"Enzo lied about being the double agent. Who knew, right?" I snuggle deeper into Liam's embrace.

The soft cotton sheets are such welcome comfort after the rollercoaster of emotions the past few hours have brought.

Liam chuckles. "The irony is delicious," he admits, his voice husky with amusement. "All that talk about working undercover, about being a part of a special police task force."

"I hate it how he was playing me for a fool all along. Even us... Our relationship. It was all a goddamn lie. He was planted to live with me for the past two years, and my father did it."

I fall silent for a moment, the memory of Enzo's self-righteous charade still fresh in my minds.

"At least we figured it out," I say, tracing a finger along Liam's chest. "Thanks to you, of course. You always see right through people. Had you not come to the apartment with Patrick and warned me..."

Liam leans down, nuzzling my neck with his warm breath. "We figured it out together, sweetheart," he corrects gently. "Don't sell yerself short. Ye were the one who noticed the inconsistencies in his story. I just helped you connect the dots."

"Still, Liam," I insist, "you're the one with the top instincts. Honestly, I don't know what I would have done without you."

It's true that Liam Cavanaugh was and still is a Captain of an Irish mob branch in Dublin. But at least he never pretended to be anyone else, like Enzo did.

How many identities did that man have? A fake police officer, a fake doctor...

A fake boyfriend?

A fake father to Sophie?

I swallow.

Liam's gaze meets mine in the dim light. His emerald eyes are softened with tenderness. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Alex. How could you have known? You thought you finally started a new life." He swallows. "A life... without me. And I wouldn't have known where to begin without you, Alex. In the end it's only right. You were one who was brave enough to confront Enzo, to see through his lies."

His words send a blush creeping up my cheeks. Liam always knows to say the right thing. He's not wrong. It is somehow fitting. Maybe Enzo was lying to me for almost two whole years, representing our encounter as "accidental," but I busted him.

Maybe facing down a dangerous mob doctor wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, but the thought of Liam believing in me, of us being in this together, makes it all worth it.

I reach up, cupping Liam's face in my hand. "Thank you for bringing my attention to it. We make a good detectivesque team, wouldn't you say?"

A slow smile spreads across Liam's lips. "The best," he murmurs, before leaning down to capture my mouth in a kiss. It's a kind of kiss that seals an unspoken deal between us, bearing the gift of relief, teamhood and deeper feeling.

Feeling that I am dreading a bit.

I'm just not sure about it all. Liam and I, sharing a bed on a regular basis. Oh it's enjoyable now, rubbing my cheek against his three-day-stubble, tracing my fingers alongside familiar contours of his chest, inhaling his briny scent which sends the skin on my forearms into delightful goosebumps.

But what about our future?

Nothing has changed.

He still is not someone I could see raising my daughter with. Even if he is her father.

His soft tongue tip on my right nipple forces me to let out a gasp.

My mind knows this is not going to work in the long run.

Yet my body craves him so much, so much of Liam Cavanaugh.

He is my own personal brand of drug.

Before I can talk myself out of round two with him in the sheets, his tongue is already working on my left nipple, and both stand aching, erect to his attention, as wetness pools between my legs.

No other man has ever managed to get me so ready and willing, so quickly.

Liam speaks the words out loud. "Ye are so hungry fer me, Alexandra. I dare ye to say it isn't so. And I need ye so much, sweetheart. Let's not deny this victory feast to each other."

"Oh, Liam..." is all I can utter before I part my thighs invitingly,

He starts thrusting then, short punches of his hips to keep as much stimulation on my g-spot as possible, and I let out a sharp gasp.

I didn't usually think so much during sex, because I had sex with men who weren't as experienced as Liam Cavanaugh. But with him, with someone who made love to so many women and who was damn good at it...

The pleasure peaks were otherworldly.

"I want ye to love getting fucked by my dick as much as I love fucking ye. There is no more perfect match than you and I, Alexandra," he moans.

And I do. I love getting fucked by his dick.

"Tell me that ye love it. Tell me." He orders, halting his ministrations.

"Please don't stop," I utter powerlessly.

It seems like Liam Cavanaugh is one brand of drug I can't wean off of so easily.

"I won't if ye tell me."

"God, yes." A pitiful layer of resistance, if there was any to begin with, crumbles against a tsunami of my desire. "I love it when you fuck me. There's never been anyone who could..." I groan as he moves inside me again. "Anyone who could make me cum like you can, Liam. Oh, Liam, please, just..."

Sweat builds between us slowly, the heat suffocating when he starts trusting frantically again.

My cries grow louder, my muscles tensing, and Liam keeps at it. The pressure between my legs is nearly unbearable and the urge to come burns under my skin like an inferno.

I won't be able to hold out much longer.

The bed rocks and the godawful headboard smacks against the wall with the force of his thrusts.

"Fuck, sweetheart," Liam moans. "I need to come. I want to come inside ye. I have been wanting to possess ye again for years."

"God, yes, Liam. Yes. Please come inside me."

I don't even know what I'm saying anymore. I'm his, and his only.

"You're going to take all of it like a good girl, no?"

My back arches, the walls of my pussy gripping him, while my right foot unconsciously rests on his buttock, inviting him even further in.

"Liam!" His name is all I can repeatedly chant, lost in the sensation.

A satisfied rumble echoes in my chest, pieces falling into place.

"My little nurse has a naughty side to her and she never even knew about it before she met me. I love this side of you, Alexandra. Do you hear me? I love it. And I love it that you show it just for me."

I match his thrusts with my hip movement, as Liam makes sure to hit the sweet spot inside me with each thrust while he keeps talking.

"I'm going to fill you up. As many times as it takes, and more after that. You'll let me fill you up, won't ye, Alexandra?"

The way he says my name makes me come undone. I start convulsing, my walls milking him. I hold on by a very thin string. It's too good and I can almost feel his cock throbbing as my own peak rushes up.

White light explodes behind my eyes, my head spinning with the force of my orgasm, as he ejaculates inside me in forceful spurts. It keeps going and going, jet after jet or hot fluid filling me up.

By the time he finishes, my arms are shaking and sweat is dripping from Liam's forehead onto mine, claiming me, coating me in his masculine scent, soaking the sheets beneath us.

Liam drops onto the mattress beside me, his muscles seemingly incapable of supporting his weight.

"Holy shite." His chest bellows like he's just run a race.

Still dizzy in this post coital bliss, I need a lifeline, an anchor.

Anything. Him.

Liam clutches my hand like a foolish, lovesick boy. And clutch his back like a foolish, lovesick girl that I am.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"Holy smokes." I am breathing hard as I angle to face him, and my legs tangle with his. "I had no idea it would be like that.'

It was never like that for me with any man except with Liam. In fact, I'd never experienced anything even close, with the burning need to touch someone, to breathe them in.

I try to tell him about it. "I'd never..."

"I know, sweetheart," Liam cuts in. "I'd never felt like this with any woman before ye, or after ye. And I am certain I never will. It's a special bubble of our own, a bubble where yer pleasure matters more than mine. It feels like I am lost and you are the only guiding light I have in this godforsaken world."

What he says is so beautiful. But I am afraid of saying it all back to him. Liam and Enzo, the last two men I trusted ended up hurting me so much, willingly or not that I had to learn to bury my tenderness. To hide it away.

Even if I am feeling exactly the same blissful thing as he is, I don't reveal it.

Feelings can sometimes be used to hurt me in the end.

"Thank you," is all I say, touched. And then I decide for a teasing approach. "Even though, when I think about it, I think you should be thanking me." I poke his arm.

"And why would I do that?

"Because I was awesome. Or were you not the one who shouted to the ceiling and nearly passed out during your orgasm a moment ago?"

We stare at each other, and smile.

The pure affection for Liam Cavanaugh tugs at my gut, and it's like he never left. Like the four years never separated us at all.

Liam drags the back of his knuckles along the soft edge of my breast. "So did ye, after I fucked ye senseless."

And he came inside me. I enjoyed the moment very much but it frightened me too.

It makes me think of Sofia. I see Liam in her and that scares me more than anything else.

Should I tell her the truth after all?

My mother never did so for me and so I grew up without knowing my father and without fatherly love.

In my case it was for the best. Kieran was and remains a cruel, despicable tyrant.

But children deserve love.

And Liam is nothing like Kieran.

Sofia so deserves to meet him, but what then?

What then?

Then we'd be back at square one.

As if Liam can sense that something is troubling me, he tries to distract me by pinching my nipple and rolling it between his fingers.

I let his forefinger travel south, over the streaks of cum on my stomach untli he reaches the juncture of my thighs. Wetness greets his fingertips, the proof of his orgasm and mine.

"Feel how slippery you are with me all over you. Now imagine it inside you. My seed."

"God," I whisper, my eyelids fluttering closed.

"Was it ever like this with Enzo, Alexandra?" He sounds tormented, almost maddened with jealousy.

I know he needs to feel like he was the only one, and he was, he truly was. Enzo was an attempt at something new, something different, but he never felt like Liam.

He never was a perfect fit.

Before I can open up my mouth to reply to his question, a cacophony of shouts erupts from downstairs. It's sharp, bothersome and urgent and it quickly tears through our quiet intimacy.

Panic explodes in my chest like a firecracker.

Liam shoots upright in bed, eyes wide with alarm, putting on his boxers and his pants lightning- fast.

"Let me, sweetheart," he says, dashing towards the door.

"What's going on?" I hear him demand from the top of the stairs of our bedroom, his voice hoarse from sleep.

There's no answer.

I scramble out of bed right after him, throwing on the first clothes I can find, adrenaline already coursing through my veins.

We race out of the bedroom and down the stairs together, two frantic shadows running through the gigantic mansion.

The shouting grows louder as we reach the foyer, punctuated by a choked sob that sends a jolt through me.

I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

It's Rigena.

There, in the center of the brightly lit hall, stands Ri, my best friend. Her face is pale and drawn, her eyes red-rimmed and overflowing with tears. Beside her, there's Patrick, with a worried expression on his face, as he offers her a steadying hand.

What are they doing here in the middle of the night? Have they driven to Castel all the way from Rome at the crack of dawn?

What could've possibly happ...

"Alex," Rigena cries out as soon as she sees me. She runs a mad dash until she reaches me, and then she throws her arms around me. The familiar scent of lavender and fear hits me like a physical blow.

"Oh my goodness, Alex, I... I never expected this. I could not have done anything to stop it. To prevent it. I am so, so, so, sorry." She keeps sobbing in earnest, her nails clawing at her face.

"Stop what? Prevent what? Please try to calm down and speak, Ri!"

Her agitation is overflowing so much that it now transfers to me. Even if I have no fucking clue what might have occured, I am terrified to see my darling bubbly, silly Rigena in this state.

I've never come to know her like this. What could have possibly caused such a powerful personality transformation?

"It's... Enzo... he took Sofia. He took her by force. He kidnapped her!"