Back to the Beginning: A Duet (3 page)

The roads getting back to the falls were curvy and hilly. He hadn’t realized how much, but it was fun as he accelerated, causing her to dig her fingers into the leather of his cut. Having her hands all over him was another thing he’d missed in the past few months. It was enough to cause his jeans to pull tightly over his hardening dick. A smirk covered his face as he thought of all the plans he had for the two of them.

When the parking lot for the falls came into view, he was ready to stop and hold his wife for a while. Pulling the bike into a spot in the back, he shut the engine off and went about putting the two of them on solid ground again.

“I can’t believe you kept this from me.” Denise pouted as she shook her hair out, running her fingers through it. “You know I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”

He caught her around the waist and pulled her closer. “And you know if I would have said, ‘Hey, let someone else watch the kids, I’m taking you away’, you and I both know you would have said no. It had to be this way. Besides, I like to surprise you sometimes.” He smirked. “The joy in your face says more to me than anything else ever could. I’m glad I could do this for you.”

Leaning up on the balls of her feet, she lightly touched her lips to his. “For us, Liam. You did this, just like you do everything else—for us.”

They were quiet for a moment as she let those words sink in. With a smirk of her own, she grabbed his hand, running towards the area where they could see the falls. “C’mon, old man,” she teased as the surprise of her movement caused him to struggle to keep up.

*

There had been
times in Denise’s life when she’d wondered what she’d done to deserve what was happening to her. Nine times out of ten, those things were heartbreaking, but since Liam had come into her life, those things had been pinch-herself amazing. He’d brought her from a single mother who hadn’t known how she was going to feed her kids, keep her house, or pay her bills, to a complete one-eighty. Gripping his hand tighter, she thought about how different things were today compared to then. Now, she had a beautiful house and an SUV she used to chauffer their toddler and the other kids of the club here and there; they never wondered if they were going to have enough food to eat, nor did she have to worry that there wasn’t enough money in the bank account for her to go shopping or have her hair done. Liam Walker had spoiled her in every way. She didn’t even work anymore which—for someone who’d worked full-time and sometimes two jobs since she was seventeen—was a hard pill to swallow. As his wife though, she wasn’t expected to work. Just like he did, she had to be on call if anyone in the club needed her. Normally they needed her just to bitch about their husbands or to cry on her shoulder when something tough was going on, but she accepted her role, loved it, and lived for it. It wasn’t lost on her that she wouldn’t have any of this without the man who held her hand right now.

He had made all of her dreams come true—effortlessly—just by being him. So many times she hadn’t ever thought she’d be that lucky, but she and her kids had hit the motherfucking jackpot, and someone would have to pry Liam Walker out of her cold, dead hands, because she’d never give up the way he looked at her. There was never a question that he loved her, worshiped her, their kids, their family, their club, but, most of all, their relationship. It had taken her a lifetime to find this man, and she’d be damned if anything ever made her give him up.

“I can’t believe you remembered I wanted to come here.” She had slowed to a walk and now held his fingers in between hers, enjoying their stroll as they made it down the stone steps so that they could get closer to the falls.

Not many people were out on this day; it was still a little cold. March in Kentucky was a toss-up. It could either be snowing or hot as hell. Today it was cool enough that she could see her breath the closer they got to the water, but in the sun, it was warm. Between them and maybe thirty other people, the place was quiet.

“You’ve hinted at it off and on for years, babe; it’s not like I couldn’t take that and tuck it in my pocket forever.” As they stopped at the fence that kept the more adventurous people out of the water, he slung his arm around her neck, pulling her back to his front. “Besides, it’s been a rough couple of months. We needed some fun for us. This is where it’s beginning.”

Denise watched the water rushing over the rock formation that made up the falls, enjoying being with him. He was right, they’d had a couple of rough months. Not any rougher than when they’d started out, but the shop was growing, Tatum had a bout of both chicken pox and bronchitis, and the twins were quickly approaching graduation from high school. There were a lot of decisions to be made, and everyone wanted something from each of them. In the end, that had left both of them too tired and mentally exhausted to have a relationship with each other. She felt tears prick at the back of her eyes. Being this close to him, being held in his arms, was her favorite place to be. Out of nowhere, she was reminded of how long it had been. Turning in the circle of his arms, she buried her head in his neck and slipped her arms around his waist under his cut.

“Hey.” He tried to lift her head up so that he could see into her eyes, but she refused. “What’s wrong?” He became more alarmed as her shoulders shook and he felt moisture seeping through his shirt. “Shit, sweetheart, talk to me.” He brought his hands around her neck and shoved them into her hair, pulling slightly to lift her head up. “You’re scaring me. What the fuck’s going on?”

Denise tried desperately to calm her wayward emotions, to stiffen her bottom lip and not show the worry she held in her heart that maybe they were drifting further apart faster than they could close the gap. “I miss you,” she whispered, bringing her bottom lip in between her teeth to keep it from trembling. “I’ve missed
this
—us. I don’t want us to drift apart from each other because there are so many people and situations pulling us in different directions.”

Fuck
. He hadn’t realized it was that bad. That she carried this worry made him feel like shit. It was his job to make sure she never doubted where she stood in his life, and this was obviously a feeling she’d been carrying around for a while if it affected her this deeply.

“Look at me and listen to me; hear what I’m saying to you.” He cupped her cheeks in his hands and forced her to look at him. “Nothing in this world means more to me than you and our life together. If we need to fix it, we will.”

Looking into his eyes, she could see they were so dark that they were almost black. The truth was there, the realization that he would do absolutely anything for her and their family. She had to trust him with her feelings, trust him with her own truth. She wasn’t sure when she’d stopped doing that, but it wasn’t fair to either of them, and in that moment, she knew it was important. Communication was the hallmark of their relationship, and she’d stopped doing it. Tears streaked down into her face. “I need to be your priority for one night, Liam.”

“Goddamn, you’re my priority all the time.” He shook his head, not sure why she thought she wasn’t.

“Think about it.” She pushed him slightly. “Think about how much both of us have been letting others make themselves more important than we are. How often are we called upon to make things right for other people at the expense of us?”

What she was saying hit him in the chest, and he realized he needed it too, in a way he hadn’t known he did. He needed her attention only on him for a few hours. Damn, it had been so long. “Then I need to be your priority too.”

She nodded, burying her head in his neck again, but this time, her fingers gripped his T-shirt and pulled him closer to her. Denise leaned against the railing and opened her thighs, letting him settle there. Cautiously, she opened her mouth against the skin at the juncture of his neck and shoulder, lightly nipping with her teeth then running her tongue along the same patch of skin. Barely tilting her head up, she grabbed his earlobe between her teeth, pulling on the earring there. “Take me somewhere so that we can make each other feel special,” she whispered, grinding her hips into his.

It took everything he had to pull away from her, but luckily, he’d thought ahead.

‡
Chapter Three

T
hey got back
on the bike and took a ride up the hill to the state park hotel.

“Did you have this planned?” she asked suspiciously when he parked and helped her off the bike.

The grin he gave her was the pure bad boy she remembered him being the night they met. He shrugged. “I dunno, maybe.”

She laughed as she followed him from the parking lot and into the lobby. Waiting patiently, she watched as the woman at the front desk looked him up and down, her eyes stopping on the patch that claimed him president of the Heaven Hill MC. Denise knew it was something that turned other women on, but she wasn’t into sharing. Grasping him around the waist, she nuzzled against him, hoping that the woman could see their rings. It gave her heart a little jump when his hand came down on top of hers in a smooth caress. There was something special about the way he did that, no matter if they were on the back of the bike or not.

“I’m sure my lady and I will enjoy our stay,” he was saying as he pulled Denise forward, put his arm around her, and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Denise smiled politely at the front desk worker. It felt even better when Liam put his claim on her. “I can’t take you anywhere,” she whispered, giggling, as they made their way down the hallway towards their room.

“Me? What about you?” He shot her an amused glance. “Trying to cup my dick in front of some other woman. Stake your claim, baby; I don’t want anyone else but you.”

“I wasn’t trying to cup your dick,” she argued.

“The hell you say. I felt your fingers.”

They got to their room, and he flashed the key card in front of the door handle. It flashed green, the lock disengaging. He opened the door, pulling her inside behind him. Once the door was shut, Denise turned, pushing him roughly against the wall. Reaching down below the belt he wore, she flattened her palm against the hardness she felt. “This is me cupping your dick.”

He fisted her shirt in his hands and hauled her up to his lips. Slanting his over hers, he savagely captured them. It was a possession she hadn’t felt in longer than she cared to admit. Back when they’d first gotten together, sex was wild, passionate, and more intimate than she’d ever been exposed to. Since Tatum, it had been less wild, less spontaneous, and a little more hurried than she liked. Knowing they had all the time in the world this weekend, she gave herself over to him. If there was one thing Liam knew how to do, it was play her body like a guitar.

Denise pushed her fingers through his hair, grasping the strands tightly between her knuckles, and turned her head to the side so Liam’s tongue could delve further into her mouth. When she opened to him, he groaned, moving his hands down her back to grasp hold of her ass. With a grunt, he lifted her up, pushing off the wall with his foot. When his knees hit the edge of the bed, he turned so that he could sit down and pulled Denise over top of him, straddling him.