Chapter 14
HOLLY
By the time I finally mustered the courage to face Liam, three agonizing weeks had crawled by since I’d ghosted him.
Two days since Dahlia’s—for lack of better words—intervention.
Every single day had been a battle—fighting with my heart, arguing with my head, and losing to both.
But today… Today, I was done fighting. I was ready.
At least, that’s what I told myself as I gripped Abbott’s door handle, my fingers trembling so badly that I almost dropped my keys.
The familiar scent of hops and worn wood greeted me as I stepped inside, but something was off.
It was still early—only six o’clock on a Friday—but the energy was different.
Subdued. Muted. Patrons I assumed were regulars sat in their usual spots, nursing beers and murmuring to one another, but the electric hum of life that usually pulsed through the place was…
dimmed. Maybe it was because the night was young.
Or maybe it was because something was missing.
I swallowed hard, my heart thundering as I scanned the room.
Liam wasn’t behind the bar.
He wasn’t at any of the tables.
Could he have been in the back? Was he even here?
Panic fluttered in my chest. Why hadn’t I checked for his car?
The nerves that had turned my stomach to knots in the parking lot had been so overwhelming that I’d barely noticed my own reflection in the rearview mirror, let alone thought to look for him.
“Holly!”
I jumped at the sound of my name.
Ralph came from the hallway that led to the lounge and office. I hadn’t even noticed he wasn’t out front at the door. Had he been watching for me? Waiting? Warning Liam I was here so he could run?
“Long time no see.” His warm smile softened the sharp edges of my anxiety, but there was a flicker of curiosity in his eyes that made me squirm
“Yeah, hi.” I forced a smile and shoved my hands into my pockets so he wouldn’t see them tremble. “Uh… is Liam here?”
“Not today.” Ralph shook his head, then added carefully, “He’s over at the new spot. Renovations and all that. You should check it out.”
He reached for a napkin, scrawled an address on it, and slid it across the bar. The ink smudged under my fingers as I picked up the paper-thin cloth.
“Thanks,” I whispered, my voice barely audible.
Ralph’s smile softened further and there was what looked like a flicker of relief in his eyes. “Go easy on him,” he said quietly.
Easy on him? I was the one walking toward a guillotine.
Liam did what he was supposed to. He made the effort, showed me I was still on his mind, hinted that he was still interested, and I gave him nothing except for a read receipt.
I nodded, my throat too tight to speak, then headed out with the napkin clenched tightly in my hand.
This wasn’t a bar.
It was an inn. A rundown, weather-beaten inn that looked as though it had been plucked straight from the eighties and then forgotten about.
The building was a two-story structure with pale, sun-bleached pink paint and turquoise shutters.
It had a large wooden deck that wrapped around its front, though it had seen better days.
A few faded deck chairs sat abandoned on the wraparound porch, their cushions flattened and covered with a fine layer of dust or maybe sand.
I counted six workers bustling about, balancing sheets of plywood on their shoulders or hoisting stacks of materials into their arms. Ladders leaned precariously against the walls, and the rhythmic pounding of hammers echoed in the quiet evening air.
I double-checked the address scrawled on the napkin Ralph had given me, my thumb brushing over the numbers. Was this really the place? Liam’s new venture? I sat there, trying to understand why he’d chosen something so… dilapidated.
The longer I sat in my car, the more I second-guessed everything. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he wouldn’t want to see me. Maybe—
A sharp knock on my window made me jump.
I turned, startled, to see a man wearing a yellow hard hat with a dust-covered bandana pulled over his mouth. His eyes squinted with curiosity and, after a moment, he tugged the bandana down to reveal a friendly, slightly familiar looking grin.
“Can I help you?” He shouted.
I rolled down the window, heart hammering in my chest. There was no turning back now. Unless this was the wrong address, then I’d take the mixup as a sign from fate that Liam and I weren’t meant to be. That Dahlia was wrong and...
And this guy was staring at me, still waiting for my answer.
“Uh… maybe. Is Liam here?”
He raised a brow, clearly amused, before widening his grin. “Yeah. I’ll take you to him.”
My hands shook as I grabbed my keys and climbed out of the car. There really was no turning back now. I followed the guy through a glass-paned door that had seen better days. The white paint had chipped away on nearly half of it and one of the glass panels was cracked.
“Boss! Got a surprise for you!” He shouted once we were deep inside the drywall dust-covered room.
I looked around, trying to visualize Liam’s plan.
The space had promise. It had been gutted down to the studs—which would need a decorative flair—but overall, it was a large open room.
Tables lined the center where it looked like Liam would build a large rectangular bar, and an additional bar was already built into the structure that serviced both the back of the room and the outside patio.
Outside, I could see a large wooden deck that overlooked the ocean and a mostly, if not completely, empty pool.
The sound of heavy footsteps carried down a set of stairs and a muttered curse preceded a frustrated sigh. “Cam, I swear, if this is another one of your—”
Liam came into view, his gray T-shirt streaked with dust and jeans worn and frayed at the knees. His brow furrowed as he wiped a hand down his face, but he froze when his eyes locked on me. “Holly?”
The way he said my name—it wasn’t just a word. It sounded like a prayer. A whispered, desperate hope.
Cam’s grin widened as he turned to leave us alone. “I’ll clear everyone out,” he said right before yelling, “Time to call it a day, boys!”
The clamor of tools and the hum of conversation carried into the room, but I hardly noticed because all I could focus on was the sound of my racing heart and the way Liam was looking at me. He took a step closer, his eyes searching mine, as if he couldn’t quite believe I was standing there.
“I…” A warm, fuzzy vibration stirred inside me.
My magic was waking and it was long past March seventeenth, which meant Dahlia was right.
There was no doubt that Liam was my soulmate.
The pain of longing eased and for the first time in weeks, I felt like I was where I was meant to be. “I came to see you.”
Liam’s lips twitched, almost smiling, but his guard remained up. “It’s been a while.”
“I know,” I whispered, closing the space between us. “And I’m sorry. I was scared. What I feel when I’m with you... it’s overwhelming. I haven’t been in a relationship since high school, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever jump into one again.”
His eyes softened, the tension in his shoulders easing just enough to show the cracks in his armor. He wanted this. Please tell me he still wants this. “And now?”
I took a shaky breath and swallowed hard. “Now, I’d like to try. To date you. If that’s still on the table.”
For a heartbeat, neither of us moved. I watched him, painstakingly waiting for him to split my soul in two and accept me.
He didn’t know what he was accepting, but on the surface of my lineage and the craziness this world calls love—though I’m not ready to give my feelings that label—I needed him to accept me.
My flaws. My insecurities. My crazy sisters.
Me.
“Yeah, it is.”
Liam’s arms wrapped around me and my magic surged.
It danced, flowing in happy waves and twisting into coils.
I stayed there, breathing in the sweet scent of his musk.
Taking in the hard curves of his body. I could have stayed there with him forever, but I wanted more than just a hug.
I wanted to finish what we'd started back at Abbott’s.
The moment I looked up at Liam, his hands cupped my cheeks and he dipped his head, lips pressing against mine.
All the other times we kissed it felt like he was ravenous, feeding an insatiable hunger.
This kiss was different. Slower. Like I was something precious to savor.
It lasted for a minute, then two, then… Well, then I lost all concept of time.
I looped my arms around his neck, needing to touch more of him, and he lifted me off the ground.
My legs wrapped around his waist as he carried me to one of the dusty work tables.
He set me on it, then pushed the papers, pens, and haphazardly forgotten tools to the floor.
I reach for his shirt and tug it overhead.
Somehow, I’d forgotten how beautiful he was.
His hard edges were tanned and toned but not beefy.
A thin dusting of chest hair covered his pecs and funneled down his stomach, paving a taunting trail to the goods beneath his pants.
“I want this,” Liam said, one arm on either side of me, caging me in. “But not if you’re going to run again. We can take things as slow as you need. Whatever it takes to keep you here.”
“I’m accepting our bond, Liam,” I cupped his cheeks and looked him in the eyes. I needed him to know that I meant every word and I wasn’t going anywhere.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. I wasn’t going to get into the details.
It didn't matter. I was Liam’s and my magic hummed with the anticipation of making it official.
I kissed him and pulled him on top of me as I laid on the table.
I reached for his zipper and struggled to get his pants off, but between my hands, my feet, and an uncoordinated shimmy, I finally had him how I wanted him.
Well, almost. His boxers still stood between me and what I needed, but not for long.
I reached between the slit of his boxers and wrapped my fingers around his cock.
I stroked his long, silky length, my fingertips far from touching.
Liam’s head dropped to my shoulder and he bit down.
I sighed his name, “Liam,” and he dipped his hand between my legs, pushing my pantie aside.
I could have died right there and been happy.
He played with my clit while I tried to make him feel just as good.
But he was ruthless, pulling my arousal from me, bringing me to the edge of ecstasy, just to leave me wanting more.
“Holly,” he panted, my name a plea on his lips as he broke our kiss. He wanted me just as much as I wanted him. I saw it in the way he looked at me. Felt it in the way his dick pulsed in my palm when he said my name. “I don’t have a condom.”
My magic wrapped around us, golden threads tangling and twisting, waiting with heated impatience. I squirmed beneath him, pressure building inside me as his thumb rubbed against my clit. “I’m on the pill,” I said, nipping at his ear. “So long as you’re clean, I trust you.”
I hoped my magic wouldn’t match me with someone who had a gross STD. I liked to think it was sensible and wouldn’t give me a nasty surprise as its going away gift.
“I’m good. I promise,” he said, slipping a finger inside me. I gasped, unable to take the sensation anymore, and came all over his hand.
“That’s my good girl.” Liam kissed the inside of my thigh and then sat back on his heels. He slid my panties off. Tossed them to the side. Spread my legs open. And positioned himself between them.
There was a breathless moment where he hesitated and I wondered if he had changed his mind.
Liam might not have understood what us getting together meant, but maybe some part of him could sense how monumental this moment was.
He stared into my eyes, the gold fleck in his greens glowing bright, and I was convinced this wasn’t happening.
But then he smiled and slowly pressed into me.
It should have been awkward, and perhaps with anyone else this level of intimacy would have been.
I’d had my fair share of hookups over the years, and this first step was always rushed.
A quick thrust and boom the fun began. Sometimes there was a slower start, but that usually had to do with me not being wet enough and friction.
That wasn’t the case with Liam. I was hot and wet and wanting and he… he was savoring the moment.
He sucked in an audible breath once he was in and stilled again.
“You okay?” I asked. I’d never felt so vulnerable.
I wasn’t used to this tenderness. The guys I hooked up with were the wham, bam, thank you ma’am sort.
There was no thought or feeling beyond the race to finish.
With Liam, there were butterflies, anticipation, a heightened sense of elatement with every touch.
He could have sneezed on me and I probably would have felt the ghost’s touch of an orgasm.
“Mmhmm.” Liam kissed the tip of my nose and the movement of his body shifting made him grunt. “I’m just trying really hard not to come right now.”
“We’ve got all night.” I laughed a little and hooked my legs around his waist.
“No. I need you to come first.” He bit down my shoulder and a zing of pleasure shot from my shoulder straight through me.
My back arched. Liam moved not to lose me and I dissolved into a sticky pool of pleasure.
With each thrust I lost myself in the way he made me feel.
Beautiful. Desired. And oh so good. A distant part of me felt my magic tying us together but I was too lost in the next round of pleasure building to care.
Liam pinned my hands above my head and rutted into me.
He thrusted deeper, and harder, until there was nothing I could do but scream his name.
I came harder and more viscous than I ever had in my life.
Liam’s release was moments later, and as he pulled out and came on his shirt, my body was quiet.
My magic had left me but in its place was a new sensation.
The feeling of being utterly and completely whole.