by J. S. Scott
I undressed, feeling the exhaustion in every part of my body, my movements slow and heavy as I stepped into my small shower.
For a moment, I felt slightly revived by the streams of water pouring over my tired body, but my uplifting moment ended abruptly. My relief morphed into terror as a large body slammed into me as it entered my shower.
CHAPTER 15
BROOKE
“Liam?” I gasped as I turned around, petrified.
He was gloriously nude, but it took me a moment to recognize exactly who was with me, even though I knew and fantasized about that particularly gorgeous naked male body so damn often.
“Did I scare you?” he said in a husky voice that made my toes curl. “You didn’t answer the door, but it was unlocked, a fact that we need to talk about later.”
Even though Citrus Beach was a small city, I’d always felt relatively safe in my apartment here. I usually locked up, but I must have been so distracted that I’d forgotten.
I took a couple of deep breaths, willing my heart to slow down. We were close together because the stall was small, but he didn’t touch me. I knew he was waiting for me to register his presence without being afraid.
I finally looked up at him, my heart racing with something other than fear. His handsome face was the most welcoming thing I’d ever seen. “Liam,” I said with more surety, and then threw myself into his arms.
He caught me firmly, pulling me against his powerful wet body.
“I missed you so much,” I told him in a rush, my heart tripping because he was here with me.
Everything I’d discovered about my parents in such a short period of time had been weighing on me, but I’d held it inside, not wanting to talk about it in front of Jade. She’d already been in the place I was in now. I didn’t want to send her back there again. My siblings had already had time to process the truth. I hadn’t.
I welcomed his strong arms around me. His stalwart presence made me crumble, and I sobbed all of my confusion, fear, and anger onto his very solid shoulder.
His arms tightened around me, and he just held me while I cried, stroking my wet hair as he hoarsely whispered into my ear, “It will all be okay, sweetheart. I promise.”
I believed him. As long as he was here with me, I felt like I was going to be okay.
Liam grounded me, allowing me to finally express the sorrow I’d been experiencing since I’d learned about how my mother had been betrayed.
“She didn’t deserve what he did to her, Liam,” I babbled as I cried. “All she ever wanted was to protect us. But she was so alone.”
“He was an asshole, baby,” he crooned. “There’s a special place in hell for men like him,” he growled.
It took a few minutes for my tears to subside and my head to clear. “What are you doing here?” I said in a tremulous voice, after I’d cried myself out.
“What do you think?” he asked in a lazy baritone. “I came for you.”
“Thank you,” I said shakily as I ran my fingers down his jawline. “I really needed you. I was going to go back to Amesport after I saw my brothers tomorrow, but I’m glad you’re here. You obviously know everything. How did you find out?”
It was pretty clear that Liam knew about my father.
“I was ready to beat it out of Evan, but he spilled the information before we had to go there. I was fucking worried, Brooke. I lost track of how many times I’ve tried to call.”
He looked concerned. I could see it in his eyes. “I’m sorry. I should have waited to come here, but I was just . . . overwhelmed. I didn’t know who to trust anymore.”
Since we’d both been flying, we obviously hadn’t connected. I’d tried to call him, too.
He pushed me back against the shower wall, pinning me to the cold tile. “You can trust me,” he growled. “I’ve never lied to you. Maybe I protected myself because of your boyfriend, but I’m not a liar.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“Don’t ever do that again,” he demanded.
“I won’t,” I agreed readily. I knew I wouldn’t have liked it if he’d done the same thing to me.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I said, running my hands over his ripped body to prove to myself he was real and not an illusion.
“I’ll always be there when you need me,” he vowed solemnly.
“I’ll always need you,” I said, mesmerized by his compelling stare. I got lost in the deep green shade of his eyes, not sure if I ever wanted to be found again.
“I’m done with my promise,” he rumbled. “I’m done pretending I don’t need to fuck you until you can’t think straight. I know you, Brooke. And you know me. We recognized each other a long time ago. Maybe we don’t know every little thing there is to know about each other, but I know what I want. The details can be filled in later.”
My heart skittered as I saw the determination in his eyes. Every day, I learned something new that I could love about Liam.
I had a feeling that it would always be that way.
I let out a sigh. “Thank God,” I said with a huff. “I wasn’t going to last much longer.”
The way I wanted Liam was unrelenting, and my body had been pleading with me for release for several days.
“Right now, I just want to know that you’re okay,” he said in a husky tone.
I could see that he was determined to take care of me, but I needed more than just a shoulder to cry on.
I needed him.
“Don’t push me away tonight, Liam,” I said in a steady tone.
Our eyes caught and held, and my gaze wasn’t hiding a damn thing anymore.
“Goddammit!” He slammed his hand down on the tile beside my head. “I fucking want to be supportive, Brooke. I want to help you handle all of the bullshit you have to absorb—”
I put my fingers over his mouth. “Not right now. I’ll have to deal with everything that’s changed, but right now, I want you to fuck me more than I want anything else.”
I ached for him. He was here. He was real. And I loved this man more than I could truly express.
His face was fierce as he answered, “You’re going to get your wish.”
He captured my mouth, and my response was instantaneous. We kissed like two people who were desperate to touch, to be together in the most elemental way possible. I craved him, and I was greedy to touch any part of his skin that I could reach.
When he released my lips, I panted, “Liam. Oh, God, I want you so much.”
His expression was tense as he turned to slam the water off, then lifted me out of the stall.
I was still wet when he plopped my ass onto the bathroom counter. “Mine,” he growled. “You were always meant to be mine.”
I couldn’t speak as I watched him lick individual beads of water off my breasts, his tongue lashing my nipples to catch the droplets that were threatening to fall onto my thighs.
I moaned, grabbing his head, only to have him push my hands away as he knelt on the floor to push my legs apart.
A rush of heat darted between my thighs, the sight of his head in such an intimate position so erotic that I had to close my eyes.
I shuddered as I felt his warm breath against my pussy, my body tense because I knew what was coming.
I’d had sex, but never had a man—any man—hungry to taste me. I’d never been that comfortable with being that damn vulnerable.
But with Liam, I welcomed whatever he’d give me. I trusted him.
Still, I wasn’t prepared for the moment his tongue laved from the bottom to the top of my sensitive pink flesh, and then slowly rolled over my clit.
I screamed, a senseless noise that released some of the tension that was rapidly building inside me.
He gave me no mercy, his mouth and tongue devouring every drop of moisture that had flooded to my pussy the moment I’d realized that he had followed me into the shower.
He searched, explored, and consumed, doing it over and over until my body no longer felt like it belonged to me.
Like he’d just declared, I was his, even though I experienced his every touch.
I drove my fingers into his hair and held on, needing something to keep me on the ground when I felt like I was ready to fly away.
I leaned back against the mirror, helpless to do anything except feel.
“Liam,” I whimpered, and then fisted my hands in his hair. “Please.”
I needed more. I needed something, but I didn’t know how to tell him what I so desperately wanted.
But he needed no instruction. As his hands went under my ass to pull it up against his voracious mouth, he zeroed in on the tiny bundle of nerves that was throbbing for his attention.
“Yes,” I moaned. “Yes.”
He groaned against my quivering flesh, like he was intoxicated by the taste of my pussy and needed it for sustenance.
My body answered by releasing in a powerful climax that left me shaking, every emotion exposed.
I didn’t have time to consider my weakness, and Liam didn’t take advantage of my vulnerability.
He wrapped my legs around his waist, waited until I put my arms around his neck, then carried me into the bedroom.
“You’re mine, too,” I told him in a sultry voice that I almost didn’t recognize as my own, as he dropped me onto the bed. I’d never been the possessive type, but I wanted to claim him with an ache so painful that it physically hurt.
He shot me a possessive look. “Maybe I wanted to deny it when I thought you belonged to somebody else, but I have no desire to believe anything else now,” he said gruffly, his lust-filled green eyes shining with heat. “You’ve fucking had me since the first time I saw you smile at me.”
Yeah, his words made me feel like some kind of seductress, which I knew damn well I wasn’t. But coming from Liam, the admission was hot as hell.
He’d made me edgy from the first moment I’d looked at him.
“Good,” I said, wrapping my arms and legs around him as he sank down on top of me. “I’ll take what belongs to me,” I teased.
He waited for one breathtaking moment, his cock not yet penetrating me as he looked down at my face.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Who is taking who?”
I lifted my hips, straining to take him inside me. “I don’t care,” I said in a desperate tone. “Just do it.”
“Say you’re mine,” he insisted in a low, guttural voice. “Say that you’re going to stay with me so I don’t lose my mind.”
I understood his urgency. I didn’t know how I’d survive if we weren’t together. Not now that we had gotten a taste of what it would be like to have a life together. “Yours,” I babbled. “I’ll always be with you.”
“Good,” he said, mimicking my satisfied tone when I’d said the same word.
He entered me with a powerful surge, taking every thought from my brain.
“Liam,” I croaked, my voice escaping me as I felt him bury himself to his balls, filling me until I couldn’t quite breathe.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yes.”
I lifted my hips, savoring the feel of our bodies joined so tightly. Liam was big, but my body accepted him like he belonged between my quivering thighs.
“I want to stay just like this,” Liam rumbled. “Because when I’m not inside you, I fucking want to be there.”
I released a ragged breath and tightened my legs around his hips. “Me too,” I confessed.
The powerful chemistry between us didn’t ever want to be denied.
“Unfortunately, I want this more,” he added in a frustrated voice as he pulled back and plunged inside me again.
I wanted the same thing. I wanted him to fuck me until we were both exhausted and sated.
“Then do it,” I said urgently. “Fuck me, Liam.”
I’d wanted him forever, like I’d never wanted another guy.
He lowered his head to kiss me as he began to fuck me like he meant it, his tongue entering and retreating in the same bold thrusts he was starting to make with his cock.
My nails scratched at his back, and I was desperate to take as much of him as possible, that ever-present longing to climb inside his body urging me to move with him.
Our bodies were still slightly damp, and the heat of his skin branded me everywhere we touched.
I love you, Liam. I love you so much I can’t breathe.
I wanted to scream the words out loud, but I wasn’t quite sure I was ready to be that figuratively naked, so I tried to show him how much I needed him with my body. I lifted my hips, trying to fuse us together.
“Come for me, Brooke,” he said as his mouth broke away from mine, his voice insistent as his powerful body kept slamming into me forcefully.
The tight coil inside me began to unravel.
My body was physically exhausted from the long day and my previous orgasm, but I could still feel my climax beginning to roll over me, a dominant feeling that I couldn’t control.
“You’re so fucking beautiful,” Liam said as he looked down at me with a fierce expression that should have made me slightly fearful, but didn’t.
It was a raw and intimate moment, both of us staring at each other hopelessly.
When I finally closed my eyes, it was because I was climaxing so hard that I was a slave to every sensation, and I couldn’t take any more stimulation.
Liam groaned as my quivering pussy squeezed his cock as though it wanted to stop him from ever leaving.
His thrusts became harder and more urgent, faster than I could match, so I just held on to him as my orgasm peaked. “Liam,” I screamed. “Fuck me harder.”
He surged inside me with one last enormous thrust as he groaned my name over and over while he found his own release.
He put his arms around me and rolled, leaving me sprawled on top of him.
Neither one of us spoke as we slowly recovered our breath.
Finally, Liam broke the silence. “You’re going to kill me one day.”
I smiled down at him. “Are you complaining?”
He shook his head slowly, a grin spreading across his handsome face. “Never.”
I yawned as I slid to rest beside him, and then cuddled along his side.
“You’re tired,” he said unhappily.
I rested my head on his shoulder. “Your fault,” I murmured as my eyes closed.
“My fault,” he agreed as he stroked my hair gently. “Sleep. It’s been a rough day.”
“Not anymore,” I disagreed as my eyes closed. “You’re here now.”
“I always will be,” Liam answered in a soothing baritone.
I wanted to savor the moment. Enjoy the feeling of bliss that hummed through my body.
Instead, I sighed and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 16
LIAM
“If you hurt my sister, I’ll kill you.”
I turned my head to watch the approaching speaker as I reached for a protein drink in Brooke’s fridge. After the previous night with Brooke, I needed all the energy I could get.
I supposed that when one had a houseful of Sinclairs, one of them was bound to find me alone and threaten my life, but Noah’s words still took me by surprise as he approached.
Brooke’s siblings had showed up bright and early at her apartment. Now that it was afternoon, I was facing the reality of not being able to get them to leave.
I popped the lid on the can, grateful that, at the very least, they’d come with drinks and food supplies.
I closed the fridge and leaned back against the counter. “What makes you think I’d hurt her?”
Noah walked by me to pull out a beer. “Didn’t say you would,” he said in a disgruntled voice. “It’s a warning.”
I’d discovered that Noah never had much to say, but when he did, it was either threatening or supportive. He’d obviously kept a fairly tight rein on his siblings, but at least he’d done so in an encouraging way.
I lifted the energy drink and slammed back half the can before I answered. “I get it
. I have a younger sister.”
Noah shot me a look that seemed to be saying that I knew nothing about what he’d been through.
And maybe I didn’t.
Honestly, I admired the guy, even though he was being an asshole. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to take care of all five of his brothers and sisters after his mom had died.
He screwed off the top of his beer and took several gulps before he answered, “Brooke has been through a lot, and now she has to deal with all of this bullshit. I want this to be the last time I see her upset for at least a decade.”
“I don’t ever want to see her cry again,” I confessed, vividly recalling how my heart had gotten sliced into a million tiny pieces last night when Brooke had let go of her pain and confusion. “But don’t think I’m going to let her be controlled anymore. It wasn’t my fault she was upset.”
“I don’t control her,” Noah rasped, his eyes flashing with anger and indignation.
“Bullshit. You could have told her sooner than you did.”
I had my share of anger toward Noah Sinclair, but I was willing to drop it for Brooke.
He’d had to fulfill a lot of roles in his siblings’ lives when they were younger. I couldn’t say I’d ever had to stand in his shoes.
Honestly, the whole Sinclair clan had done what they felt was best for Brooke, but I knew she resented not being told earlier.
“I couldn’t,” Noah retorted hotly. “Do you think I didn’t agonize over every single decision we made about her? She wasn’t ready to deal with anything more.”
“So you thought,” I challenged. “You were making decisions for a grown woman. Brooke is much stronger than you think she is.”
“I still think of her as a little kid,” Noah admitted.
“She’s not,” I informed him without hesitation.
“I never wanted to be her father. The last thing I wanted to do was hold any of my siblings back,” Noah said with remorse. “I just wanted all of my family to fucking be okay.”
I could see the concern on his face, and the heavy blanket of responsibility that still seemed to be hanging on his shoulders. “I can’t say I know completely how you feel,” I told him. “But I know it must have been hard for all of you. Give yourself a break. You had a hell of a lot to handle. But your brothers and sisters are all grown up now.” I had a feeling that Noah needed to start living his own life, something that he’d needed to put aside for his family earlier in their life.