5
Liam watched Candace tour his newly renovated apartment. She kept going back to the windows that overlooked the brightly lit city skyline of Pittsburgh.
“This is beautiful,” she breathed.
“Shane found the place. You know him. He managed to finagle the owner to rent all of us the top floor.” Liam chuckled.
She snorted. “I’m sure he was very convincing.”
Shane was the CEO of the family. A ruthless businessman who didn’t take no for an answer. It’d been his idea for all five brothers to move into the building after their dad had to sell the farm. None of the brothers wanted to inherit the land, so they sold it for a mint to a natural gas drilling company, then banked the money for their father, who moved into community apartments. Really, they should have done it sooner. Instead of spending lonely days on a farm he was no longer able to work, their dad was thriving in the environment of others his age.
“Brayden’s to the left of me and Shane’s on the other side. We wanted him between us, you know, to keep an eye on him. Justin and Aaron are on the opposite sides of the hall.” He went to the fridge, pulled out two beers, popped off the caps, and walked one over to her.
As if they'd never lost a beat, Candace took the beer from him and refocused on the scenery. "And how did you guys get the view side?" She giggled, probably already knowing the answer.
He shrugged. "Shane claimed this side by pulling the oldest card. Justin, Aaron and I decided fair and square in a...well, you know."
"You kicked their asses until they cried uncle."
He grinned.
"You five haven't changed one bit, have you?" Her tone went sad.
"Actually, we have," he disagreed. "I believe we've all matured. I think due to my dumb ass and worrying about Dad." He took a swig of his beer. "It was a serious time in all of our lives, that caused all of us to re-evaluate how we lived. Which is why we all agreed to move into this building together. To keep an eye on one another, in case one of us goes off the rails. We can pull him back in."
Candace stared at him, her gaze assessing, making him feel exposed. As if he was a science experiment she was trying to unravel.
He took a step closer to her. "I've settled down to the point I'm in line for assistant chief next year, when Butch retires."
She raised her eyebrows. "Really?"
"Really." He nodded.
"That's terrific, Liam," she said. "I know you've worked hard for it."
She gave his body a once over. Yeah, over the past year he'd spent his alone time in the gym, which was too often for his liking. Instead of becoming a bachelor on the prowl for his next lay, like Aaron, he decided it was past time to get himself together and grow the hell up. What did he do? He put on twenty-five pounds of pure muscle, increased his endurance, and took classes to become certified to drive the fire trucks. Something he'd never been interested in before. He took his job seriously now, and in turn, took his life seriously.
Reaching up, he brushed her long hair off her shoulder to get a better look at her profile. She become a bit thinner in the past year, but wasn't stick skinny. Candace had always been concerned about her weight, forever on a diet, but he couldn't understand why. She was stunning.
Unable to stop himself, he leaned down and kissed her. He'd only meant to give her a chaste peck, but he missed those plump berry lips. Since the day she walked out the door, he hadn't been with another woman. She'd torn his heart out. He hadn't come close to recuperating.
Their lips melded together. A slow swipe of his tongue caused her to open for him. He lost control and devoured her mouth.
Sliding his hand to the nape of her neck, he tangled his fingers into her long hair, and with his other hand, grasped her perfect ass and ground his rock-hard erection into her body. She groaned into his mouth, the delicious vibrations making their way down his throat. Her long nails dug into his large biceps.
Liam couldn't wait any longer. He needed inside her. He needed to reclaim her. Needed her to know who she belonged to. That even though they'd been apart for a year, she never left his heart.
He hoisted her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, and carried her to his bedroom without breaking their contact. On the way, he managed to pop open the button on her jeans. She tugged at his top, pulling it over his head. They bounced off the walls down the hallway, unphased. As soon as he hit the bedroom, he tossed Candace onto the bed and they both shucked their clothes, eyes glued to one another.
Every beautiful curve, perfect size C breasts, toned thin thighs called to him. She was a sight he vividly remembered nightly.
Candace audibly gasped. "Liam, you're huge."
He'd like to think she meant his cock that stuck out, pointing directly where it wanted to be, but he understood she meant his physique. "And you're gorgeous."
He ran his rough palms up her calves, to her thighs, and slid a big finger into her wet core. Another gasp, and her head flew back as she propped herself up on her elbows. He slowly pumped in and out of her body, adding another finger. Those curvy hips gyrated to his ministrations. Her mewls and groans pushed his desire further.
Too long.
It'd been too long since he'd been connected to her, since he let her know she belonged to him. Physically and emotionally. He knew how to control her body. Every pleasure point he lavished. Her pleasure was his and he wanted to be sure she received the max amount of satisfaction.
Leaning down, he took one of those perky pink nipples into his mouth, sucked and laved, worshiping.
"Liam," she begged.
He curved his fingers and found her spot. As soon as he felt her body begin to tighten around his forefinger, he pulled out, hitched her right leg over his hip, and slid into her body. Candace fell back to the bed, her body arched upward, pleading for his touch and deeper connection.
Closing his eyes, he needed to settle himself, or else he'd last an abysmal two seconds. But when her body clenched around him, he knew he had to get started or lose out. Liam pumped. Hard and fast.
"Oh God," she screamed, clamping onto his forearms.
"Look at me, Candace," he growled, pushing harder, digging deeper as he lifted her hips.
She blinked her eyes open to lock into his.
"You're mine, Candace." His hips jack hammered into her body. "Tell me." His body strained. "Tell me....you've...always....been...mine."
She met him thrust for thrust, her body craving what his gave to hers. "I'm yours," she breathed.
Liam ground and thrust as hard as he could, wanting buried inside her as deeply a man could possibly get. When he hit her sensitive spot, she squeezed around him and screamed, her orgasm coating him.
"Fuck!" Liam bellowed, his yearlong pent-up release hitting him violently, erupting into her.
Closing his eyes, he held her, connected to him, unable to move until his body finished its release. Their chests heaved as they stared at one another. Where did this take them?
6
Liam stirred, his body warm, relaxed, and sated. He was aware of his arm wrapped tightly around a soft body. Last night assaulted him.
Candace.
She was back and in his arms. His eyes flew open to find his Candace soundly sleeping, her body curled into his, her head on his wide chest. Skewed hair, faded makeup, and a bit of drool didn’t take a damn thing away from her. How badly he’d missed her.
He leaned down and kissed her mussed hair and squeezed her just a tiny bit. She moaned, then purred like a kitten. His kitten. Those soft hands of hers slid down his chest to tuck under his stomach as she tried to burrow closer. His soft chuckle jolted both their bodies.
“Shhhh,” she murmured.
“Good morning.”
“Morning. What time is it?”
He glanced at the clock on the opposite side of his room. “Eight.”
“Hmmm, still sleepy,” she mumbled into his chest.
That’s because last night he’d made love to her one more time, long
and slow, that ended up escalating into hard and fast, causing them to spend their energy.
“Hungry?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll make eggs and toast.” He slid out from underneath her naked, tiny form and jumped into a pair of lounge pants. As he went to leave her, a thought suddenly occurred to him. “Candace, you’re not on birth control, are you?”
Her head snapped up, suddenly wide awake.
“You never could take it. Unless you found something you could tolerate. Did you?” He turned back toward her.
Her mouth popped open. “Oh God.”
“You can’t take the morning after pill, right?” he asked, his chest suddenly pounding.
“No,” she whispered, her features paled and filled with worry.
“Where are you in your cycle?” he asked.
“Oh God,” she repeated and collapsed into the bed. “Oh God, Liam.”
He was at her side in a heartbeat. Gently placing his fingers under her chin, he forced her to look at him. “Did I get you pregnant last night?”
“Maybe,” she said, her voice shaking. “Possibly.”
“Marry me.”
She gasped.
“Marry me. Today.” For the first time in his life, he was positive of this route. When they’d been together for all those years, marriage never interested him. He’d been comfortable the way their relationship ran. Why add the stress of marriage to a good thing?
His ideology on the subject changed the week after she’d left, when he realized she wasn’t returning. If she’d had a ring on her dainty finger, she would never have been able to walk away so easily. A mistake he refused to repeat.
She bolted out of bed, tossing blankets, sheets, and pillows out of her way, looking for her clothes. “That’s your answer to last night? Marry me?”
Her face grew red.
Shit. That only happened when she was furious.
“No,” he answered carefully. “That’s my answer to making you mine again. I made a mistake when we were together, Candace. I should have married you years ago.”
She stood upright, still buck naked, and stared at him as if he’d grown a second head. “How could I possibly marry you when you’re reckless and undisciplined? How could I open myself up to that type of hurt?”
He stalked across the room and crowded her personal space. “I told you I’ve changed. I’m not stupid with my life anymore. Everything you said to me on the way out the door hit me hard. Granted, it was a week later, because I’m a dumbass. But it still hit. I wouldn’t be up for assistant chief if that wasn’t the case, and you know it. What is this, your way of pushing me away? Your way to make me beg? Is that what you want, for me to beg? ‘Cause I’ll fucking do it, Candace. Do you want me on my knees?” He dropped the floor. “Do you want me to crawl to you? What do you want?” He could hear the desperation in his tone, but he couldn’t allow her to walk away from him. Not without a fight.
“Liam, don’t.” She held out her hand, insisting he get off the floor.
“What do you want, Candace? Tell me, please.” He refused to budge until she told him what he could or should do to make her see he’d changed. That’d he’d do anything for her. “Do you want me to quit?” he asked, it occurring to him that might be what satisfied her.
“No!” she screeched. “I would never ask you to do that. You love your job.” She collapsed onto the bed and covered her eyes. “I never expected this to happen when I went to the party last night. I hoped to see you. I’ve missed you terribly. I think of you every day, and how I wish I could take back every angry word I said to you. I wished you had come back for me, but then, that’s not what you do. You’ve never pushed me. You always gave me the room I needed, which was one of the things I loved you for.”
Liam climbed off the floor and laid down beside her in the bed, his large hand going straight to her stomach. God, he hoped he’d gotten her pregnant. His Candace carrying his baby. Forever tied to him. In his thirty-one years, he never considered becoming a father, but with the high probability he knocked her up last night, the idea of Candace carrying his child was now a top priority. He envisioned a little boy who looked exactly like his father, and tossing a football to the squirt.
"But that one time I wished you would have fought for me." She uncovered her eyes and looked at him. "Why didn't you?"
"Honestly?"
She slowly nodded.
"I thought you'd come back to me. I thought you'd realize you made a bad judgment call. I mean, we've been together forever. We're soul mates. I knew that, I figured you needed time to cool down." He brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes. "After that week, I didn't know what to do. I've always done what you told me." When she opened her mouth to argue, he held up his hand. "Happily I did. I'm not one of those guys who had to be in charge all the time. You led us in the right direction, at least when I wasn't being an idiot." He sighed. "I didn't know what to do. You were so angry with me, and I was distraught and lost. I kept thinking you'd eventually return. Then I got hurt and realized I'd fucked up my entire life. I had to concentrate on healing and fixing myself. By then, I heard you were dating and engaged."
"I was never engaged to him." She sat up and stroked his five o'clock shadow. "I didn't love him. There's only been one man who's owned my heart. I used him to try to get you out of my mind. I thought that would work. I thought that if I dated, I could break our bond. All it did was further widen the gaping hole in my heart."
"Did you sleep with him?"
She shook her head. "Never."
"Marry me." He sat up and took her left hand into his. "Marry me and make me the happiest man alive. Make my world whole."
She bit her lip.
"What proof do you want? You want to talk to the chief? I'll get him on the phone for you right now. You want to talk to my brothers? I'll go drag their asses out of bed," he said.
"No need, I'm already here," Shane yelled, approaching the bedroom.
"Shane!" Candace yelped, grasping the sheets and wrapping them around her thin body.
His jackass brother sauntered in the bedroom, straight up to Candace, leaned down, and kissed her on the cheek. "How are you, sweetheart?"
"Naked." She glared daggers at him.
Shane perched himself on the edge of the bed. "Clearly a state you should be in more often."
"What are you doing here?" Liam growled.
His brother shot a look over his shoulder. "Really? The two of you kept us all up last night." He turned back to Candace and smiled. "Now, to answer you question, then leave you two to work this out. He stopped being reckless with his life and grew up. He's in a good place; well, except for the fact he still mourns the fact he lost you. Forgive him. He's the man you'd hoped he'd become." Shane stood, kissed her again, and strolled out the room. "Poker is still on even if Candace is here."
When they heard the door close, Liam turned to her but didn't say anything. He watched her stare after his brother and remain silent. It was one of her quirks when she was in deep thought. She’d space out. He never minded. He allowed her to process everything. Because despite how she wanted him to fight for her, he needed to give her time to think. She didn't like not being able to rationalize things.
When she finally looked his way, his heart broke. Liam recognized that look. The one that said she didn't trust a word Shane said.
"I can't," she said, tearing him into two. Again.
7
Liam stared at his cards, but couldn't read the value of each one. He'd managed to lose Candace for a second time in his life.
"Hey," Aaron said, grabbing at his cards. "Why don't you go to her?"
He shook his head, unable to speak. He hadn't spoken a word since Candace dressed and left his apartment. Once again, he refused to stop her. Instead, like the dumbass he was, he watched her silently and quickly dress, then scoot out of his place without a backwards glance. Just like before.
"You shouldn't have slept with he
r," Shane pointed out for the third time, and it was becoming annoying as fuck.
He glanced around at his four brothers, their big bodies crammed around the poker table, all looking at him with pity. Well, except Brayden, who looked downright distraught. But that was his baby brother, he wore his heart on his sleeve.
"Shut up, Shane," Justin growled. "Leave him alone."
Liam jumped out his chair, the metal grinding against Shane's expensive hardwood floors.
"Hey!" his brother protested.
Liam paced the open space of the living room dining room combo, running a frustrated hand over his short brown hair.
"Fuck!" he screamed, about to put his fist through a wall. Each arm was grabbed by a brother. They dragged him to the sofa and shoved him down into the plush dark green pillows.
"Calm down," Aaron scolded.
"Figure your shit out," Justin demanded.
Shane stood in front of him, his arms crossed of his chest. Why the hell was he always dressed in a damn designer suit? As if a meeting would suddenly pop up in the center of the kitchen.
"Do you love her?" his older brother asked.
"Yes." His head hit the back of the sofa. He was exhausted. Not only from last night and this morning, but all the events that occurred over the past crap-ass year.
"Then go fight for her," Aaron demanded. "You let her walk away. You let her call all the shots, even the ones that aren't good for either of you."
Brayden slumped down on the sofa next to him. "I like Candace," he said softly, meek.
Liam supportively slapped his brother's knee. "I know."
"But she's being stupid."
His head jerked up. That certainly wasn't a proclamation he expected from Brayden. His brother never spoke an ill word about anyone. Especially not a woman. And certainly not Candace.
Liam wrapped an arm around his brother’s neck and pulled him into a manly hug. "Thanks," he said quietly.
"Liam, you made the mistake of letting her leave the first time and not going after her. Don't repeat it," Shane said.
Don't repeat it. Those words rang in his ear over and over. How could he fight for the woman he loved, who was so damn stubborn?
Fire: A Quinn Brothers Story Page 2