29
29
Liam
I stood at her door, listening to the sound of her sobbing. That wasn’t what I’d meant to do. It had all come out wrong, and I’d gotten so fucking pissed that she hadn’t seemed to give a shit about the death of her mother. Her not going to her mom’s funeral or grieving with her sister had seemed so unlike the woman I was getting to know. All the things Selena had claimed Liberty was didn’t match up to the friendly, charming person that she appeared to be.
My club adored her. All of them. Hell, Nina had teared up and hugged her tightly when we left. Then, there was Ozzy. He was in there with her now. Until Liberty, he’d never left my side for anyone other than Cree. Dogs were supposed to be better judges of character than humans.
The only factor here was Selena. Yeah, I had believed what she’d said because she was a well-respected doctor. She had it all, and Liberty didn’t. Wouldn’t an older sister tell the truth about her younger sibling? It seemed to me there had to be a lot of hurt caused by Liberty for Selena to dislike her so much.
Shit just didn’t make sense.
Listening to Liberty’s cries, however, was more than I could handle. I wanted her to stop. I liked it when she was smiling and laughing. This was brutal, and my own damn chest felt as if someone were stabbing me with each heartbreaking sound.
I started to knock, then changed my mind and turned the knob.
Pushing the door open, I took a step inside, then saw her on the bed, her face red and splotchy, lashes spiky from the tears. Her eyes lifted to meet mine, and she wiped at her cheeks with both hands, as if trying to hide the fact that she had been crying from me.
A deep growl snapped my attention from her, and I saw Ozzy standing at the corner of the bed, looking at me with disapproval. He’d never growled at me. That didn’t ease the way I was feeling. He was protecting her, which meant he trusted her over me.
I looked back at her as she crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes shifting toward the far wall and glaring at it. The tight line she was trying to make with her mouth didn’t mask the quivering of her bottom lip.
Dammit. What had I gotten wrong?
“You’re right,” I told her, but she didn’t stop glaring at the bare wall. “I don’t have a college education. I barely finished high school. The men I am closest to, the brothers I trust, none of them went to college. Hell, a few have even been in jail at some point.”
She sucked in her bottom lip to stop the tiny trembling it had been doing.
“I made a lot of unfair assumptions about you. Before I knew you were also the sexy bartender who I took to her motel room and had unbelievably spectacular sex with, you were just Selena’s sister, and she told me things about you that I took at face value. I saw no reason she’d lie about it. But I shouldn’t have labeled you like I did. I’m sorry.”
I stopped when her eyes finally swung back to me. The pretty honey-brown color shone with more unshed tears.
The urge to go to her and pull her into my arms and kiss away all that sadness was really fucking strong, but I had more to say. She deserved it.
“I’m an asshole. Even my dog seems to be smarter than me,” I said, motioning to Ozzy, who was now standing between us like he was ready to protect her at all costs. “Liberty, would you please tell me about your parents? Why you didn’t go to college like Selena did. Why you and Selena aren’t close. I want to hear it all from you. Not because I believe what she said. I don’t. Not anymore at least. But I want to know about you. You’re going to be the mother of my child, and I’d like us to respect each other. And I know I have to earn that from you, and I’ve done a piss-poor job so far of earning any respect, but I’m changing that. Starting right now.”
A single tear ran down her face, and she sniffed, uncrossing her arms and reaching up to wipe it away. Right now, she looked so young, but then she was, especially compared to me. There was also a lot of sadness in her eyes, and I would do just about anything to make that shit go away.
She lifted her chin, and her eyes met mine again. “Until I was seven years old, I lived in Charleston. My mom, dad, and I lived across the street from his mother, Mama D. It was perfect. Then, my Mama D got sick and passed away when I was six years old. It was hard on us all, but my dad struggled with it. Seven months later, my momma was in a car accident that killed her on impact. Nothing was the same after that.” She paused and sucked in air, then dropped her gaze to her hands.
“When my dad was in college, before he met my mom, he had a girlfriend, Abilene, that he got pregnant. They’d been broken up when she told him about it, but then she told him that she’d aborted it. After Mom died, that ex-girlfriend contacted him through Facebook. She hadn’t gotten an abortion, and her daughter wanted to meet her father.” Liberty let out a deep sigh.
“He packed us up, and we moved to Ocala so he could be near his other daughter. He wanted me to have a sister, and I think he truly believed Abilene would help ease the void in my life that Mom and Mama D had left.” A laugh that wasn’t from humor but sounded more seeped in pain came from her. “That wasn’t the case. Abilene hated me. Selena tolerated me, but she blamed me that our father had been with me and my mom. He hadn’t known about her. It was never his fault, but instead of blaming her mother, Selena pinned that hurt on me.
“When I was ten, my dad was in the hospital after having a heart attack. As soon as she heard, Abilene went and checked Selena out of school, then rushed to see him. They were with him when he died.” She shrugged. “My school was right next to Selena’s, but Abilene didn’t think to get me. So, I never made it to the hospital to see him before he was gone. And that was the first day of eight years in hell.”
Anger built inside me with each word she spoke. However, I wasn’t sure who I was angrier with—me or Selena or the bitch Abilene. I took a step toward her, and Ozzy growled again.
“The week following my dad’s funeral, Abilene moved me from my bedroom to one in the basement. It was the only finished part of the basement. The rest was one open area with a washer and dryer, but nothing else. I was given a twin mattress on the floor as my bed. Selena took my bedroom, along with my furniture. Which happened to be furniture I’d picked out with my mom on the last birthday I had with her.” She sniffled and rubbed her face again, and then her stare hardened.
“So, no, I didn’t go to Abilene’s funeral. I didn’t even send flowers. I had shots of tequila with some friends instead. Not one day in that woman’s life had she been even remotely kind to me.
“While Selena had big, extravagant birthday parties, neither of them ever acknowledged my birthday. The money my father had left behind for my college education was used for Selena’s. I tried to get loans, keep a job, go to college. It was too hard. I couldn’t afford it, and after almost two years, I stopped trying.
“As for a car, Selena was given a brand-new one on her sixteenth birthday and another one on her high school graduation. I rode the bus to school until I started having friends who had cars. I wasn’t able to get a driver’s license until I was eighteen because my guardian wouldn’t take me to get one.
“I could sit here and tell you one story after another about things she did to me, that both of them did, but I try not to think about it. I learned a long time ago that dwelling on the pain they’d caused makes me bitter, and I don’t want to be that person.”
I stood there, trying to find a way past the guilt, shame, and horror of what all I’d said to her. How I’d treated her clawed at my fucking soul. Words were lodged in my throat. I couldn’t think of an apology that was good enough.
She took a deep breath and shrugged with a beautiful yet sad smile on her face. “That’s my story, Liam. Thanks for asking.”
Fuck. I wished she’d just thrown a brick at my chest instead.
“I can’t …” I started, then shook my head. My voice was hoarse.
Unfamiliar emotion I didn’t know how to process worked its way through me, and I was lost on how to maneuver around it. Trying again, I took another step toward her, and it seemed Ozzy was trusting me to go near her now.
“There isn’t a sufficient apology that would make up for what I said and how I treated you. But I am sorry, Liberty. Real damn sorry.”
She nodded, her smile softening. “I can see that. You aren’t looking at me like I’m something you wish you weren’t stuck with anymore.”
I winced. Had I done that? I hadn’t realized it.
“I should have come back last night. I should have called or texted.”
She dropped her gaze to her lap again. “Selena called, and she’s hard for you to turn down,” she said, trying to sound flippant.
“I told you I didn’t go to Selena’s. I was at the club all night.”
She glanced back up at me. “You didn’t?” she asked, sounding relieved.
I shook my head. “No. I wouldn’t do that. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to come back here and fuck you again. I’d thought about it all damn day. But we can’t do that and get this all confused.”
She bit her bottom lip for a moment. Her tears had dried up. My eyes drifted down to the tube top she was wearing. It was bright blue and didn’t cover all of her stomach. It looked like her tits were in danger of popping out from the top at any moment.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. “We are having a baby together. It would help if we liked each other. Not a relationship or anything. I know you don’t want that, but while my body is dealing with all these pregnancy symptoms, it seems you’d be the best option to help me with them. It doesn’t have to be more than that.”
I stared at her. She seemed nervous as she waited on me to respond. I’d just sent her running to her room, crying, like a bastard. Was she really suggesting we fuck while she was pregnant? Could I trust that she wouldn’t get some emotional attachment to me?
Bigger question was, did I want her to not get attached because the idea of her forming a deeper need for me caused me to have a greedy craving for it? For her to want me. Rely on me. No matter how foolish that was, it was there, raising its head in all its possessive glory.
“Are you saying that we can fuck, that your cunt is mine to take care of, and we can live in this house together while I make sure you have everything you need, and when this ends with us sexually, we can still be friends? Raise a kid together without any bitterness or regret in our relationship?”
She nodded, her eyes no longer red-rimmed, but guarded. As if she didn’t believe I’d agree. Right now, I wanted to strip her bottoms off and bury my face between her legs until she came on my tongue several times. I didn’t want the memory of her tears and broken sobs. But she needed to know I respected her too.
“I’d kill anyone else that touched you,” I admitted. “If pregnancy makes your pussy needy, then I’m the only one allowed to take care of it. The one thing between us that has never been an issue is sex. You are without a doubt the best fuck of my life. But for us to end up as friends, we need to also build a foundation.”
“Okay,” she replied. “We could start with having dinner together.”
“You hungry, darlin’?” I asked, an amused grin curling the corners of my mouth.
She lifted a shoulder. “A little. Are you?”
“I’ll order us something. What do you want?” I asked.
She turned and slid off the bed, causing Ozzy to hurry to her side. “No need to order anything. I made dinner last night. It’s all in the refrigerator. I just need to heat it up.”
More fucking guilt settled on my chest as she walked toward me. She’d made dinner. I hadn’t come home. Damn, I had to find a balance. A way to make it up to her, but not … let myself fall for her while keeping that smile on her face. She’d had enough heartbreak in her life, and I didn’t want to be another one.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come home last night,” I said when she reached me.
She smiled. “I guess I’ll forgive you. But only if you love my chicken potpie and corn fritters.”
“That’s what you cooked last night? Homemade?” I asked, surprised.
She looked at me as if I had asked a crazy question. “Of course it’s homemade.”
If her cooking was as fantastic as her cunt, I might be fucked, both literally and figuratively.