Once Upon a Present
Her lips were separated, and the full curve of her mouth parted with each breath. Kelly’s eyes were closed. The shiny raised skin of her scar was prominent under the sun that poured in from her window, illuminating the arch of her cheek bone. She’d never understand how fucking gorgeous she was, scar or no scar. The slope of her neck disappeared under the cotton collar of her shirt and I remembered how good she smelled last night. She stirred and pulled the sheet down sending goose bumps along my exposed chest, reminding me I was laying next to her in nothing but my boxer briefs. She was by my side again, and the illusion was something I wanted to hold onto. I was scared, fuck, I was so scared that when those brown eyes opened her charity would have reached its limit.
My mother was gone, and my life… I had no idea where I went from here. All I knew was that Kelly had to be a part of it, regardless if she wanted to be mine or not, she was too important to me, and I had to stop pushing her away. You never fucking knew when your number was up. When the universe decided your ass was done… it was done. I’d never erase the image of my mother lying in that hospital bed. My chest caved in as the sound of Paige’s broken sobs infiltrated my memory and how Dex had held her belly, his forehead to hers. I’d never be able to repair Declan’s heart, knowing that our mother would never get to meet his children. I’d never be able to help Kieran understand that it wasn’t his fault, that the guilt he felt was goddamn useless. And on top of all that, I’d never stop hating myself for failing them, for breaking when they’d needed me most.
Kelly’s eyes opened slowly, and I refused to look away, expecting and fearing the regret I’d most likely see as her eyes locked with mine. We stared at each other, the long seconds passed without a word. Her eyes were soft, but I couldn’t read her. The questions in my head ran a million miles an hour. I could only imagine what the hell she was thinking. The longer she stayed silent, the higher my anxiety rose. Maybe she didn’t know what to say. Maybe she didn’t want to hurt me, not after…
I exhaled a heavy breath and said, “I’m sorry about last night.”
Her brows pinched together and her eyes dimmed as she sat up and faced the wall in front of her. She said, her voice full of indifference, “I’m glad I was here to help.”
Irritation coursed through my veins. I whipped the sheet back and sat on the edge of the bed. I hung my head and rubbed my hands down my face. Why was everything so goddamn difficult? Anger fueled each rise and fall of my chest. It wasn’t a mistake to come here. She’d taken the burden. She’d held me up when all I could do was fall. I hadn’t imagined that.
“Kelly… I’m sorry you had to see me like that, not that I wish we didn’t… Damn it… I’m sorry I don’t say shit right. I’m sorry, I don’t know where the hell to go from here…” I felt her move, the mattress dipping under her weight. I raised my head, still facing away as I swallowed my fear and threw everything I had left into her lap. “I’m fucking sorry I can’t stop loving you, even when I know you’ve moved on.”
“Liam,” she breathed my name and I faced her. It was time to take the bullet. “I’ve never stopped loving you.”
The muscle in my jaw pulsed and she inched toward me on her knees. Her chocolate hair was wild from sleep, and her cheeks heated as I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t believe it. “Then why did you leave?”
“You weren’t ready. You tiptoed around me like I was glass, and I figured you wanted your space, it’s been too long and—”
“No.” I shook my head. “Why did you go to California without any fucking explanation?”
She lowered her eyes. “You know why I left, Liam.”
“We fought… but—”
“You were drunk, and you punched the wall…” She raised her voice as she fisted the sheet in her hand. “We were headed down the wrong path. Every time you told me you’d leave, you knew it was a lie, and you started to resent it. You had to be here for your family, and I had to find my own way.”
“You could have done that here.” My heart was thundering in my chest, my temper boiling, begging to lash out, but I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t push her away, not after we were finally sorting all this shit out.
“You were bitter that you couldn’t give me the freedom you’d promised, and I would’ve hated you for caging me. I would’ve been stuck at the Handy Mart and, that bitterness, Liam, it would’ve changed you. It was changing you. When you punched the wall that night… your face… you were so angry, and the man I’d known since he was nineteen was gone. All I saw when I looked at you was my dad.”
“I should’ve followed you.”
“We were a sinking ship,” she said averting her eyes.
I lifted my legs and kneeled in front of her. All these years I’d been feeding off of a perverted truth. “I never wanted to lose you…” She lifted her chin. “I fucked up. I let you down time and time again. I should’ve never drank so much that night. I lost control. I haven’t gotten that drunk, not once, since that night. I’m not perfect, and I’ve had my moments, but I’d never hurt you… I’m not him, Kelly. I’m not. I should’ve gone to L.A., picked your ass up, thrown you over my damn shoulder if I had to, and brought you home. Told you I was sorry, made everything fucking right.”
Kelly moved forward, our knees almost touching as she sat back onto her calves. I lifted my hand, settling my fingers at the nape of her neck, cradling her head, my thumb tracing the length of her jaw.
Kelly’s eyes glittered as she gave me a watery smile and said, “I think we needed that time to be apart. I needed to find my own way and let you find yours.”
“I can’t do this anymore.” My throat began to ache as she closed her eyes. “Every moment of my life has been to hold up this family, to keep everyone afloat, not realizing all the weight I held would eventually drown me. I’d cut my own fucking heart out if it gave my mother a few more years… it’s who I am. I pushed you away. We’ve both been hurt enough, sacrificed plenty. I was the one who always came to your rescue, Kelly… and you’re right… I might’ve turned into a monster. I resented you… resented that you stopped needing me.”
Her eyes opened and she shook her head, a puff of aggravation parted her lips. “I’ve always needed you, you idiot.”
A small smile lifted the edges of her lips and I framed her face. “All this time…” I clenched my jaw as everything, last night, right now, what she’d just said, settled into my heart. My fucking lungs burned as I took in each breath. “I’ll never stop loving you, Princess.”
She brought her forehead to mine, her tone humble. “Tell me your name.”
The familiar words of our shared childhood story, The Painted Prince, stirred the liquid heat in my stomach, they sparked and seared through every beat of my heart. The muscles in my arms flexed as I angled her head in my hands. Her bottom lip was trapped between her teeth, her eyes watching, waiting under her thick lashes. My skin turned to flame as I answered, “I am your King.”
I leaned in, my thumb gliding across her bottom lip, pulling it from her teeth as those words, her hot breath, pumped blood through my veins fueling my need for her. Kelly arched her back, pressing her chest into mine as I nipped her soft lips. The shape of them almost like a heart, and always flavored with something I couldn’t ever place, something just her. I dropped my hand from her cheek as I kissed her, my mouth moving with aggression, my tongue sweeping against hers. My fingers found the hem of her shirt and she raised her arms as I lifted and tossed it to the floor.
She kneeled on lean legs. Her supple hips and ass giving her the curves I craved. I dipped my head to her neck and licked her pulse as I rolled her nipple between my thumb and finger. My grin was private as she leaned into my palm with a shudder. I took the deep pink flesh into my mouth, sucking and pinching it with my teeth. She was always so fucking pliant for me. Kelly grabbed my face and pulled me to her hungry mouth. She wrapped her hands in my hair, ran them down my neck, and I grabbed her ass, my cock pressing against her stomach.
I devoured her mouth as she drew sharp lines above the waistband of my boxer briefs and then slipped her hand beyond the barrier, fisting my hard length. I groaned and grit my teeth as she pumped once, and then again, her thumb teasing the head. My stomach muscles knotted and a low sound rumbled in the back of my throat as I gripped the back of her thighs lifting her body enough that she fell backward, and the heat of her hand disappeared. My eyes scoured her body. Those tits, those lips, her long legs, they were mine, and they always had been. I was just too stubborn to figure it out.
Her dark hair spilled across her purple sheets, my gaze falling to the crown tattoo I’d placed so many years ago. A possessive shiver ran down my spine as I hooked my thumbs under the fabric of her underwear and pulled them down. I lowered my own past my knees and kicked them off sending them to the floor. I knelt down in front of her again, taking it all in. Her hooded eyes fell to my mouth, red filling her cheeks as they moved even lower. Kelly admired my flesh. The color of every piece of ink reflected in her irises. Her lips trembled as her gaze moved slowly over my body until she claimed my eyes again.
“Spread your legs.” The command in my tone flushed her skin even further, all the way down her chest as she complied.
Fuck.
Everything about Kelly turned me on. Her ridiculously sexy smile, and goddamn, those legs were a mile long, but nothing turned me on more than this. My girl giving herself to me, trusting me, fucking loving me. I moved between her legs, my eyes on her crown. I lowered my lips to the skin, kissing her—bowing down to her. She was my queen, and I’d always give her what she needed.
She whispered my name as her fingers twisted in my hair. My lips trailed down her warm skin until all I could smell was her need. It was sweet and feminine and it drove any remaining blood in my head to my cock as I sucked on her clit. She jumped, my grin ear to fucking ear as I held her thighs and indulged in her taste. Three years without this had been a prison sentence. She whimpered as I found all her secret spots, the ones only I knew about. She fought the grip of my hands on her thighs, her hips moving trying to gain more friction. I stopped and lifted my head. Her eyes full of fire as I crawled over her body and kissed her mouth with abandon. I smiled as her tongue darted out, always eager for her own taste… just like always… just like us.
Kelly grasped my shoulders, her mouth never leaving mine as she led me back onto my knees. We were chest to chest again. Her hot skin running along the length of my body. Every inch of her skin, every inch of mine, our fingers moved, dipped, scratched, and remembered. Kelly bit my jaw, my neck, her teeth sinking into the flesh. The sharp pain egged me on, pushed me… taunted me. I bit back as I gripped her waist and shifted my legs so that she was straddling me. I palmed her full breasts, and her eyes closed as her head tilted to the side. She rocked against me, and my heartbeat stuttered as my fingertips dug deep into the flesh of her hips holding her still.
Impatience flickered inside her eyes as they opened. “Why’d you stop me?” she asked breathless.
“Because I’d rather come inside you and not on your stomach.”
Heat spread across my chest as she lifted up onto her knees gripping my cock in her hand. She positioned herself over me, her hand working me as every muscle in my body tensed. I released my hold on her hip and placed my hand over hers. Guiding the head of my dick and soaking it with her arousal as her body pulled me in. She moaned as I slid in slowly, feeling every inch consume her. I swallowed as her eyes locked on mine. Our bodies molded together. Her mouth spread into a satisfied smile. She had won her throne.
She rolled her hips and every nerve ending in my body fought for survival. We watched each other, flame and ash falling behind her eyes as she drove herself to the edge. She pulled me in and out, reminded me why I should’ve never stopped worshiping her. Why I fucking needed her, how she was east and I would always be her west and, when we came together, the impact was all powerful.
The air was filled with our scent and our sounds… fuck, I never wanted to hear anything other than this… other than her. Everything in my life had turned dark and all I needed was to stay inside her bright as hell light. My hands in her hair, I lifted my hips, finding the rhythm that would bring us to an end. The end I wasn’t ready for. I pulled back, exposing her neck, and dropped my lips to the curve.
“Liam.” She was close… she was panting, begging.
Her entire body began to tremble, and I brought my hands to her waist, lifting her as I rose to my knees. She whined with a sexy little growl as I kissed her once and then spun her body, bringing her back to my chest in one fast movement. She gasped as I held her against me. My hand on her throat. I released her, dragging my fingers slowly around her neck, nipping her ear with my teeth. “Bend over.”
She lowered her chest to the mattress, resting on her forearms. My hand slid down her spine until I rounded the curve of her ass.
I leaned over her body, kissing her cheek as I breathed the word into her skin in hopes she would always know its truth. “Perfect.”
I kissed my way down the length of her spine, my hands just below the curve of her hips keeping her in place. She sighed as I kneaded the flesh of her ass and cried out when I bit it. Kelly was better than any goddamn fairytale and, as I pushed inside the wet heat of her body, I was defenseless. Her back arched as my fingers twisted in her hair and I drove into her with hard, powerful strokes. She groaned as I reached her limit. My pace increased as her body brought me to the brink. The locks of her hair slipped through my fingers and I lost control. My hand moved around her hips and between her legs. The length of my arms surrounded her, holding her close, keeping her. My fingers pressed against her clit as I kissed her neck, my tongue desperate for more of her taste. I was riding out the high, that dangerous fall, teasing me, coating my skin in sweat, torqueing every muscle and filling my chest with a searing heat.
Kelly’s hands gripped the pillow in front of her as she cried out, her moans muffled into the mattress, and the muscles in her back gave way to the relief. I chased her release with my own, spilling inside her, relishing in the feel of her, in the feel of us, coming together. My voice was strained as I swore and brought my lips to the crook of her neck. We stayed like that. My chest to her back and I drew my fingers up and along her waist and then down her arms and back up again. Her legs shuddered as I pulled away from her and we both crashed—surrendered to the descent.
She had a small smile on her lips, and I traced it with my thumb. Kelly threaded her fingers through my hair, around the back of my head, and pulled me in. Our lips were slow and lazy, feeling the cool down, but our eyes stayed open, and I wanted to just keep looking at her. Forget that when I left this room, the night I’d escaped would be waiting.
Kelly’s fingernails tickled the back of my neck before she slid them around and traced the lines of the eagle tattoo on my throat. Her brows dipped and she asked, “Did you ever really feel free?”
I shook my head. “I’m owned by my responsibilities. My family.” My throat narrowed as that looming shadow neared. I exhaled a long breath and pulled Kelly closer, needing her warmth, her breath on my mouth.
“Your mom only ever wanted your happiness, for you and your brothers to be happy.” She cupped my cheek, and I closed my eyes, fighting the sting that was pressing in behind them. “Let it happen… let her wish be a reality.”
Kelly kissed the crease between my brow and I let my eyes open. I pushed a few tangled strands of her hair behind her ear. She smiled, her full lips breaking across her face, her eyes brimmed with our history, and I couldn’t help but hope for a future. “I’m free with you.” My admission left me raw and weak below her blade, but I wanted to bleed for her.
Kelly kissed me again and the salty taste of her lips made me pull away. She was crying and my heart sank. “I’ll never let you go again. I want that reality, Kelly… I want that wish. I want you.”
A few tears snaked down her cheeks as she locked her arms around my neck, her smile easing across her lips as she pulled me in tight. Nose to nose, she whispered, “You promise?”
I brought my lips to hers and smiled against her mouth. “I fucking swear it.”