Before Sunrise (22 page)

“
Don’t you think you should
go and check on your kid sister?”

He looked up and saw she too glanced back,
toward the door.

“
Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be
right back.”

He smiled as she slipped out. Liam fell on
the futon and closed his eyes. He felt exhausted, not just from the
way she’d done him, but also from the drive in. Soon he drifted to
sleep. Then she returned; he felt her slender, naked body ease over
his, and she placed small, sweet kisses to his jaw and neck. He
rolled her to her back and she blinked up at him. He discovered it
wasn’t one of his many dreams of her. She was pinned beneath him.
Her dress had been left on the floor.

“
We got another hour and you
have to go, Liam. To be safe.”

“
Yeah, kind of
figured.”

“
Are you really tired? I
don’t want to waste our time. I wanted to…I miss you so much when I
don’t see you.”

“
I miss you too,
Kay.”

She seemed satisfied with his response. She
closed her eyes and kissed him, locking her arms around his neck so
she could hold him to her. He pushed his jeans off all the way. Kay
gave him more and more tongue, hooking her legs around his waist.
Liam lifted up and stared down at her with wonder. He knew his next
move would be a selfish one, but he would have to make it to say
what he wanted to say. To her surprise, he slipped into her
unsheathed. She looked a little scared at first. But when he got
buried deep and started to thrust, the worry left her face.

“
Kay. Look at me,
babe.”

Liam clenched his buttocks and pumped harder
and faster.

She managed to open her eyes. Good, he loved
to look into her eyes when he was inside her. He pushed one of her
legs back and she whimpered. He kept going with his thrusts, fast
and furious. She never complained. He hit her core from every
angle, rocking and swinging her hips before he could stand it no
more and exploded inside of her.

Kay probably hadn’t come. Liam dropped on
her. He panted, unable to apologize. “Kay. Kay….”

“
Yes, Liam?”

“
I love you. I want you
always.”

She shoved at his chest and looked up at
him, shocked. “What did you say?”

He smiled. “I love you, Kay. I love
you.”

Kennedy squealed and kissed his face. He let
go of her legs and lay on her, kissing and suckling her lips. He
couldn’t lie. Kennedy Washington would his, forever and always.

Chapter Ten

Kennedy sat on her bed in the dark. Phil had
left an hour ago and she hadn’t stopped crying. The only thing she
seemed capable of was more tears. She remembered when he’d first
said he loved her. How excited she’d been. From that day forward, a
day never went by when the words didn’t pass between them.

Kennedy released a sad sigh. Being separated
from him would be torture. She would have to find out if she was
pregnant. Soon.

The door to her room pushed open. Her little
girl walked in, rubbing sleep from her eye with her fist. She
noticed Mackenzie had returned to her thumb-sucking habit in full
force. Given the circumstances, Kennedy thought she’d allow it for
a few days. She’d grant her baby girl anything to give her comfort.
Her poor, sweet Mac must be so confused.

“
Come here, baby.” She
extended her arms.

Mackenzie wandered over with her wild curls
in her face. She climbed atop the bed and went directly into her
mother’s embrace.

“
You hungry?” Kennedy asked,
smoothing out her daughter’s hair.

Mackenzie shrugged sleepily and Kennedy
smiled. Mothering her was what they both needed. Before she could
get out of bed, the phone rang. Reaching for it, she saw on the
caller ID it was the Marriott Suites.

Phil
, she thought. She worried over answering in front of
Mackenzie, who had no idea he’d left.
Why
is he calling so soon
? “Hello?”

“
Kay…um, it’s
me.”

“
Liam? Uh, hi.”

“
I didn’t call to upset
you…I just wanted to say, well I wanted to know if Mackenzie was
okay. I scared her this evening.”

“
She’s okay, Liam. She’s
right here with me. She’s fine.”

“
Oh. Good. Um, good, okay. I
just wanted to tell her goodnight.”

“
Hold on.”

Kennedy put the phone to Mackenzie’s ear.
She could hear Liam say good night to her daughter. But Mackenzie
said nothing. He said he loved her and couldn’t wait to see her
again. Mackenzie didn’t respond.

“
She’s sleepy, Liam.”
Kennedy said. She cuddled Mackenzie to her breast and tucked the
covers around her.

“
I’m sorry I called so
late.”

“
No, I’m glad you called…I
mean, I wanted to say goodnight to you, too.”

“
There’s something you
should know,” he said. Immediately her chest tightened with dread.
She held her breath and braced for the news.

“
Okay?”

“
The media has learned about
my rescue. Tomorrow might be crazy. I don’t want you
blindsided.”

“
Thanks for the warning. How
do you feel…I mean you’re on a cane. Did you get hurt? That’s
silly, I’m sure you got hurt…but do you need anything? Anything I
can do?”

“
My leg feels fine compared
to my heart. You want to fix that?” he asked in that husky voice
that always made her weak.

Kennedy closed her eyes. Oh my, how she
enjoyed the sound of him. She’d missed it, she missed all of him.
Suddenly she felt giddy as her mind absorbed the reality that her
man had returned.

“
Liam….”

“
It’s okay, I get it. I was
wrong to lash out at you like this. I know you’ve been through
hell, too. I don’t know, Kay. Things just aren’t how I thought they
would be. Does that make sense?”

“
Me either. Liam, I prayed
so hard. I prayed so hard and so long until I just couldn’t
function. In my heart, deep in my heart I knew you were out there.
I’m so happy you’re back.”

“
Right,” he snapped and the
bitterness in his tone stung.

She needed to find her backbone. Stop
groveling with him. She was mad at him, too. She’d had time to
think. He’d gone over to Mackenzie’s school. Phil was right, he’d
been out of that hellish desert for some time and she didn’t know.
No one had breathed a word of it. How was that fair? Had Liam
watched her from afar, not trusting her enough to tell him the
truth? If two months ago she’d known he’d returned to her, he would
have come home to a different welcoming. Hell, twenty-four hours
would have made a huge difference. He’d robbed her of so much.

“
How long have you been
back, Liam? How long?”

He didn’t say a word.

“
Did you show up at
Mackenzie’s school?”

“
Yes.”

“
How could you do that? How
could you go there and see her without coming to see me? Do you
know how much that hurts?”

“
Actually, I tried to decide
if you would give a shit.”

“
Oh, stop it. You should
have had them call me the moment they rescued you. Tell me that you
were alive so that I could prepare for you to meet your daughter,
so I could….”

“
Leave Phil? Is that what
you were going to say?”

“
So I could
prepare
. The second they
found you I deserved to know.” Kennedy sniffled. “They had an
obligation to me. They owed me that, even if
you
forgot.”

“
Why? You’re married to
another man.”

“
Liam, you have to let me
explain this.”

“
I know, but I’m angry with
you, Kay. I don’t know where to put that anger. See it from my
point of view.”

“
I do.”

“
No. You don’t. No one does.
Five years of my life is gone. Mac was born and I wasted away in my
own shit. She took her first steps and they were
torturing—”

“
Oh, Liam….” Kennedy felt
the tears well and threaten to pour again.

“
I said I wasn’t going to do
this,” he mumbled.

She believed him. But if he needed to get it
out, she would take it. As long as he gave her a little
forgiveness, too.

“
You need to talk to
someone. I want to be that person. I want to know everything, be
part of your healing process.”

“
No you don’t.”

“
I miss you even now,
Liam.”

He said something but it came out as a
grumble. She smiled. She could see the dark fury in his eyes and
the stubborn set to his jaw. He was the same Liam.

Then he spoke. “I can’t get my emotions
under control, Kay, but I’ll try. I swear it.”

They remained in silence for several
minutes, just listening to each other breathe.

“
I want you to know I didn’t
forget, sweetheart.”

“
Forget what?” he
asked.

“
Before sunrise. I just
didn’t know it would take five years for dawn to break.”

Liam chuckled. He actually laughed. Kennedy
smiled, too. “Yeah, I guess we’ve both been living in darkness
waiting for dawn to break. I’m sorry for that, Kay.”

“
Don’t apologize. Not
anymore.”

“
I need you, Kennedy. Not
just because you are my wife, which you
are
, no matter what that man lying
next to you says.” The bitterness in Liam’s voice pricked at her
heart. “I need you because you’re a part of me. Your love helped me
survive. If I lose it now, I have nothing to live for.”

Kennedy nodded. “You don’t understand. You
haven’t lost me. You never lost me. I’ll be yours again soon.”

“
Not if you’re with
him!”

“
Liam—”

“
We won’t go through it
tonight on the phone. But I have a request.”

“
Okay.”

“
I want to see Mac again. As
soon as possible.”

“
Okay.”

“
Can she miss
school?”

“
I guess a day won’t
hurt.”

“
Good. I will come and get
her tomorrow. What time do you go to the office?”

“
I’m not going.”

More silence.

“
Good night,
Kay.”

“
Liam?”

“
Yes.”

“
Sally, does she
know?”

“
No one but you until those
media assholes got wind of it. You and Mac were all I could think
of when I came back.”

Kennedy nodded not wanting to the end their
conversation. “Call her. Call her next, Liam. She’s been through a
lot.”

“
Hmpf.”

Smiling, she held the phone and listened to
the soft sound of his breathing. “I love you, Liam. You may not
believe this, but I’m so happy you are home.”

He hung up.

“
Good night,” she said
softly to an empty receiver.

She laid Mackenzie next to her and pulled
the covers up over them both. “Daddy’s home, baby, and mommy’s
going to make sure we’re a family again.” She settled into the idea
of getting a pregnancy test, one of the ones that told you early.
As soon as she proved she wasn’t pregnant she’d tell Phil the
truth. She wanted her Liam back. She just had to stay cool, calm
about it, to make sure Liam didn’t cue in to her concerns. That
news would kill him.

She felt less desperate after forming a
plan, after their talk on the phone. Though Liam remained impatient
with her, he was hers. She was his. That could never change.

Kennedy yawned as sleep came.

“
I love you, too,” she
mumbled, drifting off.

Chapter Eleven

Nightmares. Kennedy drowned in the worst of
them.

Lost in a desert of blistering heat and
scorching red sands, she chased the fading sounds of a crying
infant. Could it be Mackenzie? She wasn’t sure. A mother knows her
child’s cry and this baby’s pain pierced her heart with regret.
Kennedy ran with rubbery legs up and down dunes of sinking sand,
panting against the humid, hot air that filled her lungs. Sweat
pooled and ran in rivers down her face and neck. The hot grains
quickly dissolved into sinkholes under her feet. Pockets of loose
sand closed around her submerged feet and slowed her down.

Soon, exhaustion got the best of her. She
dropped to her knees, reduced to crawling as the sun seared her
with boiling rays that punished her skin. It melted from her bones.
Kennedy continued, because the infant’s cries demanded so. And
finally she found herself at the opening of an army tent. She
imagined rescue, hope, help would be found behind the camouflage
flap. The loud wails of her child drummed a beat of panic through
her skull. Summoning strength she didn’t know she could harness,
she rose to her feet and stumbled inside. Phil was dressed in
fatigues, with his shirt open and his dog tags gleaming off his
well-defined upper chest. He paced with the baby and tried to calm
him or her, then turned fully to face Kennedy. It was then she saw
the infant wrapped in a blanket like the one Mackenzie had when she
had been born.

The sweet child squealed and Kennedy felt
her breasts ache, her nipples leak. To her horror the front of her
dress had stains forming while the urge to nurse left her
trembling. “Whose baby?” she asked with a shaky voice.