With only those delicate kisses and a scant flicking of his tongue to her neck again, he reached around to lower the zipper on the back of her dress, taking his time to unclothe her as she did the same with him, sliding his shirt off once she’d finished with the buttons and pulled it free of his pants.
It didn’t take much for her dress to float down around her ankles a moment later, leaving her in only her string bikini panties and the lacy demicup bra that went with them.
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close as his mouth again found hers.
Oh, it was so delicious to have his warm, naked front right up against her. To have his hands on her bare back...
To that she added her own hands gliding around him and coursing from just above his waistband to the widening V of his expansive shoulders. As she pressed her palms in a slow caress of smooth, satiny flesh over solid muscle, her mouth welcomed the kiss that thoroughly savored hers as if he, too, wanted the absolute most he could get out of tonight.
So for a while that’s all they did, standing there, kissing profoundly as if there might not ever be other kisses, reveling in the glory of skin on skin.
Until desire and hunger took over. Then raw passion came into it, bringing too much drive to maintain anything sedate.
Liam’s hands began a sumptuous massage of her back that made her ever more pliable as he kissed a path to the hollow of her throat and downward, until the kisses were on the upper curves of her breasts thrust above the half cups of her bra.
Dani wasn’t sure what she wanted more, his hands or his mouth fully there, but for a moment the tiny nips he was taking of those swells stole her breath and made her bold enough to reach for the zipper in front of impressive proof that he really did want her, too.
Down that zipper went, leaving his pants bulging open but still in place, because just then he nuzzled one bra cup down to expose her breast completely and take it into his mouth. Dani was instantly lost in the black velvet warmth encasing her, in his tongue flicking at her nipple and tantalizing her as he bent her backward into strong arms that held her safe and secure.
Then he swept her up into those arms and took her to the bed, lying her on cool, crisp sheets before abandoning her to stand beside the mattress, where he took a condom from his pocket, setting it on the nightstand and dropping the remainder of his clothes.
She thought a little more light might have been nice at that point but since her eyes were adjusted to the dimness she still got to see what went with those incredible shoulders and biceps and pectorals and abs that had been first revealed to her at the pool. She still got to see what went with his long, thick muscular legs and that it was long and thick all on its own.
Then he crawled like a panther onto the bed with her, kissing her again as he stretched that magnificent body alongside hers.
She wasted no time letting her hands explore it. Every sinewy inch of his back and chest and tight derriere, sliding down those tree-trunk thighs and up again without quite reaching for that part of him that was difficult to ignore. But she wanted to choose her moment. She wanted to torment him just a little, the way his hand was tormenting her breasts with such a light touch that they were straining for more.
He made a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a growl deep in his throat as he reached around and unhooked her bra with one hand. Casting it aside, he abandoned their kiss to again take her breast into his mouth, this time more greedily.
And while he was at it, he caught the front of her panties with one index finger and took those off, too, leaving her as bare as he was and sluicing a big hand down her stomach, between her legs and into her.
Her own hand went almost instinctively to him, closing around that long, hard staff to work him into the kind of frenzy he was working her into. Until neither of them could endure it much longer.
With another of those guttural sounds he pushed himself away and retrieved the condom, making quick work of sheathing himself so he could get back to her.
To her body, awakening and arousing everything before retracing his path between her legs to show her what he had in mind, bringing her to just a teaser of a climax that opened her thighs to him completely in obvious invitation.
He laughed and rose above her, sliding into her as if she were the very niche he was carved for.
And the fit was just perfect. Full and complete. And Dani couldn’t help the part sigh, part moan that told him just how good it felt.
His mouth came to hers again to kiss her nearly into oblivion as he only pulsed inside her.
Until he drew out some and came back in.
Slowly at first. Gaining speed that Dani learned and kept pace with, drawing away when he did, returning home when he did, tightening around him with each thrust, filling her hands with the muscular mounds of his back.
Faster and faster it went, taking her to greater and greater heights, until she reached a peak that exploded through her and held her in a grip of ecstasy like nothing she’d ever known, a grip of brilliant white light flooding through her so intensely she wasn’t sure where she was or what she was going to do when it let her loose, and could do nothing but let him take her there.
She felt him dive even more deeply into her in a climax of his own that embedded him to her core and rewarded her with yet another crest as his entire body stiffened and held them both frozen there for one mindless moment of devastating, awe-inspiring bliss.
Dani’s heart was pounding in her chest when it passed, and she could feel Liam’s pounding equally as hard in his as he carefully let his body relax atop hers, weighing her down in a way that was just right, as they both caught their breath, cooled and returned to sanity.
“Wow...” he murmured in a genuinely astonished tone.
“Yeah,” she agreed, like him too thunderstruck to be coy.
A few more minutes passed as they stayed just like that, resting, recovering, basking in it all.
Then Liam said, “If you don’t want to stay here with me and do this the whole night, you better run now while I’m too wasted to chase you.”
“And miss knowing if that was only a fluke or if it could actually be reproduced?” she challenged.
He laughed. “Yeah, I’m kind of wondering the same thing,” he said, letting her know that it had boggled his mind, too.
He slipped out of her and rolled off the bed, saying as he headed for the bathroom, “Now’s your chance.”
But even if Dani had had an ounce of strength to get out of there, there was no way she would have left that bed—or him—behind.
Instead she was waiting when he came out, threw himself flat on his back on the mattress and immediately cocooned her in his arms to bring her as close to his side as was humanly possible.
Then she felt him completely relax—all but his arms that tightened around her—and she let her body conform to his, her head cradled in the indentation between his chest and shoulder, her leg draped over his while her arm rested across his middle.
“Just a snooze and then we’re gonna see if that was for real,” he said, his voice already heavy.
Dani closed her eyes, for now content with the promise of more and needing that snooze, too.
And all she could think as she drifted off in the warmth of that amazing body was that there were definitely going to be no regrets for this one night, except maybe that it might be only this one night...
Chapter Nine
“Mr. Decker is finishing up with another client. It shouldn’t be long. Can I get you coffee or tea?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine,” Liam assured the attorney’s receptionist.
“Then if you’d just take a seat. There are magazines and today’s newspaper...”
Liam turned and went to a chair in the waiting area not far away. But he didn’t check out the reading material. He had enough on his mind to occu
py him.
He’d arranged for the DNA results to go directly to his lawyer in order to make sure that everything was kept at standards the court would accept.
Early this morning, after one more round of lovemaking with Dani—well, two because they’d showered together before dawn—someone from the attorney’s office had called and left a message that the envelope with the DNA results had been delivered.
When he’d returned the call, the receptionist had given him an appointment that brought him here straight from the rehab center.
And now it was a matter of minutes until he would find out if he was Evie and Grady’s father.
Over breakfast with Declan, when he’d told him about the appointment, Declan had commented on how soon it was that Liam’s whole life might be changed.
Liam had made light of it, said Conor had said something similar about the game changing for him.
But the truth was that it felt as if the game, his life, already had changed.
It had hit him yesterday—that weird sensation he’d had when he’d initiated the conversation about the kids’ future with Conor and Kinsey. He hadn’t understood it at the time but as he sat there now, as he considered things to say to the attorney that he might want presented to the court, it began to sink in.
What had hit him wrong yesterday was the thought of anyone but him—or Dani—taking on anything to do with the kids.
Conor was right. He didn’t want to only be the facilitator when it came to Grady and Evie’s future. He had gotten wrapped up with the twins.
Maybe that was an indication that they were his, that his paternal instinct had kicked in. But regardless, he suddenly knew with calm, quiet certainty that there was no way he could just leave them with other people.
Thinking about it, he recognized when things had turned for him—the night in the mall parking lot when Dani’s ex had approached them all. When Evie had taken his hand, when Grady had leaned against his leg. It had done something to him.
Why, he didn’t know. But in that moment when the four-year-olds had been afraid of some guy being a jerk and had reached out to him, it had brought home just how damn small and helpless and vulnerable they were. It had brought home how much they needed to be protected so they could feel safe and secure and grow up the way he had—knowing his mother and Hugh were always right there for him.
But it still hadn’t sunk in until yesterday that it wasn’t enough for him to tap other people to do that for them. That he needed to do that for them.
For whatever reason, by whatever design, those kids had become his kids. And he needed to be the one whose hand was there to hold or whose shoulder they could lean on. He needed to take care of them and raise them. He needed to be who saw them through.
The receptionist interrupted his thoughts. “I’m sure it will only be a few more minutes.”
Liam glanced over at her and nodded but he had to fight the urge to just walk out. Not because he was tired of waiting, but because he kept thinking that he wanted to get out of there and get to Dani so he could tell her what he’d just realized. At that moment, that was a bigger deal to him than learning the DNA results.
He didn’t budge but he did marvel at how strong his urge was to get a hold of her right that minute to tell her, to talk to her about what the decision meant for his future. To hash it all out with her. To know what she thought about it. To let her know that she didn’t have anything to worry about when it came to the twins anymore.
She wasn’t the reason he’d made the decision. But it was important to him that it would ease Dani’s worries. And it was important to him to have contact with her at that moment, when his eyes had finally opened to what was going on with him.
Because she was important to him...
He wasn’t altogether sure where that had come from, but once it snaked its way into his brain, he couldn’t deny that it was true.
Dani was important to him, regardless of how things worked out with the kids. Yes, she was great with them and he knew that it would be great for them to go on having her in their lives, great for him to have more of her help with them.
But this was something separate from that. Completely and totally separate. Something that had only to do with what he felt when he was with her. What he felt about her...
Conor had made the comment that he was more than just hot for Dani. Now he had to admit that his brother had been right about that, too.
Although Conor had said it flippantly, the truth was the heat between them was no small thing—last night had proven that. Making love with her was like nothing he’d ever done before. Things were so hot between them that it was a wonder they hadn’t burned down even that steel-and-glass house.
And yet as combustible as sex with her was, it wasn’t just the heat between them that was causing what he felt.
There was something special about it. Something extraordinary in what he felt about her, about being with her, that he’d never felt before.
In his time as a marine he’d seen too many things he wished he hadn’t. It had hardened something inside him and he carried that around. It sometimes colored his view, his thinking.
But the more he was with Dani, the more he seemed to be coming to a better place in the world and in his own head. A place where things were brighter and clearer, more hopeful. A place where some of the edges were softened.
She was caring and compassionate—things that had been trained out of him in large part. But being under her influence had helped bring back that side of him. It had changed him from the marine who had been looking in at this situation from the outside, to the man who now knew he had to act.
Thinking about her, he believed it was because of Dani that Evie and Grady were weathering their losses and grief and whatever fears and insecurities they had as well as they were. Dani made it seem as if everything would work out for the best.
She had the ability to take the worst of things—like what he’d found with Declan, like the missteps he’d taken at first with the kids—and not pass any judgments but patiently make suggestions, give instructions, guide to methods that might help.
And all with subtlety, without pushing. She just had a way about her that had somehow allowed him to let his guard down. To genuinely relax and loosen up. And it felt good.
It was no surprise that she was the first person to come to mind after making the biggest decision of his life. She was the first person he wanted to tell, the one he knew would understand it all, who would caringly point out to him where the difficulties might lie and how to wade through them the best way possible.
She was so much of what she’d described in her grandparents—affectionate, tender, generous. And she brought that into everything. Everything with the kids, with him.
And now that he’d had a taste of it, he knew he didn’t want to let go of it.
He didn’t want to let go of her.
Not for a day, a week, a month did he want to go without the sound of her voice, her laugh. Without being able to touch her, hold her, feel the silk of her skin or make love to her. He didn’t want to go a minute without being able to share everything he thought or felt with her.
It had never before seemed as if any woman was the sun and the moon and the earth to him. But that was what Dani had somehow become.
And with or without kids, he wanted her. He wanted a whole, full life with her...
The door to the lawyer’s inner office opened and Marvin Decker walked his other client to the outer door, saying goodbye and giving reassurances along the way.
Then he turned to Liam.
So the moment of truth had come.
But for Liam it had just become incidental to so many bigger things.
Bigger things that he was suddenly desperate to say to Dani...
* * *
“No? You said no?”
It sounded so harsh when Bryan said it. Or maybe it was the way he said it—a little loud, with utter disbelief. And maybe a little horror.
Dani was at their apartment when her friend and roommate got home from his office on Monday. It’s where she’d run after Liam had returned from the appointment with his lawyer. The DNA results had proven what Audrey had contended—he was Evie and Grady’s father.
Happy and relieved to hear that from him, Dani had not been so happy to hear the rest of what he’d had to say. And she definitely hadn’t felt relieved by it. Instead it had sent her into a tailspin that had resulted in her leaving him to watch the twins while she fled here.
“Explain this to me, Dani,” her friend said as he handed her the cup of tea he’d made for her because he’d said she looked like death warmed over.
Dani was huddled into a corner of the couch. She accepted the mug and took a sip before she said with a cutting edge to her voice, “In a nutshell? Marry the nanny safety net and then you don’t have to be on your own with kids you’ve just been surprised with. And I said no.”
Bryan sat on the opposite end of the sofa and angled to face her. “So it was a panic proposal,” he concluded sadly.
“No, there was no sign of panic,” Dani said. “He had worked out everything—everything. He said it didn’t matter what the DNA results were, he’d decided before he got them that he was going to resign from the marines so he could raise Grady and Evie himself. That there were other people who could do his job as a marine but it had to be him who stepped up for the twins. I guess he has some friend who retired a few years ago and formed a security company with an office here, and the guy has always let him know he has a job waiting if and when Liam leaves the service, too. He even called the guy on the way home from the lawyer and confirmed it. He already has a meeting to set it up.”
Bryan backtracked from that. “He’d made the decision to take the kids even if they weren’t his?”
“He talked about it with me the other night, about getting his brother and sister on board to become some kind of extended foster family for the kids if they weren’t his. But he said that didn’t feel right to him after he asked them, and today he figured out that it was because he wanted to do it himself.”
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