Before Sunrise Page 40

  “It was good. I want to talk to you about it. What time you coming back over to our place?”

  “Can’t you come here, Liam? Mac was asking about you and—”

  “No. I’ll be there tomorrow first thing. I just…I don’t know. I can do it tomorrow but not today. Is that okay?”

  Kennedy tried to mask her disappointment. “Well, I have to cook, and I don’t want to leave here until Mac is in bed. I won’t get to you until after nine, probably.”

  “I’m a patent man. Just come when you can.”

  “You will come here tomorrow, you promise? It’s Christmas Eve.”

  “I promise.” She thought she heard more than a smile in his voice. The first day of therapy was a success. That was a good sign if he’d ended therapy on a good note. She felt a surge of hope. “Love you.”

  “Love you too, babe. I’ll cook us dinner, so don’t eat,” he warned.

  “You bet.”

  Kennedy returned to the kitchen. She found her mother fussing with her sister about how much vanilla she used in the pie mix. She smiled, remembering the days when they were little girls and her mother made them helpers in the kitchen. “You two need to get along.”

  The phone rang in her hand. Kennedy answered again. “Hello?”

  “Hi, Kennedy, it’s Sally.”

  “Oh, hi! How are you?”

  “Great! How’s my grandbaby?”

  “She’s anxious about her party. You said you would be here for Christmas.”

  “I plan to be.”

  “Good.”

  “I got a surprise for Liam. Is he there?”

  “No. Well, he has a house for us now. So he’s there or on his way there. But I don’t know the number there. Wait, he has my phone and you can call—”

  “No. Can I have the address instead?”

  “What are you up to, Sally?”

  Kennedy listened to her mother in-law’s surprise. She had totally forgotten what Sally had for Liam. She knew he would be overjoyed. “That’s so perfect. Why don’t you wait until Christmas morning to give it to him?”

  “I want to apologize to him. When we saw each other last I said some things I shouldn’t have.”

  Kennedy slipped back out of the kitchen. “You telling him about the adoption.”

  “I’m sorry, Kennedy. I wanted to apologize to you about that. I just—I don’t know—I wanted him with me. I felt like he wasn’t and I hurt you both and I’m sorry. It’s why I left. I figured this would be the perfect peace offering.”

  “He’s going to love it. Let me tell you the address.”

  ***

  He’d managed to accomplish a lot in a single day. More importantly, he settled on the perfect Christmas gift for Kennedy. Content, he drove with it securely tucked in his pocket. His mind was filled with the possibilities of a life as just a husband and father. From the moment he’d joined up, those things had, of necessity, become secondary. Though Kennedy was always front and center in his heart, his call of duty had changed perspective on life and death. Then, despite his wandering thoughts, he felt the prickle at the back of his neck. A car shot through the red light behind him, keeping pace with him.

  He hadn’t noticed it before. It wasn’t a Chrysler. A black car, possibly a Taurus, definitely shadowed him. When he eased up on the accelerator. it fell two cars back. Liam turned off on the next road and waited for the car to follow. It did. He wasn’t imagining this, dammit, and he wasn’t paranoid. He had a shadow. Alex’s reach, possibly. He knew that they kept a car on Kennedy and Mac wherever they went. But his instincts said that someone on Alex’s team would never be so clumsy. He’d done hundreds of missions where he was never seen. These were amateurs.

  “It’s time to end this shit.” He smacked his hand over the steering wheel. He considered calling Eric, then decided against it. Doubt seeped in as he made the next turn and so did the Taurus. The doctor said his perception of everything would be skewed. He’d see danger and threats behind every unknown face or circumstance. Was this what PTSD meant? Did it blend your nightmare into your reality? He wasn’t sure of himself anymore. Fuck this.

  Liam slammed on the brake and the sedan barely missed a collision, swerving into the left lane. Liam immediately sped after the car and gave chase, dodging one car and then the next, in and out of lanes. He blinked sweat from his eyes, ignoring the pressure pounding at the back of his skull. His hands felt clammy and slippery on the wheel. The car became a blur, then his only focus, as everything around him began to fade out. He passed on the right, but was unable to see the driver. The vehicle sped by too fast. But he sensed there was more than one person in the Taurus. He’d have to engage them both. Everything in his core said these people weren’t military. These men were on him for other reasons.

  The light ahead turned yellow as the Taurus shot through it. Liam floored it, weaving between cars on the two-lane local street. In his haste, he crossed the intersection too late and had to the cut the wheel hard left to avoid a T-bone collision with a minivan.

  The car was gone. He blinked through his awareness and saw the terrified mother and cargo of kids she was carrying. Shit I could have killed them all. He sucked down deep breaths and calmed himself. The van went through the light and he steered the rental back onto the road. Drivers passed him, gawking with curiosity at the idiot who’d barreled into an intersection against the light. Liam tried to remember why he’d been speeding. Everything around him started to flash as if the sun had become a strobe light. He put his hands to his eyes and grunted, trying to rein in control.

  “No! No! NO!”

  Dropping his head back with his eyes squeezed shut, tightly, he wheezed. His lungs felt weighted, empty, as if his rebreathing unit had malfunctioned underwater.

  “Nooo,” he moaned.

  He glanced to the rearview mirror and realized he was now the only one on the side street. “What happened? What did I do?” After several minutes of talking himself down, he felt control slowly slip back into his weary limbs. However, the drive home barely stabilized his madly beating heart.

  PTSD my ass! He was the best in his unit, and not from training alone. It was instinct. They were toying with him and he was playing right into their hands. The enemy wanted him to lose control. Until he knew who they were, he’d be careful.

  “Damn it. I’m not crazy. I’m not fucking crazy!” Liam said.

  There could be no denying the fact he was confused. That was the only hard truth he was able to accept. From birth, he’d been a survivor. But he didn’t know how to live in a world where he had to question his sanity.

  As Liam coasted closer to his new neighborhood he detected nothing out of the ordinary except the dangerous glide of black ice coating the streets. The weather was wreaking havoc on the roads. Even though the idea of her not being in his arms made his chest tight, he would call Kennedy and tell her not to travel back to their place. Until he knew what who the hell he was dealing with, he wouldn’t risk her on the roads without him.

  But what if you’re wrong? What if the danger is only in your head?

  Liam grimaced. A night without her would be a sleepless one. He needed her.

  Liam decided on a warm shower once he reached the house. He’d clear his head and think it all through. It would rejuvenate him enough to prepare dinner for Kennedy. When he turned down his street, his heart nearly went into arrest. He saw his mom in the drive, grinning. She was in a heavy coat, standing next to his pride and joy, a Fathom Blue 1967 Pontiac GTO with a white racing stripe. It was fully restored by his hands; he and Vasquez did the paint job themselves. He’d just assumed it had been sold. Never imagined he’d see it again. Liam parked, grabbed his cane, threw open the door and was out of the car in a flash.

  “Mom?”

  “I kept it. After they said you were dead, Kennedy could barely get out of bed, and that Phil man was always around. I took it back to Chicago and I kept it. Your stepfather wasn’t ever allowed near it. I kept it for you, L
iam. Even now I don’t know why. I think I did it because it made me feel close to you.”

  Liam had never felt Sally cared enough to protect him, his sister, or anything he cared about. To see his car, the first one he’d bought and fixed with his own hands, preserved this way rocked him to the core. Sally walked over to him. She hooked her arm through his and pulled him forward. “Go on, get inside. It’s real.”

  It was real. But Liam couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. For the first time since his little girl touched his face and called him daddy and Kennedy slept in his arms, he really felt alive again. Maybe the doctor was right about being whole again. Maybe it truly started and ended with him.

  ***

  Kennedy entered a still house. She had called Liam and told him she wouldn’t be able to have dinner with him. She actually heard him and Sally joking with each other in the background. He said he understood, and she hoped he did. More importantly, she hoped he and Sally were connecting. The more their family healed, the stronger she knew Liam would be. Then Liam shocked her and said she didn’t need to come. When she pressed him for reasons why, he said it was late and he didn’t want her on the roads. Well, to hell with that. Now that she had her guy she refused to spend a night without him right by her side.

  It was close to midnight when the Freeman house went down and she was able to slip away. Preparing for Christmas Eve dinner was a tradition. Dealing with her mother and sister filled up most of the night. Now she was tired, and smelled of onions and thyme. She desperately needed a shower and some snuggling.

  Kennedy found her new home unnaturally dark and the downstairs was downright chilly. She turned off the Christmas tree and turned up the heat a notch to make it cozy once more. When she climbed the stairs, she looked to Mac’s room first. Sally lay on the air mattress under a blanket, snoring with her mouth open. Kennedy closed the door. She crept into her room. Liam was awake. He sat up against the headboard drinking a beer and reading a pamphlet. She opened her mouth to speak and then saw movement. Kennedy looked down at a cage with a cute brown puppy inside. “Liam?”

  “Kay? I told you not to drive here tonight. Hell, if anything you could have called and I would have come and got you. Why didn’t you call—”

  “You bought a puppy?”

  Liam blinked out of his rant and just looked at her. She shook her head. “I’m going to take a shower. We can talk about it later. Right now I’m sleepy.”

  “How’s the family?”

  “Asking to see you. That’s how,” she snipped. She grabbed her bag and walked out. How could he defy her wishes and buy a puppy after she’d asked him not too? Liam continued to overrule her without thought. She wasn’t going to put up with that. He would have to stop. She turned and cried out in shock. He’d sneaked up behind her, silent as the night, and stood there in the doorway staring at her.

  “You’re mad at me.”

  “I asked you not to buy a dog. Mackenzie is four.”

  “She’ll be five in another day.”

  “She’s too young to take care of a dog. I don’t have the energy to train a puppy.”

  “Who says you have to?” he asked.

  Kennedy sighed.

  “Damn, Kay, what was I supposed to do? I already told her I would and I wanted to give her something special. Make up for all the birthdays I missed. Cut me some slack.”

  The request was the final straw. She’d been cutting him slack since he’d stomped back into her life and demanded everything return to the exact way it was. But she couldn’t put up with his controlling ways, not like before. They were different now, she was different now, and his dismissive ways hurt. Kennedy turned and put her hands to her hips. “I want you to show me some respect, Liam. From now on we’re a team, and if I object to something, then so do you.”

  “That’s not how a team works?” He frowned.

  Kennedy thought on it for a moment. She smiled. “Well then, just do as I say. It’s my turn to be in charge.”

  Liam came inside the bathroom, closing the door. “Or what?”

  She crossed her arms. “Or no touchie-kissy for you.”

  “I can’t live without my touchie-kissy. Choose another punishment.” The smoldering look in his eyes made her weak. She wished he didn’t look at her that way when she was trying, however jokingly, to get a point across. He was so cute, though, and if he wanted to get a dog it was no big deal.

  “I been waiting to touch you all day,” he said, taking a step forward.

  She laughed, shrugged her shoulders and stared at him. She was going to tell him to back off so she could shower. She felt icky, and she desperately needed breathing room. Besides, she wanted to insert her diaphragm.

  Liam stepped in closer. They were face to face. “I’m really tired, Liam. Let me shower and join you in bed, okay?”

  He covered her mouth with a slow-moving kiss while he cupped her left breast through her shirt. His thumb rolled over her nipple, drawing tightness through the cup of her bra. The sensation sent hot moisture between her thighs.

  Kennedy turned her face. She shoved him back. “Liam.”

  Liam reached over and snatched back the lemon yellow and blue butterfly shower curtain. He turned on the water and it sprayed the bottom of the tub. When he cast his eyes over to her, she knew there was no way to convince him that a shower alone was what she needed. Kennedy smiled and drew up her sweater, unhooked her bra, and started on the button to her jeans. All the while Liam’s gaze went from her nipples to her tummy, then to the removal of her thong panty.

  Kennedy felt her heart skip a beat when he released the drawstring ties to his pajama pants and his erection sprang free. He held back the shower curtain and she kicked her jeans and thong away from her ankles. As she stepped past him into the warming water, his hand cupped her left buttock. She had worries about a shower interlude with him. The bath wasn’t fit for sexual adventures of the kind she knew her solider boy would desire. This shower fit one person uncomfortably. The tub didn’t have a suction mat to keep him from slipping and his knee was in such bad shape, he couldn’t handle her like before. But she didn’t verbalize her concern and emasculate him.

  The water did soothe her. Its mild temperature cooled her feverish skin. She stood there exhaling for a minute. This was the first moment of relaxation she’d had all day. She was mommy, daughter, sister, and now wife again, but the latter came with some tender love and care. Kennedy cherished marital bliss, loved the shared feeling of belonging. And when his hands went over her backside she knew that every day would be filled with more passion than she could handle. She turned toward him, allowing the water to coast down her spine and run rivulets over the crease of her ass.

  “I’m going to take care of you, Kay,” he said in a husky yet gentle voice.

  He ran a bar of soap over her slick skin, circling one breast, then the other, before going down her tummy. Kennedy exhaled, causing her breasts to heave. The action nearly made Liam drop the bar of soap. He pulled her into him and kissed her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck, enjoying the flash and fury of his darting tongue. Liam rubbed the bar of soap over her backside and she bit his bottom lip as a warning. If he was going to go there then they would go all the way.

  The soap dropped. He turned her toward the shower wall, putting the rushing spray to his back. She placed her palms against the damp tiles. The steam of the shower engulfed them. When Liam stepped behind her she shuddered with anticipation. He moved in closer, slid one of his muscular thighs between hers and spread her legs. He was caressing her all over, and Kennedy loved the feel of his calloused strong hands on her body. One hand went to her breast and held it firmly while the other traveled down her mound. His finger rubbed gentle circles over her clit then went over her slit and dipped inside of her.

  Moaning, she arched her back and thrust her backside against him. His cock pushed against her and he groaned deep in his throat. He grasped her hips and she dipped her back, knowing his intent. She felt
herself stretch as he inched the rounded head of his dick inside of her. Liam plunged deep. He paused as if to catch his breath and she was grateful. She sucked in a breath of her own and moved back against him.

  “Kay, you feel so good,” he groaned.

  He withdrew then delivered another thrust that caused his balls to smack her clitoris and send a lovely spasm through her channel. She heard him grunt in pleasure. Kennedy licked her lips and moved the way he’d taught long ago to maximize his pleasure and make her body adjust for what was to follow. It worked. He began to pump his cock with one hand to her hip and the other squeezing her clit. Kennedy’s head fell forward to rest against the tiles. She felt her vagina contract and a warming sensation spread through her clenching butt cheeks, all the way to her distressed clit. He rolled his hips and she cried out, hoping Sally didn’t hear her.

  “Damn, Kay. I can’t hold it.”

  She couldn’t either. Her arms shook, her knees trembled; she feared they would both collapse under the powerful current of pleasure ripping through them. He leaned over her now, holding her by the waist. He ran his tongue over her back and shoulder blade. She felt the length of his shaft pulsing with his jerky thrusts, ready to explode. Kennedy summoned more strength and rocked back into him, driving him to the orgasm, and delaying hers to keep from going weak in his arms. It worked, thankfully. He bit hard into her shoulder and she whimpered then moaned as he filled her with his hot seed.

  Liam withdrew immediately. But Kennedy couldn’t move. He took the lead once more. He washed her, turning down the temperature to let the cool spray soothe the ache in her pussy. She lathered her hands and cleaned his shaft, making him erect again. She was pleased with his reaction. She wanted another round.

  However when they left the shower, barely dry, they were too exhausted to make it a reality. Together they collapsed on the bed, arms locked around each other. He held her closely to him, kissing her lips and forehead. She drifted to sleep. Soon Christmas would come and go and so would the rest of the world. Soon it would it be just her and Liam and Mackenzie. As it should be.