Liam leans back on the bed with his fingers threaded behind his neck, staring at the ceiling despondently. I hate seeing him this way, even though I know he probably is right to assume what he did in front of Linda is going to end up hurting him in a big way in court. One way or another though, we’re still on this boat for two more days, so I rack my brain thinking of a way to cheer him up.

I sit beside him on the bed and can’t help noticing how good he looks, even when he’s brooding. Maybe especially when he’s brooding. His hair is in slight disarray, but it only seems to make the sharp power of his features all the more striking. It’s one of the few times I’ve seen him in casual clothes--a t-shirt and his swim trunks from earlier--but he manages to make the simple outfit look like something you’d see on a mannequin in a department store. His broad shoulders stretch the simple white t-shirt over the carved lines of his arms and chest.

“You know,” I say carefully. “If the worst case scenario happens and Julianne does manage to get custody of Sophie, it doesn’t mean you can’t fight it. How long do you think she could really stand up to scrutiny by child protective services? What’s to stop you from doing exactly what she’s doing to you now?”

“Maybe,” he says, “but do I really want my daughter’s childhood to turn into a fucking tug of war?”

I sigh. “Good point. I just think if she’s proven negligent, they’d be much less likely to even consider giving her Sophie back. You have years and years with Sophie, so I think a slip up here and there won’t be held against you as much as it would against Julianne.”

“Maybe,” he says again, eyes fixed on the ceiling.

“Let’s go out and do some fun cruise stuff. I know it’s probably the last thing you want to do right now, but that’s exactly why you should. Sitting here brooding isn’t going to help anything. But if you can be your normal self for the rest of the cruise, maybe even Linda McCroy would be forced to admit you’re not so bad after all.”

“Slim chance,” he says.

“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll get over the fact that Jake took his stalking to a whole new level by following me on this boat if you can do your best to put on a happy face for Sophie. You think she wants her dad to be bummed for the whole trip?”

“Fair enough. Fine. Let’s go see what this boat has to offer.”

It doesn’t happen right away, but minute by minute, Liam loosens up. Soon he’s flashing his usual smirks and making me laugh as we make our way around the boat, using it to the fullest. The night passes in a blur of laughter, smiles, innocent and not-so-innocent touches, and a growing realization that something is happening between us, something more than chance or pretend or convenience. Something as real as the wood beneath my feet is there, and it’s already so strong that it scares me.

We play a little game of reverse shoplifting at one of the boat’s clothing stores, we watch a song and dance show, we lose a couple hundred dollars in the casino, we share the jacuzzi on the adults only deck, and we end the night playing bingo with the retirees. Somehow Liam ends up having to stand in for the lady who was calling out the winners, a job which he was apparently born to do because he has me and everyone in the room completely charmed and with sore faces from smiling by the time we’re done.

We end our night by sneaking into the mini golf course, which is closed after midnight, and sitting inside the little castle on the course with drinks from the bar. I got some ridiculously big martini with orange slices and a salted rim. Liam is drinking a glass of bourbon, leaning his head back against the wall and giving me sinful looks between sips.

“Thank you,” I say. My leg is draped over his as I tilt my head up to look at him where he sits beside me.

“For what?” he asks. “I should be thanking you. This was probably more fun than I would’ve had glaring at the ceiling all night.”

I laugh. “Well. My thank you still stands. That’s the most fun I’ve ever had. When I’m with you, I just feel… Ugh,” I say, laughing at myself. “Nevermind. It would sound stupid.”

“Nothing you could say would sound stupid to me,” he says huskily.

The simple sentence makes my skin tingle. It’s not so much what he says, but the way he looks at me as he says it. I’m perfect in his eyes. I don’t know how I know, but his expression and the tone of his voice says it all. There’s such a freedom in the realization that I could kiss him with relief--or lust.

“I was just going to say I feel… right when I’m with you. Like there has always been this little piece of me that was missing, and every time I’ve been with a guy they never fit into that empty space right. But with you, it’s like I’m whole.” I laugh again, blushing. “Still think I can’t say anything stupid?”

He answers me with a kiss that takes my breath away. It’s tender and soft and warm. The power of it makes my muscles feel like warm butter. He pulls back a few inches to look into my eyes. “I feel the same way.”

I bite my lip. “You know,” I say. “I kind of poured my heart out there, and all you’re going to do is say,” I lower my voice, doing my best imitation of him. “Yeah. Me too.”

He grins. “Would you feel better to know I’ve never felt this way about a woman? Not Julianne before we were married. Not any woman since. You feel real. You’re great for Sophie and my mom, and hell, you’re great for me.”

I kiss him, not without realizing it’s the first time I’ve ever initiated a kiss with him, and that small difference sets my heart pounding.

“I can’t believe you,” I whisper after I’ve kissed him.

“Well you better believe me,” he chuckles.

“No,” I say. “I mean. You. I can’t believe you happened to me. You’re too good to be true. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

He shakes his head. “Me too.”

I laugh, looking down. “Jerk.”

His hands are on me, urging me down to the ground. His mouth crashes into mine and my world is warmth and the sweet taste of him and the scent of his skin. I’m being carried away on the wave of the moment, as powerless to stop it as I am unwilling to.

Somehow his shirt is off, and my pants are down around my thighs. His hand is tugging at them, urging them farther down. Neither of us are willing to end the kiss, and we kiss each other hungrily, desperately. Hands roam bare skin, tearing clothing free wherever it’s found and breaths mingling, hearts pounding together.

I’ve never felt so connected to another person. It’s like I know his thoughts from the sensation of his hands and his mouth against me. I love you, his hands seem to say as they clutch the back of my neck as if unwilling to ever let me go. I need you, his body seems to say as it grinds into mine, seeking friction.

It’s happening, I realize. The thought punches through the daze of passion that seems to blur everything else. Twenty-four years a virgin and tonight it’s going to change. He’s going to claim that part of me I’ve held back my whole life, the part of myself I’ve valued so highly I never thought to let anybody claim it until now. I feel none of the regret or doubt I thought I would feel though. All I feel is a tingling certainty that this is right. This is the man I am supposed to give my virginity to. This is how it is supposed to happen.

He looms over me, hand planted on the artificial turf beside my head so that the muscles in his arm stand out sharply, powerfully. His bare torso is a study in perfection. There isn’t an ounce of fat on him, and every movement sets new groups of muscles flexing and on proud display. I let my hands explore him, feeling no shame in my desperation to touch and experience every last bulge of muscle and crease between his abs. I’m shocked by the ferocity of his strength. He’s gentle enough with me, but I can feel the potential energy practically begging to explode from the muscles just beneath his smooth, tanned skin.

Somewhere between kisses and heavy petting and grinding, we both managed to get completely naked. It’s the first time I’ve ever been naked in front of a man--or beneath a man in this case--and surprisingly, I don’t feel ashamed or self-conscious with Liam. I know he has probably been with women who look better naked than me, but I know I don’t need to feel ashamed. I can feel it in his caress. I’m perfect to him. All he could want, and all he needs.

There’s a heat and wetness between my legs like I’ve never felt. My core pulses, each beat of my heart sending a fresh burst of need to my center, and I think the only way I’ll calm it is with him inside me. But he doesn’t seem to want to give me what I want just yet.

“You want my cock?” he asks, parting from our kiss just long enough to rasp the words into my neck.

“Yes,” I gasp.

“You’ll get it. You’ll get all you can handle, sweetheart. But not before I taste you.”

I don’t even have time to register his words before he’s kissing a warm path down my skin, stopping to pay special attention to my nipples. He traces a circular path around my areolas with his tongue causing the sensitive peaks to instantly harden for him. I arch my back and a soft moan slips from my mouth.

He kisses down my chest, beneath my breasts, and summons a quick giggle from me when he dips his tongue into my belly button. My laughter fades immediately as his hands slide down my thighs and he moves down more, kissing toward my mound but diverting at the last moment, just when I think his lips are about to fall on my throbbing clit.

He drags his tongue along the crease where my thigh meets my hips, kissing the sensitive skin on the inside of my thigh. Every sensation seems to build toward an inevitable, fiery explosion of bliss. Each kiss and touch like a log added to the fire that is already burning out of control inside me. I can already feel how close I am to climax, and I wonder if he knows, or if he would think less of me for cumming so easily.

He pauses with his lips just above my clit and smirks up at me. “You re--” he starts, but I surprise even myself by reaching down to press his face into me, unable to bear the anticipation any longer.

Liam doesn’t need to be asked twice, and his tongue sets to work on me, circling, plunging, exploring, and dragging across my folds and throbbing bud. I throw my head back, unable to even comprehend what’s happening between my legs, except for the fact that I know in about ten seconds, I’m going to cum harder than I’ve ever cum. I’ve touched myself before, and it doesn’t even compare to this.

“Liam,” I gasp. “I’m going to cum.”

Encouraged, he doubles his pace and rips an orgasm so intense from me that my toes curl and my back arches, pressing my head into the ground as I squeeze my eyes shut against the force of it, body quivering and weakening as I come down from the high. But Liam doesn’t seem to want to stop, and he pushes forward.

Only a few seconds later, I realize my body is more than ready to keep climaxing as long as he keeps this up, and I feel a brief sense of panic when I wonder how much I can mentally handle. I already feel so insanely good it seems hard to imagine more, or what it will be like to have him inside me, but that’s a risk I think I’ll somehow find the strength to take.

He doesn’t relent until I’ve cum two more times in the span of what can’t be more than five minutes. I’m breathless and I feel dizzy when he plants his hands beside my head again and I see his huge cock poised between my legs.

“I need you to relax,” he says.

I raise my eyebrows. “I feel very relaxed right now, Liam.”

He chuckles. “Good. Because this is going to be a tight fit.”

He grips himself at the base of his cock and rubs the velvety head of his length against my folds, spreading the wetness from my opening across me and igniting a fresh explosion of warmth and pleasure across my body. He presses himself into my opening and at first there’s only a stretching sensation, I wonder how something that big is going to fit in a space so small.

He pushes in and out, easing himself in fractions of an inch with every thrust. The slight sting of my core stretching to fit him gives way quickly to an unbelievable sense of completeness, of knowing I’m connected to him in the most intimate of ways possible, that right now we’re completely absorbed in each other.

There’s a slight give when he is a couple inches inside me, and I distantly realize it’s probably my hymen. He groans with pleasure, as if knowing now he has really taken my virginity in the truest sense. I grip his broad back, digging my fingers into his hard muscle as he continues to push himself deeper and deeper inside me.

It seems to take forever before he’s worked the entirety of his length inside me, but it feels more amazing than I ever guessed it would. He works his hips into me, finding a rhythm that has me on the verge of cumming again within seconds.

“I’m going to cum again,” I gasp

“Fuck,” he groans. “I love how easy you cum for me, sweetheart.”

I blush, biting my lip and letting the explosion come again. Each orgasm seems more intense than the last, and this one has me gasping out so loudly that I’m worried someone might have heard.

Liam’s eyebrows draw together and he closes his eyes, pumping himself even harder into me. His grip on my hips tightens and he increases his pace even more until his cock is a blur of motion inside me, pistoning in and out. I’m already about to cum again when he squeezes my hips almost painfully tight and groans, leaning his head back. I feel his cock pulse inside me and a sudden warmth.

Oh my God. He just came inside me. Even though I should be terrified because I’m not on the pill, the intimacy of it pushes me over the edge. My core clenches around his length, squeezing him tighter, as if my body wants to milk every last drop of his cum. He finally sags against me, grinning with satisfaction and planting a quick kiss on my lips.

“Fucking incredible,” he says.

I laugh. “I feel dizzy.”

He chuckles. “You have no idea how hot it is that you cum so easily. Goddamn.”

“That’s not normal?”

“No, but it’s amazing. Never change, sweetheart.” He kisses me again, and I lean into the kiss, closing my eyes and wishing this moment never had to end, but the sky is already staining red from the rising sun, and I know we have to get our clothes back on and get to our room before some family with kids stumbles on the naked couple who just had sex on the mini golf course.

“Oh,” I say, realizing there’s some blood between my legs and on him. “That’s so embarrassing. I’m sorry,” I say.

“What?” he asks, “This?” he motions to the blood. “It’s fucking sexy as hell, sweetheart.”

I would’ve expected a guy to be grossed out by it, and the fact that he isn’t sends a swell of emotion through me. It’s kind of a strange thing to like about a guy, but as someone who has always been a little insecure, knowing even my most intimate and embarrassing moments don’t gross him out means the world to me.

“We should probably get back to our room,” I say. “Maybe we can take a shower together? I’ve always thought that would be fun.”

“You read my mind,” he says with a smirk.

I smile mischievously at him, even though my mind is going a mile a minute, trying to piece together how this all fits in. If he came inside me, he must be willing to risk a pregnancy, right? Am I ready to risk that? I don’t even know. I mean, my gut reaction is an emphatic yes. The idea of a baby, especially with Liam, makes my chest tingle and my head buzz, even if that’s completely crazy after only knowing him less than two weeks. But crazy doesn’t make it wrong. He’d probably want to marry me for real, then, and then Donna would have actually been right--this whole fiasco wasn’t always doomed to end in disaster. That would be one time I’d willingly admit she was right and I was wrong, even if it would put a smug smile on her face.

A baby… A husband… I blow out a long breath as I follow Liam back to our room. I’m just glad he can’t hear my thoughts, because he’d probably think I was certifiably insane to be willing to have his baby or be his real wife this fast. But I’ve waited so long already, and I’ve been waiting for the right guy. I thought when I found him I’d know it, and I’m becoming more and more sure that I do know it. Liam is the guy I’ve been waiting for. He’s everything I’ve always imagined in the perfect husband. It’s perfect.

Except of course the complication with his ex-wife and Jake. On one hand, Sophie could be taken away from him, on the other hand, Jake has been turning into something I don’t even recognize--something hateful and cruel and determined. If he keeps going down this path, I don’t know what he would stop at to get me back, or even to keep Liam from having me.

The thought sends a chill through me, so I hold on tighter to Liam’s hand, letting his protective warmth soothe away some of my unease.