Morning was her new favorite time of day. With her leg flung over his, and a hand on his broad chest, Jacinda looked at the man next to her in bed—his hair thoroughly pillow-rumpled, five o’clock shadow carried over to ten fifteen, the way he was watching her right back, with those amused, oh-so-blue bedroom eyes. Not to mention all the ridiculously hot things he’d just done…and done the night before. He made it easy to forget all the drag and drama of the outside world, and even their complicated history seemed like just that—history. If only every day could start this way.
As if reading her mind, Liam said, “I could do this every morning.”
“I could do it twice every morning,” she said.
He lifted his head and looked at her. “Oh, really?”
“Really.” She ran a hand down his arm, then over the plane of his stomach. “Could you?”
He feigned indignation. “Do you doubt me?”
She paused, hearing a sound from downstairs. “Is that someone at the door?”
He listened, then shrugged. “Probably Sam. He’s always turning up during the day at random times. Or it could be Connor and Dane—they refuse to use the doorbell. I’ll go and see.”
He got out of bed, but seeing him standing there, carved and golden, she knelt up and took hold of his arms. One more touch before he left. One more helping of warm skin to tide her over. She leaned forward just enough that her breasts brushed against his torso, then matched the delicate touch with her lips, letting her tongue graze along the slightly salty skin on his chest. They’d been in too much of a hurry to think about showering when they came back from the beach yesterday. He let out a low groan, and she smiled as she felt him start to harden once more against her belly. Got him.
He bent down and buried his face in her neck. “You are a bad, bad girl,” he said into her ear, his breath hot. “And I fully intend to lay you down and prove I can do it twice. With variations.”
She shivered as he kissed the sensitive spot under her ear. Then he stood up straight again, and tapped the tip of her nose. “But there’s a kid on the loose to deal with first.”
“Or two big kids.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Either way, I’ll be right back.”
“You’d better.” She feigned a pout.
He grinned, running his hands down her back and cupping her bottom. “Oh, I will, I promise. See?”
She looked down. That promise was pressing hard against her, taut and eager all over again. She laughed, and resisted the temptation to play. Magnificent though it was, he couldn’t go and open the front door with that leading the way.
“I do see.” She put her hands behind her back. “And hurry, because I have some variations of my own to suggest.”
“I’m very open to suggestions.”
He let her go, still grinning, and she reached to put the pillows back in place so she could lie down while she waited.
But then his grin froze and disappeared, replaced with an expression of shock. With lightning speed, he grabbed her and pulled her back in front of him, hiding his now rapidly deflating hard-on. In turn, she scrabbled for the sheet, trying to cover her bare bottom. Her instant thought was that Sam had let himself in and wandered up the stairs, and seen something wildly inappropriate for a nine-year-old. But then someone spoke—and it wasn’t Sam.
“Liam?”
She looked over her shoulder, her heart pounding, and instantly wanted to die.
Liam’s mother was standing in the doorway.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered, her face blazing hot as she knelt in front of his nakedness, wishing she was invisible, waiting for the older woman to make a hasty exit.
But instead of turning away, like any normal person would, his mother just stood there staring at them blankly, her mouth a silent, stupefied O.
As she clutched the sheet to her butt, Jacinda waited for Liam to say something. To take some kind of action. But he seemed as paralyzed as his mother. She looked desperately around for his clothes, and saw his board shorts and t-shirt lying on the floor at his mother’s feet. And the tip of her shoe was on the edge of Jacinda’s bikini top. Oh, God. She looked away.
Finally, his mother spoke.
“Is this…Jacinda?”
He abruptly let go of her, as though he’d suddenly realized she had leprosy, and found his voice. “Go downstairs, Mum. I’ll be there in a minute.”
She started to go, but turned back. “I can’t believe you would do this. I just can’t believe it.” Then she wheeled around and disappeared.
Still kneeling in front of him, Jacinda let out a breath that turned into a slightly hysterical laugh. “Oh, my God. I thought it was Sam.” She pulled the sheet fully around her, feeling the need to be covered up. “What a nightmare.”
But there was no laughter from Liam, hysterical or otherwise. His face was grim as he went to the closet and pulled out fresh clothes. “You’d better get dressed,” he told her, pulling on underwear, then jeans.
“Sure. Yes.” She got up and collected her bikini top from the floor, then looked around for her cover-up, and found it down the side of the nightstand.
He said nothing, rapidly doing up his belt and putting on a t-shirt.
“Are you okay?” she asked him.
Obviously, this was pretty much everyone’s worst-case scenario—the only thing worse would have been his mother walking in on them forty-five minutes before, when he’d had his head between her legs, rendering her helpless with lust. Or half an hour ago, when she was reciprocating the pleasure. Or just fifteen minutes earlier, when her legs were wrapped around him, her hands pinned to the bed as he sank into her again and again, looking into her eyes as she rose to another toe-curling, body-shaking orgasm. Now, that seemed like forever ago. She was in a state of shock herself, and it must be even worse when it was your own parent catching you unawares.
But still…it wouldn’t kill him to say something.
She waited, holding her things in a bundle in front of her, but he just pointed to where her bikini bottoms lay on the floor. He didn’t pick them up for her. And then she remembered how he’d let her go, like she’d scalded him, when his mother realized it was her.
“They won’t give you cooties, you know,” she snapped, reaching down and grabbing them up.
He frowned. “I’d better go.”
The words also said, You’d better go.
“Fine,” she said.
She turned her back on him, and started to get dressed. Behind her, she could hear him leave the room.
“Fine,” she muttered to herself, fumbling with the bikini string, then dragging her cover-up over her head. “Go to mama.”
And then a wave of guilt washed over her, because that mama only had one child left.
She sat on the edge of the bed and pressed her fingers to her forehead. Great. The first time she saw Liam’s mother again—Ethan’s mother—and this was how it went down. What kind of damage control was Liam doing down there? The poor woman must be in even more shock than they were. She sure as hell wouldn’t want to see Jacinda again now, fresh from her remaining son’s bed.
As quietly as she could, she crept down the stairs. The sound of muffled voices was coming from the living room.
She couldn’t help it. She stopped and listened, holding her breath. Mrs. Ward’s voice was agonized.
“Liam, I can’t even…can you even imagine what this is like for me?”
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he started to say calmly, but she interrupted him.
“Sorry I had to see it? But not sorry you did it?”
He murmured something Jacinda couldn’t make out. Which kind of sorry was he?
But his mother continued, the pitch of her voice getting higher. “Don’t you remember what happened? Did you forget everything?”
“No,” he replied emphatically. Then there was silence for a moment, before he spoke again. “Actually, yes. I did forget. And I’m sorry…”
At that, her heart seized in her chest, and she knew where she stood. She’d heard enough. Apparently he wasn’t seeing things differently after all—except for when he thought he could get some action. No different from all the men who’d looked at her over the years and seen nothing but boobs and possibility. Nice.
With the sound of their voices behind her, she grabbed up her beach bag from where she’d left it at the bottom of the stairs, went along to the laundry room, and silently let herself out the side door. Once again, it was time to make an exit from their lives.
Home…or the closest thing to it. Safety, at least. Jacinda closed the front door behind her and leaned against it, her eyes scrunched shut. From heaven to complete horror, without warning. She shuddered, trying to shake off the lingering feeling of being exposed—in more ways than one. And the way Liam had given in, the moment his mother turned up, without a word in their defense. Didn’t take much for him to change his mind about the whole thing.
Danielle looked up as she came into the living room.
“All that work took a long time,” she said, grinning. Then her face changed as she registered that something wasn’t right. “What happened?”
Jacinda stood in the middle of the room, thrown completely off center. “Something just…”
“What is it?” Danielle stood up. “Are you okay?”
She looked around. “Is Sam here?” She was very glad it hadn’t been him at the bedroom door, but his wasn’t something he needed to be in on either.
“No. He’s gone back to the beach with his new friends.”
“That’s good.” She managed a smile.
“What, then? You’re making me worry.”
She went over and collapsed on the couch, tipping her head back. “Liam’s mom.”
“She’s in Australia, right? Has something happened to her? Is she sick?”
Jacinda snorted, then looked back at Danielle. “Yeah…I think she just had a heart attack.”
Confusion passed across Danielle’s face. “A heart attack?”
“Pretty much at the same time I had mine. Which was the moment I saw her standing in the doorway, looking at me and Liam in bed.”
Danielle’s eyes widened suddenly, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. “No.”
“Yes. And it was just as much fun as it sounds.”
“Oh, my God. Were you in the middle of…?”
“No, she just missed it. But she saw enough.” She pressed her hands to her face. If she’d thought it would be hard to face his mom before, this took it to a whole new level of impossibility.
Danielle’s eyes were still like saucers. “So what happened?”
“I grabbed the sheet and covered myself up, but Liam was standing up by the bed, and I was in front of him, so I couldn’t move. And his mom…I kept waiting for her to spin around and leave, but it was like she couldn’t tear her eyes away. It might not have been cardiac arrest, but she definitely found it arresting.”
At that, Danielle laughed. Then she shook her head. “Sorry, I just…the picture in my mind…”
Jacinda smiled too, but a sigh came with it. “I know. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so fucked up. We were this close to thinking we had something that could work…and then his mother walked in and saw him betraying her with the woman responsible for her other son’s death. And that was it.”
Danielle started to protest, but Jacinda held up her hand.
“I know what you’re going to say, but it is what it is. Fault, blame, whatever. We were carrying way too much baggage to make it work anyway.”
“Are you sure? You guys seemed so into each other.”
His words echoed in her head. I’m not running anywhere. He’d sounded like he meant it. But she already knew how people could say things they didn’t mean. Or just plain change their minds under pressure.
“I’m sure,” she said. “Now I’m going to have something to eat, and then a shower, and then a nap. It was a long night, and now…” She blew out a breath and waved her hand, unable to sum up her current state of mind.
“Good plan,” Danielle said. “I’ll run interference down here if anyone turns up looking for you.”
Jacinda picked up her beach bag. Suddenly, she was exhausted. “Thanks, but I doubt there’ll be any need. None of the Ward family will be in a hurry to see me ever again.”