Duke beamed. “Will’s going to goaltend.”
Will pulled his face back. “I am?”
Duke’s smile got even bigger, which Liam wouldn’t have thought possible. “You’ll do great.”
“You have a thing for goaltenders who are missing arms?”
“Like I said, you’ll do great. You’re the biggest player on the team, and with goaltender pads on, the odds will be in our favor just with that right there.”
“Gee, thanks, I think.”
Brandon clapped his hands. “Sounds like we’re going to need tomorrow night’s practice more than ever. I, personally, can’t wait to shoot pucks at Will’s face on purpose.”
“Oh, ha ha.”
Liam buried his nose in Marlena’s hair and drank in the smell of his shampoo on her. Gabe was going to be all right, and he had Marlena with him, and his team with him, too. He brushed her hair away from her ear and put his lips close to it. “You know how it’s just you and me and breathing?” he whispered. “I’ve got something to add to that. It’s you, me, breathing, and Bomb Squad.”
She leaned forward and gave him a sly grin. “I have to share you with a whole team of people?”
“Don’t be jealous. Don’t make it weird.”
She let out a quiet laugh as she settled back in his arms. For the first time since the first military transport he was on touched down in Afghanistan, he felt like he was exactly where he needed to be, and with who he needed to be with. If this was what being okay felt like, then he could live with that. He might even consider himself happy.
He brought his phone out along with his earbuds and handed one bud to her. “Let’s give one last listen for the night to my old story. I owe it to the kid to see this P.E.T. through.”
“Can you take it, listening again? It won’t pile on too much pain and break you down?”
He shook his head. “Turns out I’m not so easily broken.”
Chapter Eighteen
On Friday afternoon, a little more than a week after Gabe’s accident, Liam was in the best mood he’d been in in a long time. Bobbing to the beat of his dance playlist, he filed the edge of a decorative swirl that would be inlaid in a side panel of the desk he’d built for Marlena’s studio.
He must’ve been really focused because when the music cut midsong, he turned to find Marlena next to his speaker system, grinning.
“Hi there,” he said. Then his body jolted. Did he really just say hello to her, as in one of the empty pleasantries he’d been unable to handle since he’d cracked?
If she noticed, then she hid it well as she walked his way. “I saw the door open and I figured I’d come say hello.”
“I’m glad you did.” He gave her a peck on the lips. “How was your day?”
“Great day, but I bet it wasn’t as great as yours. How was your last P.E.T. appointment?”
Dang, he loved the way that sounded. “Good. Really good, actually. I’m going to keep seeing Dr. Patel on Monday mornings, but we’re going to take a break from P.E.T. for a while.”
She pressed her palm to his cheek. “I’m so proud of you.”
That made two of them. He’d come a long way in the last couple months. He unlatched his tool belt and set it on his workbench, bursting with eagerness to show her his surprise. “Want to see something?”
She opened her mouth, but whatever she’d been about to say died on her tongue as he stripped his shirt off and turned so she could get a good look at the new tattoo over his right rib cage and abs. Two tombstones, each with the same August twenty-seventh date. Attached to the tombstones were pairs of angel wings. It was a design he’d commissioned from his favorite tattoo artist as a memorial for the two people who’d haunted his heart for so long.
“Oh, wow. That’s a perfect tribute to the kid and his mom.”
He smoothed a finger over one of the wings in the design. “I’ll never know if they got a proper burial, so this is the best I can do.”
“I love it. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that today? I would’ve gone with you.”
He shrugged. “I wanted to surprise you. I go back to get it colored next week. You can go with me, then, if you want.”
“Consider it a date.” After she’d looked her fill at his tattoo, she smoothed a hand over the wood piece on the saw horses. “What were you working on?”
He hadn’t planned on sharing that particular surprise yet, but he was in such a great mood, he figured what the hell. “A second decorative side panel for that desk.” He gestured to an unfinished wood desk farther back in the workshop. “Do you like it?”
She ran her hand over the top of it. “It’s amazing, like all the pieces you create. What kind of wood is that?”
“Black locust wood.”
“I’ve never heard of that, but I like the name almost as much as I love the dark grainy patterns in the wood itself. It reminds me of the panel at my studio.”
Bingo. “I’m glad you like it. Check out the finished side panel.”
Squatting down by the side of the desk, she took a closer look at the intricate design of swirls. A smile spread on her lips. “This also matches the screen you made for my studio.”
Now Liam was smiling, too. He couldn’t help it. He loved giving her nice things. “That’s because the desk is for your studio, too.”
She pressed her hand to the carving, her eyes glowing. Then, she stood. “You’re so good to me. Thank you.”
“It’s all part of my master plan to rid the world of wicker and particle board.”
She indulged him with a grin, her eyes twinkling, but then her lightness vanished. She set her hands on his chest. “I have a personal favor to ask you, something I’ve been putting off.”
Liam couldn’t imagine what kind of favor had Marlena looking so instantly anxious. How did she not yet know he’d move mountains for her if she asked him to? He slid his arms around her waist. “The answer is yes. I’ll do it.”
She grinned affectionately at him. “I didn’t tell you what it is yet.”
“You know I’d do anything for you.”
“Next week is the teacher vs student science competition and Olivia—”
He let her go so fast, she stumbled back, struggling to catch her balance. He realized too late that he should have reached out to steady her, but he’d been too pissed to think straight. “Tell me you’re not leveraging our relationship to get me to go watch Olivia do her science contest. Because I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to bug me about her anymore.”
“This is an emergency.”
“No. What this is is an abuse of power on your part. You know I’d do anything for you, anytime. You have me wrapped around your little finger, which is not a complaint because that’s by my choice, but you’re throwing that back in my face, manipulating me into doing a favor for Olivia.”
Marlena stood there and listened without reacting, her face a picture of serenity. He forced himself to stop ranting and take a breath.
“The annual science competition is next week,” she said after a long stretch of silence.
He shook his head, irritated that she was going through with asking him for the favor, but he kept his mouth shut so he didn’t explode in anger again.
Marlena continued. “The teachers compete against each other for bragging rights and a trophy just like the students do. Olivia is undefeated for six years running, but this other teacher has made it his mission to beat her. He’s been trash-talking all over school about it. We saw him at the canal practicing, and he built a much faster and more efficient machine than she did. He also told her that her wooden catapult—well, she calls it a tribute something or other—”
“A trebuchet?”
“Yes, that’s it. Her tribute thingy is on the verge of collapsing. He said the joints won’t hold up and she used the wrong kind of glue.”
He felt a bit of the fight drain from him at the term tribute thingy. “Did you promise her I’d help?”
“No. She was freaking out and I suggested to her that you might be able to take a look at it since you’re the best carpenter I know. It was my idea, not hers. You wouldn’t have to work with her on it or even see her at all. I could bring it to your workshop and you could make sure it’s in good working shape, then I’ll take it back to her. Please.”
He turned toward his workbench, rolling the situation over in his mind. He really would do anything for Marlena, and, really, the idea of being able to help Olivia without having her in his face was ideal. Already, that’s what he’d been trying to do around the apartment complex, except that Olivia hadn’t noticed that he’d picked up a lot of the slack from her and their parents, saving their family thousands of dollars by doing most of the handyman projects himself. Perhaps by helping her fix her trebuchet, she might finally take notice that he was a better man than she thought he was and that he cared about her in his own way.
He felt Marlena behind him. She kissed him between the shoulder blades as her arms circled his waist. Her hands unlatched his pants. Of its own accord, his body stirred to life.
“Turn around,” she said.
In his peripheral vision, he watched her sink to her knees. Well, hell. He’d already decided to help Olivia with the trebuchet, but he was smart enough to wait patiently for the right opportunity to let Marlena in on his choice. He pivoted in place. “Are you really going to give me a blow job to persuade me? That’s your grand plan?”
She tugged the waistband of his boxers down and hooked it behind his balls. “Maybe. You have a problem with that?”
Nope. No problem at all. He combed a hand through her hair and found his balance. “I’ll just stand here and contemplate the favor you’re asking of me.”
“That’s right,” she murmured, her mouth against the base of his shaft. “You just take it like a man.”
Her mouth closed over his head and suckled him so gently and lightly that he groaned, desperate for more, his head rolling back.
“If I helped her, I wouldn’t have to go to this competition?”
She backed off his dick and turned her pretty eyes up to him. “No. It’s a lot of fun, but crowded. The whole school comes out to watch, along with the competitors’ families. Banners, a live band, food trucks, the works. I can see how you’d want to avoid the area. I mean, I’ll be there and I’ve got this cute little pink top that I wear every year along with Harper and Presley to support Olivia. And we wear tiaras and boas.”
The little pink top caught his interest. He’d have to make sure he was with her when she changed into it before she left for the competition. “So there’s a feather boa somewhere in your apartment that you’ve been hiding from me?”
She flashed him a flirty smile, then took him into her mouth again, more forcefully this time. She slid her lips and tongue down the length of him, not quite a deep throat, but taking in enough of his length to be called impressive. Then she bobbed up and down with fast, hard sucks. He swayed, choking back a grunt, fisting his hands at his sides because what he really wanted to do was grab the back of her head, hold her steady, then mouth fuck her until she gagged. But he didn’t, of course.
Thankfully, those sorts of rough urges were happening less frequently the longer the two of them were a couple. He still longed for the day that he wouldn’t have to think twice about every move he made during sex, but he was getting blown at the moment by his woman, and she had some serious skills when it came to getting him off, so it was tough to complain.
He waited until he was breathing hard and about to lose it, then forced her to back off of his dick again. The blow job was great, but he wasn’t ready to come, not when he’d rather get them both off together. Maybe on the new desk he was building for her. “You’d better take a break. I’ve got other plans for you tonight.”
Hooking his hands under her arms, he hauled her to her feet, then refastened his pants.
She licked the corners of her lips and splayed her hands on his chest. “Can I tell Olivia that you’ll look at the tribute thingy?”
He bit back a smile at the underhanded game she was attempting. Too bad for her he wasn’t ready to give her his answer yet. If she was going to try to manipulate him, then it was only fair that he return the favor. “I have some demands of my own, first.”
“The answer is yes. I’ll do it,” she said.
He liked that, her throwing his own words back at him. “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“I’d do anything for you. You know that.”
“I’d like a drawer in your dresser and some space in your closet, along with your permission to stay over at your place as often as I want. Every night, if I want.” That was something he’d been thinking a lot about in the last couple weeks or so.
He still needed a lot of alone time and personal space, but every time he’d left her place to go to his, every time he woke up alone in bed, he felt like something was missing. He missed the celery green and joining her for morning yoga. He slept more soundly when he could hear her even breathing and feel her body heat across the bed. For as much as he’d strived and worked at learning how to be her solid ground, she’d become his.
He didn’t want to call it moving in together because he liked the idea of keeping his own apartment for when he needed solitude, but he wanted to be near her without having to make arrangements to visit.
“Tell me the truth. The wicker’s growing on you, isn’t it?”
He gave a melodramatic eye roll, having already thought of a good solution to the wicker problem. “Give me a break. Part of the deal is that I move my bed set into your place and we trash the wicker bed.”
Her mouth flopped open and she faked an offended gasp. “Not the wicker!”
“You said you’d do anything for me.”
“Okay, fine. It’s a deal, as long as you agree to help Olivia with her tribute thingy.”
“Consider it done.”
She smoothed her hand along the crotch of his jeans. “Should we seal the deal with sex?”
He loved the way she thought, but for whatever reason, he was in no hurry to get to the good stuff tonight. “We’ll get to that. How about a dance first?”
He pressed “play” on his phone’s music app, then pulled her up against him as a fast-tempo remix they’d danced to the first night they’d slept together vibrated the speakers.
“I love this song,” she said.
Him, too. It took him right back to that incredible night. He closed his eyes and gave himself over to the sensations all around him—the booming bass, the heat of the workshop, Marlena’s supple body moving with his.
Marlena put her hips into it, rotating them with a loose, filthy grace that got his blood pumping and his imagination working overtime. With a hand on her ass and her hands on his bare chest, they worked their bodies in opposition, together and apart, grinding to the groove and singing along to the lyrics.
“Liam? Marlena?” a voice called over the music.
They both froze and looked toward the door. Olivia stood there, that same desperate, needy expression on her face that put him instantly on edge. In front of her, on a rolling cart, sat a massive wooden trebuchet.
He turned off the music.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I’m getting anxious about the science competition. I can’t figure out how to . . .” Olivia’s words died as she gaped at Liam. “That looks like a new tattoo.”
He grabbed his shirt from on top of a tool chest and pulled it over his head, not ready to share that piece of himself with her. “What are you doing here?”
He winced at the instant defensiveness in his tone and drew a breath.
Olivia rubbed her arms. “You still dance.”
Liam fought the urge to snap at her that it was none of her business. “Sometimes.”
“I remember that in high school, you were always such a great dancer. We used to joke that you got all those genes while I ended up with two left feet. I
thought you forgot how to dance.”
“I didn’t.”
She nodded. “Maybe we could host a party in the apartment rec room, invite Bomb Squad and my friends and everyone, just to dance and let loose. That’s what I imagined we’d do when you got home from deployment. It’s not too late. I’d love that.”
He literally couldn’t imagine a worse idea. “I don’t dance around people I know,” he said as gently as he could manage.
She looked at the ground. He hated that he made her feel bad, but she wouldn’t stop pushing and it suffocated him. He couldn’t deal with that hungry, lost look of hers. She wouldn’t back off and let him be his new self. It was frustrating as hell.
He took a stilted step toward her, then another, his eyes on the trebuchet.
He didn’t know what Marlena was doing behind him, but she wasn’t speaking up. He supposed it was her way of letting him and Olivia work things out. He was grateful that she wasn’t butting in. Her ability to be still was one of the many things he loved about being with her. One of the many reasons he craved being in her presence every single hour of every single day.
Olivia’s face shot back up and she leveled a frustrated look at him. “You dance with Marlena.”
Yes, he did dance with Marlena. He laughed with her and told her things he’d never shared with anyone. He could be himself around her without fear, without feeling lost or angry. He thought about their first kiss at her yoga studio, how incompatible they’d seemed, how he’d walked away furious, his pride badly wounded. She’d put it out there that she could be his safe place, his haven from the battlefield. She was right. That was exactly what she’d become to him.
But how could he explain to his twin sister that he could never be that way with her again because he only had the space in his heart and his head to let one person in? Just Marlena. Always Marlena.
“Marlena is my exception.”
Olivia huffed, looking put out. “And the rest of us?”
The rest of the world just needed to shut up and give him some goddamn space. He struggled to find the right words that wouldn’t hurt Olivia any more than he already had.
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