It was late by the time we arrived at the cabin. As the hours slipped by at the hospital, I became more convinced they were going to make us stay the entire night.
I underestimated Liam’s power of persuasion and his popularity with the town. I knew he was an Olympic medalist, but it was something that barely ever crossed my mind until someone else mentioned it.
He wasn’t Caribou royalty turned star athlete with medals and worldwide popularity. To me, he was just this handsome kid who once spent a few hours teaching a girl he didn’t know how to ski. A guy who flirted to make me less afraid of a ski lift… and the one who took my virginity.
And my heart.
Now he was a man who’d morphed from that ornery bad-boy appeal into a sexy man with sharp instincts and unwavering intensity.
He still had my heart.
I was beginning to realize it didn’t matter which version of Liam he was. It wouldn’t matter. I would love him no matter what.
“If you were anyone else, we’d still be sitting in that hospital room,” I mused, taking off my boots by the door.
He made a sound. “I’m just glad to be home.”
“You should get off your knee.” I went over to his side, looping my good arm around his waist, offering to take some of his weight.
He didn’t give it to me, of course. I didn’t really expect him to. I wanted him to know I would take it if he ever decided to give it.
“I’m tired of sitting down.” He complained.
“Want me to make you something to eat?” I offered.
“You’re finally going to cook for me?” He teased.
I laughed. “I’m not sure I’m up for making an entire meal,” I said as we went into the kitchen. “But I could probably at least make you a sandwich.”
“Probably all I got in the fridge anyway.”
“I’ll go to the store in a few days,” I said, leaving him at the island to open the large stainless-steel appliance.
I’d barely gotten to glance at what he had inside before he reached over my shoulder and pushed the door shut. I spun, surprised, and he used his body to back me up against the cold metal.
“I thought you wanted a sandwich.”
Liam ducked his head so his lips were beside my ear. One palm was planted flat on the fridge right beside my head. I was completely caged in by him… and it made my heart race.
“How can I think about food when you’re standing in my kitchen, talking about going grocery shopping?”
“Uhh…” My heart was still fluttering, and every word he spoke brought the brush of breath over my ear.
“I see you standing here, and I can barely believe it. Do you know how many times I imagined this? Do you know how many years I thought of you, girl who got away?”
My lashes fluttered. My gaze tried to meet his.
Dipping his face, he pressed a kiss against my neck. “Knowing you’re here. That you’re staying…”
He kissed my neck again.
My head fell to the side, and my fingers curled into the front of his T-shirt.
“Knowing I’m going to cook for you,” I joked, but it sounded more like a moan.
His throaty laugh tightened my nipples. The space between my legs started to ache. I didn’t know how he did this to me. How he could make me ache and want after being awake for over twenty-four hours… after everything.
“You could hand me a pack of crackers, sweetheart, and it would be the best damn meal I ever ate.”
“I love you.” My hands slid down the front of his shirt into the waistband of his loose-fitting sweats. The thick band of the Calvin Klein boxer briefs I’d watched him put on earlier today enticed my fingers further, and I pushed beneath it.
His teeth nipped at my neck, and I smiled.
“Forget the food,” he half growled and picked me up.
I gasped. For two reasons:
1. His hard dick rubbed me in all the right places when my legs went around his waist.
And
2. He didn’t need that extra weight on his knee!
“Your knee!” I tried to get down.
“You should make it feel better.”
I glanced down, worry mixing with the want inside me. “What can I do?’
He smiled. “Anything you want.”
He carried me down the hall, despite my telling him not to. Charlie danced around like we were playing a game. Liam set me on the edge of the bed and reached into his nightstand for a giant chew bone. Charlie barked, snatched it out of his hand, and disappeared.
Reaching back into the drawer, Liam pulled out some condoms and tossed them on the bed.
I reached for his sweats and pushed them down his leg. They got caught on the thick brace around his knee, so I slid off the mattress and down his body to carefully work them off. When that was done, I did the same to his Calvins.
I felt the heat of his eyes as I worked, which made me even hotter. On my knees, I glanced up his body as my hand closed around his rigid cock. Liam sucked in a breath, and our eyes met. I pumped him a few times, and the muscles in his lower abs rippled. I leaned across and licked them, then moved down and sucked his head into my mouth.
With a groan, Liam’s body went slack. He bent a little, resting one of his palms on the mattress. I moved up and down his rod, sliding my lips along the taut, smooth skin.
He made a sound and tried to pull me up, but I wasn’t done. I pulled back but kept my hand around his shaft as I kissed and sucked on his sack.
He muttered a few curses, and I smiled.
Standing up, I licked my lips, still tasting him on me.
Liam’s eyes flashed silver. He began stripping the clothes he’d given me to wear to the hospital off my body. The second he untied the drawstring at my waist, the pants fell right to the floor.
“You up for this?” he murmured, looking at my arm in the sling.
In response, I took his hand and guided the thick fingers between my thighs, brushing them against the slick wetness.
He shuddered the second he felt just how up for this I really was.
I climbed on the bed. His palm covered my bare ass, and his fingers slipped between my legs again. He stroked me, and I shuddered.
After I patted the mattress beside me, Liam did my bidding. The second he was on the bed, I pushed him down on his back. He lifted an eyebrow, and I gently pushed a pillow beneath his knee, giving it some support.
“How about you let me drive?” I asked, dragging a finger down the center of his chest.
His head fell back against the blankets, and a satisfied smile pulled at his lips. Settling a palm on my hip, Liam tugged. I straddled him, but not his hips, his waist.
Rocking against him, I shuddered. My desire coated his stomach, and his palms covered my breasts. “You are so goddamn beautiful,” he groaned, kneading the flesh.
I let my head fall back, and he pushed up onto elbows so he could tug a breast into his mouth. I cried out and thrust against his abs again. Liam’s fingers bit into my hip, and he urged me to move again. My inner muscles flexed and spasmed, wanting something more, wanting to feel him inside me.
I shimmied down his body, and he released me to grab one of the packets nearby. Our hands worked together, rolling the latex down his shaft, my fingertips lingering on his balls as he finished. When he was done, Liam held up his thick, hard length, and I poised above it.
Our eyes met and held as I slowly, torturously slid down over him. My body accepted his inch by glorious inch. I had to force myself to go slowly because, really, all I wanted to do was push down and take him completely.
When at last he filled me and our bodies where totally joined, he palmed my hips and rocked my body. Both of us moaned, and my head fell back. The long strands of my hair brushed the top of my ass, and my teeth sank into my lower lip.
I began moving on my own, riding him the way that felt right. Liam moaned, his hands fell away, and I took control. Before I knew it, I was panting and the room was blurry. My palm slapped down beside his head, and I leaned over him. We kissed the way we fucked. Fervently, deeply, and at times, manically.
The tension in my body became too much to bear, and I whimpered.
Liam ripped his mouth free, grabbed my hips, and looked into my face.
“I have what you want, sweetheart,” he growled, then lifted his hips off the bed, surging up inside me.
I bore down, and pleasure exploded inside me. It was so overpowering that my eyes rolled back in my head and light burst behind my lids.
I whimpered again, and he rocked into me, milking my inner walls, stroking my swollen clit for every last ounce of pleasure.
I collapsed against his chest, lungs heaving. I was totally boneless as mini ripples still coursed through my limbs.
Liam moved beneath me, surging up again. Feeling the way he pulsed inside me, I knew he was ready. I started to push up so I could ride him through it, but he made a sound, locked his arms around my waist, and held me to him.
I shoved down, and he surged up. His deep shout filled the room, and he thrust into me over and over again. I was pressed so tightly against him I could feel the pounding of his heart and hear the gasp of each breath he took.
Eventually, his body calmed and relaxed against the mattress. I lay prone over his chest, his body still cradled inside mine.
His fingers dragged slowly through the length of my hair as satisfaction curled around the room.
A short while later, I realized the air in here was cold. I reached for the blanket, only to realize we were lying on top of them.
“Up,” he murmured and lifted me off him. I pouted a little because I wasn’t ready for him to leave me yet. He chuckled and kissed my pouty lower lip.
My shoulder was sore. It was almost time for some pain meds, but I was too satiated to get up. I settled for resting my back against the plush headboard and pulling the covers up around me.
Liam kissed my shoulder when he crawled back into bed. He mirrored my position, and we both sat in bed together, holding hands.
“I feel like I could sleep for a week.” I confessed.
“You and me both.”
“You didn’t get a chance to talk to your parents,” I said, worrying about them. About Liam. I saw his reaction when he noticed his dad in a hospital gown. My stomach seized for him. Liam had the kind of relationship with his father I’d always wanted with mine.
If I was so broken by losing my dad, what would it do to Liam if something was seriously wrong with his?
“We were all so exhausted after the Feds left. If I made them explain, then they were gonna make us explain. I was tired of talking. Tired of trying to make sense of any of it.”
“And maybe…” I began, my voice gentle. “You’re scared to find out what’s going on?”
“Maybe,” he echoed, his voice barely there.
“Whatever you need, Liam, I’m here.”
He lifted our joined hands and kissed the back of mine.
“We’ll go see them tomorrow. After we’ve had some sleep.”
I loved when he said we. Like it really was him and me now. Like I really wasn’t alone anymore.
“Do you think they’ll want me there? I know it’s a personal family matter.”
He made a sound. “You are family. And hell yes, they want you there. Most importantly, I want you there.”
I wanted his parents to like me. To love me even. I would love to have a close relationship with them. I just prayed they would want that too once we told them everything I’d brought into their son’s life.
“You know what Agent Frost said earlier today is true.” I began.
He glanced at me swiftly, a sour expression forming on his face. “I don’t like that guy.”
I smiled. “You made that very clear. To everyone.”
He grunted. “I’m not sorry. He needs to know I don’t like him. I want him looking over his shoulder, knowing I’m watching. Because I am. I will watch every decision that guy tries to make when it comes to you.”
“They only found one body up on the mountain.” I reminded him. As if he could forget.
“Doesn’t mean the other one isn’t just too buried to find.”
I nodded, praying he was right.
Still. There was this feeling inside me… deep down. The same kind of feeling that spider crawled up the back of my neck whenever Crone’s men got close.
Spidey wasn’t found on that mountain today. But a trail of blood was. Until it disappeared, just stopped suddenly, leaving the snow as pristine as it when it first fell.
They didn’t find his body because he hadn’t died.
He was still out there. I knew it.
He’d gone back underground again, skillfully hiding from the FBI and any other interested party who wanted to bring him in. Spidey would stay hidden, too. I knew he would. He would lie in wait like a cobra, ready to strike. Like an angry grizzly bear in hibernation.
He would heal from his injuries. Bide his time. Probably even somehow get word to Crone.
Agent Frost told us as much, and I knew he was right.
I’d gotten away from this guy more than once now.
To Spidey, I wasn’t just a job. I wasn’t just a target of the mob. This was personal. Liam and I might have bought some time up in that avalanche, but I wasn’t stupid, and neither was the man beside me.
Crone’s men would be coming back. And since I refused to run anymore, they knew exactly where I’d be. There wasn’t much the FBI could do if I refused to cooperate with witness protection.
Liam sensed my troubled, dark thoughts and turned, wrapping his body around mine. “We’ll be ready when they come back, sweetheart. There’s nothing I won’t do to protect this.”
Charlie jumped up on the bed, making the mattress bounce beneath his giant body. He flopped down on the foot, stretched out, and continued chewing his bone.
My chest swelled. My heart felt so full here in this bed with my two guys. Turning, I swept a gaze over Liam’s face. “All those times I wondered what might have been,” I whispered, stroking his face. The stubble on his jaw tickled my palm and sent butterflies through my middle.
He kissed the tips of my fingers and smiled. “You don’t have to wonder anymore.”
“Now I know,” I whispered.
A sound of agreement burst from his throat. “Now we know.”
Resolve welled up inside me as I watched the dog and snuggled deeper into the arms of the only man I’d ever loved. We would survive whatever came at us. We had to.
Liam and I survived the surge, but a whole new blizzard was brewing.
THE END
FOR NOW