Free Wilde Heart (Wilde Women Book 2) by Suzanne Halliday

library smell and the way a good book feels in your hands.”
    This was something he understood. What she’d just described was exactly how he felt about her. He liked looking at her. Liked holding her, too. Turning the pages with Rhiann had been an adventure. And then there was the other stuff. How she smelled. Tasted. Felt under his hands. He’d never be finished with her.
    Deep in thought, he hadn’t noticed when she stopped talking and turned to stare at him. He wasn’t prepared when she did a full one-eighty, steering the conversation in his direction.
    “You’ve done well, Liam,” she told him with her big green eyes bright with approval. “More than well, actually.”
    He fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. None of that meant anything when she was around. It made the ground underneath him feel like shifting sand when he realized that Rhiann’s importance far outweighed any of his business accomplishments. She was the one thing missing.
    “It’s okay to be successful,” she murmured.
    Damn. It was like she could read his thoughts.
    The gentleness in her voice surprised Liam. “Your mother must be so proud! How is she?”
    With those few words, it was like something detonated inside the car. His eyes snapped to the rearview and found Roman staring at him. Liam’s fierce scowl returned. His mother. Not someone he wanted to talk about.
    “What’s wrong,” she asked. “Did I say something?” Her eyes were darting back and forth between him and the back of Roman’s head. Obviously, she sensed the undercurrent and was concerned.
    “No. It’s okay, Rhiann. You didn’t say anything wrong.”
    She was staring intently at him in the darkness of the car as it inched along in the gridlocked evening traffic.
    “My . . .” he started to say then paused. “Carolyn passed away a few years back.”
    Before any more words came, he heard her moan softly and grasp his hand in the darkness. He marveled at her reaction—which was to immediately comfort him. Liam didn’t know how to react to that.
    Whispering so just he would hear, Rhiann squeezed his hand and leaned closer. “I’m so very sorry. I know how much you loved her.”
    Words swirled in his mind. He should respond. Say something. Act civilized. But her small, soft hand holding his was wreaking havoc on his tightly checked emotions. There was nothing disingenuous about her reaction. Rhiann actually cared about his pain.
    Liam reached out and wrapped a hand under her messy ponytail, around her neck. She felt warm. And soft. He swept his thumb from the delicate shell of her ear and along her jawline. Time slowed as he watched her lips part on a quiet gasp. In the shadowy darkness of the car, her eyes were more smoke than green.
    He took his other hand from hers and used it to cup her face. She was so lovely it made his heart ache just looking at her.
    Long seconds passed while the two former lovers stared at each other in the deepening quiet.
    “I would have been there had I known,” she whispered. “If you needed me . . .”
    Liam groaned at her words. If he needed her? Oh, my god. Cutting off her words and his thoughts, he lowered his head until their lips were barely touching, and they were breathing each other in.
    He heard and felt her whimper—his lips pulsing with need.
    At first, he kissed her slowly, almost reverently. Her mouth so sweet and perfect under his. She let him lead, so he did. Taking the kiss further, he nibbled on her lips, sucked on the fleshy part of her bottom lip, then swept his tongue around the outline of her mouth.
    Liam was vaguely aware that Roman had switched on the satellite radio when the sound of soft music made its way into his senses. It wasn’t at all like him to be kissing a woman in the backseat while his security chief was right there—hell, he didn’t do much kissing at all, if truth be told. He was more direct and to the point in his sexual encounters. Saved time and cut out a shit ton of emotional bullshit