Liam looks at me sadly, his fingers still brushing against my face. “I’ve never felt lucky a day in my life, Ana–not until I walked into that gloomy Russian safehouse and saw your face. It was like the sun came out that day. I knew then–I knew I needed you.”
“I was broken when you met me.” I shake my head, pulling away a fraction from his touch. “Francobroke me. Yourbrother.”
“He was never my brother!” Liam shakes his head fiercely, reaching for my hands. “He might have shared a bloodline with me, but that doesn’t make him my brother. He was a coward and a traitor, and I’mgladhe’s dead for everything he did.”
There’s a moment of silence, hovering thickly in the air between us, and to my shock, Liam drops to his knees on the floor in front of me, still clutching my hands. “I’m so sorry, Ana,” he pleads. “Forgive me. I’m sorry for the lies, the secrets, for keeping things from you. I know it was wrong, Iknewit was–but I was afraid. I was weak, Ana, afraid of losing you. I see now that you’re so much stronger than I knew, that you could have handled it, that I should have told you everything from the very beginning.” He squeezes my hands, his bright green eyes shimmering, wide and begging me to understand. “I’m sorry for what’s happened to you, Ana, for the part my family played in it. I’m sorry that Franco broke you, that he took so much away from you. If I could, I’d kill him for you. I’d kill Alexei with my own hands all over again, Alexandre too, if it would wipe it all away.”
He’s crying now, tears sliding down his face, as utterly broken as I am. “I’d die for you, Ana. I need you to know that–”
Something cracks open inside me, and I sink to my knees in front of him, my hands wrapping around his. We’re both crying now, leaning into each other, and I reach out, cupping one side of his face in my hand. His beard feels soft against my palm, and I feel Liam lean into the caress, his green eyes fixed on mine. “Ana–”
“I don’t need you to kill for me,” I whisper. “I don’t need you to die for me. I need you to behonestwith me, Liam. I need you tolive–to trust me. And I need–I need you to love me.”
Liam’s eyes widen at that, but before he can say another word, I grasp his face in both of my hands, my thumbs wiping at the tears on his cheekbones as I lean forward.
And then, tasting the salt on both our lips as I do, I kiss him.
TWENTY-FOUR
ANA
IfeelLiam’s gasp as I kiss him, the way the touch of my lips reverberates through his entire body. His hands go to my waist, his lips parting as I lean into him, and I feel the vibration of his groan as he surges forwards, his hands tightening on me as he spills me back onto the floor, the kiss turning savage as he stretches over me.
“Ana–Ana–” he whispers my name against my mouth, his hands tearing at my clothes, shoving my dress up as my lips part under the onslaught of his mouth. Every emotion comes flaring to life, pain and hurt, and longing and love all tangled together. His tongue plunges into my mouth, twisting with mine as I grab at his shirt, pulling it out of his trousers.
I hear the rip of chiffon as he drags my skirt out, feel the pop of buttons as I yank his shirt open, my nails against the smooth skin of his chest as he moans my name against my lips. I gasp his, too, fumbling with his belt, both of us a frantic mess of hands and mouths as we struggle past the layers of clothing between us.
There’s no stopping now. He tears my panties off, his fingers hooking under the edge and dragging them halfway down my thighs, his hard cock between my legs in an instant as he surges against me, groaning with need. “I need you, Ana,” he whispers against my mouth as I feel the head of his cock parting my folds, pushing against my entrance, “I need you–”
I cry out as he thrusts into me. He gasps with pleasure, groaning as I tighten around him, pulling him deeper, and my hands go to his face, his hair, tangling in the strands as I look up at him. “I need you too, Liam,” I whisper as he rocks against me, thrusting hard and fast with an almost primal need. “Oh, god, Liam, Liam–”
He surges inside of me as deeply as he can go, and I lock my legs around his hips, my back arching as I feel the pleasure starting to unfurl, crashing over me. “I’m going to come, Liam–”
“Yes,” he growls, his mouth slanting over mine as he slams his cock into me again, fucking me with a frantic, urgent pace that has us both on edge. “Come for me, Ana, come on my cock,fuck–”
I gasp, my nails digging into his back as I arch against him, and I hear the groan that tears from his lips. “I’m going to come too, Ana,fuck, I can’t hold it back, I can’t–”
“Liam!” I scream his name as I feel his cock throb inside me, his entire body shuddering with the force of his orgasm as it triggers mine, both of us grinding against each other to draw it out. “Liam–”
“Ana.” He whispers my name against my mouth like a prayer as he shudders against me. “God, Ana–”
I feel him throbbing inside me, the hot rush of his cum filling me, my own pleasure rippling over my skin in seemingly endless waves. He goes very still atop me, his mouth against my neck, and I think for a moment that he’s going to pull out of me. But then a beat passes, and another, and I feel him starting to move again, slower this time.
“Liam?” Startled, I look up at him, and he grins down at me, groaning softly as he reaches for my hands. He threads his fingers through mine, raising my hands above my head and holding them there against the cool hardwood of the floor as he starts to thrust, long slow strokes that let me feel every inch of his rigid cock inside of me.
“I’m still hard for you,” he whispers. “This is how much I want you, Ana. You make me come harder than I ever have in my life, but I’m still rock hard. I still need to be inside of you, to make you come again, to fill you up until you’re so full of my cum.” He rocks his hips as he slides into me again, grinding against me as he sinks as deeply into me as he can. “I want to make you come over and over, give you as much pleasure as you can take, with my fingers and my tongue and most especially my cock.” He thrusts again, hard, as if to emphasize his point. “I could spend the rest of my life like this, inside of you.”
“Liam–” I breathe his name, tilting my head back for his lips against the side of my throat, feeling another orgasm start to build as he slides out of me and back in again. He feels as if he fits perfectly inside of me, as if his body were made for mine. I look up at him–at his handsome, chiseled face, the reddish beard glinting in the city light coming through the glass doors, the burnished auburn hair falling over his forehead. “Oh, Liam.”
“You’re mine, lass,” he grunts, thrusting into me again, rocking his hips so that I can feel how solidly he is inside of me, filling me. “Mine always. I will not let you go, not ever. And I will not let harm come to you again, not ever. When I say I love you, Ana, I mean with everything that I am–with my body, my heart, to the depths of my soul. I will be yours. Iamyours, before anything else.”
I feel tears come to my eyes, swimming to the surface, but they’re a different kind of tears this time. I tilt my chin up, looking into his eyes as he moves inside me. “I love you, Liam,” I whisper, and I feel the shudder that goes through him as I say it. His eyes close, his hips jerking against mine as he thrusts into me again. “Open your eyes,” I whisper, and he does, his green gaze fixed on mine with a kind of desperate hope that breaks my heart and heals it all at once. “I love you.”
“And I love you.” He kisses me again, deep and hot and fierce. I lose track of how many times we murmur it to each other as he thrusts inside of me, again and again, slow and inexorable as the pleasure builds for us both.
“Come with me, lass.” he finally groans, his body shuddering atop mine. I meet his lips in another fierce kiss as I wrap my legs more tightly around his, pulling him against me and holding him there.
“Comeinme,” I whisper, and the tremor that rocks his body vibrates to my bones. He groans against my mouth, his hands tightening around mine. When I feel him harden even more inside of me, throbbing with the first wave of his orgasm, I cry out too, the sound lost in our kiss as we come together for a second time, my body clenching around his as he fills me. It feels better than anything I’d ever imagined, better than anything we’ve done before. I can feel him melting into me, our bodies liquid against each other as we cling to one another, shuddering as the pleasure wracks us both.