AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I laugh softly, “Yeah, baby. ”
I don’t speak again, just continue to hold her while she shifts awkwardly. Finally with no other option, her arms come up from hanging limply at her sides and wrap loosely around me. My belt digs into her abdomen and I curse the fucking thing for keeping us apart. We don’t speak and it takes a few seconds before she pushes against my hold, giving her the space she needs to drop her arms back down to her sides.
I take another deep breath and allow her to fully pull away. Her arms instantly shoot up and wrap around herself in a protective stance that makes my relief from just seconds before vanish instantly.
“This ends now,” I state.
“What does?”
“The games, baby. No more avoiding me. ”
I bend, pressing my lips against hers, but don’t move to deepen the kiss. When I back away, I move my hand and lightly caress the marks that asshole left against her pale skin. They aren’t going to bruise, but they’re fresh enough that I can still see the impression of his fucking thumb and just that mark alone has me wanting to charge through the club to put a bullet through his skull.
“He touched you. ”
“I’m okay, Liam. ”
Dipping my head, I move until my eyes are level with hers.
“Not yet, but you will be,” I tell her.
I give her another kiss, this time I linger, letting her feel what I wish I could say without spooking her further. When I pull back, I study her eyes before turning and walking to the door. I give her another glance over my shoulder, her eyes wide and her body soft, no longer holding herself in a protective move. With a wink, I turn the knob and walk through the door.
“MOLLY, BABY?” I CALL DOWN the hall toward her room, sighing when I don’t get a response. “Molly?”
“Yeah!” she screams, running around the corner and crashing into me with a giggle. I wince when her arms reach up and touch the soreness on my arms. Luckily she misses it and with a bounce jumps back to smile up at me.
Page 15
“What have you been doing in there, baby?” I ask and run my hand through her soft blonde curls.
“Playing,” she says with a smile.
“Playing what?”
“G. I Joes. Mr. Reid told me all the tough guys are Joes. He said so. He wouldn’t play with my Barbie’s, only with the Joes. ”
I laugh at the thought of big bad Axel Reid playing with anything close to dolls. “Did he, now?”
“Yup! I gotta go!” She turns and runs back to her room before I can even form another word, let alone ask her if she wants pizza for dinner. It’s our Sunday night ritual to have a pizza and a movie date, but after her sleepover with the Reid’s, I’m sure she’s going to be ready to crash early.
After the night I had last night—the one I still feel with every move I make—I’m just too tired to think about cooking. Dani and Cohen dropped me off in the wee hours this morning after we finished up at the club. I waved off their concern and they left worried, but I needed to be alone. The first thing I did was take the hottest shower that I could stand. Then after a few pain pills, I crashed and the only thoughts that had filtered through my mind were ones of Liam.
I walk back to the kitchen and allow a smile to form when I think about this morning when I went to pick up Molly, despite her whines to stay with Mr. Reid.
I wasn’t the only one that thought it was hilarious that my five-year-old daughter had wrapped him around her small finger. Izzy couldn’t stop laughing. She answered the door with a small giggle and told me to follow her. When I found Molly running a brush through Axel’s hair, I joined Izzy in her laughter. Apparently, my daughter had been giving him a make-over for a good hour before I got there. When he turned, red lips and pink blush were all over his face, and he gave me a wink.
“If you think that’s funny, wait until you see Nate,” Izzy laughed in a hushed whisper.
“Where’s Owen?” I question, looking past my smiling daughter.
“Oh, Dani and Cohen were back before the sun was even up to pick him up. I’m shocked they lasted as long as they did,” Izzy says with a smile.
“I didn’t even have the door all the way open before Cohen was pushing his way in and snatching my boy back,” Axel adds on a grumble from the floor.
“This way,” Molly sings before putting each of her tiny hands on both of Axel’s cheeks and turning his head back toward her. “Do this,” she demands and smacks her lips together. “It’s not big enough,” she mumbles and I laugh when she picks up the lipstick tube.
“Baby, I’m not so sure Mr. Reid will think that is his color. ”
My face reddens when I think about the burden she’s been on them. Molly has always been a child that loves easily and loves big, but usually she’s shy around men. She had just turned two when Jack passed away and it’s always been just the occasional babysitter until Dani’s parents started keeping her. Of course, she knows and loves Cohen and Chance, but even that took her months to warm up to them. It shouldn’t be a shock that she instantly connected to Dani’s father, the older she gets the more curious she has become, and she has recently been asking more and more about Jack. My heart squeezes when I think about all the things she’s missed out on.
“Of course it is, right Molly-wolly?” Axel booms. His voice literally vibrates through the room.
“Get ready for it,” Izzy strangely says and I turn to look at her only to have my confusion intensify when she just smirks.
“Where, oh where, is the Princess of Pretty? Oh, Princess! I’m in the need of your magic for I have lost my way! There’s no time to waste! The ball is in minutes, no seconds!”
My jaw drops. Eyes widen. And I have to work to keep the hilarity of this moment from bubbling out.
If I thought Axel boomed earlier I was wrong. Because skipping—skipping on his toes—comes Dani’s older brother, Nate Reid, his voice vibrating through their large living room. All six-foot-something of his muscular frame with a sheet wrapped around his hips as a makeshift dress, and tank top flipped up and folded between his huge pecs to make some sort of weird bra. His make-up is even heavier than his father’s, his green eyes even brighter with the amount of shadow my daughter has painted, in what I can only guess is her best impression of raccoon eyes. His lips look like he was stung by hundreds of bees, the red circle of lipstick going from mid chin to the bottom of his nose. But it’s his hair that makes me lose the fight to keep the laughter in. He has what has to be twenty ponytails pulling his shoulder length hair up in a million different directions.
Page 16
He skips toward me, stops and my laughter gets to a level of insanity when he gives me a crooked grin and curtsies before spinning on his feet and falling dramatica
lly onto the floor next to Molly—who is smiling a crooked grin of her own at him.
“Princess, please stop trying to make that ugly troll pretty and tell me where I go to get to the ball! I have to meet the prince before midnight!” Nate takes one thick hand and throws it over his forehead in a dramatic fashion that would give the best actors a run for their money.
“Troll!” Axel yells and kicks out his foot to jab his son in the hip. “I’ll show you a troll!”
I watch in fascination as the two very manly men wrestle on the floor, not for one second caring that they’re both dressed for a day of drag.
I’m shaken from my thoughts of the morning madness when the doorbell rings. My brow furrows and I switch gears from the kitchen to go answer the door. The only people that would be coming over would be Dani, Cohen, Chance or maybe Nate—after last night he’s called a few times to make sure I’m okay. Given that I just got off the phone with Dani, I’m sure it isn’t her. Chance would call first and since I know he’s going through some personal stuff after the issues Dani had before Owen was born, I know it isn’t him. Chance only comes over when he needs someone to talk to, and lately he hasn’t been happy when I push for him to go see someone over the depression he’s fallen into.
I pull the door open and stop dead.
Liam.
“Miss me, Megs?”
My jaw drops when he shoulders his way into my house and I turn to snap at him when I catch a whiff of pizza.
“What—”
My words die when he leans down and gives me a hasty kiss.
“Pizza. ”
That’s all he says. He holds up the five boxes of pizza in his hands and turns to walk through the house. He knows where the kitchen is; he came with Dani, Cohen and the rest of the crew when Molly had her fifth birthday party a few months ago. He didn’t say much, but I felt his eyes on me every second that he was there.
“You can’t be here,” I snap.
He looks over from where he’s putting the pizzas down on the counter and rolls his eyes. “Baby, I’ve been inside you. ”
He did not just say that.
“You did not just say that, Liam Beckett. ” My face heats, but not with embarrassment, oh no, he’s got me about as angry as I’ve ever been.
“It’s the truth,” he says raising one dark brow in a manner that makes me think he’s just daring me to give him a fight.
