Page 90 of Cosmo

“Get on it. Get on all of it. I have some pull with the bank because of this place. They saw my business spring from the little neighborhood bar it had been to this club that’s packed each weekend. This is on all of us, however.”

Tally nodded to her brother, and he waved her on. “What Murphy wants to know is this. You six boys, if you’d want ownership of the building, once it’s paid off. So that you all have something else, something substantial.”

“I know, a rundown apartment building doesn’t sound like much of a perk,” Murphy said, but Mims stopped him.

“Paps, really? You’d do that?”

“He’s been talking about giving you boys more for a long time now. With this, well, he’s finally able to.”

Liam felt like he was being included in something he hadn’t yet earned. Taran seemed to sense it, and once they were back in the bedroom, he addressed it. “You’re the new guy.”

“Well, yeah! I shouldn’t be getting the same perks as everyone else!”

“But you are and not one person in that room looked at you like you shouldn’t get the same as them. In fact, weren’t you the one that wanted to give back to the neighborhood?”

“Don’t fucking pull that out on me.”

“It’s true, Liam. And yeah, you’re a part of them now. Shit, I am!”

Liam didn’t know what to do with himself, so he plucked Daiq off the bed and carried him out of his room, finding Abs in the common area. “Take him, please.”

“You okay?”

“No, Abs. I’m…I’m a fucking mess.”

“Yeah, me and Goldie figured. Go be with your guy. I’ve got this baby.”

Liam went back into the bedroom, feeling nuts, feeling like the rage he’d felt that day two weeks before would take him again, and instead of loving Taran, he’d hurt him. But then, he knew he could do both.

He rushed to Taran and grabbed his face, kissing him harder than he ever had, and, taking the cue, Taran unbuttoned his pants.

Liam, like he’d been described, was a man on fire, but there was much more than rage there. At that moment, he was so intensely in love, so happy, that he did not know how to handle it.

Remembering the last time he’d been genuinely happy was difficult. It was so long ago, and that happiness was inside a much different Liam.

He pushed Taran back on the bed and yanked off his pants, watching Taran pushing his briefs down his hips. He didn’t have words for the man. No thoughts would penetrate that didn’t hurt or strike terror in his heart.

Instead of thinking, he dove into the instincts that were in every human, from the time when words and emotions were secondary to actions. A base human, helpless to the elements but in control over themselves.

As he greased his cock, Taran pulled him down, biting his lip, seeming to sense what mood he was in and running with it. Taran winced as Liam pushed inside of him, smiling through it too, huffing through parted lips.

Grunting, Liam pounded inside of him and, like blocks were falling into place, building him a home, everything felt as if it came together so easily. A home was surrounding him, family, friends, safety, and he was so frightened, but there was another emotion.

Freedom.

For all those days and nights he’d been alone purposely, he was trapped in his own head and heart. Jailed long before he’d been inside a prison. That hate and fear had had him trapped.

The people at the pub, in such a short time, had freed him. And the man under him, clawing viciously at his back while Liam banged into him, had freed him.

Liam was free to love again. That was the freedom he felt in that moment, and he loved Taran. He knew it, Taran knew it, all his new family knew it. Taran belonged to him and, for the first time in forever, he belonged to a man.

Curling his hands under Taran’s shoulders, he slowed his thrusts to kiss the man deep, letting himself get lost in the man. The fear that still hung on him was the fear of losing any of them.

If Taran had died on the street from that shot, if they’d have gotten caught and taken from each other, if, if, if, there were too many ifs. The day by day was where he decided he needed to live. The day to day of being in love with not only one man, but an entire pub of people.

The next day, after Taran left, Liam asked Murphy if he could borrow the SUV, and something about his face or voice made Murphy hand over the keys wordlessly.

He drove to the cemetery where his mother and siblings were buried.

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