Page 60 of Stronger Than Love

My heart stumbled over several beats before pounding rapidly in my chest.

“Hey,” Liam said, tucking my hair behind my ear.

I’d had a speech planned when I decided to return to our home and continue my life until he eventually came back. Hope began to fade in the past two weeks that that was ever going to happen. The speech now vanished from my head.

It was still dark outside, only the glow of the city lights illuminating us.

All my emotions collided together in a cacophony that became unbearable. I stumbled from the bed and made my way to the kitchen. The cool water almost burned my throat going down. I planned on being groomed and composed when I next saw Liam, not sleeping in one of his T-shirts with my hair a mess.

The soft padding of his feet told me he’d followed me into the kitchen. His body heat permeated into me when he stopped directly behind me.

“I can’t do this right now,” I whispered, my fingers gripping the counter.

His hand landed on my right hip before sliding around to span my stomach. “I think we’ve both waited long enough,” Liam replied.

It had been a spur-of-the-moment decision while I stared at the stick I peed on. No one else in the world had known I was pregnant but me, and the first person I shared it with was Liam. I should really stop taking birth control medication, as it didn’t seem to work for me.

His forehead rested on the back of my head. Time stretched as we both stood here wordlessly. Every muscle in my body froze, my breath catching. I expected shouting and recriminations, not this—not his calm reassurance that washed over me.

“I missed you,” Liam said. “I know I’ve been the worst kind of dick, and that I don’t deserve you, but I need you, Oonagh. I’ve never needed anything the way that I need you.” His fingers over my tummy tightened possessively.

“This is too much,” I whispered, tearing myself away to go and stare out the window.

Liam followed, his chin resting on my shoulder, his eyes meeting mine in the glass. “I fell in love with the woman I wanted to spend my life with when I was five. She wandered into my life and claimed my heart. No one else has ever taken her place.”

“Don’t,” I pleaded, closing my eyes against his intense stare.

Liam gently spun me around to face him. His fingers under my chin lifted my face to his. “Please, Oonagh. I’m tired of trying to live my life without you.” His forehead rested on mine, his eyelashes tangling with mine.

A tear slipped down my cheek, followed by another, then another.

Liam wrapped me in his arms, holding me tightly against his bare chest.

“Look at me,” he commanded.

My eyes finally met his and my breath caught.

“I love you. I’ve always loved you. Nothing will ever stop me loving you until the moment I take my last breath and then I’ll love you from whatever comes after this world. What I feel for you is stronger than love, Oonagh.”

I stared into the deep blue depths of his eyes before flinging my arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder. “I never knew about the baby ten years ago,” I stuttered.

“Shush, baby. I know.”

Liam lifted me and carried me back to bed, stroking my hair and whispering in my ear until I calmed down. His lips consumed every word I wanted to say, they worshipped me as he peeled his T-shirt from me.

When his hand covered my stomach where our child grew, I grabbed his wrist. He stared up at me from between my legs.

“I love you, too,” I whispered. “I always have.”

His thumb wiped my fresh tears away. “I know, baby. Why do you think I built a house for you and saved that old lighthouse? It was a beacon that reminded me that you wanted me, even when I was nothing and no one.”

His lips claimed mine again in a kiss that curled my toes. His tongue battled with mine until his dominance won and I mewled against him.

Liam ripped my panties off, his thick length rubbing against the entrance to my core. “I love you, Oonagh, you and our baby.”

Inch by inch with an agonisingly slow pace he pushed inside until our pelvises rubbed each other. Liam moved so slowly that he constantly rubbed his full length against that divine spot as he rocked into me. I didn’t know where he stopped and I began, our bodies wrapped around each other. He drugged me with long, slow kisses that left me breathless.

Perspiration coated my skin and I dug my nails into his shoulders to ground myself. My core was on fire, my nerve endings tingling as they pulsed in time with my heartbeat.

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