“Sorry,” mumbled Hailey. “I just wanted to see where daddy was.”
Sunny carried Hailey from the alley to find Liam sprinting toward them, his face twisted with concern.
“What happened? Is she hurt?” he asked.
“She’s okay, just shaken up,” Sunny assured him, stroking Hailey’s hair. “Let’s go back and get some ice cream, yeah? It’s been a long day.”
Liam nodded in agreement.
At the villa, Hailey recounted the scary incident through hitching breaths while Sunny treated her scraped knee.
“I’m so sorry, Liam,” said Sunny, guilt tearing at her. “She was there one moment and when I went to pay for Maddie’s cap she’d gone. I’ll understand if you…”
There it was again. That familiar feeling of not being good enough. Of not deserving to be here. That good things don’t come to her. Not without a sting in the tail.
“Hey.” Liam cut her off. “From the way Hailey tells it, you saved the day. These things happen, Sunny. It’s life.”
That night after another sumptuous beachside dinner of seafood,wild rice and yams, spiced okra and tropical fruits, Liam pulled Sunny aside after the exhausted girls had been put to bed. His calloused palm cradled her jaw, tilting her face up to his with smoldering intensity.
“Thank you…for today,” he rumbled in that decadent baritone. “You’re so good with the girls. I trust you completely with them,” he reassured.
Sunny’s throat grew tight at the naked emotion shining in his blue eyes. The incident with the dog had been playing on her mind all evening. She could have kicked herself for being so careless. But Liam was being so understanding. She covered his hand with her own, relishing the coarse warmth.
“If anything had happened. I couldn’t…I just couldn’t…”
The guilt and fear tore at her again. Tears stung her eyes.
“Sssshh,” whispered Liam. “Everything’s fine now. We all mistakes. It’s how we bounce back that matters.”
Emotions were high. The night air was sultry. An undeniable mutual longing thrummed between their bodies. Liam’s arm wound around her lower back, pressing her against his solid form as his mouth descended to find hers.
She welcomed his reassuring lips, his tongue, his taste.
They stumbled back to the villa in a heated tangle of fevered kisses. Somehow they made it behind closed doors without waking the sleeping children. Clothes were shed in a flurry of want and need, two souls ravenous to join as one.
Liam’s palms blazed across Sunny’s hyper-sensitive skin as she wrapped her legs around his hips. He slowly entered her welcoming warmth as she arched her back. Their rhythm built in sensual waves, like the tide that lapped against the white sand just outside their beach bungalow.
All Sunny’s stresses and worries dissolved into shuddering bliss astheir sighs and gasps mingled with the rhythmic lapping of the ocean outside. For one perfect, crystalline moment, nothing else existed beyond the sanctuary of Liam’s sweet kiss and their joined flesh.
Later, spent and glowing from their exertions, Sunny blinked up at the ceiling fan’s languorous rotations. Liam nuzzled her hair, murmuring sweet endearments as his fingers traced patterns across her damp back.
In the hazy afterglow, surrounded by Liam’s earthy, reassuring scent, Sunny felt a sense of calm wash over her. This beautiful, sacred place and Liam’s unguarded affection had helped to soothe her soul. She thought about how far she had come from the insecure orphan who had been tossed and buffeted by the currents of a turbulent life. For the first time in a long while, she drifted off to sleep undisturbed by ghosts of the past.
In the early hours of the morning Sunny awoke to find Liam’s side of the bed vacant and cool. She frowned, disappointed to have missed his warmth for a few more hours before the girls stirred. She tossed and turned for a while, not able to find her sleep again. She decided a stroll outside might just do the trick.
Down the beach, she discovered Liam sitting alone on the dock, elbows braced on knees as he gazed across the rippling azure expanse. His posture was slouched with fatigue or some deeper, unseen burden.
Sunny hesitated, uncertain if her presence would be welcome. But something in Liam’s dejected pose tugged her forward until she sank onto the weathered boards beside him.
He glanced over with a weary half-smile.
“Sorry, I needed some air. Clear my head,” he said.
“Of course.”
She rested her palm over the back of his hand. The simple grounding contact seemed to fortify him.
Liam exhaled a shuddering breath and turned his roughened palm to lace their fingers.
