Meant To Be (Heaven Hill Series)

by Laramie Briscoe

  He stepped in the shower behind Denise and circled his arms around her body.

  “I was beginning to think you forgot about me,” she grumbled good-naturedly before turning under the spray so that they could face one another.

  “I’d never forget about this,” he whispered as he leaned in to nip at her lips with his.

  The look on his face was so serious it gave her goose bumps. There was no hint of joking around or taking any of this lightly. Not that there would be any of that this deep in the game, but she still had trouble believing that this was real even after the events from earlier. Their relationship was in the infant stages, and she was learning so much about him. It was hard to recognize the facets of the man in front of her. He was happy-go-lucky at times, chill and laid back at others, but sometimes he was so serious that it scared her. Needing to feel close to him, she shoved her fingers through his hair and pulled his mouth down to hers. His hands came around her backside and cupped her ass, using his leverage to pick her up. On instinct, she wrapped her legs around his waist, moaning as she came into contact with the evidence of his arousal.

  “You love going all caveman on me, don’t you?”

  His blue eyes glowed, and the corner of his mouth tilted in amusement. “You love it when I go all caveman, don’t act like you don’t.”

  She shivered as he pressed her against the cold tile of the shower, bringing their bodies closer together. “That I do,” she moaned as he leaned her back slightly. Just before her breasts, he stopped and lifted his head, his eyes pinning her with a hard gaze. The beard on his face gave him a dangerous edge and his forehead creased as he bent his head and used his teeth to tease her nipple. She opened her mouth at the sharp prick of pain before he used the flat of his tongue to soothe the ache.

  The sound of water beating down on them roared in her ears as she held on tightly to his shoulders, giving him free reign as he held her upper back in his strong hands. It allowed her to lean even further backward, giving her a feeling of being weightless. Out of the blue, the water went cold, causing her to shriek, bringing her out of the haze of pleasure he’d weaved around them.

  “You’re gonna love this,” he promised.

  Already their body heat was turning the water warmer, and she had to admit the bite of the cold was arousing. It caused her already hard nipples to stiffen further as the coolness trailed down her body. She couldn’t help but writhe against him, trying to coax him inside the warmth of her core.

  “What about shrinkage?” she challenged, her eyes teasing.

  “I don’t think we’ll have a problem with that,” he growled, plunging into her body. He pulled her as close as they could be, trailing open mouth kisses down the column of her throat, making noises as she squeezed around him.

  She groaned as the cold water invaded the heat of her body. It was exciting, the difference in temperatures. Much more arousing than she had ever imagined. Her fingers flexed on his biceps as she pushed them apart. Immediately his mouth covered the tip of her nipple and his cheeks hollowed when he sucked sharply. Again the feeling of his warm mouth around the icy coldness of her skin caused her breath to hitch. Never before had she done anything like this, and the unknown was almost as arousing as the feelings he made course through her body.

  Tightening her legs around his waist, she spurred him on, wanting to feel the fullness that only he could give her.

  “You like that?” he asked as he shoved roughly inside of her.

  She nodded, bringing her lip up between her teeth.

  “I can’t hear you baby, you gotta tell me.” He pulled out, leaving just the tip of his cock inside her, teasing as he waited for her to tell him what he wanted to hear.

  “I like it,” she whispered.

  “You like what?”

  Damn him. He wasn’t making this easy for her. It wasn’t like her to tell him exactly what she wanted, exactly what she liked. Hell, she was still learning what she liked if she were honest with herself.

  “I like everything that you do to me. I like feeling your cock deep inside me,” she whispered, heat coming to her face.

  “Yeah?” he asked, griping her hips tighter in his hands.

  “Oh yeah,” she answered back.

  The flat of his hand took her by surprise as he smacked it against the flesh of her ass, causing her to let out a garbled moan. He loved that sound she made it when she got some sort of unexpected pleasure. It made him harder, just thinking about the fact that he was the man to give her that pleasure, to wrench that noise from her throat.

  “C’mon baby,” he urged her on. Bracing her body tighter against the wet wall of the shower, he moved one of his hands down to her core and rubbed his finger along the hard nub of her clit. “Fall apart for me,” he coaxed her, not sure how much longer he would be able to keep up the punishing pace he had set.

  Denise bucked her hips against his finger and the hardness of his cock slicing her in half. He could feel her tightening, and he fought valiantly to hold off his own explosion. The effort caused him to tighten his abs, his ass, and his arms. She opened her eyes, seeing his teeth clenched.

  It was that display of maleness that sent her over the edge. The thought of him trying to hold himself together so tightly for her pleasure. It set off every feminine trigger in her body.

  “Oh God,” she cried, tears springing to her eyes at the emotions that erupted within her.

  Liam buried his head in her neck and bit down sharply, sucking as he spilled himself inside her. Lethargy immediately swamped his body, and he fought to lift his head. The steam from the shower swirled around them causing him to close and open his eyes swiftly, trying to focus.

  “You wore me out,” he accused, not moving his head from her shoulder.

  “No, I’m pretty sure you wore me out,” she laughed, gingerly removing her legs from around his waist.

  He cautiously sat her down, waiting to see if her legs would support her after being in that position for so long. When they buckled, his large hands grasped her hips and held her still for a few moments. As he kept her body close to his, he reached over and turned the warmth of the shower back on as they concentrated on regulating their breathing. She stomped her feet a few times against the floor, hoping to get feeling back into her legs.

  “You are a force to be reckoned with,” she giggled.

  His smile was purely masculine. She did things to him that no other woman ever had. Made him feel like such a man, like he could lift a car with his bare hands or break a steel plated door. The feeling wasn’t one he ever wanted to go away. His eyes traveled over her body, admiring the way the water slid over every nook and cranny, getting himself all worked up again. As he lifted his gaze to her neck, he cursed softly.

  “What?” she asked, bringing her hand up to the spot where her neck and shoulder met. The place where his eyes were now looking so intently.

  “How do you feel about being the mother of thirteen-year-old twins and having a hickey?”

  Her eyes bugged, and her mouth dropped open. “You gave me a hickey? I’ve never in my life had a hickey,” he could hear the panic in her voice.

  “Well, you do now,” he told her, trying to hide the smile that spread across his face.

  “I’m not sure how I feel about this. A hickey after my teenage years. I need to see how trashy it looks.”

  As he got them out of the shower, he couldn’t help the swell of pride he felt. “That’s my mark of ownership.”

  “I think everybody got that before you gave me the hickey,” she joked.

  He walked them over to the sink and stood behind her as they looked in the mirror. He used his hand to tilt her head to the side, admiring his handy work. “That’s fuckin’ hot.”

  “Men,” she blushed. “I will never understand.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Lauren watched her son as he came out of his dorm room the next morning, his hand firmly clasping Denise’s. The tension and wariness that had been tigh
tly wound into his body the night before was no longer there. The large hickey that was present on the woman’s neck was proof of just how he had relaxed. Truth be told she couldn’t remember the last time he had walked around without tension in his shoulders and his eyes shifting this way and that. It saddened her that she’d never seen her son like this before.

  “What do you say we grab some breakfast and go sit outside?” he asked as he ambled up to her. He seemed at peace with himself, much more comfortable in his body than she could ever remember him being.

  She looked into his eyes, trying to gauge whether he really wanted to give her a second chance at being his mother. Her heart couldn’t take it if he wasn’t truly interested in this. What she saw there made her hopeful. It looked as if he wanted this as much as she did. “That’s fine with me. Is your lady coming with us?”

  The look he bestowed on Denise was one of pure adoration and love. To be honest, it made Lauren jealous. Even early on in her marriage to William, he had never looked at her like that. Liam pulled her hand to his lips and kissed the palm. “If she wants, and if you don’t care.”

  “I don’t. I would love it if you would come with us.” Lauren was eager for anything that would allow her a few precious moments with the son she didn’t know. Anything that would move their relationship forward.

  Denise smiled prettily, “Then I would love to.”

  The trio walked into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of Tyler sitting at the table, a coffee cup in front of him. If she wasn’t mistaken, that coffee cup looked like an amazingly real replica of a skull. His face was serious like it always was, and Denise could see lines of fatigue around his eyes and mouth.

  “How’s Meredith?” she asked, gasping as he lifted the cup up to his mouth and took a sip. It was, in fact, what she assumed it was. A small skull, but a skull nonetheless.

  He shuddered as the caffeine coursed through his body. He hoped like hell this would wake him up because he had spent most of the previous night sitting in watch over Meredith. “Rough night and what’s wrong with you?”

  “Is that a skull?” she asked, her brows knitting together. “It looks disturbingly real. Is it?”

  He smiled. She’d never seen the man smile before and it completely changed his face. It made her want to do anything he asked. It was very disconcerting, and she almost chuckled as Liam came up behind her and put an arm around her shoulder. For the first time it was obvious that Tyler was the ‘make your panties drop’ man of the group. Funny, she hadn’t pegged him as that man before.

  “People assume that because I’m Native American it is, but no one really knows for sure,” his eyes twinkled with mischief.

  “Liam is it real?” She asked, tilting her head to the side with the question.

  “Don’t know, darlin’. He won’t even tell me. He plays things close to the vest sometimes. He just smiles at people and tells them that it may or may not be cursed.”

  “You mean he’s your best friend and he doesn’t tell you everything?” She asked, leaning back to look him in the eye.

  “We’re not a bunch of girls, baby. We’re men, we don’t have to tell each other everything. There’s nothing wrong with keeping some things a mystery.”

  She frowned. That wasn’t at all the answer she was looking for. Denise really wanted to know if it was cursed or not.

  Liam grabbed her hand and lead her out of the kitchen, having gotten breakfast while she contemplated the presumed cursed skull coffee cup. Curious still, she looked back at the big man and shivered when he winked at her. It was pretty obvious he would never tell.

  Outside on the back porch, the three of them sat in relative silence eating breakfast. Denise’s stomach churned, not sure how this would work out for Liam. He was hurt because of things that had happened in the past, and that she understood. But as a mother herself, she also understood that sometimes things just were. You couldn’t gauge how your kids would react to everything, and sometimes split decisions had to be made. She hoped with everything in her that the both of them – Liam and Lauren – could come through this with a little better understanding of each other.

  “Before you say anything,” Lauren began. “Can I explain to you where I came from as your mother?”

  Denise felt the tension roll off Liam’s body, so she reached over and grabbed his hand. The gentle squeeze she gave told him that he had to be patient. He had to hear her side before he went off half-cocked. Because he would expect Drew to give his own mother that much respect, he cleared his throat and shifted. “Go ahead,”

  “When your Dad and I got married, I didn’t sign on to be an old lady. I signed on to be his wife. Sure he’d always liked motorcycles and the culture, but I never once thought he would want to embrace it or live it. I was used to us going to the get-togethers and then coming home and being a family. I didn’t expect what all this entailed. For a while I was okay with it. The club was our main source of income in the middle to late ‘70s. It put food on the table, but there wasn’t all this illegal shit going on. When we had Sharon, I breathed a sigh of relief. A daughter wasn’t going to be expected to take over an MC. She might be expected to be with a member, but the legacy is not going to be hers.”

  As a mother herself, Denise got where this was going. It was going to hurt Liam, she was sure, but she could understand where his mother was coming from. Knowing he would need compassion, she rubbed his hand softly, hoping to calm him down. Denise felt sorrow for the two of them. She could almost bet how this was going to play out.

  Lauren fought back tears as her chin quivered. It was going to hurt her deeply to say the next words, but she knew that she had to make Liam understand. Only with the truth could there be understanding. She had learned that lesson the hard way over the years.

  “When I had you, my world ended. The day you came home from the hospital, your Dad started talking about grooming you. They were starting to get into the illegal side of things, and the only thing I could think of was that you’d never have a life. I couldn’t bring myself to be as close to you as I was to Sharon. I knew that one day you’d be taken from me. I knew that one day I would have to hand you over to this club, and I couldn’t bear it. I couldn’t bear the thought of you not being my little boy anymore. I’m sure you don’t remember, but I tried to do other things with you that didn’t involve the club. One day when I took you to the Science Museum in Nashville, you came home and told William you wanted to be an astronaut. That was the first time he beat me.” Lauren struggled through this part, not particularly wanting to tell Liam what stock he came from. But again, she had learned the truth would set her free.

  Denise could see Liam’s teeth clench and his jaw tighten. This was hard for him. Not that he had any illusions about William, but he really did not like violence towards women if it could be helped. She reached over and put her hand on his thigh, offering her support. It appeared to be equally hard for Lauren as she fought valiantly against the tears that streaked her face.

  “He told me that your legacy was this club. You were to have no other dreams, and if I couldn’t get on board with that, then I could leave. I was to leave you and Sharon and never look back. I’m sure you don’t remember. You were so young. I really hope you don’t remember in hindsight. We left that night. I grabbed all our stuff and even took just you, not Sharon. Just you, Liam. I knew that if I left you here, he would destroy all the good things that made you the sweet little boy you were. We ran for two days until William and the club caught up to us. Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty. Not wanting any more harm to come to you, I decided as a mother that loved you the best thing I could do was leave.”

  Leaning over, Denise placed her hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear. “She does love you. She did everything for you. Please tell me you can understand that.”

  When she pulled away, this big man had tears in his eyes and his bottom lip quivered. He sniffed heavily. “I don’t remember any of that,” he whispered, coughing loudly
to cover up his display of emotion.

  “I know, and I don’t blame you at all, Liam. You were a child. I made a decision. It was never about right or wrong, because the decision I made wasn’t truthfully right. Any mother worth anything would not have left her child. I regret it every day, especially when I see the man you’ve become. I know I had no hand in that.”

  “He’s a good man,” Denise defended. No matter what they saw him do as the VP of the club, he was such a different person when they were alone. So tender, and emotional, and willing to be the type of man she had always wanted as the father to her children.

  “He is,” Lauren agreed. “But this club is going to eat him up and spit him out before long. I don’t know that he has the heart to do the things they will eventually ask him to do.”

  It scared Liam because he’d always thought that of himself too. He’d hoped he’d hidden it well within the club. He’d never backed down from anything, but it always weighed heavily on his mind.

  “I’ll always do what I have to do.”

  Lauren scooted forward and tentively grabbed her son’s hand. “But at what cost, Liam?”

  “Whatever the cost is, I have to pay it. When you left me here, this became my legacy. I’ve done too much to walk away now,” he explained as gently as he could. “Like you said, decisions were made. None of them were good. Now I have to live with it, and I’m okay with that.”

  “I’m not,” Lauren whispered.

  It took everything in Liam’s body to say the words that came out of his mouth next. “Mom, I forgive you, and I understand now. Maybe we can work on having a relationship.”

  “I would like that very much,” her smile shook.

  Denise fought back her own show of emotion as the two of them embraced for the first time in nearly twenty-five years. She was happy she’d been able to be a part of this. It had meant the world to her.

  “Did you work everything out with your mother?”

  Liam saw red as he saw his dad for the first time since the conversation he’d had with said mother. Walking up to him, he balled his fist and hit him with everything he had carried around, causing the older man’s head to snap back.