AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t want to be the first to see Liam, and I don’t want him to see me before everyone else so I start walking to the back door of the club, knowing that Dad will bring him in through the front ready for everyone to hone in on him like he is prey, although the very thought of Liam being the prey in a roomful of animals is almost laughable.
“You know your arse is about as round as a couple of beach balls in those leggings right now, Char?” Crow asks me with a chuckle.
I’m suddenly mortified and turn around to look at him in astonishment.
Did he seriously just say that my arse looks like beach balls?! Beach balls!
“It’s not a bad thing. Jeez, if looks could kill and all that,” he says with a smirk on his face that I can’t help but want to smile at.
I turn on my heel abruptly, shaking my head in mock disapproval. I begin to head outside but before I get chance, I find myself knocked over by what feels like a brick wall.
I flail and look around, grabbing onto thin air to catch myself from falling, but within a millisecond there are tree trunk arms wrapped around me, supporting me and stopping my collapse to the floor.
I look up and I swear to whoever’s up there, my time of breathing in this world is done for.
It's Liam.
Of course it’s Liam. Why wouldn’t it be? Attempting to give myself a mental face palm hard enough that it’ll knock me out doesn’t seem to be helping the situation somehow.
My mind seems to be blank and what makes it so much worse is that it isn’t just my mind. It’s silent. No one is saying a word. My body feels like it’s on fire and I realise with a start that it’s because I’m still in Liam’s arms. Well, shit!
I pull myself away from Liam, only to be pulled back in by him for the type of hug he’s never given me before. The last time he hugged me, I was eight years old, about a quarter of the height of his six-feet-five builder’s frame and also didn’t feel awkward as a shit stood in his arms.
I allow myself to relax a little though and I realise that I’m not really doing any hugging, I am being hugged. His arms are locked around me, and I am just cocooned inside of his arms that seem to be unrelenting and unmoving.
I can hear him breathing next to my ear, but before I have chance to think any more of it, I hear his voice for the first time in years.
“You’re so grown up, baby girl.” It’s only a whisper and yet his voice is deafening. Not loud, or obnoxious, just so overwhelmingly manly and deep that every fibre inside of my now grown up body shivers at every syllable he says.
He always called me his baby girl. I used to love it and now I can’t decide if I hate it for reminding me that he still thinks of me as that child he left ten years ago or love it because it’s so comforting.
I pull myself away, and as Liam reluctantly lets go, I get a good look at him.
He’s the same but so much more. As a child I never looked at him as anything but family but having not seen him in years, I realise through a woman’s eyes he’s incredibly good looking.
His head’s shaved, but it’s growing back. You can see the dark hair growing in every direction. His eyes are sky blue, which is the most insane contrast to the rest of him, because he looks as bulky and bad now as he did all those years ago, if not more so.
I guess there’s only so much to do in prison and working out is a pastime. Clearly a pastime he took up going by the sight of Liam.
He’s watching me expectantly and it’s then that I know I’ve said nothing to him yet.
What do I say? My god, it’s like it’s the first time I’ve ever met him.
I’m frozen. My body isn’t moving, my mind seems incapable of thought, and both Crow and Liam are waiting for something. Something from me.
Liam's eyes soften.
“I’m sorry, it seems crazy seeing you,” I manage out, my voice and words feeling so small.
Liam frowns, his eyebrows coming together but the confusion I see on his face is gone in an instant. He brings his arms back around me in a heartbeat and I breathe, letting my body droop into his. This time, my arms wrap around him too.
I open my eyes to find that my dad has walked in behind Liam. His eyes are gentle, his face etched with concern.
* * *
I’m in my room, sat on my bed reading, using the light of my fairy lights above me when I hear Dad and Liam come through the door. Probably drunk or merry at the very least.
Within minutes, I can hear my dad snoring downstairs. He’s probably fallen asleep on the sofa. Dad can drink and drink and drink, but the moment he finds somewhere comfortable, his eyes close and he’s dead to the world.
