by Ted Evans
After she tucks Frank into his little bed, she returns to the living room to find Liam still there, his long frame stretched out across the sofa, a beer bottle dangling from his fingers. She drops onto the opposite end and murmurs her thanks when he gestures to another sweating bottle waiting for her on the table.
“So…” he starts.
“You don’t have to talk, Liam. I know you’re one of those silent types. Don’t feel like you have to force anything around me.”
He raises an eyebrow at her and takes a swig from his bottle. “Friends talk, right?”
“I guess.”
“So, we’ll talk. Let’s start with why you didn’t go to work tonight. Or last night.”
“How did you know…? Never mind. Um, I don’t have sitter anymore, my last one wanted more money than I could pay her. So does everyone else I contact. Childcare is expensive.”
“Frank’s dad doesn’t help you out with bills?”
“Uh…” Willow starts plucking at the threads on the edge of her cut-off shorts. “He’s not around.”
“Sorry.”
Liam thinks about the fact that he has a habit of asking the wrong question and decides to stop talking.
“Okay, your turn.” Willow pins Liam with her eyes. “Were you really in jail?”
Liam looks squarely into her eyes, studying her as if he is trying to tell if she really wants to know the answer. “I was,” he answers shortly.
“Was it for...anything…bad?” Willow hears her voice pitch higher and clears her throat.
“It was prison, honey. I wasn’t there for yarn-bombing kittens.”
Willow chokes on her beer.
Liam laughs at her, and warmth rushes over her at the sound of his laughter. She likes his deep, throaty chuckle. She hopes he’ll laugh more. With her.
“No. It was ‘bad’, I guess. I didn’t physically hurt or murder anyone. It was theft. It was wrong, I know. But I was young. And under the influence of a…well, a person and various substances.”
“Ah,” Willow says. “And this ‘person’, is she still around?”
“I didn’t say she.”
“You didn’t have to.”
“But no. I don’t know where she is. Do you know where Frank’s dad is?”
Willow takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly, thinking over her answer before she says anything. “I do know where Frank’s dad is. He doesn’t know where we are and it’s best that it stays that way. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Well, this got personal, fast.” Willow pushes up off the sofa and grabs her empty bottle. “Another beer?” When she reaches for Liam’s bottle, he grabs her hand instead, threading his fingers through hers and studying the lines criss-crossing her palm. She stands still and lets him trace the blue-green veins threading through her wrist. His touch is light but it burns across her skin.
He’s staring up at her. “I like you, Willow. And Frank.”
She tugs her bottom lip between her teeth, afraid to say anything. She’s still not sure about Liam, she’s afraid if she says the wrong thing that he’ll disappear. She finally settles on, “I like you, too.”
“I’m not going to hurt you or Frank. Not intentionally.”
She tries to tug her hand from his fingers but he tightens his grip and pulls her down to his lap. He finally frees her hand, only to tangle his hands through her hair, rolling the strands around his fingers, tugging her closer to him. He’s burning against her and his thumbs rasp over her jaw before tugging lightly at her lower lip. When he slants his lips over hers, she melts across his body, fitting herself to his angles. She lets her eyes slip shut.
Chapter Nine
Liam
Liam sweeps his tongue into Willow’s mouth, tasting his way across her lips. She’s sweet and slightly salty against his mouth. He probes deeper, teasing at the sensitive flesh until her breath comes short and fast. Breaking his kiss, he moves across her neck, nipping his teeth into her skin to see the flesh pebble. He tugs her head back and licks his way across the hollow at the base of her neck. He can smell her body heating up and when he pulls her against him, he can feel her nipples, high and hard, pushing into his chest. His cock tightens in his jeans.
He lifts her from his lap and turns, settling her onto the sofa before dipping his head again for another searching kiss. This one slow and easy and lasting an eternity. Willow is under him, one long, slim leg wrapped around his thigh, pulling him closer to her as her arms creep around his neck. They twine around each other until Liam isn’t sure where her skin starts and his ends. This is different than before. His need is tempered by his desire to feel her shuddering against him, to hear her murmuring in his ear.
Looking down at her, Liam sweeps her hair from forehead and cradles her cheek in his hand. She’s smiling up at him shyly and he’s struck by how young she looks. So sweet and trusting. He pushes away the thought that he’s not deserving of her trust and tugs her t-shirt up and over her head. Her tits bounce free and he bends down to capture a firm, pink nipple between his teeth. He hears her gasps and her fingers tangle into his hair, pulling him against her, urging him to suck at her upright tits. He pulls the turgid peak into his mouth and laves his tongue across the tip, pulling ragged pants from Willow’s mouth.
Moving down, across the silken expanse of her tummy, Liam drags his tongue across her skin and puffs air across the molten trails he leaves behind. When he finally reaches the button of her shorts, she’s shivering under him, her skin flushed pink, her tits quivering with each gasping breath she makes. Liam flicks open the button and tugs her shorts down, his fingers skimming over her legs. He tosses them aside and drags his eyes over her body, splayed across the sofa under him. Liam thinks she might be the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. She’s pink and white, rose-petal soft, skin flushed a deeper blush anywhere his fingers have burned into her. Her violet eyes have darkened to almost black, deep and fathomless as they study him above her.
He drops his head into her soft belly and groans lightly against her. His skin prickles when her fingers rake over his scalp and his cock throbs hard against the restriction of his jeans. When he looks up, she’s still staring at him, a smile playing around her lips. In one swift move, he drops to the floor beside the sofa and rips her panties off. He tugs her around, her bottom resting against the edge of the sofa, and pushes her knees apart. Then, he’s kneeling between her legs, her sex spread open in front of him, glinting pink and dewy.
Liam dips his head and runs his tongue across her pussy, swiping up and over before diving back down and pushing his stiffened tongue into her molten center. He feels her stiffen and her legs drop even further. She’s pushing up into him, her hips moving against his face, her hands clutching at his hair. She’s panting out his name in little gasps as she rides his tongue.
Willow mewls in disappointment at Liam when he pulls his tongue back but seems to change her mind when he slips a finger deep inside her. He strokes at her softly then adds another finger and strokes at her again. She sighs and moves with him. When he leans down and latches his mouth onto her clit, her sighs become moans. He sucks deeply, pulling at her swollen bud, sliding his fingers in and out of her slick sex. He laves his tongue across her clit, circling and nipping at the tender flesh, his fingers moving in her folds. He hears when her moans change, feels her tightening around his fingers. When Willow pushes up against him, he bites down lightly and sucks her clit between his teeth. Her legs stiffen around him and she grabs a nearby throw pillow, burrowing her head into it to stifle her cries. Her body covers his hand and chin in sweet moisture.
Impatient now, Liam fumbles at his belt, hastily pushing his jeans down to his knees. Willow grins when his thick cock pops free of his boxers, then she sits up and tugs at his t-shirt, helping him pull it over his head. She runs her nails across his chest, leaving light marks behind that she soothes over with her tongue before pulling him down and fitting her lips over his. He lets her tongue explore h
is mouth, lets her hands wander, skim across the flat, hardened plane his of stomach. When her hands play across his firm ass and she digs her fingers in the muscles, he can’t take anymore. He needs to be in her.
Lowering Willow back to the sofa, he takes a minute to take her in, spread open and glistening for him, her eyes sparking with her desire. He tugs at her thighs, pulling her forward, wrapping her calves around his hips. She bucks and moans when he runs one finger down her pink slit. She’s more than ready for him and Liam doesn’t wait a moment longer, one firm push is all it takes and his cock is sheathed in her heat, wrapped around him like velvet. Her muscles are already fluttering around his length. Liam can’t remember a girl who ever got this wet or this excited for him. When Willow lifts her hips, settling him further inside her, Liam grits his teeth against the pulling deep in his gut. This girl is going to undo him.
He moves against her slowly at first, reaching down to pinch lightly at her nipples, flattening his palm against her belly, feeling the quiver building inside her. Willow’s quiet mewls are music to him, spurring him to move faster. He looks down, watches as his cock slides out of her pussy, watches as her sex pulls him back in. It’s so fucking hot. His breath is ragged to match hers now. As he pulls in and out of her, watching the need build in her eyes, he reaches down and pinches at her swollen clit. She stills. Liam presses against the tender bud with the flat of his thumb, rotating it, pushing into the flesh of her swollen sex. She explodes around him then, wordless, back arching off the sofa, her pussy clenching tightly around him, her entire body tremulous under him. He plunges his iron-hard cock into her quickly, three, four more times and adds his own wordless cries to hers as he empties his desire into her body and his world blacks around the edges.
***
They’re lying on the sofa, Willow pulled into the curve of his body, a blanket from the chair draped over them. Liam is running his chin softly back and forth over her silky hair, enjoying the light tickle across his face. He thinks back to something she said earlier and stops.
“Willow, what did you mean when you said it’s better if Frank’s dad doesn’t know where you guys are?”
Willow’s spine stiffens and he feels her move almost imperceptibly away from him. He can feel the chill between then now and he’s afraid she’s going to get up, walk away from him. Liam wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her back against his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head again.
“Sorry, sorry. You don’t have to talk about it.”
She makes a noncommittal sound low in her throat.
Liam sighs. “So, when I was twenty-one, I moved to Vegas.”
Willow is quiet in front of him.
“I didn’t know what I wanted. Mostly, just to be out of my dad’s way. And Vegas sounded so cool. Parties all night, clubs open till dawn. Only thing I knew about the place was what I saw on TV.”
Liam feels her relax against him again and knows that he’s on the right track with her.
“I took the first job I could find: bar-back in a strip club.”
Willow snorts and he smiles against her hair.
“Yeah, typical twenty one-year-old. I may not have looked real hard for another gig after I got that one.”
Willow drapes her arm over his and winds her fingers around his where they rest against her stomach. She’s quiet, waiting for him to talk, and he realizes this is the first time in years that he’s wanted someone to listen to him. To understand his side.
“In the club is where I met Harriet. She was gorgeous.” He stops, waiting to see if Willow is going to move away again. When she doesn’t, he keeps going. “She was also a greedy bitch. She was a dancer but it wasn’t enough for her. She always wanted more. She had to be the prettiest girl in the club, then on the Strip. She had to have more money, more expensive stuff, more fancy vacations than anyone I’d ever known.”
Willow stops moving, as if she was thinking the same thing as he did when she first mentioned her mom’s name.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure that it isn’t your mom.”
She doesn’t reply, but sits frozen up on the bed.
“Anyway. Long story short: Harriet is why I went to prison. I would have done anything she wanted me to do. And what she wanted me to do was rob and steal for her. So I did.”
Willow takes his hand and pulls it under her chin, dropping kisses across his knuckles.
“We got on the wrong side of some very bad people. Harriet set me up to keep herself out of trouble.”
Quiet stretches between them. Finally, he hears Willow say softly against his hand, “I’m sorry. Are you sure that it’s not my mom? It sounds just like her. But I’m not sure about her being much of a dancer. Then again, no one’s seen her for years, so who knows?”
He presses his lips into her sunshine hair. “It doesn’t matter. All I know is that you’ve got nothing to be sorry for. It’s done. I know Harriet never loved me. She only ever loved herself. And I survived.”
“I survived too,” Willow finally says, “But are you sure that it’s not my mom?”
He laughs, “You miss the point. I don’t care. I just need to find her and then…”
“What?”
“That’s the crazy part. I don’t even know what I want to do. I’ve spent so fucking long looking for her. I had it on my mind all those years I spent in the joint. But for the first time in a long time.”
“What?”
“I don’t even know what I’m going to do when I find her.”
Liam pulls his hand from Willow’s and rakes his fingers through her hair, smooth and gentle, over and over, lulling her into an easy relaxation.
“I was in Vegas, too. And I knew bad people.”
“I wouldn’t expect less from a city named for sin,” he says against her temple.
“Frank’s dad was the worst of the worst. All I wanted to do was sing and I thought working in a casino would help.”
“All casinos help with is emptying people’s pockets.”
“Yeah, I know now. He kept me locked up in his hotel, under his “protection”, he said. Which basically meant a guard on me at all times.”
Liam starts to get a gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach as he listens to Willow tell him how her ex kept her locked up like a pet, only to be taken out when he wanted to show her off.
“When I found out I was pregnant I knew I had to run. He was violent and horrible and I didn’t want my kid growing up like that, no matter how much money he had. One night, he took all his men out for some reason and I slipped past the other casino security.”
Liam feels hot tears patter his arm but he doesn’t move to rub them away. He lets Willow cry on him, lets her feel the safety of his arms.
“I ran from Vegas, took the first bus I could find and changed buses in every city until I wound up in a little town in Montana. I found work in a diner and the old widower who owned the place took pity on me. Let me stay at his place. Called me his daughter. I didn’t want to go back home, because I was scared that he would find me. He’s such a cruel man that if he did find me, he’s the type that would make everyone pay. I didn’t stay there for long. I sometimes felt guilty about putting someone else’s life at stake.”
“One day I started noticing a big, black SUV with tinted windows cruising the main street. Even before I saw the Nevada tags I knew it was him, or his goons. I headed out the back door of the diner and hid until dark. Then I had a friend drive me three towns over and I got on a bus and headed for California. I figured, a bigger city might hide me better. I’ve bounced from San Diego to San Francisco and in between.”
“Cali’s a good place to be anonymous in,” he says to her.
“I know. We still move every six months or so. I can’t risk staying in one place too long. If I do, he’ll catch up. I know it. He’ll take Frank and he’ll…” her voice is rising, tinged with panic now.
“I don’t know what to do. Frank will need to start school in a year or two.
I’m always broke. How much longer can I run? And how far? I don’t know how far is far enough.”
“Hey, hey, shhh,” Liam murmurs as her chest heaves in a sob.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be dumping this on you.”
“It’s okay, dump away.”
Willow giggles slightly and the sound is sweet to Liam.
“Listen Willow, I can…” Liam cuts off and clears his throat, not sure how to say what he wants. “I can help you out some. You and Frank.”
“You don’t have to, Liam. That’s not what I wanted. I didn’t sleep with you so you’d help us.”
“I know. I can help though, if I can. I know what it’s like to be alone.”
“I don’t want you to feel like you owe me anything, Liam. Besides I could be your stepdaughter.”
“Which means that I should definitely be helping you.” He smiles at her.
“And if Harriet shows up, are you going to kill her?”
He shakes his head, “No. But I do know one thing. For now, you can count on me if you need anything. Okay? Friends, right? Knowing that either one of us might have to leave quickly and disappear. I think it’s best if we’re just friends.”
“I can do friends,” she says quickly.
“Good,” he whispers into her ear before nipping at the lobe.
When she presses her rounded bottom into his hardening cock, he doesn’t stop her. Liam bites the back of her neck, shifts her thighs, and slips his cock into her waiting heat. As he moves against her, he realizes that he’s lied to her. And to himself.
They’ll never be just friends.
He wants more, he was never good at friendships, but then again he was even worse when he tried having a relationship. Yet, for the first time in a long time, he can’t think of having anything less with Willow.
Chapter Ten
Willow
Willow keeps waiting for her bubble to burst. The past few days have been some of the happiest she can remember. Liam has been taking care of Frank and it didn’t seem to bother him one little bit.
