She cut off quickly when I slammed my hand against the door and put my face directly in front of hers. "You are mine."

"You do not know me, Liam Taylor, don't you dare act like you own me!"

"Don't I?" I challenged. Without giving her a chance to respond, I continued, "One last time, Kennedy. Why are you pushing me away when I know that's not what you want?"

"I don't know what you want me to say anymore!" she yelled. "What do you want, Liam? Do you want me to say you're right? Okay, yes! Yes, Liam, I want you! Obviously you already know that. But I can't-"

Before she could finish, I pressed my mouth firmly to hers. An aggravated moan rose up her throat before her lips parted-and then she was grabbing me and pulling me closer. My tongue slid into her mouth, and each stroke was matched with one of hers. If I had been watching us, I wouldn't have known if we were kissing or fighting. Like the night in Vegas over a year ago, there were hands searching, I was situating myself between her legs and biting down on her lip, and she was moaning and arching away from the door-all the while we both fought to be in control of the kiss.

I knew the exact moment she gave in to it. Her body relaxed against the door, her hands began clinging to me instead of grabbing, and her moans turned into soft whimpers. But like at the bonfire, her body suddenly stiffened and she began pushing against my chest. When I looked down, her eyes were glued to her hands, her breathing ragged.

"I can't," she whispered.

"What?"

"I can't do this."

"No. No, you can't go back to that."

She pushed harder, but I held her against the door-afraid if I let go she would leave and that would be it for us. "It doesn't matter if I want you or not, I can't be with you! Don't you get that?"

"No, I don't! For so many reasons, including what just happened, I don't buy that bullshit for a fucking second!"

She shook her head, indecision and fear covering her face.

"Tell me why you're scared. Tell me why you're fighting this."

"Scared?" Kennedy gave me a puzzled look and laughed. "There you go acting like you know me again, Liam. You don't. You don't know me, and you do not own me. You need to forget about what happened between us."

"Forget about you?" I asked softly. "You can't ask me to do that."

Her dark eyes bounced back and forth between mine for a few seconds before they dropped to the floor. "After what I saw of you and that girl this afternoon, I don't think it'll be that hard for you."

"What you saw with Cecily was her trying to make sure you would want nothing to do with me-nothing more."

She shook her head a few times and choked out, "I can't." The words came out thick, and I watched her face tighten as she fought through whatever emotion she was trying to hide from me.

"Kennedy," I whispered, and leaned close to speak into her ear. "Yes, you can. If you would give us a chance, you'd see exactly why I would be good for you. You're scared; I want to erase your fears. You're fighting something that happened long before you met me; I want to face whatever it is head-on so the pain in your eyes goes away."

She didn't say anything for long moments, but I stood there waiting for the words that would either confirm what I already knew or cause me to back off for good.

"Moon, please," I begged.

Her hands pressed against my chest again, and I held back a disappointed sigh as I took a step away. But as soon as I raised my head, her hands were curling into my shirt and she was reaching up to crush her lips to mine.

This time there was no fight. Kennedy never tried to gain control. Her body immediately relaxed between mine and the door, and she easily moved with me when I pulled her farther into the bedroom.

Our lips never parted as I laid her on the bed and followed her down until I was hovering over her. One of her knees curled up along my side when I settled my body onto hers, and I ran my hand up her long leg, pushing the loose material of her skirt up her thigh until it was bunched in my hand against her hip. Moving down her throat, my lips made soft passes against her skin, and a frustrated whimper escaped her mouth at the teasing touches. My fingers gripped against her hip and the bed as the need to run my hands over her grew stronger, but I knew if I went there, I wouldn't stop-and I needed to stop. "You're done pushing me away," I said against her skin.

"I'm done," she agreed breathily. Kennedy's hands moved from where they'd been gripping my shirt between our chests, and made a slow trail down. The moment they touched the skin just above the top of my shorts, I groaned against her neck as I fought with myself over what I knew we needed, and what we both obviously wanted. Before she could do anything else, I pushed away so I was hovering high above her, and stared down into her dark blue eyes.

"We already know what we're like together, Kennedy. I'm not making the mistake of starting this with another night like in Vegas."

"You're saying Vegas was a mistake?" she asked huskily, but even with the breathy sound of her voice, it was obvious she was joking.

"Never. But sleeping with you the moment you give yourself over to me again would be a mistake. You could easily disappear from me in the morning, or realize how much you don't want this once the night is over because I rushed things with you again. I'm not taking that chance."

She looked at me for a long moment without saying anything, her eyes thoughtful. "And if I'm the one who wants tonight to go a certain way?"

The corners of my mouth curled up, and I leaned closer to run my nose down hers and kiss her quickly. "You wouldn't be the only one who wanted it, but it wouldn't matter if you begged for it. I'm not risking it after fighting so hard for you. You finally acknowledging that you are mine is all I need tonight. I've been waiting for that moment since you fell back into my life, Kennedy Ryan." After another slower kiss, I pushed up and rolled away from her to sit on the bed.

Kennedy followed me up, but sat facing me. "That girl-what'd you say her name was?"

I looked at her with my forehead bunched together, but before I could ask who she meant, I knew the answer from the way her eyes took on that same betrayed look they'd had this afternoon on the beach. "Cecily?"

"Right, Cecily. Who is she?"

As much as I wanted to say she was nobody, I knew I couldn't. To any other girl in my life, that would have been my immediate answer . . . but not to Kennedy. "She was one of many girls who meant nothing more than the fact that she was convenient to have around. She also works for your uncle, and we'd been . . . uh, seeing each other for a handful of months before you moved here. Nothing ever happened outside of work or our places. If we happened to be out with the same group, we acted like we worked together and that was it. That was what I liked about her. She wasn't clingy, and she saw me simply as someone who could satisfy a need. It wasn't until I backed away and started turning her down when you moved here that she got mad. I think she wanted to make you ignore me, and have me make a big scene so it would look like she had been wronged."

Kennedy raised an eyebrow and cleared her throat. "Is this-is that what you're wanting from this?" she asked, using a finger to indicate the two of us.

I laughed and shook my head once. "Are you serious? No. If you were like them, I wouldn't have thought twice about trying to pursue you-especially after the first time you made it clear you didn't want anything to do with me."

Kennedy's eyes got bright with amusement, and the look was so welcome after the intense beginning of this conversation. "Oh, a little confident there? So many women fall at your feet that you don't have to bother yourself with something like pursuing one of them? Must be nice."

I huffed softly and stood. Grabbing her hand, I pulled her up with me and over to the door. Just before I opened it, I turned to face her and waited until her eyes were locked on mine. "No one was ever worth the chase. But you? You will be worth it every time. I will always chase you, Kennedy."

8.

June 27 Kennedy AT THE SOUND of knocking, I shot Kira a look and stood to go open the door. "I don't need dates, Liam," I said by way of a greeting.

"Yes, you do," he countered, and smiled at Kira.

"I don't do dates."

"Neither do I, which is exactly why we should." Stepping into the doorway, he laid one hand on my waist and passed his lips across my forehead. "You look beautiful."

It'd been two weeks since I finally gave up trying to fight my attraction for him, and every time we'd hung out in that time, he'd asked if he could take me on a date. I just didn't see the point in going on one when we were together all the time, and dates to me meant that there would be a small title attached to what we were-and I wasn't a fan of titles anymore. It had taken Kira agreeing for me to get to this night. But I had to admit-with his confidence, sweet observation, and nonchalant attitude toward the whole night, he was already making it easy to go through with it.

After my initial swoon at hearing his deep voice tell me I looked beautiful, I shook my head and tried to hide my smile. "This is stupid."

"I don't care, we're still doing it. I even made reservations-we're going all out tonight."

I stopped trying to fight my smile, but still raised one eyebrow. "We're going all out, and I don't even get flowers?" I asked, trying to sound hurt. I clicked my tongue and whispered, "Strike one, Mr. Taylor."

"You mean these?" He brought his other arm out from around his back, and produced a brightly colored bouquet.

"Aw, look at you being sweet."

"I tried," he said with a cheesy grin.

I took the flowers from him and started backing up to put them in a vase, but Kira was right behind me and took them out of my hand. "I've got this, you two go."

"See you later," I called out to her after she'd retreated, and followed Liam outside and to his car. My eyes widened in surprise when he opened the door for me, and I couldn't hold back my smile as I slid inside.

"Okay, fine. The first strike has been erased," I said once we were reversing out of the spot.

"Good," he huffed, and sent me a look. "Because I have no fucking clue what I'm doing."

"Ah, yes, of course. Because you're used to having girls just fall at your feet, right?"

"Exactly," he responded immediately, his eyes never leaving my face. "Until you."

We'd barely reached the street outside of the complex when a car behind us began honking repeatedly. Looking behind us, I saw the driver was waving with one arm, and his passenger was holding both her hands out and mouthing the word stop.

"What the hell?" Liam whispered, but pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down his window.

The car pulled up beside him, and the lady pointed to the back of the car. "Your tire is flat!"

Liam looked in his side mirror, then out the car toward the back. "Are you kidding me?"

"Nope. Sorry, man, but it is flat flat."

With a wave, Liam mumbled a thank-you, and sighed when the other car pulled away. When he turned to look at me, his eyes widened as he saw how hard I was trying to hold in my laughter. "This is funny?"

The laughter finally burst past my lips, but I cut it off quickly. With an amused expression, I asked, "Did you not see this?" I pointed to the huge screen on his dash. At the top was a warning about the pressure in the tires.

Liam sighed, and looked like he was kicking himself. "Wait. You saw it and you didn't say anything?"

"No, no. I saw it after those people pulled up and started talking to you." Liam was looking at me like he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth, and I laughed. "I swear! But can we bring back strike one now?"

He rolled his eyes, but I didn't miss his smile as he got out of the car and popped the trunk. Once he'd taken the spare out and disappeared behind the rear of the car, I got out and went around to watch him.

"Stay in the car," he ordered, but his tone was gentle. "I don't want you out here in case anything happens."

"Oh no, this is a must watch. Besides," I mumbled as I took a picture of him, "Kira needs to see how the night is starting off."

Liam raised one hand to flip me off before going back to jacking up the car, and I couldn't help but laugh again.

It wasn't long before the spare was on and we were heading toward the restaurant. The entire way there, we talked about the only other time he'd gotten a flat, and I told him about all the times Kira and I had gone out to our cars to find our dad had taken off a tire and hidden it when we were supposed to be grounded.

The second we stepped inside the restaurant, I was blasted by a distinct smell, and I looked around to try to find the name of the restaurant-since I hadn't bothered to look while we were outside. I didn't have time to find what I was looking for, but kept my mouth shut as we were led back to a booth. I just hoped like hell that there would be something on the menu that I could eat.

After quickly glancing through everything, I bit back a smile and had to hide my face from Liam for a minute before I dropped the menu to the table and looked at him.

"You already know what you want?" he asked, surprise coating his words.

"Uh, well, if you want to end this date in the ER, then I can try to find something," I offered, and my lips stretched into a wide smile when he looked at me in confusion. "Liam, I'm allergic to seafood."

"Bullshit."

I shook my head. "Not bullshit. I'm allergic to anything that comes from water, and if it's something from the bottom of the ocean, it's bye bye, Kennedy."

His face fell, and a soft laugh bubbled past my lips. "Why didn't you say anything when you saw where I was taking you?"

"I didn't know! I wasn't paying attention when we walked in. When I smelled it, I was hoping there would be something else I could eat. Coming from Tampa, there are obviously a ton of restaurants with seafood, but more often than not, there are other things on the menu as well."

His eyes widened, and he leaned over the table. "Don't touch anything! We'll get out of here, just try not to touch anything!"

I laughed at his panicked expression, but did as he said as I slid out of the booth. Our waiter was walking up as we got out, and after a short explanation from Liam, we were walking out of the restaurant.

"Strike two?"

Liam didn't seem to find this funny; he was looking at me like he was waiting for something drastic to happen. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Liam, really, I'm fine. My allergy's not so bad that I can't be in a restaurant that serves fish. If my hands touch something that has had any kind of contact with anything I'm allergic to, then my hands swell up and start itching. If I actually touch a food I'm allergic to, then I'll be sucking down Benadryl like it's water. But if I were to eat it, then it would be really bad." Lifting my hands for him to inspect, I wiggled my fingers for a second. "All I touched was the menu. I'm fine."

He sighed heavily and wrapped an arm around my waist to lead me back toward the parking lot. "I swear to God, this night is already a fucking disaster."

"You still have one strike left, don't write off the night yet," I teased.

Liam was mumbling about flat tires and trying to kill me when we got to the car and he abruptly stopped walking. Releasing my waist, he searched his pockets quickly before uttering a curse and trying the passenger side door. It was locked. "You've got to be fucking kidding me," he groaned.

I laughed loudly and leaned forward to look into the car. When I saw the keys in the ignition, I started giggling so hard that I snorted, which made me laugh harder and hold myself up against his car so I wouldn't fall. "How-how did-oh my God, I'm sorry. I can't," I forced out between hysterics. "How is it locked?"

Liam was looking straight ahead with an expression that had me laughing even harder, and doing everything not to pee myself. "If the car is turned off, the doors automatically lock after a few minutes."

I was laughing so hard that no sound was coming out, and all I could do was hold up three fingers, indicating strike three.

After calling someone to come open the car, we waited for forty-five minutes in the parking lot until Liam sucked in air and whispered harshly, "Fucking son of a bitch."

"What?" I asked in alarm, and looked around us.

"Don't," he warned as he left my side and went to the driver's-side door. "Don't say a damn word." With his frustrated stare fixed on me, he pressed his fingers to the very edge of the driver's-side door, and his door unlocked.

My brow furrowed before my eyes and mouth widened, and immediately I began laughing all over again. "Fingerprint sensors?"

"I've never used it before, I forgot about it."

As soon as I heard my door unlock, I pulled it open and got inside. I wasn't laughing anymore, but I couldn't stop smiling-and that smile got even wider when I saw his face.