by T. S. Joyce
“Uh-oh, sounds serious.”
“It’s very very serious.”
Morgan stopped pouring syrup all over the pancakes. “Okay, I’m ready I think.”
“Is there any way you can get your shift covered this morning so we can go fuck off for a while?”
“Like miss work for a booty call?” she asked.
“No! God, no, Morgan…” Liam laughed. “Not that I would ever turn that down, but no.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t have to be into work for three hours, and I planned an adventure. But only if you can get off work. Otherwise, I’ll take you straight to Tacky’s and stop pestering you and we can do the adventure day some other time.”
“I…I’ve never missed a shift before. I mean, of course I know lots of people who could cover… Hell, they might already be overstaffed for a lunch shift. I just… I never played hooky for work.” She clenched her fists in her lap. You know what? Yeah. She could at least call and see. She never got a day off. Never ever. She picked up everyone’s shifts and worked herself to the bone at her job and at home. She had stuff to do, money to earn, but this had been one helluva week, and she really wanted a surprise adventure with Liam. And that was new for her—wanting things for herself.
She opened her new phone that was already charged and everything. She was used to using her co-worker’s phones when she needed to make calls, but she figured the phone out fine and called Tacky’s. Meredith, the manager, answered.
“Hi, Meredith, it’s me.” She cleared her throat. “Morgan. Holland?”
Meredith chuckled. “I know who you are Morgan. I see you every day.”
“Oh. Yes. Well, I’m so sorry to ask this, but—”
“You need a vacation day?”
“Yes,” she whispered on a breath.
“We had a bet going how long you could keep working like you do without asking for a day off.”
Someone called out, “Pay up!” in the background. Ricky the busboy maybe?
Morgan sighed in relief. “It’s really okay?”
“Please. Take the day off, Morgan. It’s nice to see you aren’t actually a robot. You make the rest of us look bad.”
Morgan laughed and then said, “Thank you.”
“Yep. Have fun today. Relax. You deserve it. See you tomorrow.” And then the line went dead.
“I can go. Oh my gosh, I can go,” she gushed. “I feel like my dad just let me go to a swamp party past curfew.”
“You feel bad to the bone?”
“I feel so bad!” she crowed, stomping her feet real fast on the floorboard.
“Thata girl.” Liam shifted gears and peeled out onto the main road. Then he gassed it and hit the next gear hard. The engine roared, and Morgan’s stomach got dropped off somewhere behind them. She squealed a laugh and steadied the carton of pancakes as he went faster and faster.
He yelled, “Whooooo!” out the window, and hang it all, this was dangerous and fun and exciting and she was alive!!
“Whoooooooooooooo!” she screamed out the open window.
By the time he slowed for a curve in the road, she was in a fit of breathless laughter. She didn’t even recognize the sound. Had she ever laughed like that in her whole life? She couldn’t remember a time.
Liam had done this, started these changes in her. She could feel herself opening up like a flower in the morning sun, and she loved it.
Trouble was a cloud over her life. It had always been there, growing, getting darker with each year that passed. She hadn’t ever figured out how to escape the rain, but despite the building storm, she was happy. And thoughts that important should be said out loud, so she did. “I’m happy.”
“God, woman, I wish you could see yourself right now. The way I do.” He glanced at her and then away to the road, back to her, then to the road again. His eyes were bright and his smile so big it filled up her whole heart. “Pink cheeks, fire in your eyes, your hair wild and whippin’ around your face in the wind. And, holy hell, Morgan…that smile.”
She giggled and shook her head at how lucky she was to have found a moment like this.
When they passed the turnoff for Liam’s Changing place, she asked, “Okay gatah-man, where are you taking me to?”
“Somewhere I’ve never taken anyone.”
“Anyone?”
“Nope. Not even other shifters. No one.”
“To your lair?”
He nodded, but she’d only been teasing. “Really? You’ve never taken anyone to your house?”
He shrugged up one shoulder then slid his shifting hand to her thigh and rested it there. “I’ve only lived there a couple years. I don’t let people in very easily.”
“Because of the animal?”
“Partly. And partly because it’s hard for me to trust anyone. I had to hide what I was for so long, it was just easier to keep acquaintances instead of make friends. It was easier to not have connections with people. You don’t let anyone down that way.”
“You wouldn’t have let people down just because you’re a gator, Liam. You’re so much more than the animal.”
“Nah.”
“Yeah! Look what you’ve done for me.”
“Woman, you won’t let me do anything for you.”
She shoved a huge bite of pancake in her mouth and groaned. Around the bite, she said, “Thas not true. You stuck up for me today. And make me more confident. And you make me take breaks for fun.”
“I’m a bad influence is what you really mean,” he joked.
“I’m serious.” She cut off another piece of pancake and fed it to him without thinking. It was just natural, and he opened and chewed and kept talking without missing a beat, as if she’d shared her food with him a hundred times before.
“The way I am with you,” he said. “That’s not a side people get to see. It’s kind of terrifying, actually. I have these moments where I panic because I think if you see too much of me, you’ll run. But then in the next breath, I want to test you to see if you’ll run. Kind of messed up, huh?”
“No. I know exactly what you mean.”
“Yeah?” He glanced over at her. “How?”
“Because I do that, too,” she admitted softly. “And so far, you haven’t run.” She slipped her hand into his. “And I’m not running either.”
His eyes went soft and turned from gold to a shade of blue she’d only seen in a summer sky. “You even shared a pancake with me.”
“Yeah, you know you’re special when I share my food,” she chirped, forking him another bite. “And I know I’m special because you offered to eat my father.”
Liam snorted and laughed. “Romance.”
“I swooned.”
“Please. I can’t see you as the swooning type. Do you know how hard it was to pass the flower aisle in the store this morning when I was buying that dang phone? What’s your favorite flower?”
She pointed the fork at him. “Guess.”
“A weed.”
“Correct. Dandelions are my favorite. And they’re free. You’re off the hook for expensive flower romance. Just pick one of those little yellow flowers for me, and it’ll be you telling me you like me every time you give me one.”
“Deal,” he murmured as he turned left onto a gravel road, right past a mailbox.
They passed a No Trespassing sign, but those were pretty common on private property in these parts. As they drove through his woods, she put her hand out the window and caught the breeze, the rumble of the powerful Mustang engine rattling her chest.
Her pancakes forgotten, his hand strong around hers, rays of sun filtering through her open window, she took a mental picture of this moment.
Up ahead, there was a small singlewide trailer on the edge of the water. The siding was painted an olive green, and there was no porch, only stairs that led to the front door. There was a big dock behind the mobile home with an airboat tied to it.
“I filled the cooler in town,” he murmured. “I want to take you out on the water today
. Show you my animal’s favorite places.”
“Another share. Is it a test this time? To see if I’ll run?”
“Not this one. This one is because I like showing you things I’ve never shown anyone else. It’s like jumping off a cliff into dark water, and you don’t know how deep it is. It’s exhilarating and terrifying, anticipating how bad it’s gonna hurt or how good it’ll feel when you hit that water.”
She understood what he was saying. But was she the deep water that would cradle him when he fell? Or was she the shallow kind with the rocky bottom that would break him?
It was in this moment she decided something big. No matter what happened with her life, and her future, she was going to be deep water for him.
You can jump, Liam.
He made her happy, so no matter what, she was going to catch him.
A gift for a gift.
Chapter Ten
“You ever been on one of these things?” he asked over the noise of the airboat engine.
Morgan was so damn cute in her shorts, camo Carhartt hat, one of his oversize flannel shirts, and her hair pulled back in a low, messy bun. She wore a pair of his sound-cancelling earmuffs.
She was securing the cooler in the seat next to her with a bungee cord but looked back at him and lifted one side of her earmuffs. “Huh?”
He laughed. “I asked if you’d ever been on one of these?”
“Not since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I’m used to the slow boats, so go easy on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—”
He hit the gas and blasted them forward over the water. He had a plan, and that was to break his new rider in fast. Scare her a little, let Morgan survive a couple of fast spins and straightaways, and then when he eased off the gas, let her enjoy the adrenaline rush. And that’s what he did. He maxed out the speed on the big straightaway and eased up enough to spin them a couple times without tipping. The whole time, he was laughing because Morgan was holding onto the rail in front of her and screaming like a banshee. He came out of the turn and hit the right split in the river, then blasted them down toward his favorite honey hole. There was always prey there, so his gator liked to go there first.
She tossed him a feral look over her shoulder. “Liam Lachlan, that was ridiculous!” She grinned. “Ridiculously fun.”
Adventurous girl, did she even know how beautiful she was when she let loose?
This girl. She filled his head, his chest, gave his animal purpose.
That last part, that last realization, was big.
The gator had been easier to manage the last couple of days. Quieter. Watchful, like he’d been when Liam was younger. He could almost feel the gator maturing inside of him as his purpose shifted from fighting everything to fighting for something.
For Morgan.
Chapter Eleven
Morgan’s legs were wobbly as she hefted the half-empty cooler off the boat and set it on Liam’s dock. He tied off the boat and stood, offered her his hand, and she took it as she stepped onto the dock.
“That was so much fun,” she gushed. “I feel like I just saw parts of the swamp no other human has seen before!”
Liam pulled her earmuffs off her ears on the last word so she could hear how loud she was talking. Cracking up, she posed this way and that. “Are you super attracted to me when I wear a man’s clothes?”
He pulled her camo baseball hat off and put it on her backward. “Only my clothes. Yeah. Hell, yeah, I think that’s sexy.”
He bent suddenly and tossed her over his shoulder. She squealed at how fast and powerful he was, then yelped when he smacked her ass.
“Wait! What about the cooler?” she cried, gesturing to the worn blue icebox. They’d had lunch at one of his favorite spots and drank half the waters out of it, but still. It could mold if they didn’t empty the ice out.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll get it later. Gotta get you first.”
She giggled as he yanked the back door to his mobile home open and walked them inside. Oh, it felt good in here. The window unit air conditioners worked way better than the ones at her house. She slid down his body and wrapped her legs around his waist, and then it was her turn to spin his baseball hat backward. She didn’t need the bill of that thing poking her in the face when she kissed him.
And kiss him, she did. He met her lips gently at first, brushing his tongue so softly against hers. Liam set her on her feet and pushed his flannel shirt off her shoulders, dragging his fingertips down her arms as he took it off. He took her hat off, then reached around the back of her neck and pulled the hairband out of her tresses, releasing them to fall down her shoulders.
His lips never left hers as he eased her back against the wall. The rumble in his throat was the sexiest thing she’d ever heard. The animal in him called to her. Let her know she was enough. Let her know she satisfied him. She felt like the queen of the swamp when she was with him like this, under his touch, under his care.
Her body was on fire for him. Morgan pushed the hem of his shirt up, up, leaning out of his kiss so she could pull it over his head. His hair was mussed and his smile soft and crooked. His eyes were the color of the sun, and those long pupils that should’ve scared her only made her love him more.
Love.
Fuck. She was in trouble. Love was off limits. She’d sworn to herself she would never love anyone. Love gave people power.
“Are you deep water or shallow?” she whispered.
He searched her eyes. “I guess you’ll just have to jump and find out.”
Morgan rested her palms on his chest and dragged downward, over the mounds of his abs, to the button of his jeans. Click. The sound of his button unsnapping sent a shiver of excitement through her. His hand went back to her neck, and his lips crashed onto hers. He drove his tongue deep into her mouth, and she clutched onto his back, pulled him closer. Desperate to touch his skin, she slid off her shirt and rushed to undo the clasp of her bra. Liam yanked it off from her arms and threw it on the ground, and then he was grinding against her hips, pinning her to the wall. His dick was so hard, but there were still too many layers separating their skin. She unfastened his jeans and shoved them down his hips.
He uttered a hushed curse and shoved her shorts down to her ankles. He spun her so fast, her stomach dipped, and suddenly she was facing the wall, her hands splayed, one of his hands gripping one of hers as he maneuvered his long, thick shaft in the space between her thighs.
“Everything in me wants to take you like this,” he growled in her ear. “I want to bend you over and fuck that tight little pussy just like this. But I won’t for our first time. Not like that. I’m gonna play with you a little bit, though. Show you what’s to come.”
She couldn’t help the moan that escaped her throat. Please.
Arching her back, pressing her butt against him, she reveled in the sound of that low rumble that vibrated through his chest and brushed her skin. She reached between her legs and pressed his dick against her sex. Already so wet, it slid against her easy every time he rolled his hips. His hand went to her throat, but his grasp there stayed gentle. He gripped her hip with his other hand, dragging her back against him every time he shoved forward.
It felt so damn good, having him rub against her like this. Already, she was gasping, bouncing back onto him as the pressure built.
“Liam,” she huffed out. “Liam, I’m—”
“Come for me,” he growled right against her ear. He bit her lobe gently. “Do it, Morgan. Come against my cock.”
Her body exploded, and with her hand, she held his dick tighter against her sex so he could feel the throbbing he’d caused there.
“Goooooood girl,” he rumbled in a gritty voice that drew chills from her arms. Sexy, sexy monster. He spun her around, and there was the devil in that smile. “My turn.”
He carried her to the sturdy dining table and laid her down, climbed up on it with her and hovered his body just inches from hers, his legs splayed under the backs of her knees. He kissed her neck
, her collar bone, the tip of her shoulder, then back in toward her nipple, building the anticipation as her body pulsed on with the aftershocks of her orgasm. She was sighing again, moving her hips, pleading for more. She wanted everything. When he pressed the thick head of his cock right at her entrance, she whispered his name.
He drew her nipple into his mouth, sucked, then lapped at it with his tongue, building the inferno in her again with every lick, every suck.
She gripped his hair and held him close, moved her hips with him as his dick slid into her.
“Oooooh,” she moaned, closing her eyes to the world just to fully appreciate the sensation of touch right now. His hands coveted her body, kneading her skin, gripping her hips, resting on the back of her neck. His fingertips ran down her neck to her arms, and then he lowered his body to hers and kissed her lips. And the second he pushed his tongue against hers, he pushed deep inside her.
Nothing…nothing…nothing had ever felt so good.
Nothing mattered.
Nothing existed.
Just her and Liam and this bond they were building, and that’s what this was, right? She could feel her soul tethering more tightly to his with every thrust inside her.
“Liam, Liam, harder,” she panted out as he consumed her body. She was on fire, but the flames felt incredible. She could burn forever with him.
He bucked into her faster now with more powerful thrusts, filling her utterly, connecting them completely. His hand went rough on her hip, his fingertips digging in as his breath hitched. He was losing it now—that tightly held control he’d had by the truck last night. Another vulnerability, another share.
And she was there, too, digging her nails into his back. He gritted his teeth and blasted his fist against the table beside her shoulder, and she could see the perfect, powerful curves of his tensed arm. So. Damn. Sexy. She was staring. Dominant man. Strong man. She was safe. Safe, safe, safe…
Liam thrust into her deep and then hesitated as his dick throbbed, spilling warmth into her. And she was done. Another release came right on the tail of her last, her body throbbing from her core down. Who was yelling? Her? Was that her making that sound?