Stronger Than Love

Chapter Eleven

Oonagh

I was more nervous than a schoolgirl going on her first date. This was Liam, the man who knew all my likes and dislikes, and all my most sordid secrets. Yet, my stomach was in knots and my head was pulsing with an impending headache.

A week ago, I believed that Liam had deliberately and callously broke my young heart and left me alone and pregnant. Now, I realised that he wasn’t the villain of our story, but that in my na?ve innocence, I may well be the person in that role. Several times already today the story of Liam being taken to Callum’s bedside in a police car tormented me. I should have been there beside him.

Officially, I was a horrible bitch.

My hair was dragged up in a messy bun since my trembling fingers didn’t possess the finesse to tame it into submission as Aoife did with her regimented hairstyles of straight hair and sleek ponytails. My long, black gypsy-style skirt was paired with a gossamer purple blouse over a vest top. I spent my life in surgical scrubs, so everything I wore was loose.

Instead of waiting for Liam to come to the house to spike Niall’s attention, I wandered down the lane in my flip-flops and stood at the side of the beach, watching the waves. A motorbike pulled up beside me, and I only realised it was Liam when he snapped his visor up.

“You’re not exactly dressed for the open road,” he commented dryly.

My eyebrows shot up. “Since when did you start riding a bike?” I queried.

A slow grin spread over his face. “I love anything that allows me to go at speed with the wind in my hair.”

“You always did, especially if it was on water,” I muttered, pulling my skirt between my legs to climb on behind him.

“Hold on, we’re only going up the road to my house,” he shouted over the roar of the engine.

The sleek, black bike suited him. If you were to design a bike that represented Liam Doherty, this would be it. It was beautiful yet deadly with a feral element.

He brought the bike to a stop outside the entrance to the house I noticed was built on our mound. The gates swung open and he addled up the driveway.

I’m going to build a house for us on this spot one day. His words from so long ago floated through my mind. I’d spent a decade running from him, yet he spent that time carving the life he promised me. The apple trees signified all the times we climbed the ones in the orchard. He parked the bike around the back of the property and my eyes widened when I realised he hadn’t demolished the small faery mound, but incorporated it into the layout of the faerytale garden he’d created .

Shimmering lights interspaced around the garden to create a magical atmosphere that brought it to life. There was a water feature off to the side that produced the gentle lapping sound of the ocean. Liam hadn’t missed one of the aspects I chatted about wanting in a garden when I was younger.

If I could feel any lower as a person right now, I would. The pressure in my chest increased until tears threatened to spill. This should have been our home. The apple trees screamed for children to play in them and he’d kept the large tree we used to hide under when it rained. It was the perfect size and shape to accommodate a treehouse.

“It’s beautiful,” I whispered, the lump in my throat threatening to choke me.

Liam shrugged, hanging his helmet on the handlebars. “I had a few ideas given to me over the years.”

The house inside oozed his personality through small touches, such as shells and rocks from his travels. Pictures of him and his brothers were mounted on the wall in the hall that led through to the kitchen.

“Callum and Declan live here with me most of the time. We all have our own places in Belfast, but when we’re down here, this is home.”

The kitchen was designed with a massive island at the centre created from black marble. Silver machines accentuated the black and gave it a sci-fi vibe.

“I’m not the chef of the family, Dec normally cooks when he’s home,” Liam chatted while pulling ingredients from the fridge .

I hunted around until I found what I needed and started to prepare the chicken and vegetables to make a stir-fry. He stood with his hip propped against the counter watching me, a faint smile dancing on his lips.

“I always wondered what you’d look like in this kitchen,” he murmured in explanation when I stared at him in question.

“I guess you no longer have to,” I replied with a wink.

The worst part of this entire scenario was that I could see myself here cooking and baking. It felt like someone kicked me in my solar plexus and I took a steadying breath. One decision had thrown my life off course and I couldn’t see how to fix it and make everything right.

“Do you have any soy sauce?”

Liam bent over to hunt through a cupboard. His ass fit those jeans to perfection and really deserved to have my hands running over it in adoration. I sucked in a breath and focused on the task in front of me, dicing the chicken with vicious blows.

The bottle appeared beside me, followed by a bottle of beer.

Instead of chatting, Liam pulled up a barstool to the island and watched me while sipping his beer.

“Plates,” I instructed, tilting my head at him in mock annoyance.

He slid from the stool to stand his full height before retrieving plates and cutlery. “Table or island?” he asked, nodding to a table in a sunroom off the kitchen.

“Wherevers comfortable,” I replied with a shrug of one shoulder .

“We normally eat here. The table’s for more formal affairs.”

I added the noodles and began to toss everything together in the wok. “Island it is.”

The plates were piled high with steaming hot noodles and I sprinkled some chopped coriander and sesame seeds on top. Liam continued to watch me, his deep blue eyes never leaving me. They unnerved me with their intensity, and I felt like prey being stalked by a powerful predator.

Liam was a black panther and I was a gangly deer, stumbling about under his gaze.

I was just putting the wok in the sink when he reached over to get glasses from the cupboard above me. His chest pressed into my back and my fingers gripped the edge of the sink. Tingles infused from the skin on my back into my body until a flame kindled deep in my stomach.

“Oonagh?” His voice washed over me and my eyes fluttered shut.

I gasped as his hands landed on my waist to tug me against his hard chest. It wasn’t our bodies that recognised one another, it was our souls. They were imprinted with the energy of one another until it responded only to his touch.

Sucking in a deep breath, I shook my head. Everything was catching up to me and my fragile emotions couldn’t cope anymore.

Liam slowly spun me to face him until our eyes locked. His fingers grasped my chin to hold my head in position when I tried to look away.

“You gave me one summer, Oonagh, then we can get each other out of our systems so we can live our lives.” He pressed a soft kiss on my open lips. “For one summer, you belong to me, your body is mine alone to enjoy. Understand?”

A denial played on my lips but wouldn’t emerge. There was something about his tone that made my thighs tremble and an ache to form between my legs.

“And what happens when the summer ends?” I finally asked in a shaky voice.

“By then we’ll have fucked each other until we can finally say we’ve had enough.”

I swallowed hard. It didn’t work the last time when we spent the summer shagging like bunnies on hormone replacement therapy. In fact, after the last time, I’d been unable to let any man touch me sexually because Liam owned my body and soul.

“Tonight, we’re going to show each other what we’ve learnt over the years. I’m going to make you scream until you’re hoarse and you can’t stand afterwards.” He pressed another lingering kiss on my mouth. “Then I’m going to do it all over again.”

I knew I didn’t have the strength to stop him, and that afterward I would be even more broken than before. My teeth bit into my bottom lip and I sucked it into my mouth. This was the point that I should walk away, to try and preserve what remained of my heart. My life was devoid of emotion but filled with so many other experiences. I’d convinced myself that I didn’t need this level of intimacy.

Liam was so sexually confident there was no doubt that he was no longer the shy boy trading kisses and sexual experiences with an equally shy girl. Unfortunately, I was the same girl from ten years ago, and if he touched me, he’d find that out very quickly.

Every bite of my dinner was a struggle to swallow, the tension in my body starting to make my limbs tremble. Finally, there was nothing left to hide behind as I forced the last mouthful down. Liam took our plates to set them in the sink and came to stand in front of me, holding his hand out.

“Come on,” he said in a husky voice.

The crescent moon and scattered stars illuminated the dark night. Liam led me to our mound, pulling me down beside him. “Every time I lie here, I imagine you’re beside me.”

I slowly sat up to stare down at him. “I’m not who you think I am, Liam,” I confessed in a hushed tone.

His fingers interlaced through mine, his thumb tracing over my pulse. “We’ve both changed,” he replied. “And yet when you’re here, I’m the same person I was back then.”

“I can’t do this,” I whispered, struggling to escape his grasp. The stars above us, our mound, it was all too much and the need to run consumed me.

“Stay with me, Oonagh. Please don’t leave me again.” It was the hurt in his voice and the way he faltered on the ‘again’ that made me meet his eyes.

Liam pushed himself up until we were staring at each other. His head moved to mine with infinite slowness, as if he didn’t want to scare me. “Stay,” he pleaded as his lips met mine.

There was no desperation, just a gentle coaxing, his mouth saying what both of us were terrified to put into words. His tongue swept along the seam of my mouth in tender persuasion to gain entrance. I was never able to resist him, never able to walk away when he needed me.

Liam’s hand on my cheek held me in his possession as he leisurely explored my mouth, claiming me all over again. Time became irrelevant as he ran light caresses over my body, his mouth never once leaving mine. Every instinct in me responded to him because only Liam had the power to scatter my thoughts with a single touch.

All resistance left me when he tugged me up against his body as he stood. With deep, drugging kisses, he led me back into the house until I vaguely heard a door closing somewhere. A soft mattress met my back, his body pressing down on mine. This was the point that I normally froze to make my excuses. But instead, my fingers combed through his hair.

There was no way I would be able to keep doing this all summer and then walk away. One night, I promised myself. I would have this one night and then leave after my birthday party and never return.

Liam trailed my top off to reveal my breasts. His teeth grazed my nipple and I hissed in arousal, my hips arching up toward him in a silent plea. He swirled his tongue around my hardening peak, driving me crazy with the sensation, while his thumb stimulation my other nipple.

“Liam.” My voice was nothing more than a moan.

His lips and hands set me on fire as they reacquainted themselves with every desperate inch of my skin. How could he be everywhere at once, touching and tasting until the pressure in my stomach felt ready to erupt? He slipped my skirt from me, his intake of breath making my pulse jump .

Red lace panties, just like the first night we were together.

His finger traced the outline of them with a reverent touch, his thumb rubbing over my pelvic bone. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asked in a harsh voice.

“No…” I took a ragged breath. “You said we had one last summer together, so I wanted to return to the one when we were happiest.”

His eyes met mine and locked. “It heralded our end.”

A sad smile touched my lips. “Life changes us in so many ways. Nothing lasts forever, Liam.”

There was nothing left to say about how it ended. I would never find the strength to tell him my biggest secret—that I hadn’t been able to save the one life that mattered most to me. The life of our child.

My fingers unfastened his jeans. “One last summer,” I repeated. “No regrets.”

He dragged his T-shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. “No regrets.”

Ropes of muscles stretched across his chest, his pectoral muscles flexing as he moved. He even possessed the six-pack and special V that men strived to achieve, and women drooled over. His deltoids demonstrated his hours devoted to physical labour. I chewed the inside of my mouth when his jeans dropped to the floor.

So many nights alone in the dark my fantasies had involved this man. I’d touched myself to the memory of him. Now he stood here, staring down at me, his eyes dark and heavy with desire and his cock erect and pointed at me. There was no doubt in my mind that it would fit inside me, it had so many times before, but fear mixed with arousal deep in my stomach, and nervous butterflies beat a tribal beat.

Liam’s fingers lifted my chin to meet his gaze. “Eyes on me.”

Swallowing the lump in my throat I stood to face him in nothing but my red lace panties. His eyes slowly moved over my body, raking over me and leaving tingles in their wake. Hot flames of desire flickered in my core as I almost felt his touch ghosting over me.

Liam reached out and traced his hand from my throat, over my body, until it reached the apex between my thighs. His gaze flicked back up to mine and the shade of blue deepened as he took a step forward, his jaw tightening.

Suddenly everything felt too much. The need to run battled with the desire to lie on the bed, open my legs, and beg him to take me. Without a single word, I turned and climbed onto the bed, positioning myself on my hands and knees to present my ass to him. The image of our first time together haunted me, his eyes boring into mine with their intensity. Intimacy like that tonight would break me.

The bed dipped and the sensation of his flesh covering mine caused a shiver to trickle down my spine. His breath tickled my ear. “I’ve never been with anyone else without a condom.”

I knew what he was telling me and what he was asking. The pill failed us the last time and there were no guarantees this time, but I wanted to feel him the way I had when we were younger .

“I’m clean and on the pill,” I finally managed to grate out.

Holy moly this was really happening, and every nerve of my body was on high alert, the hairs on his legs causing a delicious friction where they touched my smooth skin.

Liam’s hands lightly massaged my shoulders before his palms moved sensually down my back, sweeping round to caress my breasts. My ass arched up and my head tucked into his shoulder.

“You’re every fantasy I’d had come to life,” he muttered, his lips setting fire to my throat as he trailed kisses down to my shoulder.

My entire plan had been that this would be less personal, yet he managed to engulf my senses and send my pulse racing. His erection rubbed between my legs, stimulating that place only he had touched sexually. His right hand slid down the front of my stomach, and my eyes fluttered shut so that I would silence all my senses but touch.

Lower and lower he moved seductively until his fingers slipped inside my panties.

Fuck!

My mouth fell open at the feel of his fingers delicately parting my nether lips to gently massage my clit that seemed to be connected to every neuron in my body. I did a full body jerk as he pinched the tiny bundle of nerves between his finger and thumb and gently rubbed.

Liam growled and bit down on my shoulder, my fingers clutched the sheet.

There hadn’t been a moment of that summer we experimented that I’d forgotten, but now it felt different… Mo re intense… As if my soul had been holding its breath for this moment.

“I can’t control this anymore,” he said against my shoulder.

“Then don’t,” I simply replied.

My panties were pulled aside and the hard, blunt end of his cock pushed into me at an excruciatingly slow pace. Every inch stretched me, my legs trembling with tension. He felt bigger than ever before, my core pulsing to either accommodate him or expel his hard, invading length. A whimper escaped my lips and his hand on my stomach stroked me as he stopped for a moment.

“You’re so tight,” he muttered. “Just like our first time.”

I didn’t want to point out that my muscles hadn’t been sexercised in a long time. Instead, I tried to widen my legs for him as my teeth bit my lip and my head fell forward. His progression bordered with pain and I tried to take deep breaths, my hips moving to escape the grip of his hand on my ass. He was too big, the stretching too much, and the pressure inside became unbearable. Just as I was about to scream, his fingers found my clit and began a slow, sensual massage that made my muscles relax to give him entry.

“Fuck,” he rasped and shoved the rest of his length in.

My mouth opened in a silent cry, my eyes wide as I struggled to breathe. We were locked together, our bodies one. Liam pressed kisses across my shoulder to the top of my spine, his fingers working the sensitive flesh between my legs.

His hips moved back and forth tentatively, and I wiggled my ass against him .

“Liam,” I whimpered.

“Breathe, baby, just relax.” He must have felt my struggle as he held me, his hands soothing, his lips whispering soothing platitudes between gentle kisses.

He wrapped a hand around my hair until he fisted it to turn my head toward him. So much for me trying to make this impersonal since I now stared into his eyes. His lips touched mine with infinite tenderness, his hips rotating slowly until my body relaxed into his. It was only when he felt my response that his kiss deepened, and his pelvis began to thrust.

“You good?” he muttered against my lips.

“Hmmm…”

Liam released my hair and my head fell forward. One hand landed on my ass, the other in the middle of my back, pushing me forward until my shoulders lowered. My tongue flicked over my lips to savour the taste of him.

He slowly dragged his cock from my core until he nearly pulled out before slamming back into me. We both groaned together at the sensation. Liam grabbed my hips and began a punishing rhythm of thrusts that pushed me forward into the softness of his mattress. My fingers grasped the bedding to try and anchor myself in the storm he created.

Over and over, he angled his thrusts to rub that special place that made my thighs quiver and moans to emerge. He’d developed a style of dominance that I never anticipated, his body owning mine in a way it never had before. Previously, we’d touched and experimented equally. Now, he pinned me down and took control. He didn’t ask because he understood my body’s reactions .

The delicious friction of his rapid thrusts steadily stoked the flames of desire deep in my stomach. My breasts bounced with every movement, his grunts mingling with the slapping sound of our bodies moving together.

Needing more, wanting everything, I pushed myself back up onto my arms to meet his thrusts.

Liam’s hands soothed over my ass. “You’re so fucking gorgeous.”

My head turned around to glance at him over my shoulder and I couldn’t look away. His muscles were tense, a sheen of perspiration covered his brow, and his hips moved back and forth as his cock slammed into me from behind.

We stared at each other, words irrelevant as our bodies remembered the rhythm of our ancient sensual dance. Liam’s hands slid from my hips under my stomach. He increased his pressure on my stomach until he lifted me onto my knees, my body aligning along the length of his.

I gasped as his teeth bit into my shoulder. “Tell me you’re mine.”

In this position I was so full of him that I could barely think.

He pulled out, lifting me to the top of the bed where the headboard was an elaborate cast iron creation. My fingers grasped the rail, kneeling as Liam moved behind me.

My eyes closed as his hands moved over my breasts and lower down.

Lower.

Lower.

Low… holy moly!

My eyes flew open as his fingers slid into me .

“Liam?”

“Tell me your mine,” he repeated.

How could I reveal my other biggest secret? That I only ever belonged to him body and soul?

“Agh…” I moaned, my legs widening to allow his access.

“Oonagh.” His tone held a warning that I didn’t heed.

Liam’s arms held me around the waist as his hands opened my legs to hold them in position. Without warning he speared into me.

“Fuck!” I screamed, my body reigniting with flames pulsing from my core deep into my stomach. My hands grasped the rails to try and anchor myself as he pounded into me. This was new, the painful friction of his upward thrusts a delicious torture that left me trembling.

“Liam,” I begged, my head pressed into the rails as I began to pant.

“Tell me, Oonagh,” he demanded.

The old Liam coaxed; the new Liam conquered.

“I’m yours,” I gasped. The pressure in my stomach became unbearable. My breasts rubbed against the metal pattern to stimulate them into stiff peaks.

Liam thrust so deep into my core that I could barely breathe. He rotated his cock inside me until the pressure in my stomach exploded into a cacophony of pleasured pulses that rendered me speechless. The explosive orgasm tore through me, burning away all the lonely years that I’d spent away from Liam.

“That’s right, baby. You belong to me. ”

He pulled out and slammed in again. My head canted to the side when his fingers held mine and he ground his hips against mine. He sucked my earlobe into his mouth before gently biting down. A shiver rippled down my spine.

I moaned, my back arching instinctively into his heat.

“Tell me what you want,” Liam whispered, his breath fanning the shell of my ear. My core clenched around him.

Every woman with a Kindle had read one of those stories where the heroine is left at the mercy of the hero. Liam’s brand of dominance lit something inside me, a request that I could never voice with anyone but him.

“I want you to own me completely…”

His body stilled behind mine and a whisper of fear swirled in my stomach that he’d think I was a freak. “Have you ever done anything like this before?”

Silently, I shook my head. It wasn’t possible, but Liam felt like he hardened inside me.

“Then I promise the night of your birthday is one you won’t forget.”

His teeth bit into the flesh of my shoulder and he began to thrust again, this time using his body to pin me to the rail. Trapped under his weight, I clung helpless as he claimed me. The younger me would have been terrified by the sexual predator who created this storm of sensations in me. The woman here and now revelled in it. I never knew what I needed until Liam gave it to me.

His hand moved down my abdomen until his fingers found my clit with eerie precision. His thrusts became jerky and my core burned with the friction. The pressure continued to grow in my stomach, draining all the energy from my limbs until it pulsed with a lifeforce of its own.

“Please,” I begged, not able to take any more.

His finger and thumb pinched my clit, kneading it until my legs gave way and I slumped forward. Starbursts of energy erupted from my core to every extremity of my body, leaving me gasping for breath. Another few deep thrusts, and Liam erupted inside me with a growl of triumph that vibrated along my back.

“Fuck,” he panted. “I thought I remembered what it was like with you until I was inside you.”

He pulled out with a strange suctioning sound and moisture tickled down my leg. Liam rolled me onto my back and stared down at me. The heat in his eyes threatened to ignite the bedding. I doubted there was anything sexy about me lying here covered in sweat with my hair stuck to my face and semen leaking out of me.

Liam, on the other hand, looked sexy as hell with his mussed-up hair and gleaming skin.

I was fucked, not just figuratively, but metaphorically as well. Liam held all the power in our relationship, he always had. Only this time I wouldn’t just be devastated when our summer ended, my heart would be shredded.

***