The sight of his hands on her, and watching the way he tried to intimidate her, my vision went red. He didn’t deserve any of the time he’d spent with her. She was much too good for him and he took advantage of the fact when he broke her heart. I was once in his shoes, I knew that well, and now finally owning up to my shit, I knew she deserved better than his lame words and treatment.

Over and over, my fists collided with his smug face. His Hollywood good lucks only masked the shitty person underneath, and I was unearthing that person with my bare hands.

“Liam!” Bethany screamed. My concentration was broken, and I glared down at the blonde man under me on the concrete. Blood trickled from his mouth and nose. His left eye was already bright red and swollen from the damage I’d caused.

“You,” I grunted to the man I continued to hold to the ground. “You get the fuck out of this town. You leave Bethany alone. Don’t even try to dial her number. I’m fucking serious, I’ll do more than break your nose.”

I rose to my feet while Bethany’s ex moaned and coughed up blood.

“You heard me,” I hissed. “Go!”

It took him a moment before he was on his feet. He glared at me before his eyes travelled to Bethany.

“You heard him,” Bethany warned, her arms crossed over her chest.

He only shook his head before he limped in the direction of a silver Mercedes.

“That’s right, and don’t come back!” Mrs. Stevens drunkenly screeched from behind me. I couldn’t help but laugh as he sped away and hopefully kept his ass out of town and away from Bethany.

“Fuck, your hand,” murmured Bethany as she pulled my hand into hers. I winced, my adrenaline was running out and my body was able to feel the pain in my hand. I peered down to see the knuckles on my right hand were bloodied and swollen. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

I didn’t protest as I followed Bethany into the bar. She directed me into the office and had me sit until she came back. It was only a few moments before she returned with some paper towels, bandages, peroxide, and a bag of ice.

“You really didn’t have to do that,” she offered as she poured peroxide onto one of the paper towels. I braced for the sting as she started toward my hand. With the wet towel on my hand, I hissed only slightly to hide how much pain I was actually in.

“Don’t be a baby,” she whispered down to me with an amused smile playing on her lips.

She leaned over toward the desk, her blonde hair fell in her face, hiding it from me. Using my free hand, I swept her hair away and through her long eyelashes she peered at me. There was more than sweetness in her eyes. I saw everything she needed, and it was everything I needed too.

“You’ve always been a hot head. In high school I thought it was so sexy,” Bethany made small talk as she cleaned my knuckles.

Leaning over me again, I inhaled her flowery scent. I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take not having her exactly the way I wanted. There wouldn’t be any more useless flirting.

My arms acted first, grabbing her and pulling her into my lap. Her body straddled mine as her widened eyes watched mine intensely. She went to speak, but there was no time for words. I took the back of her head into my hand and brought her face to mine. My lips captured hers in a dominating kiss.

Her sweet moans were music to my ears as I trust my tongue between her parted lips. Her taste was as it had always been and mixed with the alcohol she’d had. Her warmth enveloped mine as her hips slid across mine, softly grinding. We were taken back to being those two high school kids who were passionately infatuated with one another and couldn’t wait for what was next.

“Bethany,” I whispered against her mouth before I took a nibble at her bottom lip. She smiled against my lips and granted me a chaste kiss.

“Not here, not now,” she murmured with a hint of disappointment in her voice. She pulled herself up from my lap and straightened her dress. She checked out her pouty lips in an old dingy mirror that hung on the wall. They were already swollen from the intensity of our kiss. “Here.”

Bethany tossed an ice pack on my lap.

“Later,” she offered before she opened the door and left me alone in the office. We’d gone from hot to cold, but with the promise of more.

I sighed and pressed the ice pack to my swollen hand. I winched at the pain. I’d done a number to myself in order to hurt the piece of shit that hurt Bethany. I had no regrets and I’d do it over and over again.

Standing, I joined Bethany in the bar. Loud voices chatted, and drinks continued to flow. Mr. Cross was being remembered in a way I knew he’d enjoy. There were some faces I hadn’t seen in a long time and they had all came out to say goodbye to Mr. Cross with a drink in their hand and a kind word on their lips.

“Hey! Hey, can I get everyone’s attention,” Bethany’s voice echoed around the room. I peered up from my position behind the bar to see her standing on a pool table. My eyes ran up the length of her long legs and up her body to her sweet face and lips that I’d kissed with every bit of passion in me.

“Quiet down, she’s got something to say,” a voice called out in the crowd as everyone began to quiet and turn their attention to Bethany who stood without shoes and a drink in her hands.

“I just wanted to say a couple words. Dad loved this place more than anything. He loved all of you more than anything. I grew up here and I watched Dad run his business the only way he knew how, with heart. I know some of you felt a certain way about me coming here. It was hard facing the fact that my dad was dead. It was hard mourning him and understanding that all of you were mourning him just as hard. I just wanted to thank every one of you for being there for him when I couldn’t. I especially want to thank Liam for being a son for him when his daughter couldn’t be there. It honestly means the world to me that he had great people by his side during his final days. Thank you all so much for being here and celebrating my dad’s life with me. To my dad, Mr. Cross.”

Bethany’s glass went in the air and so did everyone else in the joint. “To Mr. Cross,” everyone cheered before they all took a drink.

I looked upon Bethany with admiration. She had to do the hardest thing a child would have to do when it came to their parents and she did it with such dignity. Though I’d been afraid of change and I thought she’d changed, she hadn’t. Bethany was still the girl I’d fallen in love with.

Wiping the bar clean, I glanced across the room to the beauty sweeping the floors. Bethany swayed her hips to the song playing on the jukebox, Sara Bareilles’s Love Song. She hummed along as she worked on the other side of the bar to help me get the place cleaned up for the night.

It was one o’clock in the morning and everyone had gone home. It was all done. We’d all laid Mr. Cross to rest and celebrated the man he was. Now, it was time for memories to be filed away and for life to move on. That would be the hard part, moving on.

“I think I’m finished up over here,” Bethany called from her post across the room as she peered around to make sure she’d gotten everything.

“I think I am too,” I replied as I wiped my hands with a towel and looked over the clean bar. “Let’s lock up.”

The two of us headed toward the door. I gave the place one last look over before I flipped the lights off and locked the door behind us. The streets of town were abandoned in the late hour and there was nothing but silence.

“Thanks for all you’ve done. I mean it, Liam,” Bethany commented as she approached me. “You did so much for dad. I have no idea how to repay you, but I will one day.”

“It’s no problem. You know I’d do anything for you,” I assured as I tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. I felt her shiver at my touch.

“Your car isn’t here?” she questioned as she looked around only to find her car parked on the street right in front of the bar.

“I rode with my parents. No big, I can walk,” I said with a shrug.

“I’ll drive you. It is the least I can do,” she insisted as she dug in her purse and produced her keys. With a beep, the doors of her BMW unlocked.

Bethany stepped around to the driver’s side while I opened the passenger door and got inside the comfortable car. My eyes wandered around the gadgets in the luxury vehicle as Bethany slipped inside and started the soft purring engine.

Cars turned me on the same way a beautiful woman did. My ears perked up as I listened to every mechanical bit I could hear. As Bethany drove off, I could hear the shifting of the gears and the rolling of the tires over the shitty roads of Fort Shasta.

We slowed down and came to a stop. I glanced up to see we were outside the gates of the shop.

“Just drive down the alley a bit,” I instructed Bethany. She nodded and turned into the alley next to the shop until we came to the staircase that led up to my apartment. “You want to come up for a sec?” I asked, unsure if she’d accept my proposition.

“Sure,” she breathed. I watched her chest rise up and down as her hurried breaths gave away her nervous anticipation. “Where can I park?”

“Just pull over next to the staircase,” I instructed, and she nodded as she pulled up by the building and next to the staircase. The engine cut and we both sat in complete silence except for Bethany’s quick breaths. “Come on.”

I got out the car and Bethany followed. She locked her car and followed after me as I started up the metal staircase. As we arrived at the first platform, I glanced back to Bethany whose eyes glanced around studying her surroundings.

Digging my fingers in my pocket as we continued up the stairs, I found the key to my place as we approached the large metal door. I unlocked and opened the door.

“Welcome to my crib,” I jokingly announced to a snicker from Bethany as I flipped on the lights. It wasn’t much but it had been home for seven years. It was a safe place to bring my daughter to, and that was all the mattered to me.

“It’s very you,” she commented as she stepped inside and looked around. My furniture was a secondhand leather set from my parents. My coffee table held stacks of car magazines, and my entertainment center was filled with pictures of Serenati.

I closed the door and stepped behind her. I could feel her warmth and shivers as my hand barely brushed her arm. Swiping her blonde locks to the side, I pressed my lips to her warm neck. My hand slipped around her waist and yanked her closer, pressing her body to mine as I continued to kiss her supple skin.

“I want to hate you still,” she confessed as she leaned into me. “I want to be mad, but I can’t for some reason.”

“Then don’t. Let me love you, Bethany. Let me love you in the ways that I failed to,” I whispered onto her flesh. The air around us was thinning with each passing moment. Chills ran through me as I thought of the memories we had and new ones we could make.

“Yes, please. Love me, Liam.” With her words, I pulled her into my arms. I swept her off her feet and carried her through my small apartment.

Kicking open a door, we entered my bedroom. I allowed her onto her feet in the dimly lit room. She stood watching me, she nibbled on her bottom lip as she played with the curled bottom of a strand of hair.

I yanked off the blazer I’d worn to the funeral and tossed it to the side.

There were so many more words I wanted to give to her. I’d apologized, but there was so much. There were seven years’ worth of regrets and feelings, but there was no time for any words because there were seven years of kisses not had and touches not felt to catch up on.

Taking possession of her body, I allowed my hands to explore her gentle curves while my mouth enveloped hers in deep kisses. My fingers reached behind her and easily unzipped her dress. She shimmied as she allowed it to fall to the floor.

Keeping our kiss heated, Bethany’s fingers trailed down the front of my shirt. She stopped at each button and as rapidly as she could, unlooped the buttons until my shirt was open. I ripped it from my arms and tossed it to the floor.

Bethany wasted no time as she immediately moved to the buckle of my belt as my lips traveled to the nape of her neck. I sucked and kissed at her taut skin, all while she hummed and sighed under my touch.

Her bra was next on my agenda and using only the tips of my fingers I undid the hooks. Bethany finished my belt buckle and allowed her bra to fall to the floor between us. For the first time in the last few minutes, I broke away from her. My eyes roamed her body. Her skin was tanned from sunbathing in the LA sun. It was like it was those seven years ago, but different. She’d matured. Her sex appeal was more than the shy girl I once knew.

The tips of her perky nipples were a sherbet pink and tightened at the flow of air over them. Licking my lips, I had to restrain myself as my dick strained in my pants aching to have the feel of her after so long. My arms took her body into them and I gently laid her on the bed. I wanted to love her how I used to. I wanted to show her the passion we’d forgone the past seven years.

Her breath hitched as I planted chaste kisses down her neck, collarbone, and eventually taking one of her hardened nipples into my mouth. I sucked like all of eternity depended on it.

“Liam,” she breathed my name as if it was a testament to the gods. She was confessing her desires to the ceiling as she moaned and repeated my name.

Releasing her nipple, I glanced down to the peak that was now a bright shade of red and I grinned to myself as I watched her eyes find mine. Just a tinge of a smile came to the corner of her lips. I attacked the other nipple before she could react. Her back arched and her moans began again.

It was almost as if I’d forgotten what a treasure she’d been to me, and I was rediscovering her body all over again.

I had to have her. After years of living on memories of her every curve and taste. I had to take what was presented to me.

My fingers gripped the waistband of her cotton panties and I yanked them hurriedly down her long legs. Using my hands, I spread her legs and watched her face. She was in awe as she watched me. The tips of my fingers left a trail along her inner thigh and over the pink lips that were just growing a fresh patch of wavy honey blonde hair.

Slipping my index finger between her lips, I was greeted with a loud moan from Bethany and the soaking wet desire she was harboring. Easily, I found her clit, swollen, and waiting for release. I circled it as Bethany continued to moan in delight at my actions.

It was never like this when we were teenagers. I’d been with one other girl before her and then there was the night she gave herself to me in her old bedroom. It was nerve-wracking and we both were unable to truly enjoy the moment in fear of Mr. Cross finding us. It got better though, and we’d discovered one another’s bodies and our own desires with it.

Now, years later, we both had experience under our belts and we’d come back to one another to put that experience to work. Bethany had gone from a sweet and shy girl to a sexual woman who would receive all that she desired and more.

“What are you waiting for?” Bethany asked breathlessly. I chuckled to myself as she’d cemented everything I’d just thought about her.

“Tell me what you want,” I thought I’d play a little game with her.

She only grunted in response and let out an exasperated sigh. Bethany was not playing my games. She needed her release and knowing the strong-willed girl I had on the bed, if I didn’t give it to her, she’d achieve it for herself.

“You know what I want, Liam,” she countered with confidence.

“I might know, but it would be better if you tell me. Tell me exactly what you want me to do to you.” I gave her a smirk as she opened her mouth, but no words came out. “Not hearing you.”

“Liam!” she grunted in embarrassment. She was a woman, but she hadn’t quite found those words for her pleasure.

“You know the words, Beth. Come on baby, tell me what you want me to do to this pussy.” I rubbed against her clit once more with my index finger. She moaned again as I continued. “Tell me.”

Fuck, I wanted her so bad. I wanted to let go and take her, but at the same time I wanted it to last. It had to last. Bethany was still holding back from me and knowing that she wanted to sell off the bar, drilled home the knowledge she planned to leave Fort Shasta and me behind.

“It’s not rocket science, Liam.” She looked frustrated as all hell. Damn, I loved it.

I chuckled at her urgency.

“Lick me, finger me, fuck me, and all of the above,” she demanded. She’d unlocked the game, and it was on.

“As you wish, Dr. Cross,” I purred.

Letting go of any worries of her leaving or staying, I gripped her thighs, and spread her legs apart wide. This wouldn’t be our high school sex, and Bethany would have to hold on to something for good measure.

I dove right in. My tongue attacking her clit. With each lick and cry evoked from Bethany, I could feel my dick straining in my pants, begging to be released. I had to keep complete control and lucky for me it was easy to get lost in her soaking wet pussy.

Plunging in one finger, and then two, I worked her tight entrance while my tongue continued its dance on her clit. Good thing the buildings directly around the shop were unoccupied as Bethany was louder than I remembered. She obviously hadn’t been loved this good in a long time and she was letting go.

“I’m cuming.” Her voice quieted to a hiss as one of her hands held my head in place while the other was gripping at the sheets of my bed.

I lapped up every bit of her pleasure. I wouldn’t leave a single drop. I’d been starved of her for too long.

Her breath was ragged, but I wouldn’t give her enough time to come down from her high. I stood from the bed and forced my pants and boxers down my legs. I saw the look in her eyes, she was craving it. Fuck, I think she was living for the moment we connected again.

She was shocked as I bent to her and flipped her to her stomach. She giggled as her body bounced on the mattress before she settled and lifted her sweet ass into the air. That was exactly how I liked to see my girl, compliant and ready.

Fuck, I hadn’t even thought about protection. I scrambled into action, rushing to my bedside table, and searched through the mess before I came across a box of condoms. Luckily, if the off chance arrived that I brought a girl home, I kept some on hand. I was still a man after all, not dead.

Ripping the package open, I was eager to get it on and get into her waiting core. I unrolled the rippled condom onto my rock-hard shaft. It had been forever since I was so turned on by any woman. It was quite possibly because she was the woman.

I climbed back onto the bed and took her hips in my hands. She moaned as I gripped onto her tightly. There was so much fire that we couldn’t be extinguished, at least not tonight.

Gently at first, I stroked my shaft over her wet and awaiting entrance. She groaned and leaned into me. It was her way of demanding what she wanted without using her words.

“I never thought I’d have this day again,” I said, my voice low as I stroked her more. I liked when she was on edge, it lit her aflame. “It’s so different, but better. Fuck, I can’t even give you the right words. It’s so damn intense and I don’t want it to end. At least not now.”

“I know, but I need you inside me, Liam,” she huffed softly into my pillow before once again groaning at the sensations I gave her. “I want to remember how good it was with you. How good we were together. We had magic, you know?”

“Yeah. That magic was something else.” I grinned thinking of all the good times. There were mostly good times with us. It was like nothing could get in our way… until my fears did.

“Let’s be magic tonight,” she rasped.

I pushed into her. She cried out in pleasure as I worked to savor every moment. I thrust into her, gripping her hip and an ass cheek. The heat was overpowering, but I fought through the urge to cum into her right there. For her, I’d make it last longer. I dug deep for the strength.

“Turn over, baby,” I rumbled in her ear.

My heart ached from the moment I pulled out of her. When we fused together, it was like nothing else in the world. That magic still existed.

Bethany turned to her back and peered up at me. I saw a tinge of pain in her eyes. Pain was the last thing she needed to feel. Quickly, I grabbed a pillow and lifted her bottom to place it under her. I positioned myself back at her entrance and drove in.

Her eyes never left mine. She was fighting to hold on too, to keep it lasting. She bit down on her lip, she didn’t want to let go, but would have to.

“Let it go, Bethany. Cum, baby,” I nearly roared into the dimly lit room as I refused to release until she did. I forcefully pressed my thumb to her clit and it was all she needed for her release.

Bethany yelped into the room. My name spilling from her lips like it used to. The memories were too good to let go of and I’d held onto them. The present mixed with those memories gave me my end and I spilled into the condom.

“Fuck,” I howled as my cock continued to twitch with the power of the orgasm. I couldn’t see straight and the only thing I could do was collapse onto the bed with her.

We allowed our breaths to settle and she rested her head on my chest. I turned my fingers in the ends of her hair. She hummed onto my chest before she placed a single kiss there.

“I can’t say that letting you go was the biggest mistake of my life because letting you go gave me Serenati. My daughter is my entire world and she’s the only good that came out of it, but letting you go was a huge fucking mistake, and I don’t know how many ways I can say, I’m sorry,” I told her as I wrapped my arms around her and secured her close. I wasn’t letting her go again. I absolutely couldn’t.