He had her coming across his tongue twice before he moved his mouth up, trailing his lips across her stomach and her ribs before he was on his feet. He pushed his jeans and boxers down, pulling his socks off as he freed his legs.

Harper was lying at the center of the bed, and he kneeled down, the mattress dipping as he pulled her legs apart.

“What do you want to do about protection?” He had to ask before they went any further, before he lowered himself on top of her and completely lost his mind.

Her eyes dipped to his cock for just a second before she looked back up at him, the sexiest grin tilting her mouth. “Well, I know your swimmers are overachievers, but I don’t think you’re going to get me pregnant again.”

“Not what I was talking about.” He shook his head as he touched her knees, his palms sliding up the inside of her thighs.

Maybe touching her wasn’t going to help him in staying focused. Who was he kidding? She was naked—except for that necklace—and spread out in front of him. He was lucky he was stringing sentences together at this point. And really the thought of being inside of her with nothing between them was enough to obliterate his brain.

He’d never had sex sans condom.

“I’m clean.” He forced himself to look at her eyes as opposed to her gloriously naked body. “I haven’t been with anyone else since well before you and I was tested before that.”

“I’m clean, too. They did a full blood work up at my first doctor’s appointment.”

“Good,” he said as he leaned over her. He pressed his lips to her belly again, lingering there for a minute before he moved up her body. He spread more kisses across her ribs, stopping when he got to her breasts.

His gaze met hers as he lowered his mouth to one of her nipples and ever so slightly ran his tongue across it. This time she didn’t stiffen or flinch in pain. Quite the opposite in fact, her eyes closed as her head fell back onto the pillow and she moaned his name.

He repeated the move on her other nipple making her body writhe. He spent a minute or two showing her breasts the admiration they deserved, gently palming both as he ran his fingers and mouth across the softest, sweetest skin known to man.

“So beautiful,” he whispered as he brushed his lips over the swells. “Every. Single. Inch. Of. You.” And then he was moving up past her neck, and finally ending at her lips.

He settled between her thighs as they both staked claims to each other’s mouths. Harper’s hands were on his back, moving lower and lower until she grabbed his ass and thrust her hips up. She apparently wanted him inside of her just as desperately as he wanted to be there.

He pulled his mouth away from hers, looking down and finding her gaze.

“I need you, Liam.” That was the second time she’d said those words tonight and they’d killed him both times.

Killed. Him.

Everything about her killed him, and what she did next was no exception. She reached down, stroking his cock before she guided him inside of her. He slid in the rest of the way, ever so slowly until she was wrapped around him to the hilt.

Good God, he wasn’t going to survive this. What he was going to do was lose his damn mind. Nothing had ever felt this good. Nothing. Ever. In the history of anything.

He pulled out before he flexed his hips and slid back inside of her. A soft moan escaped her mouth as her body arched off the bed. The movement offered her breasts up and who was he to deny himself?

He lowered his mouth and gently swept his tongue across first one nipple and then the other. Her hands were in his hair, holding his head to her breasts. He slowly rocked his hips moving in and out of her at a torturous pace.

“Liam,” she gasped as she lightly tugged on his hair.

He pulled his mouth away from her chest and looked up at her. She dropped one of her hands, running her fingers down the side of his face and across his jaw, her nails rasping his beard.

“Harder.” Her eyes darkened as she said the word.

Harder? Okay, so she was trying to kill him. It was taking everything in him to not lose every ounce of his control.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He turned his head and kissed her fingertips.

“You won’t.” She pulled her legs up, her thighs cradling his body as she planted her feet on the mattress and thrust her hips up against him.

“Harper,” he groaned, dropping his head and trying to hold on.

But there was nothing for it. She grabbed his hand, putting it on her hip and making him squeeze tight as she continued to forcefully move against him.

When he looked up at her again he caught her gaze, and the need in her eyes was too much for him, but the next words out of her mouth were what really sent him over the edge.

“I trust you.”

He covered her mouth with his, breathing in her gasp and the moans of pleasure that followed. His hand on her hip tightened and he held on to her as he moved.

As they moved.

Together.

Neither of them held back, both of them taking every ounce of pleasure that they could find in each other. He was doing everything in his power to hold on to his release and wait for hers, but he wasn’t going to be able to hold out much longer.

It was all too good. Too perfect. Moving inside of her. Breathing her in. Finally being with her again. Finding what he’d been desperately missing. Finding her.

When he pulled back and looked down at her—at her black hair spread out across the pillow, at those violet eyes that were lost in pleasure, at the flush that was covering her skin, at her mouth that was gasping for air in between moaning his name in pleasure—his control snapped.

And not a moment too soon, either. Her hands were on his ass again and she was moving wildly underneath him. He levered himself up on his other arm and thrust into her powerfully.

Over. And over. And over again.

Harper’s back was arching off the bed as she cried out his name. Her body pulsed around him and he let go, spilling inside her. Neither of them stopped moving until they were both good and truly spent. And as his hips slowed he leaned down, pressing his mouth to hers.

“You were right,” he whispered between kisses.

“About?”

“It was different.” He pulled back just enough so that he could look into her eyes.

“And it’s more.” She smiled up at him.

“So much more,” he agreed.

*  *  *

Harper’s pregnancy wasn’t a secret to any of her friends. After she’d told her parents she’d gone and revealed the news to everyone else. In a few weeks’ time it would’ve been difficult to hide as she would be showing. Not to mention there were certain things she wasn’t doing…like drinking coffee or alcohol. Dropping those two habits was more than noticeable.

It wasn’t like Harper had a problem with alcohol or anything. She could be in social settings and not have a drink, but she would normally indulge in more than a few glasses of wine a week.

Also, there was the fact that one of her closest friends owned a bar. As she would usually go into the Sleepy Sheep for a beer and hang out at least one night a week, it didn’t go unnoticed by anyone in their circle when she stopped.

And finally, as her friends were breeding like a bunch of Catholic rabbits, the signs were all there and more than obvious.

Another thing that Harper hadn’t kept from everyone was who the father was. So when they found out that Liam was going to be in town, it was demanded that they get to meet him. As Harper’s parents’ got first dibs, her friends got second.

They weren’t the only ones making demands on a meet-and-greet, either.

Liam’s siblings—Adele and Logan—had made the trip over the night before along with Abby and another one of the Stampede players, Jace Kilpatrick. As it turned out, Jace was not only good friends with Logan but Liam as well.