Chapter Eight
Liam – Ten Years Ago
Summer had gone too fast, every day filled with Oonagh. How was I supposed to return to my normal, mundane life without her by my side? I didn’t even have a phone. Maybe if I did a few extra hours at work on the weekends I could afford to get one to keep in touch with her…
We stretched out on the small hill she like to call her faery mound to watch the stars appear overhead. Oonagh’s head lay next to mine as we both used my arms folded under my head as a pillow.
“Look!” she shouted excitedly, pointing up at the sky. “A shooting star. Quick! Make a wish…”
Nights like this made me believe that every wish I had could come true. I sat up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist to tug her into me. “I don’t need to. Everything I want is right here.”
Her shiver vibrated against my body, her neck canting to the side in invitation to my lips. Oonagh twisted around as I kissed down toward her shoulder, pushing me back onto the ground. She leaned over me, hands braced on my chest as she stared deeply into my eyes.
She chewed the inside of her lip before taking a deep breath. “I love you, Liam. ”
My hands on her hips trailed up her sides until they reached her face. “I fell in love with you so long ago I can’t remember a time that I didn’t.”
A shy smile played on her lips and a single tear fell from her eye to trickle down her cheek. Her mouth landed on mine in a soft kiss that consisted of fleeting brushes of her lips on mine, eventually turning into an all-consuming inferno that threatened to burn both of us.
When it was just the two of us, nothing else mattered, the rest of the world falling away into insignificance. Her hands slid under my top as she ground her pelvis into mine. Eight weeks of sex, several times a day, had made both of us experts on each other’s bodies.
Oonagh pressed hot kisses down the midline of my chest until she reached the button of my jeans.
My hand covered hers. “Someone could see us,” I groaned, already responding to her.
She leaned her forehead to mine. “I dare you to make love to me on our mound, Liam. We spent years pretending to be friends when all I wanted was to let the world know you belonged to me.” Her eyelashes brushed against me, the tip of her nose rubbing against the side of mine. “Please.”
One word that would make me do anything to give her what she wanted. My head fell back onto the soft grass in defeat and her fingers popped the button on my jeans. There was nothing that rivalled the feel of Oonagh’s mouth and hands on my dick. Neither of us had anything but books and porn from my roommates to work on eight weeks ago. Now, her hands and mouth worked with confidence and a surety of touch that had my hips arching up to meet her .
She crawled on top of me, the dresses and skirts she’d taken to wearing all summer useful for our lust-filled encounters. Her lips met mine as she guided me into her welcoming heat.
“Fuck,” I groaned, grasping her hips to steady her.
Slowly she lifted her hips up and down to impale herself on me over and over again. The delicious friction sent shivers deep into my abdomen. Her fingers dug into my shoulders to give her traction to allow her to push us both toward our goal. The only thing that was missing were her breasts bouncing in my face like when we were alone in the lighthouse.
“Liam,” Oonagh gasped, her forehead pressing against mine, her muscles spasming around my dick like a vice.
I flipped her onto her back, holding myself to the deepest point inside her, staring into her eyes. “It’s only ever been you. No other woman holds a flame to you.”
Drawing back, I slammed into her over and over, claiming my ownership. No other man would ever touch her again. Oonagh’s fingers trailed through my hair until they lodged there, her lips consuming mine.
I wanted to live here forever, this sacred place where Oonagh and I had spent time every summer. We used to watch the stars here, shared countless kisses the summer we were sixteen, and now we consummated our relationship under those same stars after declaring our love.
Gripping her knee, I lifted her leg to allow me to angle my thrusts to hit that place that made her squirm.
“Liam,” Oonagh moaned into my mouth .
Tingles started to pulse down my spine as ecstasy steadily built deep in my stomach. Oonagh’s hands slid down my back into the back of my jeans to hold onto my ass. Her heel dug into the bottom of my back as she ground her hips against mine every time I thrust deep into her.
My balls tightened as pleasure started to pulse deep in my stomach down into my pelvis. My teeth bit into my lip as everything else disappeared but the sensation of moving in and out of her core.
Wildfire spurted down my back and through my dick to fill Oonagh with my cum, ecstasy rippling through me in waves that turned my thrusts into jerks. She clung to me, her head pressed into my shoulder. Both of us gasped in ragged breaths.
“I don’t want this summer to end,” Oonagh whispered.
“It won’t. No matter what, you belong to me,” I replied, holding her tightly to me, not wanting to pull out or ever leave her side. “I’m going to build a house for us on this spot one day.”
Oonagh kissed my neck. “I look forward to living in it with you.”
Even when we finally reached the bottom of her lane, we couldn’t stop kissing each other, our hands roaming over each other.
“Stay the night,” Oonagh muttered against my lips.
Those special nights were saved for when her parents were away. We were both consenting adults, but no one wanted their parents to hear them do the horizontal rumba down the corridor. “Your parents are here. ”
“Hmmm…” The sound vibrated down my chest. “I hate watching you walk away.”
“I always come back.”
“Promise?” She arched back to stare up at me.
A smile ghosted across my lips. “Always. You’re my true north, Oonagh. The point on my compass that always depicts home.”
Her arms wrapped around my neck to drag my face down to hers. “I like the sound of being your home.”
“That title belonged to you from we were five years old.”
“I’m going to tell Mum about you and me tomorrow. It’s time everyone knew how serious we are about each other.” She rubbed the tip of her nose against mine in an Eskimo kiss.
“Niall will nail my balls to the nearest tree.”
Her knee came up to rub my groin. “Your balls belong to me.”
Every part of me belonged to Oonagh and she knew it with the same certainty that I knew she belonged to me.
“You can kiss them better when he kicks them.” She smiled when I pressed her against the old stone wall to kiss down her neck. My errant dick started to stir into life again. “I’m going before I end up screwing you up against this wall.”
Oonagh wrapped a leg around my waist in temptation, and I groaned deep in my chest.
“Goodnight, Oonagh.” I pressed another kiss to her lips.
“Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite,” she replied.
One final, long, lingering kiss and I left her standing in the entrance to her house. The whole way home, I wore a stupid smile because there was nothing that would spoil my mood. My life had finally reached the point I had hoped and prayed for for years.
My younger brothers were in bed, Mum sleeping on the seat she never left in the living room. I flicked through one of my textbooks waiting for Callum to come home. The loud knock at the front door make my brow furrow. We weren’t expecting anyone at this time of night.
Blue lights flashed from the road, painting Constable O’Hara in strange shades of blue. Terror curled deep in my stomach when I saw the look of compassion in his eyes.
“You need to come with me, son. Callum was attacked earlier tonight and is in surgery. The doctors asked for his next of kin.” His eyes flicked to my passed-out mother in the living room. “You’re all he has.”
Panic erupted in my chest as I tried to comprehend what was happening. I wanted to tell Oonagh where I was going to save her worrying, but Callum needed me. Tomorrow. I could sort everything out when my brother was safe.
My coat hung on the wall behind the front door, my wallet in the pocket. It was the only thing I lifted. All the way to the Royal Victoria hospital, I stared out of the police car with sightless eyes. Callum wasn’t just my brother; he’d been my father as well. There had never been a time he wasn’t there for me. He’d told me to take a chance on Oonagh when I was sixteen because he’d seen the way she looked at me.
My eyes watered and a tear finally broke free, trickling down my cheek. Another followed it, then another until I wept silently. I needed Oonagh beside me because I didn’t know what to do.
Callum’s face was swollen and covered in bandages; his chest had a massive plaster down the centre of it. Tubes and leads connected him to machines, the bleeping echoing through my head.
“Cal?” I tentatively said, touching his hand. It was cold and clammy, nothing like the Cal who used to grab me by the neck and rub my hair.
A nurse smiled at me, her eyes sadly moving to Callum’s still form. “Give him time, the human body is miraculous.”
I stayed by his bedside, time becoming irrelevant in that place of eternal fluorescent lights and no windows. Occasionally, one of the nurses brought me a sandwich. Several times the machines went mental, screeching to summon everyone to my brother’s bedside as they tried to restart his heart.
In those moments, I prayed to a god I never believed in, begging him to save Callum’s life. We needed him, every one of his younger brothers looking to him to guide them. I slept beside his bed, holding his hand, desperately wishing that Oonagh was there beside me to tell me everything would be all right.
Nothing bad ever happened when Oonagh was at my side. Together, we could face the world. Knowing that she would be waiting for me was the one thing that kept me going those dark days at Callum’s side.
It was only when I got home and found her gone and my brothers taken into the care system that I truly learned the meaning of the word pain.
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