Chasing Charlie (8 page)

Love you,

Your Dad

Tears were streaming down my cheeks by the time I’d finished the note. Never in my entire twenty-four years had my father spoken like that to me. Of course I knew he loved me, but he was a man of few words. I wasn’t even sure how Daddy had found out that Liam and I were fighting. Had he heard us last night? My mind swirled with a hundred questions as I fingered the edge of the paper. 

What was I supposed to do with this? Run out the door and beg Liam to talk to me? He may already be done with me at this point, and the fact remained that he’d hidden his past from me. I’d been open and forthright about the most painful parts of myself, and he’d kept secrets. 

“Charlie?”

My brother’s voice pulled me from my racing thoughts. 

“Yeah?” I turned, swiping at a tear. 

“Someone wants to talk to you.” Vince stepped aside, heading back to the front of the bar.

Liam stepped into my view, and I sucked in a sharp breath, waiting for his words, unsure what I could even say at this point. 

“Can we talk?” Liam stepped closer, his scent intoxicating and sucking up all the oxygen in the room. Just his presence made my knees weak. 

I swallowed the lump in my throat, every nerve in my body urging me to run into the bathroom and lock the door. But then my father’s words came back to me. “Okay.”

Liam crossed the space between us and took my hand before leading me to a quiet corner of the back of the bar. Surrounded by boxes and restaurant equipment, he told me everything. 

“I was so sick of that life, Charlie. I can’t even tell you how oppressive it is. My parents acted as if they were ashamed when I wanted to go to university in America, but here I am, and it’s the best decision I ever made because it brought me to you.” He cupped my cheek. 

I closed my eyes and turned my chin down. I wasn’t ready for this yet. I didn’t know if I could forgive him. I wanted to, but I didn’t know if I had it in me. 

“If you hurt me once, I’m done, Liam. That’s how I am. That’s how I’ve had to be to protect myself. I don’t understand why you couldn't tell me.”

“I was afraid you wouldn’t hear me, that you’d never listen. Most people where I come from, they hear my last name and centuries of history is immediately heaped on my shoulders. It’s a fucking weight I hate carrying. It was so nice to be anonymous here. I wanted a real job, I wanted to work with real people. I wanted something different. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I wish to fuck I had the first damn day I met you. I made a bad decision, the worst decision I could have made with you. I know that now, but I swear to god it won’t happen again. I’ll never hold anything back. No more secrets between us, I swear.” He snagged my chin and tipped my face up. 

“What about your parents?” I asked as if to prove that he and I could never work. 

“What about them?”

“Won’t they hate that you’re seeing someone like me?”

“Someone smart and funny and so generous it puts all of them to shame? I think they’ll be perfectly fine with it. And if they’re not, they can piss off.” The pads of his thumbs caressed my cheekbones. 

“So does that mean after the summer, you’re going home? Going back to Ireland? I’m not one of those clingy girls, but I know what I want, what I need, and if you pick up and leave, it will destroy me.”

“I’m not leaving you, love. Not ever. As long as you'll have me, I'm yours, and we'll stay right here. I’ll work this bar with you every night for the rest of our lives and be the happiest man alive.” Liam’s hands dropped from my face, one shoving deep into his pocket while the other cradled my palm. When he pulled his hand out of his pocket, a small, intricate ring with a vibrant emerald gleamed in his palm. “You ready for us, baby?” His eyes twinkled as he eased the ring onto my finger, the little crown facing inward. 

“That’s beautiful.”

“It was my grandmother’s Claddagh ring.” Liam stroked the metal band once it was seated on my finger. “It’s an Irish tradition. When it’s placed inward on your finger, it means your heart is closed. It means your heart is mine. I’ve carried it with me like a good luck charm, saving it for the right girl. You’re my girl, Charlie.”

A fresh wave of hot tears sprang to my eyes. How had I gotten so lucky? How had I done everything to push away this beautiful man and still he’d come back, still he’d proven that he loved me?

 Could I forgive him? Wholeheartedly. There wasn’t even a question in my mind anymore. 

“This is so beautiful. Thank you for coming back, thank you for telling me.” I threw my arms around his neck in a rush, plastering kisses across his neck as immense relief flooded my system.

“You don’t ever have to thank me for being there for you. It’s just what I do. You’ll never have to spend a single day wondering where I am because I’ll be right behind you, watching you, keeping you safe, loving you with every beat of my heart.”

I kissed him then, our lips hovering together, our breaths burned into one. Our tongues danced an erotic tango that set my heart and my mind on fire. 

I pulled away a few breathless moments later, my heart feeling as though it had sprouted wings in the space of just minutes. 

“What happened to your shoes?” I giggled, swiping at a happy tear pulsing down my cheek. 

“Under your bed. I was going to call, but Vince said that was our backup plan.” Liam shrugged. “He said if I was barefoot it’d pull on your heartstrings. I wasn’t allowed to put on another pair of shoes.”

“Vince? You had a backup plan with Vince? I thought you were smarter than that!” I teased, marveling at the lengths they’d gone to get my attention. “So I suppose Vince is the one who had a talk with Dad?”

“I don’t know anything about that. I figured if he found out I’d hurt his little girl, I wouldn't have a job tonight. But the backup plan was to beg and plead for my shoes back. We figured you couldn’t deny a barefoot guy.”

I laughed. “That sounds like a pretty bad plan.”

Liam smiled that cocky half grin that sent a shiver rocketing through my body. “Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t need a backup then.”

I shook my head before threading my fingers through his. “I came in to find a letter from my dad. It was amazing, so touching.” A smile curved my lips as I remembered the most precious gesture my father had ever offered me. “And he mentioned you.”

“Me?” Liam’s face fell with worry. 

“It was all good, somehow… he actually likes you.”

“Jesus, really?” Liam pushed a hand through his dark hair. “Didn’t expect that.”

“Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are.” I grinned before tucking my head against Liam’s shoulder, sucking in a full breath of his spicy scent. I felt it pass over my strung-out nerves and calm me. 

“Let’s never fight again,” Liam mumbled into my hair. 

“Promise,” I said, feeling more content than I had since my mother left. Liam had that special something that soothed all my hard edges and filled the dark cracks in my heart, just as Daddy had said. I knew now there was no way I could let him go, not ever again. 

Liam was all mine. We belonged to each other. I’d finally met someone I could trust just as wholeheartedly as I trusted my dad and brother. I never thought it would be possible, yet here he was in all his sexy Irish glory. 

I’d found my own four leaf clover. It looked nothing like I’d expected, and yet it was everything I wanted.

EPILOGUE

Liam

“You covering that shift tonight, babe?” I called through the large, empty space of our new home. 

We’d just moved in yesterday. I’d bought an empty plot of land on the outskirts of North Cambridge, far enough away from her family for some privacy, but close enough that we could still help out at the bar whenever her dad needed it. Vince Sr. was even talking about us taking over the bar someday, but Charlie thought I should put my business degree to work and open up a few more locations around New England. She wanted to keep de Rossi’s a local family brand. 

“Babe!” she called.

I pounded up the sweeping staircase and down the long hallway into our master suite. 

“I made other plans. I hope you’re not upset?” Charlie stepped out of our walk-in closet, a tightly bound black bustier and lacy boy shorts the only things covering her gorgeous curves. 

“I think I approve of this change of plans.” I stalked toward her. “Where’s the baby?” 

“Daddy took him for the night. Said we needed the break since it’s our anniversary and all.” She clutched my shirt at the collar and pulled me down to her lips. Her slow, deep kisses always made me lose my mind. 

“Really thankful for Grandpa tonight,” I mumbled against her lips before running my hands up her lace-clad body. 

“He made me promise that you’d make Irish stew this weekend.”

“Ah, of course he did.” I caught her bottom lip with my teeth, my cock flexing in my pants. I wanted her right fucking now. 

“You know, we were just leaving for our honeymoon this time a year ago.” Her tone grew wistful. 

“I remember. Going around Ireland in a golf cart,” I teased, remembering our road-trip-style honeymoon. 

She pressed up on her tiptoes and murmured against my ear, her palms trailing up and down my rigid form, “Dad loved that you flew him all the way to Ireland for the wedding.” 

“Why are we talking about this right now?” I mumbled against her neck between sweet little kisses. 

“Because I was just thinking that I love what a family man you are. It’s the reason I married you.”

I groaned, my hips rocking against her, desperate to relieve some of the ache she caused. 

“For instance, I don’t have to worry at all that you’ll be upset when I tell you I’m pregnant and we’re going to have two kids under the age of two.”

My mind froze to a dead halt. “Was that a hypothetical?” My gaze trained on hers, my hands stalled on her hips. 

She shook her head once before a mega-watt smile tipped her lips. “You’re going to be a daddy, Daddy.” 

“Charlie!” I pulled her into my arms and swung her around the large room. “Are you kidding? Don’t play with my heart.”

“Never.” She smiled then took my face in both hands and kissed me again. 

I hitched her legs around my waist and walked her carefully back to our bed. 

“God, I’m the luckiest man on earth. First you, then our beautiful little boy, and now another?” I circled my palms over her flat abdomen. “You know I love you pregnant. Something about seeing my baby growing inside you does things to me.”

Charlie’s hands pushed through my hair, her smile lighting up the entire room and brightening my life every minute of every day. “Show me.”

I groaned, fumbling to push the pants off my legs and get between hers. “You’re a vision. You steal my heart every day, but seeing your belly grow, watching that special glow light your cheeks… you steal everyone’s heart, but you’ve got mine chained.” 

“I love you so much.” She moaned against my lips and arched beneath me. 

“I love you more.” I pushed my fingers through her hair as I slid my cock between her legs. “You and our babies are the only things that matter to me in this world.”

A tiny groan ground from her throat when I invaded her delicious body. 

“Love sinking inside you, showing you how much I love you, sharing our love.” I pulled down the cups of her bra and attacked her pebbled nipples with my tongue, using decadent swirls and licks. Then I sucked on the rosy tips until I thought she might come from that stimulation alone. “Always so sensitive to my touch.”

She shuddered with my words. She loved when I talked dirty, told her exactly what was running through my mind when I was inside her, and I was a man who did not like to disappoint his wife. 

Wife. 

I was so goddamn lucky to have her. My beautiful American girl. 

I’d have ten more babies with her if she’d let me. I’d come from a big family, and I knew her dad loved having babies around. My parents were still an ocean away, but they tried to be as involved as they could, video-calling Mason at least once a week and sending treats and surprises from Ireland more often than that. 

“God, Liam, you feel so good.” Her voice grew throaty with arousal. 

I placed one more kiss on her nipple before taking her hips and flipping her over completely, her ass pointing in the air and desperate for me. 

“I know what you want, bad girl.” I slid a thumb between her curvy ass cheeks and pressed at the bud of her back entrance. 

She squirmed and moaned, urging me on. 

“I’m a slave to you, love.” I sank my shaft into her pussy and growled with intense pleasure.

She sucked in a ragged breath when my thumb pressed through, her arousal pulsing and helping my invasion. “Yes… more, Liam.”

“Christ, I love when you beg.” I planted a kiss at the nape of her neck as my thumb worked deeper into her arse, my cock pushing into the far depths of her body. 

“Oh God,” she whimpered as her hips took on a quicker rhythm. 

“Come for me, Charlie. Come all over my cock and show me who owns this body.”

“You, you own me, Liam.” Her words escaped in a desperate staccato as her muscles bunched and went rigid against me. 

She gripped the white sheets as I pounded into her, striving to hit that delicate bundle of nerves that always shot her over the edge and rocked her world. 

“That’s my girl.” I pressed a palm at her waist and held her still as her body shook, her orgasm spilling all over my dick and inciting my own release. “So brilliantly perfect.”

With another shallow thrust of my hips, my own orgasm exploded through my spine, my come coating her insides and reminding both of us who she belonged to. 

Charlie was mine. The most beautiful gift I’d been given, a girl who was always there to support me, laugh with me, and love me. 

I hadn’t known if I’d ever find anyone to see past all the weird parts of my life, but I’d found her, and hell if I would ever let go. 

“You had me from the very first day,” I said. “Day one, you were mine and I was yours. Only took me some work to make you see it.” I turned her chin toward me and placed a reverent kiss across her lips. “And I plan on saying thank you every day.”