Chapter 14 #2
Will leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
“I have an idea or two,” he says, his tone deliberately vague.
Phern stretches her legs out across the rug, arching a brow at him.
“Please tell me one of those ideas involves opening a proper bar.”
Liam chuckles beside me, his thumb absently stroking the back of my hand. “We’ve already got Knot and Spur,” he says, amused.
Phern snorts, waving a hand dismissively.
“Yeah, and those two are one more domestic dispute away from being a Dateline episode.” Phern eyes Will. “Come on. Flowers End. It’s perfect.”
She says it so easily, like it’s obvious. I glance at Will, and from the flush creeping up his neck, I get the feeling they’ve talked about this before. More than once, knowing Phern and her persistent nature.
Will clears his throat, adjusting his hat.
“I’ll think about it,” he mutters, but the ghost of a smile tugs at his mouth.
Eventually, the evening winds down.
Sam and Charlie head out first, promising to bring over a casserole tomorrow because “Olive’s gonna be too busy breaking in the ranch house to cook.”
Phern lingers a few minutes longer, ribbing Will until he practically shoves her out the door with a muttered “She’s gonna be the death of me.”
And just like that, it’s quiet again.
Just me and Liam.
And the big, beautiful, terrifying future in front of us.
I stand in the middle of the living room, still barefoot, still feeling like I’m floating somewhere between grief and joy, when Liam moves behind me and wraps his arms around my waist.
He rests his chin on my shoulder, his voice a soft, low rumble against my ear.
“Welcome home, honey.”
The words hit harder than I expect, stealing the air from my lungs. I turn in his arms, sliding my hands up his chest, my heart so full it aches.
“Thank you,” I whisper, my throat tight.
He grins, tipping his forehead against mine.
“Got one more surprise for you,” he says.
My brows lift. “Liam Stone, if you got me another cow, I'm gonna make you sleep in the barn.”
One Christmas he bought a cow for the ranch and said it was my present. I’ve never let him live it down because we both knew that cow was a present for him.
He laughs a deep, full sound that wraps around my heart like a hug.
“No cow,” he promises. “Come on.”
He tugs my hand gently and leads me down the hallway, past the guest rooms, until we stop in front of a closed door that leads to the mudroom at the back of the house.
I frown.
“Why are we going to the mudroom?”
He just winks and pushes the door open.
And there in the center of the room is Sammi, my little black kitten.
She’s purring on a giant, cushioned cat tree that looks like it cost a fortune.
There are toys scattered everywhere, climbing shelves mounted on the walls, a cozy bed tucked into one corner, and a custom sign that reads Sammi's Room hanging over the door.
Tears blur my vision instantly.
“You—" My voice breaks. “You did all this?”
Liam shrugs, trying for nonchalance but failing miserably.
“Figured she deserved a home, too.” He rubs the back of his neck, suddenly sheepish.
“You’re ridiculous,” I whisper, tears slipping down my cheeks.
“And you love it,” he says, smiling so big it nearly undoes me.
I nod, laughing through my tears. “Yeah, I really, really do.”
“Good,” he murmurs into my hair, his arms locked tight around me. “Because I’m never letting you go.”
“Good,” I whisper back, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth.
I pet Sammi for another few seconds, her purrs vibrating against my palm.
Then, grinning wickedly, I say to Liam, “Well, cowboy, you just earned yourself a blow job.”
Liam jerks back to look at me, his eyes going comically wide like I just offered to hand him the keys to the universe.
“Well, shit,” he says, dead serious. “If I had known that’s all it’d take, I would've built that cat room on day one.”
I laugh, shoving at his chest, but he catches my wrist and pulls me flush against him, his smile all heat and trouble.
Without another word, he sweeps me up into his arms.
“Come on, honey,” Liam says as he carries me toward our room. “Can’t leave a cowboy hanging after a promise like that.”
I giggle, clutching his shoulders, feeling lighter, happier, freer than I can ever remember.
As he kicks the door shut behind us in the bedroom, his mouth finds mine in a kiss that’s rough and sweet all at once, full of everything we are and everything we’re still going to be.
Liam lays me gently on the bed, hovering over me with that cocky little grin that drives me wild.
“You sure about this, honey?” he teases, dragging his fingers slowly up the inside of my thigh. “Because I’m not above bribery to make sure you follow through.”
I laugh, curling my arms around his neck, tugging him closer.
“You don’t have to bribe me,” I whisper against his mouth, my lips brushing his like a secret. “I want to.”
He kisses me then, like he’s savoring the moment he’s waited for way too long.
And when I slide down the bed, nudging him back against the mattress, he goes willingly, sinking into the pillows, his hands threading into my hair like he never wants to let go.
He watches me with lazy satisfaction, his chest heaving, his mouth parted, his eyes dark and full of heat that makes my whole-body ache. When my fingers find the buttons of his jeans, he lifts his hips, helping me tug them down, boxers and all.
The moment my hand wraps around the thick, heavy weight of his cock, he lets out a low, guttural groan that shoots straight through me.
“Fuck, honey,” he rasps, his head tipping back, throat working as he swallows hard. “You’re gonna kill me.”
I smile as I stroke him once, feeling him pulse hot and eager against my palm.
“Not planning on killing you,” I murmur, pressing an open-mouthed kiss to the sharp line of his hipbone. “Just want to taste you a little.”
He growls low in his throat, his hands tightening in my hair as I kiss lower, nipping and tasting my way down his body, worshipping every inch of him like he deserves.
By the time my mouth replaces my hand, taking him deep, Liam is a wreck above me, fists twisting in the sheets, gasping my name like a prayer and a curse all at once.
And I love every second.
It doesn’t take long. Liam’s whole body goes rigid, his thighs trembling under my hands, his hips jerking up toward my mouth like he can’t help himself.
“Honey,” he grits out, voice breaking on the word. “You gotta stop unless you want this over real fucking quick.”
I pull back slowly, dragging my tongue along the sensitive underside of him just to hear the ruined sound he makes. When I glance up, the look on his face nearly undoes me. It’s like I’ve stripped him bare in a way no one else ever has.
He moves in a blur, surging forward, grabbing me under the arms and hauling me up his body like I weigh nothing.
Our mouths crash together—filthy, claiming, starved—and then he’s flipping us, pinning me beneath him on the bed.
“You wanna play rough, honey?” he growls against my mouth, his voice a low, dangerous rasp. “Then don’t cry when you get what you asked for.”
I whimper, arching into him, loving the way his body covers mine completely. He kisses his way down my throat, biting and sucking little bruises into my skin like he wants to mark me everywhere.
And when he reaches my hips, he yanks my jeans and panties down in one swift move, tossing them somewhere behind him without a care.
Then he drags me to the edge of the bed, tossing my thighs over his broad shoulders.
“Holy fuck,” he breathes, his voice shaking when he sees how soaked I am for him. “Look at you.”
He doesn’t waste another second. His mouth is on me before I can even beg. His tongue flicks and licks and sucks in a rhythm that has me gasping, clutching the sheets, completely undone in seconds. He eats me like he’s making up for every minute he didn’t get to have me.
One big hand pins my hips down, keeping me right where he wants me, while the other slides up, his thumb circling my clit in time with his tongue. I sob his name, back arching off the bed, pleasure crashing over me so fast and hard it feels like drowning.
But Liam doesn’t let up.
He keeps going, dragging every last aftershock out of me, murmuring filthy, sweet things against my skin.
“That's it, honey,” he growls between kisses. “Give it to me. Every fucking bit.”
When I finally collapse against the bed, shaking and boneless, he kisses his way back up my body, slower this time, tender.
He cradles me against his chest, peppering soft kisses over my hair, my cheeks, my lips.
“Mine,” he whispers roughly against my mouth. “Every last piece of you.”
And in the wreckage of what he just did to me, there’s only one answer left.
“Yours,” I whisper back. “Always.”
We stay tangled together for a long moment, our bodies slick with sweat, our hearts still racing, the room thick with the scent of sex and love and home.
Liam’s fingers trail lazy patterns down my spine, light enough to make me shiver.
I can feel him smiling against my hair even before he speaks, his voice low and full of pure, wicked amusement.
“You know,” he drawls, nuzzling the curve of my neck, “We really didn’t properly break in the bed.”
I let out a breathless laugh. He grins, clearly not put off by my silence, and rolls his hips just enough that I feel how ready he is all over again.
“Liam,” I groan, half exasperated, half already arching into him.
He just chuckles, that deep, lazy rumble that makes my toes curl.
“I’m serious, honey,” he murmurs, brushing kisses along my jawline, his hand sliding up to cup my breast, his thumb teasing my nipple until it pebbles under his touch. “This bed’s gonna be ours. New life, new start, new rules.”
“And the first rule is?” I breathe, already trembling.
He grins against my throat, his teeth grazing my skin just enough to make my body jolt.
“First rule is: we don’t leave it,” he says, sliding between my thighs again, his cock already hard and hot against my belly. “Not until we’ve made sure every damn inch of it knows your name.”
Heat floods my core, pooling low and hot and needy.
“And the second rule?” I whisper, my voice shaking.
He lifts his head, his blue eyes blazing down at me.
“Second rule,” he says, slow and lethal, “Is that every time you even think about leaving this bed, I’m gonna remind you exactly who you belong to.”
He thrusts into me in one long, devastating stroke, and I cry out, clinging to him, already lost.
“You,” he growls against my mouth, hips grinding deep, “belong to me, Olive.”
“And I'm yours,” he says fiercely, driving into me again, stealing the breath from my lungs.
“And we,” he adds, between kisses that taste like forever, “are just getting started.”
Liam doesn't give me a second to catch my breath. He moves over me, under me, into me like he owns me… like he’s staking his claim on every inch of my body and soul.
The bed creaks under us as he sets a brutal rhythm, deep and punishing and perfect.
I can’t stop the sounds that tear out of me and Liam eats them up like he’s starving.
His mouth is everywhere. My throat. My collarbone. The swell of my breasts.
“You’re so fucking beautiful like this,” he pants against my skin, his hand sliding under my knee to hitch my leg higher around his waist. “All ruined for me. All mine.”
I shudder, clinging to him, nails digging into the thick muscles of his back.
“Yes,” I gasp, because it’s the only truth that matters now.
He growls low in his chest, a deep, primal sound that makes my whole-body clench around him.
“Say it again,” he demands, thrusting harder, faster, making the headboard thud against the wall with every savage drive of his hips.
“I’m yours!” I cry out, my voice breaking as pleasure builds sharp and hot inside me again.
His hand finds my throat—not squeezing, just holding, just owning—and his thumb strokes the frantic pulse beating there.
“I love you, Olive,” he rasps. “I love you so fucking much.”
Tears prick at my eyes, blurring the edges of everything except him.
“I love you,” I choke out, the words ripped straight from my soul.
He drops his forehead to mine, thrusting deep, grinding against that perfect spot that makes the world shatter into stars.
“Come for me, honey,” he whispers, voice breaking right along with me. “Let me feel you.”
And God I do.
I fall apart around him with a sob, my body convulsing, pleasure ripping through me so hard I think I might actually pass out.
Liam follows me over the edge seconds later, burying himself deep with a broken curse, his body shaking with the force of it.
We collapse together, a tangle of sweaty limbs and ragged breaths, the bed sheets twisted around us like we fought a war.
When he finally lifts his head and looks at me, there’s no mistaking what’s in his eyes.
Forever.