“I know but imagine if you were the happiest you’ve ever been—like infinity happy—and then you got even happier. That’s where I am. Infinity and six!”
“I can beat that,” he said, looking right at me. “Infinity and infinity.”
I pursed my lips, because if I didn’t, I was going to let show how deeply his words affected me. Even so, I worried my eyes, receiving the passion and warmth in his, had given me away.
Eight
LIAM
The zoo. Who would have thought it could be so amazing? The day was a blur of exotic animals, kaleidoscopic birds, and snakes so large, I kept pulling Zooey back by the hood even though there was glass separating her from the gloriously terrifying reptiles.
Still, Zooey found the pigeons attacking the leftover kangaroo food the most fascinating of all the species. Kids. We roared with laughter over hot cocoas when we took a break from our tour. And I admired her spunk.
“What? I like the way their heads move, and that they’re everywhere, living with us. There are lots of beautiful things all over the place that we never see,” she said.
“I’ll drink to that,” I said, my eyes locked with Kath’s as we all knocked paper takeaway cups.
Kath had been quieter than normal, and I couldn’t help but sense this was how Kath was when she was satisfied, happy, feeling that L thing I, myself, had shockingly gotten used to overnight.
I wanted to know what drove every nuance of her behavior. I wanted in. I wanted Kathy, and I had a hunch she felt the same. If she ever called me Angry Aussie again, I’d make sure it transformed into something sexual.
I smiled at that.
“What?” she asked. Oh yeah, she was clocking me the same way I was her.
“Nothing,” I said. But, oh, did my eyes say something else.
We wore Zooey out, then, like two desperate addicts, the second we confirmed Zooey was fast asleep inside her room, we closed her door and made our way to Kath’s bedroom, where we tore off each other’s clothes.
I couldn’t free my cock fast enough. Couldn’t roll that condom down and plunge into her soaked, tight pussy, fast enough. But when I did, fuck. I had to stop and pull her to me. It felt too good. It was a revelation how good it felt to be inside her, filling her to the hilt.
I tipped her chin up, looked in her eyes as we froze that way. “Kath,” I said.
“Liam,” she said back.
That was it, we bucked and pulled, grinded our way toward orgasm, only to repeat the whole thing two more times. When the sun started rising, I said, “I’d better get going. Don’t want to make it confusing for Zooey.”
But I didn’t leave without nailing down a plan to take them both to see the latest animated movie the following day.
Day after day, we cycled through the same routine—amazing, rich, genuinely fun days, experienced in vibrant technicolor through the five-year-old lens of the incredible Zooey. Hot nights dripping in lust and passion and the sensational feel of entering Kath, licking her, sucking on her perfect tits, while she feasted on every inch of me as if she was just as unable to stop herself going further until every centimeter had been conquered.
And then I was trying to tear myself away from her at the door at sunrise, just to shower, think about her, and then come back to do it all again.
One night, we got to talking about the way we saw each other before all this had crashed into our lives like a couple of drained Nostrovia shot glasses.
“Let me guess. You want to know why I’m the Angry Aussie.”
She grimaced. “You knew about that.”
I shrugged. “I’ll own it. Life has taught me that vengeance is the only way to break through what’s been done to you. You must protect the people you love at any cost. They’re everything. Why am I so angry? Well, because people suck. I see it all the time.”
“That’s quite a burden to carry. Would you tell me what happened with your parents? I know it wasn’t good, and I’m guessing that’s where this all started. It would mean the world to me if you would share it with me.”
“Dad and Mum loved the horses. Any penny they got, they bet it away. If it wasn’t for Lachlan’s mum, I probably wouldn’t have eaten most nights. I survived the days on half of his Vegemite sandwiches. My parents couldn’t give up the idea that they could win their way to a better life. Lord knows they weren’t going to get there on the crap salaries they made as a fisherman and a school canteen cook.”
I’d never told a living soul this story before. And Kath, she got me. Didn’t say oh, poor Liam, which would have buttoned me up faster than I could say goodbye. She just listened, and her green eyes held me in their gaze. And I felt in that moment, I’d found a woman who truly understood me.
I finished the story quickly because sharing, even with Kath, was new to me. “They got in with the wrong people who offered them money when they needed it. Then they were indebted to these sleazebags for life. Let’s leave it there.”
She nodded once, then kissed me deeper, more blissfully than before. I know you, the kiss said. And then she mounted me, and I showed her with each stroke of my cock how much that meant to me. In that moment, I could think the whole word: Love. I was in love with this woman.
And then, just as quickly, the week was over. Zooey was back with her parents, and I was knocking on their door for a welcome home lunch with the five of us plus Alice from work, Lachlan’s mum and stepfather, Brian, who’d been staying at Lachy’s since before the wedding.
It was a fun, boisterous lunch, and it was amazing to see Lachy so happy. But although I’d been half-expecting it, Kath’s emphatic effort to show that there was nothing going on between us, hurt more than I could have predicted.
In retaliation, I put on my Angry Aussie act. It was nothing for me as I’d been naturally doing it my whole life. But I hated it, felt the hollowness in it. I wanted to stand and declare my love for Kath in front of everyone, like a true wanker in a rom-com. I barely recognized myself.
With the goal of not making an ass of myself, I made up some crap excuse and begged off early.
“I’ll get your coat,” Scarlett said.
I followed her into the room at the side of the entry hall where she removed my leather coat from its hanger. When she turned, she didn’t hold the coat out to me. Instead, she kept it folded over her arm.
Scarlett cocked her head, quirked a brow. “I know my sister like I know myself,” she said.
I understood this kind of loyalty, so I let her know I was listening, though I sensed I wouldn’t like what she was about to say.
“Stay away from Kath if you’re going to hurt her,” she said.
I wanted to be angry. Causing Kath pain was the furthest thing from my mind. And it fucking hurt that the first time I truly loved a woman, this was the kind of reaction her sister had.
But why wouldn’t she? I knew what I was. All this week, I’d felt one hundred percent changed. I hadn’t even considered that I might hurt Kathy. I loved her. I wanted to wrap up the world and present it to her on a plate and feast on it with her until I died.
But what if Scarlett was right? What did I know about relationships? What if things got hard down the road and I watched the world I’d promised Kath burn down around her? Was I capable of such a thing where she was concerned? I didn’t feel like I was. And yet, my past with women said something very different.