A Perfect Love (5 page)

It hadn’t been that long since our wedding, but already my parents appeared to wear an easier smile. They didn’t seem to have moments when they’d be absorbed in thought, waiting to pounce and protect. I really needed to talk to them about getting away and having a break.

“It’ll be fine. You know your mum will cluck, even though she says she’s in no rush for grandkids, and your dad will want to start building a fort or something outside in preparation. That’s okay. We can let them do that. And if they begin to get too much, you can go into hibernation, days at a time.”

“It’s summer.” I was being facetious.

Liam paused from taking a sip of his tea and quirked his right brow, tilting his head.

“What? I was just pointing out that creatures don’t hibernate in summer is all.”

Shaking his head in response, Liam continued. “My point is it will be fine. Don’t sweat it.” He took a large mouthful of tea and sighed in contentment.

I yawned, covering my mouth. “Okay.” Taking another bite of toast, I chewed and swallowed before speaking. “What are your plans today?”

“I need to check over just a couple of things on the new contract that’s come in. I want to have a look at my bike, too. Other than that, not a fat lot.”

I snickered. “Look at your bike. No doubt you mean that literally, weirdo.”

He puffed out his chest. “No, I need to just do a couple of things on it.”

“And then take it out for a test ride, huh? You know, if you want to just go out for a ride, you don’t have to pretend your bike needs working on. You’ve never needed a reason before.”

He shrugged. “I know.”

I wasn’t convinced. His lack of eye contact was a dead giveaway. “Do you? What’s going on? You’re acting a little weird.”

Placing his mug and plate on the bedside table, he scooted down the bed a little, leaned toward me, lowered the bed sheet, and kissed my bare belly. “I just…you know what a dick I can be sometimes on my bike.”

I couldn’t help it. I scoffed and was pretty sure I was hallucinating. Liam had just admitted he was a knob head on his bike. For years, I’d groaned, spat and hissed at him to slow the crap down and stop doing little dick moves. He was convinced it had the opposite effect on his dick over the years, much to my vocal denial. Anyone who thought doing wheelies on an open bloody road for God knows how long was a prick. Okay, so he was hot as hell, and his skill always got me ridiculously horny, but I was never, ever going to let him know that. It would have made him worse. But seriously, it was bloody dangerous. He’d broken a couple of bones and had a few quite serious scrapes, but at that moment, his admitting he could be a dick made me do a double take.

Liam lifted his head to look at me. “What?” His eyes were wide open and a slight smile played on his gorgeous lips.

“Seriously?”

“Well, with the baby, you know, I thought it was time I stopped. I know every time I head out on my bike, you panic.” He kissed my soft stomach again, and I laced my fingers through his hair and gently stroked his head.

He was right; I did. I was a walking contradiction. I loved that he rode. His bike was sexy, and I loved holding him close and going out with him. We’d had quite a few adventures and hot moments on his bike over the years, but when he was by himself, I freaked the crap out, terrified he wouldn’t come home to me.

“I just thought the last thing you needed was to worry about me, is all.”

I had no idea if it was possible for a heart to spasm and grow from a few simple words. All I knew was that my eyes filled with tears and I held my breath while my heart ached a little. My beautiful, sexy, dick of a man was absolutely perfect and a whole heap of wonderful. The fact that he would even consider quitting riding to stop me from worrying blew me away. I may have had a mini-orgasm in the process. I sniffed and brushed away the tears as they slipped from my eyes.

“I’ll always worry about you, softie, whether it’s going out for a drink with your mates, travelling to work in the car or being on your bloody bike. I worry ‘cause I love you so damned much.” I looked around for a tissue and eyed the bed sheet before I caught Liam looking at me and I thought better of it. “I don’t want you to stop riding. Yes, I want you to stop being a prick and doing stupid shit, and slow down, but I always want you to have the freedom to ride. I know you need it.”

I watched as Liam leaned to his bedside table and grabbed a handful of tissues from the box. He handed them to me, and I unceremoniously wiped my eyes and blew my nose after putting my tea down.

Liam smiled, a beautiful, tender smile, which only came out when I knew I was being a big suck. He leaned in and kissed me on my forehead. “You okay?”

I shrugged and laughed. “Stupid bloody hormones. I’m fine, honest.”

“Did you mean it?”

Nodding and sniffing, I said, “Absolutely. Just be safe and keep coming home to me.”

Taking me by the waist, Liam shimmied me down the bed, spread my legs, and lay on top of me, groin to groin but off my stomach. I looked into his eyes and smiled at what I saw. I was confident the love I saw shining in them reflected my own. It was rare for me to be mushy, but to be honest; Liam always managed to chip away at my edges and made me melt with a simple word or touch. This time, it had been a double whammy and I was convinced I would be leaving a wet spot on the bed. “Always. Never doubt I’ll always come home to you, baby.” Definitely a puddle moment.

His lips met mine and I opened to him, welcoming his tongue. The shiver travelling down my spine hit my sweet spot and had me arching in for more. Breaking the kiss, he left a trail of smooches down my neck. I happily angled my head to give him better access. I did love lots of sweet attention to my neck. As a content sigh escaped my parted lips, there was a knock on the front door. Liam’s kisses paused. He raised his head and looked at me, a frustrated smile on his lips.

“You expecting anyone?”

I shook my head in response. “Maybe it’s just Jehovah’s Witnesses. If we ignore them, they’ll just go away.”

He laughed and continued to kiss down to my breasts, his hot mouth finding my nipple. “I like your way of thinking,” he said between nibbles.

I pushed my sensitive breasts toward his mouth. I’d noticed they’d become increasingly tender over the last week. It was an added bonus when his mouth and hands wrapped around them. I sighed again, let my hands travel to his firm backside and squeezed.

“I know you’re in there.” The voice travelled through the front door followed by a hard knock.

“Shit,” I groaned. Bloody Ella would be experiencing the wrath of a horny, pregnant woman. Bloody cow.

Liam laughed into my breasts and rolled off me. “You know she won’t leave. We best get up.”

I huffed. Ella had a knack for being a cock blocker. Some best bloody friend she was. She regularly managed to interrupt us when I was getting happy, or about to. Her argument was that it was our fault for getting it on at every opportunity possible, and in some slightly obscure places. I had to give her kudos on the obscure. I was not one for public sex, but sometimes, we couldn’t help but find a large tree to hide behind. In my defence, though, the bottle tree at the races that one time was pretty huge. Liam had convinced me we were hidden. Ella had great delight, mid-thrust, letting us know we weren’t, making us aware that security were heading our way. But at 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning, I was allowed to be banging my hubby in bed. It was my God-given right. Well, that was my version of the vows we made to one another, anyway.

“Okay, I’m getting up.” Getting out of bed, Liam smacked my arse and shifted quickly out the way when I turned to him. “Yeah, you better run.”

Laughing, he headed to the bathroom while I threw on my PJs and headed to my best friend, who had no sense of timing.

By the time Ella left, I had a list of jobs and was thoroughly exhausted, again. So much for a relaxing weekend. She’d talked me into needing a bubble bath and my bed, yet it was only early afternoon. Coming armed with baby books and a list of websites to visit, we’d worked out what I had to do. Okay, there was no
we
involved; it was a royal
we
for sure. She’d organised me, colour-coded me, and as a result, I had about a hundred bookmarked sites on my Google Chrome, all separated into damn folders. I hadn’t even realised you could create folders.

I looked at my list and felt a little shell-shocked. Glancing around my kitchen, I considered how my life had moved on and changed over the years. With this thought, I couldn’t help the grin forming on my face even if I wanted to, which I absolutely didn’t. Armed to the eyeballs with all sorts of knowledge, I finally reached a place where my panic was turning into a bubble of excitement.

Placing my hands on my stomach, I continued to smile. I wondered what it would be like to feel my baby kick. What I would look like in four months’ time. I was caught in my grinning pose by Liam. He closed the kitchen screen door behind him, forcing my head up when I heard the catch.

“Is it all clear?”

Nodding, I said, “It certainly is.” I remained transfixed, hands on tummy and eyes gazing into Liam’s. Damn, he looked hot. He had grease on his face, grubby torn jeans, and a vest, which he smoothly took off, revealing his tanned perfection of a chest.

“What are you looking so pleased about?” He headed to the kitchen sink and washed his hands.

My eyes focused on his back and the artwork across his skin. I’d had reservations when he’d got himself inked a few years back. The thought of a wrinkly tattoo on an old bloke made me scrunch my nose, but he’d explained, “Babe, you know it’s the time and the memory that counts, that matters. This is about us, you and me, and our future together. We’ve survived the unimaginable and will keep focused and strong. This is about loving and cherishing the moment. It’s all us, babe.”

I knew he had meant every word, and there was no way I could argue a syllable of it. Every time I saw even a hint of his ink, which spread across his back and covered his right shoulder and bicep, I melted a little more inside.

I kissed a patch of it on his shoulder blade when I stopped behind him. He turned around, shaking his wet hands in the sink and held me back. My arms were securely around his waist. “I love you.” I stood on my tiptoes and strained for a kiss. He scooped down to find my lips, pulled away slightly, and pressed his forehead against mine.

“You too, babe. Love you, too.”

I smiled, pinched his arse, and pulled away. “I’m going to go and take a nanna-nap. You off out?”

Nodding, he answered, “Yep.” A shadow passed over his eyes, a look of concern I was never happy to see. Within a moment, it had vanished and a large smile appeared instead. “I’m going to take her out for a test ride. I may stop off and see
Craig and Kevin
while I’m out.”

I rolled my eyes. “May, huh?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t caught up since the wedding, and I barely said more than a few sentences to them that day.”

I raised a brow. “Sorry, did you want to spend time with your boys on our wedding day?” I laughed.

“Yeah, right.” He stepped toward me. “There was no chance of that. Not with you looking so damn hot.”

Grinning, I welcomed his lips. This man of mine regularly screwed up, was known to say the wrong bloody thing, but then he’d go and say everything right. Planting one last kiss on his lips, I stepped back. “Okay, babe. Just take it easy, and say hi to the boys for me. Can you pick up a takeout on your way home, too, please?”

“Sure thing.” He headed through the hallway toward the store cupboard to collect his jacket and helmet. I considered watching and waving him off, but thought better of it. Every time he sat astride his bike, I couldn’t help it; I melted into a hot sticky puddle of need. Liam would be finding out just how sticky when he returned. And while I had a glorious, glittery B.O.B., one of my bizarre pre-wedding gifts from Ella, I preferred to use that little beauty when Liam was operating it rather than by myself.