Before Sunrise Page 52

  “I know it wasn’t your doing.”

  There was little light in the room, just slithers of moonlight casting through the gauzy curtains. Her eyes adjusted quickly. She ran her fingertips over the shiny buttons to the front of his Naval uniform, then unbuttoned them, one by one. The sight of him in full dress always sent ripples of desire down her spine. Liam was devilishly handsome, and she wanted him on her, over her, in her. Kennedy lifted her gaze and met his stare. Just touching him or him touching her was enough to suck all the air from the room. Kennedy opened the lapels and continued to undo the buttons to reveal his T-shirt. She pressed her face against the hardness of his chest, wanting to hear his heart beat. It was strong, and the rhythmic harmony assured her he was, too. It lulled her deeper into her physical cravings that had been submerged for so long. It wasn’t just sex. It was the connection between them that her body yearned for.

  Liam’s hand slowly lifted to stroke the back of her head as she swayed a bit against him. He didn’t speak. For this she was grateful. There were no words to express everything they’d loved, lost, and needed over the years. No need to make promises or offer apologies. This was their life together and to have the good, she had long since learned to accept the bad.

  Suddenly the room felt cold and the only warmth radiating was from him. She pressed her body into his and shuddered, seeking that comfort, clinging to it. Liam eased up her robe to palm her ass. Her mouth naturally rose to meet his. A slow, lazy swirl of their tongues became a passionate clash of desire as the kiss consumed them. She eased her hands up to his shoulders and helped him shrug down his dress jacket. The kiss stopped briefly when he aided her by pulling his shirt over his head.

  Kennedy hands were lightning-quick. She unfastened his belt and lowered his zipper, catching the hard, urgent look in his eyes, his tense jaw, his lips set in a firm line. He forcibly restrained himself. Her tiger would normally flip her and take over, but tonight he understood the need to go at her pace. When her hand slipped inside the front of his pants and took hold of his erection, the flash of desire in his baby blues made her moist.

  “Come here,” he grunted. He locked his arm around her waist and Kennedy was thrown to the mattress. She bounced, her robe falling open, to reveal her bare breasts and thin white lace panty.

  Liam smiled down at her.

  “You sure about this?” she asked in a tremulous voice. If he wasn’t up for the task she’d be miserable for the rest of the night. But she had to ask. Eric warned of the illness that precipitated his being snatched from her. Was it real? Looking at him now she didn’t see any evidence of it.

  “Liam? Were you sick?”

  He didn’t answer her and that was disappointing. She wanted desperately to understand what had happened to him the past weeks but needed something even more urgently. Him. He pulled her by her ankles to the edge of the bed and her robe drew up to her waist. Then Liam ran his palms down her thighs to hook his fingers around the waistband of her panty and draw it down, and off.

  Kennedy parted her thighs and put her hands to the tops of her bent knees to hold her position. The gleam in his eyes when she did so made her quiver. She panted softly with anticipation when his left hand went between her legs. Heat infused her skin and spread like a wildfire through her, gathering warm moisture above her top lip and brow. His thumb brushed the soft folds of her pussy and her heart nearly went into arrest. She tried to remember to breathe, but she felt all the sensations rush from her channel straight to her head with a pulsating overload. Using his thumb he let it part her nether lips and reveal her moist opening. He hovered over her now, running his tongue across her nipple then down the line of her stomach to dip into her belly button. Before she named his intention in her conscious mind, the hot, flat, moist surface of his tongue licked in an upward swipe of her bud. He paused and licked again.

  When his lips sealed over her clit, he drew it into his mouth and sucked until she cried out for mercy. Secretly she prayed her daughter didn’t hear, but she knew she was loud enough to wake their neighbors a block over.

  Liam groaned and sucked harder before he let his tongue work delicious swirls around her clit. Passion melted all her anxiety over the past few days away. She wanted to beg him to stop. Plead with him to give her a moment to adjust and for her body to accept the currents of pleasure shocking her below. She didn’t dare. Her climax built at such an acceleration she just thrashed and rolled her hips, smashing her sex into his face. His hands moved up and down her thighs with slow caresses and he eased her into the orgasmic explosion that brought a veil of tears up behind her closed lids.

  Liam eased over her. His trousers rode at his hips and his pelvis pressed against hers. He thrust every inch of his cock into her channel with such force she gripped the bed sheets. Having him on her like this, she could smell the wonderful masculine scent of his skin and her fragrance on his breath. It turned her inside out. He moved in her and dropped his forehead to hers to control his pace.

  “So good, babe, so tight and good.” He groaned.

  Kennedy met each forceful strike of his hips with thrusts of her own as she gyrated underneath him. She anchored her nails into his broad shoulders, wanting him to fuck her into oblivion. She relished his compliance with her wish as he lost all control and began to take her. His thrusts increased in speed and their climax hit them both without warning, as if someone had flipped a switch between them. She cried out loudly from the pure force of their union.

  Liam dropped on her, still moving, his erection ebbing. She clung to him, squeezing him as well, needing the feeling to last between them forever.

  “I couldn’t wait.” He kissed her cheek.

  “Me either. God, me either.”

  “I love you, babe. I missed you so bad.”

  “Shhh…don’t talk. Just hold me.”

  ***

  “Just like that they brought him home?” Angelina asked.

  “Girl, just when I thought I would lose my mind with worry, he drove up.”

  “And?”

  “And what?”

  “Well, what happened? Why did they keep him? Where did they keep him? Did you two talk at all?”

  Kennedy blushed. “Not exactly. You know how it is. Our men tell no tales.”

  Angelina laughed. “I’m so jealous. The baby’s here but once again my husband isn’t. I’m thinking of holding a press conference of my own.”

  Kennedy and Angelina both laughed.

  “Kennedy, seriously, I’m happy for you, girl. You got your man back. Good for you.”

  She heard Liam coming down the stairs. “I got to go. Finishing breakfast for my soldier boy.”

  “Okay, call me later.”

  “Love you. Bye.”

  Kennedy hung up the phone. She turned to find Mackenzie in the kitchen with Liam behind her. She held the puppy in her arms. “We named her, mommy.” Mackenzie said.

  Kennedy smiled. “Really?”

  “We had to give her a better name than Dog.”

  “We named her Sweetie. It was my idea.” Mackenzie smiled.

  “I love the name. It’s perfect.”

  “C’mon Sweetie, let’s go play.” Mackenzie chased the puppy into the dining room.

  Liam slipped his arms around her waist. “Breakfast starting?”

  “In a few.”

  “I have to leave this morning, see Dr. Abrams today.”

  “What time?” she asked, a little wary of an immediate separation.

  “Ten. It’s for our initial meeting. I think you and Mackenzie should come.”

  “Really? Why?”

  “I want you to know about the therapy. We’re going to do this together.”

  She touched his arm and stopped him from turning away. “Do you want to talk about it? Did things…get bad?”

  “It happened, Kay. None of it matters now. I don’t want the past anywhere near our future. Dr. Abrams can help us make sure of it.” He cupped her face in his hands. “Surviving the
past weeks was only hard because I knew you were alone and hurting. It’s my job to make you happy, and I’m going to focus on that happiness. Just as I did from the first day you said you’d be mine.”

  “And Dr. Abrams can help us do this?”

  “I have PTSD. I know that now. I accept it. Dr. Abrams will help us both move on.”

  “I’m proud of you, Liam.”

  “I’m in love you babe. Anything for you. Always.”

  Epilogue

  Two Years Later

  “Three years and she still surprises me,” Liam said. He pressed his hand up to the cool surface of the glass window. His heart had stopped beating wildly in his chest. The adrenaline rush of the past four hours compared to no mission he’d ever had in his life. Eric, to his left, dropped his hand on Liam’s shoulder and squeezed. Vasquez stood over to his right. His hands were shoved down his pockets, his gaze focused on the parade of tykes before them. It felt right standing with his boys at the moment of the greatest transition in his life. Their brotherhood, sealed in blood, was intact. No war, mission, or inactive status could undo it.

  “Isn’t he beautiful?” Liam asked.

  “You got one helluva boy there.” Eric said. “Kid looks like a linebacker.”

  Liam felt his chest expand with pride. He asked his wife for a son and she delivered. Literally. It was just that simple. Nothing in his life had been that simple until he fell in love with his dream girl.

  “How much does he weigh?” Vasquez asked.

  “8 pounds and 12 ounces.”

  The nurse wheeled his son out of the line of sleeping infants. The baby had a round, cherub face and dark curly hair that nearly covered his brow. He was pink and swollen, and swaddled in a white blanket with tiny blue teddy bears on it. The doctors said that he was a bit jaundiced when he was delivered. They wanted to put him under a light. Otherwise he’d be in the room with his sleeping wife and little girl. Liam smiled at his son. The baby snoozed, not even aware he had an audience. “She just pushed him out. No drama, no fanfare, three pushes and my boy was here.”

  “Kennedy is one of kind,” Eric noted.

  Liam nodded. He heard tales of how hard and traumatic Mackenzie’s birth had been. A large part of him was grateful that their blessed event didn’t take that kind of toll on her.

  His son was wheeled away. Liam stepped back, contentment filling him to the brim. Life was good. It was better than good. On most days, he felt like he was living a dream. “Yeah, she is. I guess we’ve had enough drama for a lifetime.”

  “Speaking of drama. Vasquez tell you?”

  “About Alexa? Yeah. Can’t say I’m surprised. I know she did some wicked shit but I feel bad that things went down the way they did.”

  “She’s lucky her ass wasn’t court-martialed,” Vasquez added. “That mess she created in Washington took another election to clean up.”

  “Where is she now?” Liam asked, but didn’t care. When he was trapped in that prison that pretended to be a hospital, he realized the depths of Alexa’s obsession. She had the nerve to visit. He saw her madness plainly then. She’d used him. Put his wife and child in jeopardy by baiting Sarkhir and keeping him in the dark. Told others he was compromised when he refused her offer to join in her crusade to defeat the enemy. Her reasoning was as twisted as her false feelings for him. The talk of him being a traitor would ultimately benefit them both, she said. Once she got him to remember the critical details of Sarkhir’s operation she believed were buried in his head she’d bring down the Taliban and bin Laden with it. Even Eric was buried in too much bureaucracy to stop her. So Liam had been drugged and given intense therapy. No one would admit to him that his sudden illness was a ploy to weaken him. Nor could his sudden recovery be explained. All he knew was he was detained and the psychological exams he was put through nearly drove him mad. If it weren’t for Eric and Vasquez, his sanity might have been lost in that hell they dragged him through.

  The information the doctors obtained—information he wasn’t even consciously aware of—eventually led a strike team to put a bullet between the eyes of the devil himself eyes. Amir Sarkhir was found and neutralized. Liam took some small comfort in that.

  The last time he saw Alexa Sinclair was the day he was cleared. She never said a word to him. But the non-verbal exchange between them was crystal clear. If he ever saw her again in this life, he’d snap her rotten neck for all she’d put him through. Liam thought about her motivation over the years. Alexa was drunk on power and greedy, all the things a good leader shouldn’t be.

  “They busted her back a few and gave her a subcommand in the Korean DMZ. Watches a fence for a living. She’s been there for months.” Eric shrugged.

  Liam and his friends walked away from the nursery. He moved without a cane now. The knee brace that he’d been fitted with, thanks to the VA hospital, helped. Add to his recovery a very progressive physical therapy regimen and he felt almost like a new man. That meant he could run with his son, toss a ball to him, be a father to him and Mackenzie in every way that counted.

  “So what’s up with this garage of yours? How’s it doing?” Eric asked.

  Liam brow’s shot up. “Garage? Excuse me? You mean auto body repair shop. I guess if you’d been there in two years, you’d know, right? It’s running great. You need to come by.”

  “Might do that, brother. My bike needs tuning. The new administration is headed in a different direction. Means I could settle a little more.”

  “War ain’t over,” said Liam.

  “Yeah, well the fight is. And I’m really no desk jockey. Need action, you know?”

  Liam nodded in agreement.

  Vasquez cleared his throat. “Thinking of retiring.”

  Eric and Liam both stopped. Vasquez kept walking and they had to quickly catch up. “Come again? Did I just hear you say retire?” Liam asked.

  “You heard Eric. The new administration wants a different kind of fight. Besides, Angie’s been patient enough. M y kids are growing up without me. It’s time.”

  “You’re a lifer. No fucking way you’ll retire.” Eric snorted. “Neither of us will.”

  Liam knew differently. Eric didn’t have a family or a woman he’d give it all up for. But his friend Vasquez had both. Every man, even those in the brotherhood, reached a point where they wanted a chance at the other side of life. The need to settle down could supersede any other calling. He lived that truth.

  “Well, I got your back and a job for you if you do.” Liam smirked.

  Vasquez gave a half lipped smile, evidently tortured by his decision. The men arrived in the corridor with the family. Gail came out of Kennedy’s room. She beamed up at Liam. “How is he?”

  “He’s perfect. Why don’t you and Andrew go down to the nursery and see for yourselves?”

  “I think we’ll do that.” She reached up to give Liam a brief, motherly kiss on the jaw.

  Sally wasn’t able to arrive in time, but he knew he’d have to pick her up from the airport soon. Angelina walked over with baby Hector on her hip. “Anthony, maybe we should go now.”

  “Yeah, you’re right,” Vasquez answered.

  Liam faced his brothers. “You two saved my life more times than I can count. Thanks for being here today.”

  “Call me man. Congratulations.” Eric gave him a fraternal hug.

  Liam watched them go, then slipped inside his wife’s room.

  ***

  “Eric? Eric Drake! Is that you?”

  He almost stepped into the elevator. A glance back over his shoulder stopped him. He told the Vasquezes he’d catch up later, and the doors to the elevator closed. Harper smiled sweetly at him. He hadn’t seen her in three long years. Not to say he hadn’t thought of her. The few times he saw Liam and Kennedy over the years, she was always off in school. He didn’t dare call her. It had been easier that way, though when she graduated, he nearly broke his vow and reached out to her to offer congratulations. He heard she got accepted into medical school.<
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  Harper stopped in front of him with a big blue and silver stork balloon tied to a furry white teddy bear.

  “Hello, beautiful.” Eric leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

  Black women didn’t blush, but that shy smile on her face was close enough to it. Harper had dark, smooth skin, darker than his. She’d cut her long locks for a short pixie style and it made her sexier. She wore a red fitted summer top and jeans. He tried not to let his gaze go lower than her chin, though he was sorely tempted.

  “I didn’t know you were back. No one told me,” Harper said.

  “Yeah, well, got in this morning. Made it just in time.”

  “So sweet of you to be here. I know Liam must have been excited. He’s so happy now.”

  “He deserves to be happy. They both do.”

  Together they stood in front of the elevators in an uncomfortable silence. He wanted to ask about her life. But he didn’t need to. He’d peeked in on her life from time to time. She and Jason didn’t work out, but she did date a guy named Craig for almost a year. The dude even moved in with her. Now she was single again, and traveling, backpacking through Europe with friends after graduation and before medical school.

  “You seen momma and daddy? Are they in with Liam and Kennedy?”

  “Uh, I think they went to the nursery.”

  “Oh.” Harper nodded.

  “Well, take care. Good to see you again,” Eric said with an uncomfortable shrug of his shoulders.

  “Wait.”

  He held his breath and did as she asked.

  Harper stepped closer to him. “You left and didn’t call, didn’t come home It’s been three years Eric.”

  “And I hear you’re doing great things. Congrats on graduating. Now medical school? Wow.”

  “You’ve been asking about me?” She blinked those long lashes over chocolate swirls for irises and it was torture.