Destined To Be A Dad (Welcome To Destiny Book 9) by Christyne Butler Page B

she’d loved him. Loved all of them.
    So much so that she’d turned her entire world upside down, provoking the wrath of her parents with her plan to go to college in America. It had taken time, but she’d managed to get everything in place so that she could surprise him—
    “You bloody well surprised him, all right. Then he shocked you.” Her whispered words filled the air, her fingers clutching the railing, nails biting into the wood as she rocked back and forth. “And nothing was the same after that.”
    A chill raced through her, whether from the night air or the fact that she was even more unsettled now than before she came out here, she didn’t know. But it was time to head back inside.
    When she turned around, a man leaning against a nearby post, barely visible in the dark, caught her eye. Missy gasped and stumbled backward, but then Liam was there, pulling her into his arms, steadying her.
    “Are you okay?” he asked. “I didn’t mean...”
    His voice faded as she clutched at his wrinkled, unbuttoned dress shirt, the bare skin beneath hot to the touch. That same heat flowed through the silk of her gown from where his hands held her, igniting a burst of need deep inside her.
    A swift intake of much needed air brought a clean, sharp, yet woodsy scent to her nose. A scent so familiar her stomach tightened at the memory.
    “Missy?”
    His features were still obscured by the shadows, but she could see a lock of dark hair falling forward as he stared down at her. It was as if the last sixteen years faded away and all she saw—felt—breathed—in front of her was the boy she’d once loved more than life itself.
    A foolish love, childish infatuation, a crush.
    A mistake.
    That’s what she’d been told after it ended, by her girlfriends, her parents. Labels she’d repeated often, come to believe, clung to, as the months and years passed. But while they’d been together...
    Loving him, being loved by him, had been magical.
    He pulled her closer, dipping his head. She responded by pressing up on her toes, her curves aligning to the solid wall of his chest, bringing her face even closer to his.
    “Liam.”
    His name rushed past her lips in a hushed whisper. A low groan escaped from his seconds before his mouth landed on hers.
    It was like coming home.

Chapter Four
    T his was not why he’d come here. He should have made his presence known when he’d first arrived. Surprised when the outside light hadn’t come on, he’d paused, ready to call out to her, but had found himself leaning against the post at the top of the stairs as a way to get the crazy beating of his heart under control.
    And yeah, so he could look at her, standing there, bathed in the moonlight, dressed in a silky bathrobe.
    Then she’d spotted him.
    Now, she was in his arms, rising to meet his mouth. She smelled the same, felt the same, and finally holding her caused that familiar electric charge to return, the same one that sang in his veins the moment she’d stepped from the car earlier tonight.
    How was that possible after all this time? Why had he wanted her just like this, just this close, from the moment he’d seen her again? A woman who’d kept his daughter from him?
    Not her fault. None of it.
    Hard as it was to understand why parents would do that to their own child, he believed her story. And yet, she’d kept the possibility she might be carrying
his
child from him.
    Shouldn’t he be upset with her for that? Never mind that she planned to take Casey away again in just a few days.
    None of that mattered at the moment, not when her lips trembled beneath his as he reacquainted himself with the taste of the first girl he’d ever loved.
    Her fingers fisted in his shirt as she rose even higher to meet him, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. Angling his head, he released her shoulders only so he could cup the softness of her cheeks with his palms.
    He delved his fingers deep into her hair, itching to loosen the golden strands