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  “Sunni leave?” he asked, bending to place our son on the floor so he was free to crawl about.

  “Yeah. She had to meet her parents in Austin for dinner. But I’m having lunch with the girls next week.

  “That’s great, Baby. I’m glad you’re spending more time with your friends.”

  “Yeah? Like getting me out of your hair, huh?” I teased.

  He moved to put his arms around me and turned me around in to his chest. “Never. I’m glad you can take some ‘you’ time in all this crazy mess.”

  “Speaking of time, have you talked to your mother about the holidays? Thanksgiving is week after next, and I thought I might cook,” I offered.

  “Mom usually has a big spread at her house, so I’ll ask her. But we have something to do before that,” he said, kissing me on my neck.

  “What?” I asked, distracted. He trailed his lips down my neck while he slid his hands under my fleece top, skimming his fingertips across my skin. Goosebumps rose from his touch.

  “Well, I happen to know a certain girl. A beautiful girl, as a matter of fact, who is turning twenty-three next weekend.”

  “Really? Thinking of asking her out?” I played along, kissing him back.

  “Thinking about it. Where do you think I could take her, to impress her, I mean,” he continued to tease, murmuring against my lips.

  “Anywhere, as long as it’s with you,” I replied. He covered my lips completely with his. Pushing against me, he backed me up against the counter as he ground his hips into mine. I moaned in his mouth, instantly aroused. Pregnancy hormones kept me pretty amped up and ready for him all the time. Liam broke the kiss first to lean over and peer down at Masen, who’d crawled to him and pulled up on his leg.

  “Dada da.”

  “Kid, you’re killing my sex life,” he mumbled, picking him up and tossing him into the air. Masen giggle-snorted and grabbed at Liam’s nose as he brought him into his chest.

  I pointed a finger at him. “You, mister, have nothing to complain about. I seem to remember someone waking me this morning,” I reminded him.

  He smirked. “Yeah, yeah…I remember.” He turned to Masen. “Geesh, dude. She doesn’t forget anything.” He moved to pull Masen’s high chair to the dining room table, and the three of us sat down to eat together, our nightly ritual.

  * * *

  “I’m not surprised. After that speech, the one at the luncheon, I knew Liam would want you on his campaign full-time.”

  Stuart sat back in his chair, his hands folded in his lap. It was his standard, fatherly-yet-still your boss pose.

  “I don’t want to quit. I love my job, and I worked hard to get here. But with the new baby coming in a few months, he thinks it’s all too much on me. And I do want to spend time with the kids after the new baby comes,” I admitted. “So, I was hoping you would consider a leave of absence?”

  Stuart sat up, leaning over his desk, his hands fisted as he knocked on his desktop. “Of course. The girls in your department work great together. I’ll put them in charge of all your projects, jointly, of course. Hire another graduate intern to train, pick up the slack on the campaigns we have going. When you’re ready, you can slide back in.”

  Moisture gathered in my eyes, darn hormones. He’d made it easy for me.

  “Liam called you, didn’t he?”

  Stuart smirked, confirming my suspicion. “Yep, but it wasn’t a surprise. I’m surprised you put him off this long. And if he hadn’t called me, my reaction would have been the same. You’re a great asset to our team, kid. Boss’s family or not, I’d take you back in a blink,” he finished on a wink. “Now, go tell your girls and wrap things up. You’ve got a campaign to work on.”

  I rose and shook his hand.

  * * *

  Lunch with my girlfriends was what I needed on my last day of work for Austin, Inc. I felt the need to rehash everything going on in my life. One good thing that came from my sessions with Dr. Hallie—realizing how good it felt to talk to someone.

  “I can’t believe you’re going to do it. You fought hard to finally get creative control there.” Jen reacted to my news I was leaving my job for the campaign. She was also the most career-minded of our group. “You’re not caving to pressure from the hubs, are you?”

  “Jeez, Jen. Some women welcome the call of motherhood,” Sunni countered.

  “I think she’s hung on long enough. Just the job alone, with a new husband and child would be too much for me. Never mind the campaign. You’re doing the right thing,” Tana said, grasping my hand.

  And that was why she was my best friend.

  “Thanks, guys. I needed to work through this, but I’m good with it. The years I fought through school made me independent and got me on my feet and out of my mother’s world. It brought me here. I know if my marriage fell apart tomorrow, I could more than support myself and my kids. That was the point of getting my education and I’ll always have that.”

  “You are wise, oh married one,” Sunni joked, her hands clasped in prayer mode as she bowed to me. “Now,” she said, turning to Jen, “What is up with the quiet man of stud-dom?”

  Tana snorted as she took a drink of tea, comically expressing it out her nose. “Perfect description of the bodyguard. Yes, Jen, tell us what goes with the Scottster?”

  Jen smiled, perfecting the art of “smug.” Placing her wine glass back beside her plate, she contemplated all of us before she spoke.

  “Well?” I prompted.

  She sighed contentedly. “I have never, ever, been with a man like him. He has ruined me. No one, and I mean no one, will ever compare. Sex with him is off the charts.”

  “Reeeaaaallly,” Tana drawled, leaning in excitedly. “Do tell.”

  “We have angry sex.”

  “What does that mean?” Sunni asked with wide eyes.

  “Well, you know me. My need to analyze every thought and action. Of course, I’m overwhelmed with the compulsion to draw him out, he’s such an introvert,” she continued. “He won’t open up. I know he has issues,” she shrugged, “I push the right buttons.”

  “No way, you?” Tana drawled sarcastically.

  Jen laughed. “Yeah, I know. I can’t help it, I’m constantly into delve and analysis, always the psychologist. And that sets him off.”

  I tensed. “He’s not violent,” I said, my tone warning.

  “No, just angry,” she assured me. “Now we’ve gotten to know one another, he’s more talkative. But the minute he senses he’s revealed anything about himself, he clams up. If I step one foot over what he perceives as a boundary, he gets angry. The sex is to shut me up.”

  “And how does he do that?” Sunni asked, her eyes even wider, if that was possible.

  Jen leaned in to the table, pulling us all in with her, our eyes glued to her. “Well, last night, he alluded to the fact he never had a close relationship with a woman, even his own mother. I asked about his father, and he shut down immediately.” She grinned, then took on a dramatic air. “His eyes flared, and his mouth was on mine. Before I knew it, I was against the wall, he tore my panties off and flipped me around,” she said, out of breath.

  “Okay, we get it,” I held my hand up. “Angry sex.”

  Jen folded her arms across her chest.

  “No, no…she’s not finished,” Sunni prompted with a wave of both hands, obviously wanting to hear more intimate details.

  “So, this is a real thing? Not a couple of hot hook ups,” Tana asked. The waiter walked up to the table and Tana added, “and I need chocolate. Lots of chocolate.”

  “We have a chocolate volcano delight, covered in raspberry sauce,” he offered, glancing around the table.

  “Please bring two of those, and four forks. Put it on my tab, it’s on me,” Jen ordered.

  “I’m not sure chocolate is going to do it for me, I need a cigarette,” Sunni said, fanning herself.

  “Is it a real thing?” I repeated Tana’s earlier question.

  “It’s
a thing,” Jen answered with a nod. “I’m all in. At first, he intrigued me, the quiet guy with the secrets. Then, after the sex…and the way he seems to fight wanting me, but always giving in…he’s a drug and I constantly need my fix.” She sipped on her drink, then turned to Tana. “And you should spill about your hot quarterback.”

  Tana shook her head, almost sadly. “I don’t get to see him much. Once a week, if I’m lucky. Practice, meetings and games take up all of his time.”

  “But you are still together, right?” I asked.

  “I think so. I hope so,” she added. “At least he calls me every night. We’ll see after his season is over.”

  Wow. She’d fallen hard for him.

  “And Scott, do you think he feels the same way you do?” I asked Jen, worrying both had fallen so hard for Liam’s friends.

  “I do,” she whispered. “He’s not affectionate. He acts like I’m something he doesn’t want in his life. But as much as he tries to distance himself from me, tries to fight an “us,” she air quoted with her fingers, “he ends up finding reasons for us to be together again.”

  “This sounds like a Kristen Ashley romance. I want to have angry sex. I’ve met a cowboy, and we’re going out. Do you think cowboys have angry sex?” Sunni wondered out loud.

  “Wait. We’re switching gears here. You didn’t tell us you’d met someone,” I said, holding my hand up. The waiter reappeared, setting the chocolate explosions on a plate in front of us. We all dove in, forking large bites of gooey goodness and moaning in response. After several bites of our dessert, Tana recovered.

  “Where did you meet this one? We haven’t been club trolling in forever.”

  “Visiting my father’s work. He came in the shop to hire my father’s team to outfit his house with a system of sound and theatrical equipment. My father left him for a moment to take a phone call, and we pounded a conversation,” she explained, raking her fork across the plate to finish our dessert.

  Tana crooked an eyebrow, Jen pursed her lips. I dove right in, interpreting her choice of vocabulary.

  “I think you mean “struck up a conversation.”

  “That is what I said.”

  Jen giggled as Tana shot her eyes to the ceiling.

  “Almost as challenging as a talk with Scott,” Jen murmured.

  “Without angry sex,” I replied with a snorted giggle.

  Chapter Fifteen

  L iam clicked my seatbelt into place.

  “Now will you tell me where we are going?” I asked, exasperated.

  “Patience, Baby. I want to surprise you. This is your first birthday with me, so let me have my fun.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed, watching out my window. “Anything you do will be special. No one but Tana has done anything for my birthday since Aunt Deb died.”

  Liam glanced at me and placed his hand on my thigh, palm up. I placed mine in his, and he closed his fingers and brought our hands to his lips for a sweet kiss.

  As we made our way to the outskirts of the city, the hills began to roll, the landscape changing, becoming rockier with white limestone peeking through the brown fall grasses. The mesquites were still green but lanky, preparing for the first frost sure to come. Clumps of cactus became thicker the further into the hill country we drove.

  Liam was being evasive about our plans, and I knew he was trying to surprise me with something, but I was uneasy about not nailing down plans for the holidays.

  “Have you talked to your mother about Thanksgiving? Liam, it’s this week,” I reminded him.

  “Yes, everything is planned. We’ll talk about that later,” he said, cutting me off.

  Masen began to fuss in the backseat. I’d noticed his first tooth making its way to the surface of his upper gums just this morning. He was trying to gnaw on anything his mouth encountered. Liam pulled over at a roadside fruit stand, loaded with pumpkins for the fall.

  “Um…what are we doing?”

  “Pumpkins. We need pumpkins,” he said excitedly, parking and jumping from the vehicle.

  I decided I’d take the stop as an opportunity to see to Masen in the backseat. I’d packed a variety of things in his diaper bag since Liam wouldn’t share where we were going. I pulled a teething ring from the icepack I’d packed and clipped it to his collar. Masen quieted as he began to grind his gums on it. Poor baby, he was drooling, the collar of his outfit soaked.

  Liam opened the back doors of my SUV and loaded what seemed to be a massive amount of pumpkins. After he finished, he made his way around the vehicle to my side, just as I was buckling back in.

  “Did you get Masen squared away?” he asked, glancing over my shoulder at our son. Masen was still concentrating on chewing through the frozen ring I’d given him.

  “Yeah, poor guy. He’s working hard on that first tooth.”

  “Well, it won’t be too much longer and we’ll be there. And for the last part of the journey, you need this.”

  He produced a scarf out of his back pocket and held it up.

  “What? You can’t be serious,” I said, almost laughing.

  “Dead serious. I can’t have you peeking and ruining my surprise,” he said, moving to place it over my eyes.

  “Liam, seriously. I get motion-sickness easily enough as it is, without being blind-folded while the car is moving.”

  He leaned in to kiss me, his eyes sparkling. “It won’t take long, promise. We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  The twinkle in his eyes and his enthusiasm were infectious. I’d had few happy surprises in my life. And the fact Liam was so excited only made it sweeter. I couldn’t help my grin as he carefully tied the scarf behind my head and checked to make sure my eyes were completely covered. With a brush of his lips to mine, he moved to close my door.

  It seemed we’d traveled no time before he was slowing to turn. The bumps and rough terrain told me we’d turned on a dirt road. After a few minutes, he turned again, slowing as I heard the tires crunching on gravel.

  “Okay…now I’m confused. Where are we?”

  Liam stopped, placed the vehicle in park, and turned the ignition off. The only sound was his deep breath and then slow exhale.

  “Hellcat, I’ve been working on this project since the day after the gala…when you told me about losing your Aunt Deb and leaving the farm.

  “Okay,” I said hesitantly.

  “I want to give you the world, Baby. I love you so much, and I never understood true love until I found you. Never felt more helpless than watching you hurting, and wanting to heal that hurt.”

  I began to tear-up under the scarf. “But you have, Liam. I’m not that broken girl anymore. You saved me from my past,” I said.

  “You saved me too,” he whispered. “When I met you, I was a spoiled, egotistical playboy. I took everything and everyone for granted…my family, my money and position. I had no purpose. But my life came in to focus when I saw you. You gave meaning to my life. I fell for you hard, and it woke me up to everything good in my life,” he continued. “But there is one thing I realized I want more than anything to give you. The one thing that’s been taken from you no one could give back to you, until now.”

  I shook my head. “What’s that?”

  “Your childhood. Your good memories.”

  I felt his fingers behind my head, untying the knot, dragging the scarf from my eyes. They’d been covered for so long, I had to force them open. I blinked, then focused. His face was a jumble of emotions, the greatest of which was anticipation. Turning my head, the structure in front of me caused me to gasp.

  “Liam?” I questioned, my voice tremulous.

  We sat in the circle driveway in front of my grandparent’s farmhouse in Fredericksburg. The front porch posts were freshly painted a cream color, matching the white Austin limestone of the front and pathway leading up to the porch. Black wooden rockers sat as sentries across the span of the porch, and asparagus ferns hung from the gingerbread trim above them. The front door, sporting the origina
l bubbled glass in the panes, had been recently painted and glazed with a turquoise/bronze finish. The old girl sparkled.

  “Do my cousins know we are coming?” I whispered. Although overjoyed and emotional at the sight of so many of my good childhood memories, I had no desire to see any of my distant relations. When they’d taken over the farmhouse, essentially kicking me and Dana out, they’d cut the last remaining thread between us and our family and home.

  “Doubt it,” Liam answered softly. “They moved out before we got married. Momma and I have been working on it ever since, to get it ready for your birthday.”

  “What?” I whispered.

  “When you told me what they did to you, and when you shared your sweet memories with me of you and Dana living here with your aunt, I knew I wanted the house. It should have been yours all along. Happy Birthday, Baby.”

  Tears spilled over as I looked down at the deed and keys he placed in my lap.

  “It’s yours. I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse,” he said. “It should have been yours all along. I did some digging and found the house had been deeded over to your Aunt Deb before your grandmother died. I tracked down the lawyer your grandparents used. He’s retired now and living in Boerne. He’s got to be at least ninety years old. Anyway, he remembered your aunt. We found her will, and she left the farm and all her belongings to you and Dana in the case of her death. When I confronted your cousin, he backed down and sold me the house and farm at a fair price. Rather than go through a legal battle, it was worth it to pay him for it and get them out.”

  I couldn’t even begin to process what Liam had done. All this time, I hadn’t known to which the depths he’d gone. I pushed my car door open, and almost fell to the ground, my knees were so weak.

  “Whoa, careful,” Liam called out, rushing around to my side. “Don’t want you hurting our son.” He carefully splayed his hand across my belly as he slid his other arm around my waist. Helping me up the front steps, he sat me down in a rocker by the front door. “Wait here…I’ll get Masen,” he said, bounding back down the stairs.