to undress her and have her naked in his arms forced him to tear his mouth from hers.
As he pulled the cashmere fabric over her head, she said in a low voice, “Please don’t expect me to look like I did when— Well, a few months ago.”
Tossing the sweater aside, he drew back far enough to look at her and as his gaze met her blue one, his chest swelled with emotions that threatened to choke him. “Kitty, you’re beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely, his hands gently roaming her thickening belly. “The way you look makes me happy. Very happy.”
“Liam.”
His name was the only word she uttered as he pulled away her skirt, then bent his head to press kisses to the precious mound of their baby. Up until now he’d not attempted to get this close to her. But he’d very much wanted to. And now that his cheek was pressed against her, his lips caressing her skin, the baby felt very real to him. No longer was it just an image of the future or a precious hope in his heart. It was a tiny person living and breathing within the safety of this woman’s womb. And he loved it. Oh, how he loved it.
The moment Liam had swept Kitty up in his arms, she’d lost control of her emotions and the barrier she’d tried to erect around her heart had tumbled down like a sandcastle at high tide. Something about his touch affected her in ways she didn’t understand and all she could do was react and relish the pleasure of being close to him.
Now as he pressed warm kisses over her bulging belly, tears stung her eyes and thickened her throat. He might not ever love her, she realized, but she was certain he loved the baby and that fact alone was enough to melt her heart.
Thrusting her hands into his hair, she urged his mouth up to hers and she kissed him hungrily while the heavy weight of her wedding ring reminded her that she belonged to this man. In more ways than she wanted to think about.
When their lips finally parted and he began to nuzzle a trail down the side of her neck, she whispered, “I need to be honest, Liam. That night we went to bed together it wasn’t the wine. Not on my part.”
The honesty in her voice must have snagged his attention because he lifted his head to stare at her. “What are you trying to tell me?”
A faint smile curved her lips as she fumbled with the last two buttons on his shirt. “That I wasn’t tipsy. I knew exactly what I was doing.”
The fronts of his shirt fell away and he gasped sharply as she flattened her hands against his abdomen.
“That’s hard to believe,” he said in a strained voice.
She moved her hands up and down his rib cage, loving the feel of each bump and curve of his corded muscles. “You’re a very sexy man, Liam Donovan,” she said thickly. “I’ve thought so for a long, long time.”
One of his brows arched with surprise and then a crooked grin slowly spread his lips. “Why didn’t you let me in on your secret?”
Because he was the sort of man she’d been trying to avoid, she thought. He was the dangerous kind; the sort that kept his heart locked away.
She sighed. “I didn’t think it would make any difference. You’ve never exactly looked at me like you wanted me.”
He lowered his head and brushed his lips against her cheek. “I’ve always thought you were a beautiful young woman, Kitty. But that night after dinner—when I walked you to your room and we ended up in bed—that’s when it dawned on me how much I wanted you. And my desire had nothing to do with the wine. I could have repeated the alphabet backward, counted to a hundred in Spanish and walked a chalk line.”
She halted her roaming hands as she pondered his admission. “I suppose we both wanted to hide our behavior behind the wine.”
“Well, we don’t need to hide how we feel anymore, do we?”
He was talking about sex, of course. And that much she couldn’t hide from this man. Not when the simple touch of his hand melted every cell in her body.
“I’m not going to try,” she murmured.
He gazed into her eyes a moment longer and then his lips swooped down on hers in a kiss that fairly swept her breath away. At the same time, his hands went to work removing her clothing and she eagerly moved her body first one way and then the other to aid him in the task.
After he’d finally peeled away the last scrap of her underwear, he stood to one side of the bed to shed his jeans and boots. As she watched his long, lean body emerge in the dim light, her heart began to pound with anticipation. And when he returned to her, she reached for him without hesitation.
“I’d planned on letting you sleep by yourself tonight,” he said, his voice hoarse with desire. His hands cupped both breasts and his head bent so that his mouth could make a wet foray over one nipple. “I thought you’d want it that way.”
“You thought wrong. Very wrong.” Her arms wrapped around him, her legs threaded through his. “Thank you for giving me a wedding night, Liam.”
“My absolute pleasure, Kit.”
After that there was no further need for words. Nor was there time for talking. Kitty was too busy using her hands and lips to explore his hard body and too consumed with desire to be able to utter more than soft sighs of pleasure.
And when he finally entered her, she was so choked with emotion that tears stung her eyes and the faint moan trapped in her throat was more like a whimper than anything else.
The sound prompted him to pause and glance down at her.
“Kitty? Am I hurting you?”
“No! Just love me, Liam! Love me!” she implored.
Her plea was all he needed to urge him on and he didn’t hold back as her hips arched toward his. With a needy groan he drove into her then moved into a rhythm that set Kitty’s senses swirling into a raging fire. In a matter of moments she was moving frantically against him, seeking and straining for more and more of the incredible pleasure he was giving.
Somewhere in the back of her f
evered mind, she was partially aware of his hands racing over her body, the sweat trickling off his skin and onto hers. In the silence of the room she could hear the rapid intake of his breath followed by her own. And in her ears, the pounding of her heart was like a deep bass, throbbing to the frantic pace of their bodies.
She didn’t know how much time had passed or what finally pushed her to the brink. All she knew was that she was suddenly flying…soaring among the stars and clouds then drifting ever so slowly back to the warm, sweet circle of her husband’s arms.
*
The next morning when the alarm buzzed loudly next to Liam’s head, he groggily punched the off button then turned over to see that Kitty’s side of the bed was empty.
Although it shouldn’t have, the sight chilled him. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting from his wife this morning. Maybe a kiss or a smile. At the very least, he’d expected her to be lying next to him.
Don’t be a sap, Liam. Kitty gave you a night of great sex. And that’s all you gave her. If you’re looking for bells and whistles and coffee in bed, you’re in for a disappointment.
Disgusted with the mocking voice in his head, he threw back the covers and quickly headed to the shower. By the time he dressed and arrived in the kitchen, he found Kitty standing at the cabinet counter, washing down a piece of toast with a cup of decaffeinated coffee.
Seeing she was already dressed for work, he glanced at his watch. It was only a quarter after five, but that was a late hour for a trainer. “Good morning,” he greeted.
Placing her cup on its saucer, she turned her head to look at him. “Good morning.”
Although there wasn’t a smile on her face, the softness to her features took away some of the sting of finding himself alone in their bed.
“You’re up early. Headed to the track?” he asked.
She nodded. “I have two fillies scheduled for early workouts this morning. I need to be there. Clayton is developing a good eye, but he doesn’t always pick up on the little nuances.”
She dabbed a napkin to her lips and as she turned to toss the paper into a trash bin, Liam couldn’t help but notice how fetching she looked in a pair of jeans and thin yellow sweater. Her honey-blond hair was swept back from her face with a blue paisley scarf and the deep color made her blue eyes even more vivid.
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