Back to Life (23 page)

She
clawed at my back and whispered, “Are we alone out here?”

“No
one around for about two miles,” I answered back. I gently started to tug at
her panties, trying my best to not just rip them from her body.

“Good.
I want you, Liam. Now,” she said, and abruptly sat up, pushing me off for a
moment. Her hands reached around and found the zipper at the back of her dress
and she quickly slid it down. I placed my hands back at the bottom of her dress
and we both pulled it over her head. I gasped loudly as she fell back on the
blanket in nothing but her white lace panties and a white strapless bra. Seeing
her lying half naked on a blanket under a bevy of fireworks erupting overhead
was a memory I would never forget as long as I lived. She wiggled and undid the
clasp on her bra as I hooked my fingers into her panties and tugged them down.
Panting heavily, she said, “Clothes. Lose them, Tanner.”

I
grinned. “My fiancé is already bossing my ass around. I love it,” I said, and I
pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it into the sand next to her dress. She
tugged at my pants and I took over, sliding them off of me in one quick
movement. My erection sprung free and swayed slightly in front of her while I
was on my knees. She took hold of it and began to stroke it. I threw my head
back and moaned loudly. “Ah, fuck!”

She
then laid back again and pulled me down on top of her. “Please Liam, I need you
now,” she begged. “No teasing me, no making me plead for you. I need you inside
me right now, baby,” she said.

“Wait,
baby, I need to get a condom,” I said. She whimpered as I reached for my pants
and quickly took a condom out of my wallet. Thank God I had the foresight to
bring some with me. I quickly sheathed myself and before I could think Rory was
tugging at me again in desperation. I rested the head of my dick at her
entrance and she wrapped her legs tightly around my waist, trying with all of
her might to pull me in. “Rory, look at me.”

She
flashed her eyes to mine, and I could see green flecks dancing in them. “Liam…”

“I
love you, angel. Let me show you how much. Let me make love to you,” I
whispered to her, and then I slowly slid into her, making her cry out in
pleasure. She bucked her hips into, urging me to go faster, but I held back.
The woman I loved just agreed to be my wife, so right now I wanted nothing more
than to make love to her on the beach under a blanket of fireworks and stars.
While I continued my slow, agonizing rhythm, I leaned my lips down to hers and
I murmured against her sweet mouth, “You look and feel so beautiful right now.”

“I
love you so much, baby. You make me happier than I ever thought I could be,”
she said, breathing rapidly as I filled her to the hilt. “I’m so lucky to have
found you.”

“Believe
me, I’m the lucky one, baby,” I said through gritted teeth. She leaned her head
up to me and pulled me into a kiss, ending our conversation. No more words were
spoken as I took my time and gently made love to her until we both came apart
at the seams.

“Does
my makeup look okay?” Rory asked me as she smoothed the stray hairs back into
her ponytail.

I
zipped my pants back up and smiled at her. “Don’t worry, you look perfect.”

“Well,
with all of the crying and then the mind blowing beach sex we just had, I want
to make sure I don’t look like a raccoon when we go back to the house and tell
our families that we are engaged,” she said.

I
grinned at her and handed her shoes to her. “Don’t worry, baby, your makeup
looks great. No one will know you cried or just had the best sex of your life
while on a public beach.”

She
giggled at me. “Best sex of my life huh? You sound pretty confident in that
statement, mister.”

“Oh,
I’m a Tanner, baby, we’re all pretty confident,” I teased. “And soon you will
be too.”

“What?
A Tanner or confident?” she asked, a bright smile on her face.

I
leaned in and kissed her. “Both, and I can’t wait.”

“Me
either,” she said. I stood up and held my hand out for her. Taking it she stood
up and smiled at me. “So, are you ready to do this thing?”

“Bring
it on, baby,” I said, and she giggled again. After I grabbed our blanket and
folded it, we walked hand in hand with my fingers toying with her new ring down
the quiet, beautiful beach to my parent’s home to let everyone know the good
news.

“Well,
there you both are!” my mother exclaimed as Rory and I walked back into the
house. There were still several of my parent’s guests in attendance, including
an elegant looking woman dressed in an expensive looking white dress. She was
talking to a group of my dad’s colleagues, and I stared at her for just a
moment. She looked really familiar but I couldn’t place her. She was probably
an old colleague of Dad’s. She couldn’t have been too important for me not to
remember her. “We didn’t see you two during the fireworks show. Where did you
take off to?”

Rory
looked up at me, beaming, and squeezed my hand. I could feel the huge rock on
her finger lightly digging into my hand and I smiled at her. She gave me a slight
nudge, and I winked at her. “Well, Rory and I went for a walk down the beach
and watched the fireworks down there. You know, that is, after I asked her a
very important question.”

I
looked over at my mother, who was bursting with excitement. My father moved
behind her and placed his arms around her shoulders. “And what was that?” he
asked me, grinning.

“Tell
them, Liam,” Rory said to me, and she smiled.

“Wait
a moment,” my father said. “Can everyone gather around please? I think my son
has an announcement to make.” I looked at him and sighed. I silently hoped that
we could have told our families about this in private, I knew my parents were
happy to have me back in the family fold and they would want the news of their
only son’s engagement to be shouted from the rooftops, so to speak.

Soon
the room was full of guests, and Brody, Marissa, Nick, and Samantha had joined
in at my parent’s side, waiting for us to say something. As soon as the room
was quiet, my mother nodded in our direction. “Go ahead son,” she said.

“Well,
I can officially say that I am the luckiest man on the planet because this
gorgeous woman standing next to me has just agreed to be my wife,” I said,
turning to Rory and seeing joy exude from her. Cheers and congratulations
erupted from all over the room and a surge of people rushed toward us.

Mom
ran over to me and wrapped her arms around me. “See? I told you she would say
yes,” she said, kissing me on the cheek before releasing me to hug Rory. My
father gave me a tight hug and a quick “Congratulations, son” before releasing
me to embrace Rory as well.

“Oh
Liam,” Marissa said as she wrapped her arms around me, “congratulations! I
can’t begin to tell you how happy I am for you both. I just love you so much!”

“Thank
you, Marissa. Love you too,” I said, smiling. “Hey man,” I said as Brody gave
me a quick back pounding hug.

“Congratulations,
bro. I know you will make her happy, and no one in the world deserves it more
than her,” he said, emotion clear in his voice.

“I
will do whatever it takes to make her happy, you know that,” I said as we broke
apart. “I love her so much, man.”

“I
know you do, because if you don’t take care of her, I swear I’ll kill you and
hide the body, got it?” he said, and I choked back a laugh. “Sorry, I had to do
the brother thing for a minute.”

“I
know, Brody. It’s all good,” I said. After I got hugs from Nick and Samantha,
my eyes scanned the room for a moment before the line of people started to form
to wish Rory and I congratulations. My eyes fell on the lady I saw before, only
now this time she was looking in our direction, but her expression was anything
but warm and friendly. Her eyes were filled with annoyance. Before I could
think about why she would be looking at us like that, I felt Rory stiffen at my
side. I looked down at her and she looked much like the lady in the corner did,
only instead of irritation she looked shocked and furious. “Rory, baby, what is
it? What’s wrong?”

“What
the hell is
she
doing here?” she said, her voice full of fury and
surprise. My eyes trailed along her line of sight and found that her eyes were
locked with the mystery lady’s, who now looked like she was now horribly
offended that Rory was looking at her that way.

“That
lady in the corner? I don’t know, I have no idea who she is. Why, do you?”

She
started to breathe so rapidly that I thought she was going to hyperventilate.
“Liam, you need to get me out of here. Now,” she demanded.”

I
spun around and gripped her shoulders. “Why?”

“Because
I don’t want to make a scene at your parent’s home. Please get me out of here,”
she said, shaking with anger.

“Rory,
you need to calm down, you are shaking. What is wrong? Who the hell is that
woman?”

I
swear I saw fire blaze through her eyes and she shoved her hand in the woman’s
direction, pointing hard at her. “That’s Erica Darling, and she is a partner at
Mitchell, Sterling, Jacobs, and Darling where Mason worked. She was Mason’s
boss, Liam.
That’s
the woman responsible for his death!” she said, her
voice getting loud.

I
felt a mixture of fear and anger burn in the pit of my stomach. The fear wasn’t
for me and certainly not for Rory…it was for this Erica woman. If I knew
anything about my fiancé at all, it was that she wasn’t going to let another
chance like this pass her by as long as she stayed and she needed to leave
before she shredded this woman with her bare hands. I gripped Rory by the elbow
and was about to usher her out of the house when my mom stopped us. “Rory,
dear, what is the matter? Why are you pointing at Erica?” she asked, and I
couldn’t help but notice the way she said Erica’s name. It was laced with
contempt. Apparently my mother wasn’t a fan either.

Rory
lowered her hand and gave my mother a weak smile. “Vivian, I am sorry for being
rude, but I really need to go now. Please forgive me.”

Mom
shook her head. “Oh, darling, you aren’t being rude. I am just concerned about
you. Why don’t you sit down? You look like you are going to faint.”

Rory
shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just need to go,” she said.

Just
then, Marissa looked around to see what was going on and when she saw Erica her
eyes bugged out. “What the hell? Why is
she
here?” I heard Brody say.

“Okay,
someone needs to tell me what is going on right now. I am beginning to get
worried,” Mom exclaimed.

“Vivian,
I can’t, I’m sorry,” Rory said, tears forming in her eyes again. “Please
understand,” she begged.

“Rory,
normally I would respect your wishes, but I am very worried about you right now
and it is breaking my heart to see you in pain this way. Please talk to me?” Mom
asked.

Before
Rory could answer, Erica surprised us all and walked right up to our group and
stood before my mother. “Vivian darling, I’m so sorry to rush off, but I
remembered I have a meeting in the morning that I can’t miss so I need to head
back to the city. Lovely party,” she said, and was about to dash off when my
mother caught her by the wrist.

“Oh
no, you aren’t leaving yet,” Mom said.

Erica
looked taken aback. “Excuse me?”

“Well,
for some reason your presence here has seemed to have upset my daughter in law
and I want to know why,” she said.

I
shook my head. “Mom, trust me, just let it go. Rory wants to leave, and trust
me when I say its best if you let her, otherwise it’s going to get ugly,” I
whispered to her. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Marissa shooting fire
at Erica and Brody looked angrier than I had ever seen him.

“I
haven’t done anything to upset her, Vivian. Although, I do think we have met
before a few years back. You’re name is Rachel, right?” Erica said, looking
right at Rory.

Marissa
gasped loudly. “You have to be kidding me!” she said quietly and took a step in
Erica’s direction but Brody caught her arm. “Her name is Rory and you know
exactly who she is!”

Realization
crept across her face and she nodded. “Rory, of course. You used to date an
employee of mine before he died tragically, right? Mason Callahan, wasn’t it?
Well, it seems you have gotten over it and moved on and did well for yourself
since you seemed to have snagged one of the most eligible bachelors in New
York, cop or not,” she said, smiling a tempestuous smile.

Rory’s
face was burning red from anger. At that point there was no going back. Before
anyone had a moment to absorb the rudeness of Erica’s statement, Rory’s hand
reached out and slapped Erica
hard
across her obviously botoxed face.
Everyone gasped loudly and it was suddenly so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
My mother was the first to speak. “Rory! Why on earth did you do that?”

I
gripped Rory’s arm and Erica shrieked, “You are a cop, Liam! You saw that
right? She just attacked and assaulted me, unprovoked might I add! Arrest her!”