I love when he’s this way. His confidence that borders on cocky makes me thankful that he’s mine—all mine.
“Definitely.”
He kisses my stomach before moving lower. “Now?”
“Liam.” I hiss his name when his tongue swipes across my clit.
“Am I at a ten now, sweetheart?”
I moan, unable to form words.
“Or are we at a nine?”
Why is he talking? “Don’t stop,” I beg.
“Yes, ma’am.” He chuckles and then gets back to work.
My hands grip the pillow, pulling it over my face so when I scream I don’t wake the neighbors. He circles my clit, making my legs shake as I climb higher. I’m hovering on the edge, sitting in that place where it’s almost painful because I need to release. Liam knows exactly what he’s doing, and I’m not complaining one bit.
I start to twist when it becomes too much, but his strong hands hold my legs down. He moves his tongue in lazy circles, keeping me on the edge, and it’s as though I’m being ripped apart.
“Liam!” The muffled sound of my voice is desperate. “Please!”
“Take the pillow off your face, I want to hear every fucking noise tonight.”
Aarabelle is at the after prom, and Shane is at a sleepover. For once, we don’t have to worry about kids hearing us.
I do as he says and toss the pillow onto the floor. “Yes,” I whimper as he circles my clit. “God, Liam!”
My head thrashes from side to side as pleasure overtakes me. I writhe beneath him, my pulse races, and I bite down on my lip.
I’m hanging on the edge, ready to go over, needing to release the pressure. Liam continues his slow assault, taking his time to bring me to the brink. “Yes. There. Oh. Jesus!” My fingers grip his hair as he sucks hard while flicking my clit, and I explode.
My orgasm rages on and on as he continues to pull every ounce of pleasure from my body.
Once he’s satisfied, he climbs up so we’re face to face.
My eyes open, and a blissed out smile tugs at my lips. He’s perfect, and he’s one of those men who look better the older he gets. I touch his strong jawline, which is covered in a beard long enough for me to run my fingers through it. His crystal blue eyes are filled with so much love that it takes my breath away.
I’m a very lucky woman.
“Why are you smiling?” he asks.
“Because you’re mine.”
He moves my hair off my face and smiles back. “Damn fucking right you are. Now, I’m going to make love to my wife and make her scream my name a few more times.”
I move my fingers through his hair. “She would really like that.”
Liam shifts as I part my legs, giving him the in that we are both craving.
He pushes forward, taking me, owning me, loving me the way that only he can.
Our eyes stay trained on one another. “You feel so good,” he says before kissing me.
“You always feel good.”
“I love you so much, sweetheart. So much.”
“I love you more.”
He starts to rock back and forth, giving me all the love in the world. When we’re together, life makes sense. We’ve been lucky that he hasn’t deployed in the last two years.
Liam is the other half to my soul, and being a SEAL’s wife means I have to share him . . . and possibly lose him.
I never want to live in a world without him, and my eyes fill with tears before I can push the thoughts away.
He’s here. He’s alive and came home to me, just like he promised he’d do.
“Am I hurting you?” he asks quickly.
I shake my head and wipe the tears from my cheek. “No, baby, I’m just allowing myself to feel how much I love you.”
“Fuck, Natalie.” Liam groans as he moves faster, pushing so deep inside me that we’re completely one.
I need more. I need all of him.
His fingers tangle in my hair, and he squeezes as he roars.
We lay like this for a few moments, breathing each other in, reveling in the moment.
He doesn’t move for so long that I start to think that he fell asleep—inside me. I wait another minute, and he finally turns his head toward me.
“Hi.” I smile.
“Hi.”
I run my fingers up and down his spine. “You all right?”
“Oh, I’m very all right.”
I shake my head at the playful tone. “Are you planning on getting up?”
He grunts. “I’m fine.”
“Liam.” I giggle as he tucks his face against the crook of my neck.
“What? It makes it easier for round two.”
He’s a mess. A beautiful mess. “Come on, babe. I need to get up.”
Liam hoists himself up a little, his smile is lazy and beyond sexy. Everything about him makes me happy. He runs his thumb against my lips, touching each part of my face. “Each day I ask myself what in the world I did to deserve you.”
“You were you,” I reply as if it’s the only answer in the world.
“And you were meant to be mine.”
He presses his lips to mine, and once again, tears spring to my eyes. “Then I guess it’s a pretty good thing we found each other, huh?”
Liam nods. “You’ve given me everything a man could ever want in his life.”
My heart swells, and I brush my thumb across his cheek. “Yeah?”
“I have a son and a daughter who I would lie down my life for. A woman who loves me more than I deserve. You’re the other half to my soul, Lee. You think I say this shit because I’m so sweet or whatever crap you tell Catherine and Charlie, but the truth is that I wouldn’t be who I am without you.”
“Why do you have to be so amazing all the time?”
Liam rolls off to the side, pulling me against his chest. “Because I love you, sweetheart. I know you’re tough and you don’t need anyone to take care of you, but I see the cracks.”
My head sits on my hand while I look at the man I love with my whole heart. “You keep coming home to me, and I’ll keep spackling.”
“You’re not the handiest person.”
I laugh and slap his chest. “You shouldn’t talk, Mr. Duct Tape, you’re the one who taped your daughter’s diaper and then tied the Christmas tree to the ceiling.”
He shrugs. “You love me.”
“That I do, I most definitely do.”
“I love you. You know what else I love?” Liam asks.
There’s mischief in his eyes, and I can only imagine what the hell is coming next. “Now I’m scared.”
Liam pushes my hair out of my eyes with a wicked grin. “Chocolate.”
“Oh, I can get with some chocolate!”
We climb out of bed and throw on some clothes. Once in the kitchen, I grab the bag of KitKats I keep hidden from Aarabelle and Shane.
“That’s where you keep the stash?” He laughs as I’m climbing down from the chair I used to get in the top cabinet.
“Don’t judge. I need my candy when you’re gone.”
“Come here,” Liam says, holding a hand out to me. “I want to show you something.”
“Okay,” I say hesitantly.
Liam pulls me out of the kitchen, grabs the blanket off the back of the couch, and tugs me back toward the hallway.
“What are you doing?”
“Showing you what it’s going to be like when the kids are out of the house. Sex in all the rooms. Starting with the dining room.”
Two
“Where is she?” Liam asks as he paces the hall as he pulls the beanie off his head.
“Calm down!”
“Don’t tell me to calm down, that little cocksucker was supposed to have her home five minutes ago,” he bellows.
Sometimes he’s this calm, level-headed man that I love being around. Then, we have this madman who makes me crazy by being a complete freak show.
“Liam, sit down.”
He goes to the window, p
ushes the blinds down, slips his beanie back on, and then grumbles again. “I can’t. This little shit is probably—”
“Is, nothing,” I finish. “They went to a movie across town, you and I know better than anything that traffic here is horrible.”
My phone vibrates.
Aarabelle: There’s an accident on Shore Drive. I’m trying. Please tell Athair we’re coming and not to shoot anything or anyone.
* * *
Me: Okay. Just get here safely.
“See?” I hold my phone up. “She’s on her way, but there’s an accident.”
He laughs. “Yeah, right. She was probably doing God knows what and lost track of time.”
“Oh, so she acted like you as a teenager?”
Liam levels me with a stare. “Don’t try to send me over the edge.”
I’m pretty sure he jumped over the edge ten minutes before she left. Since the prom where Aarabelle was adamant they were just friends, she and Chase have grown very close. He’s a good kid, though. He came to the house and asked Liam for permission to ask his daughter out.
Liam, of course, is a dick and made him sweat it out.
I bet he wishes he said no now.
But, seriously, Chase is a good kid.
“Where is your son?” I ask absently. It’s been quiet the last hour in the garage where he was working on his bike.
“He’s in the garage . . .”
“Go bother him. Maybe he needs some help while you wait.”
Liam kisses my forehead and heads out the door.
I watch as he leaves, admiring the view of his ass. Sometimes, I can’t help it. He’s just too cute.
Instead of waiting in here, I walk out to the porch with my coffee cup and curl up on the wicker couch. I love sitting out here at night. I can hear the waves crashing against the shore. The salt air calms my soul, and it always makes me grateful I got to stay in this house.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I hear Liam’s deep voice yell.
“Dad!”
“Don’t you dare Dad me!”
“It isn’t what it looks like!”
Oh, this can’t be good. I place the cup down and jog around the front of the house to see what the yelling is about.
When I get to the garage door, I see Shane pulling his shirt on and a girl doing the same.
“Fucking hell, Shane!” I say with horror in my voice.
“I swear, we were—”
Liam slaps Shane in the back of the head. “Shut your mouth.”
“But she—”
Another smack.
“I didn’t give you permission to talk. I’m contemplating letting you breathe much longer,” Liam says through gritted teeth.
“You should head home,” I say to the girl, whose face is bright red as she refuses to look anywhere but at the ground.
Shane opens his mouth to say something and Liam steps closer, grabbing his neck. “Not a word.”
Why is it the bigger they get the bigger my fears are? Can’t we go back to diapers and duct tape? Anything other than condoms.
She scurries out just as headlights illuminate the driveway.
Great. Aarabelle is here now and is going to get the wrath of this fiasco.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Aara says as she and Chase walk up the drive. “I swear, we weren’t doing anything.”
“No one! No. One. Other than me and your mother should be having sex in this house. No one. Do you understand?” Liam explodes, his eyes firmly locked on his son as Aara and Chase come to stand next to me. Clearly, my daughter doesn’t think she is included in that edict, which tells me she isn’t doing anything she shouldn’t be.
Like an idiot, Shane laughs, which has both Aarabelle and I looking on in horror.
“What are you talking about?” she finally asks, drawing Liam’s attention.
No. No. No. Aara. You should know better than to talk when Liam has that look on his face.
“Did you have sex? Is that why you were late?” Liam, still holding Shane’s neck asks as he moves toward her.
“No! God! We were stuck in traffic!”
He turns to Chase. “I swear that if you were at some sleazy motel or steaming up the back seat, boy . . .”
Chase lifts his hands. “I swear, Mr. Dempsey, it was traffic.”
“Liam.” I step in.
“These kids are nuts, sweetheart! They’re nuts! I catch one with his pants down and the other . . . well, I don’t know what she did, but . . .”
Or maybe their father is the one who’s nuts, but I decide to keep that one in. I think the hardest thing about parenting is the loss of control.
The older they get, the less control you have. It is just the way of life.
“Everything okay, Lee?” My elderly neighbor asks from the window.
“We’re fine, Mrs. DeMatteo!”
I wave and really hope she doesn’t have her hearing aids in.
“Sorry, Mrs. D,” Liam yells.
“All right then, honey. I just heard the shouting.” She blows him a kiss and then shuts the window.
I can’t even with the women when it comes to him. He’s like catnip to the opposite sex. I know he’s beyond good-looking, but come on. It isn’t like he’s God’s gift to women. I live with him. I know this to be true.
“Now that you’ve announced to our neighbors that we’re the only ones allowed to have sex, would you like to take this inside?”
Liam releases a heavy sigh through his nose. “You”—he points to Chase—“you were to have her home on time. Did you do anything that I would want to kill you for? And don’t lie because I’ll know?”
“No, sir.”
“You”—Liam points to Aarabelle—“get inside.”
“Can I say good night to Chase?” she asks.
“Do you want me to show Chase where all his pressure points are located?”
“Good night, Aara!” Chase says as he climbs back in his car.
“See! He’s smart.” Liam looks at me. “Why did we get the dumb one?”
Oh, the come backs I have for this. “Because he’s half yours . . .”
He grabs Shane by the back of the neck and marches forward. “Well, I’m about to slap the stupid out of him.”
I don’t know who he’s trying to fool, he would never raise a hand to either of them, but Shane’s eyes widen.
Our children have grown up with the knowledge that most of the men in their lives are trained in some pretty scary things. Liam’s way to bond with Shane was to teach him a lot of them as well. They love to rough house, roll around, and see how many dead legs they can give each other before someone cries.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe he ate lead paint or something.
“Shane, go up to your room. Your dad and I will be up in bit to talk about this. Once we’ve calmed down enough not to hang you on the flagpole by your underwear.”
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
I close my eyes and nod. “Just go to your room and leave your phone on the counter on your way up.”
He walks inside the house, and Liam wraps his arms around my waist.
“Tell me they weren’t . . .” I beg.
“They weren’t. I don’t know if they planned to.”
“Great.”
“I know, they were on top of Robin,” he grumbles.
His car. He’s worried about his freaking car. “God forbid.”
“What if they scratched her?”
Liam and his car need a moment. He’s had this freaking thing since before we started dating. It’s basically a museum in the garage. Every few days, he comes out here, talks to her—because the car is real to him—and tinkers with it.
“I’m sure Robin is just fine.”
“If she isn’t, he’s going to pay.”
I don’t doubt that. “Don’t you think you should be more concerned that he had a girl here and was missing clothing?”
“No.” He scoffs. “I love that car.”
“And
you don’t love your kids?”
“Not as much as Robin. I’ve had her longer, she’s good to me, and doesn’t give me half the headaches those two do.”
We walk over to the porch and sit together. His arms wrap around me from behind while my head rests on his chest.
“Well, I’m not worried about her.”
“Honestly, I’m concerned about everything. They’re growing up so fast, and it feels like we’re losing control.”
I nod because I had been thinking the same thing moments ago. “They just think they know it all.”
“How wrong they are . . .”
“No shit. We didn’t learn how wrong we were until we were in our thirties.”
Liam laughs lightly. “And even then, we’re still figuring out we were dumb as fuck.”
“This parenting gig sucks.” I sigh.
“There’s no one else I’d rather suck with, though.”
I smile and look back at him. “Same here.”
“Good thing you’re really good at sucking.” He laughs at his dirty joke.
“You know . . .” I sit up to get a better look at him. “You’re able to turn anything back to sex. No wonder our son was in there on top of your car and doing whatever he was doing.”
He shrugs. “He’s a Dempsey. We’re natural ladies men.”
“Oh, for the love of . . .”
“You can trademark that line, baby.”
“Sometimes I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I fell in love with you.” It’s a lie.
I know exactly what I was thinking—here’s a man who loves me in my most broken state. He’s kind, loyal, protective, and wants to do the right thing, even if he has to walk away to save us all.
Liam walked beside me during the most difficult part of my life. He was self-sacrificing at every turn.
My life could’ve gone a very different way if it weren’t for him.
My heart might still be broken, but his unyielding love healed every last broken shard.
“You were thinking that I had the biggest—”
“Heart.”
“Wrong body part, Lee.”
I shrug. “This is why our son thinks the way he does . . . you.”
“Please, like your eyes didn’t go to my dick when I said that.” He laughs.
“Whatever,” I say as he pulls me back against his chest and I tilt my head so I can look up at him.
Cocktales Page 43