Of Water and Madness by Katie Jennings Read Free Book Online

Rhiannon shot back, annoyed with herself when she heard the prissiness in her voice. “I’m just sick of him getting into these childish, brutal arguments with Brock and then letting it sour his mood for the whole day. He’s a grown man. He’s supposed to be more mature than this. In fact, up until recently, he was more mature than this. I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
    “He’s trying out this whole ‘freedom of expression’ thing,” Liam reminded her. “Look, this will all blow over. He just needs time to adjust. I think he and Brock need to sit down and have a long talk about the past, and try and come to some sort of resolution.”
    Rhiannon frowned as she considered his words. “I just don’t know if either of them will ever get over it. They are both too proud and convinced they are not at fault.” She shrugged, though her mouth curved into a tired smile. “It’s like a ram going up against a bull, both of equal strength and both too stubborn to give an inch to the other side.”
    Liam chuckled and shook his head wearily. “I don’t want our parents’ bullshit to come between us, okay? It’s not fair to either of us to let them influence our relationship, whether they mean to or not.”
    In response she moved close to him and tilted her head up, meeting his lips as her arms circled around his back. “I’m sorry, you’re right,” she said as she broke the kiss, her eyes searching his, humor in them now. “If our family was the slightest bit normal, I bet we wouldn’t have any of these problems.”
    He snorted out a laugh, still holding her against him. “Nothing about any of us will ever be normal, Rhia, even you and I.”
    “I think I’m fairly normal,” she said stiffly although a bemused look crossed her face. “I’m definitely the most normal out of us all.”
    “Not a chance. But you are by far the most beautiful. In fact…” Something wicked flashed in his eyes as they darkened to a deeper, more glorious blue, and a sly smile spread over his lips as he spoke. “I’ve been thinking about this all day.”
    He suddenly lifted her up by her hips and planted her swiftly on the surface of her workbench, his hands roaming over her body possessively. Her answering giddy laugh died the second he crushed her mouth with his own and took possession of it.
    Her legs wrapped around his waist and she clung to him as he pressed against her, eager to devour her in one, delicious bite. The sudden urge to have her, then and there, was too much to resist, and by the way she responded to him, both with her body and her voice, he knew she was just as seduced as he was.
    “Liam.” She broke the kiss and looked behind her, a gasping laugh escaping her throat as she tried to breathe and regain some semblance of control. “There’s a pot sticking into my back.”
    He reached behind her and shoved the pot, along with everything else, gleefully to the floor. The ceramic hit with a shattering crash and scattered rich brown soil across the tiles. He heard her laugh again, a bit deliriously, and couldn’t help but smile. He loved it when she was like this, so caught up in a moment that she forgot to react in her usual, carefully planned out way, and consequently threw caution to the wind. It was the Rhia that was free, and being with her was a kind of drug to him. He absolutely and positively couldn’t get enough.
    “I’ll clean it up, don’t worry,” he said, his hands nimbly opening the buttons of her soft blue blouse even as he shrugged out of his own shirt.
    Her eyes met his as her lips curved, slow and dangerous. “You’d better.”

    That night, they sat on one of the long sofas together, holding hands and people watching.
    Liam enjoyed the calm times like this, when he could simply be with her, comforted by her presence and centered by the knowledge that everything he’d ever fought for had now been won. She’d come to him, after all his years of waiting, and made him the happiest