Read Online Destined To Be A Dad (Welcome To Destiny Book 9) by Christyne Butler - Free Book Online

and see them tumble free. He traced the upper edge of her lips with his tongue, the fullness and shape of her mouth so familiar it was as if he’d just kissed her yesterday.
    She gasped at his boldness, but before he could use that to his advantage, she wrenched from his embrace, shuffling backward, putting distance between them.
    “What—what are you doing?” She lightly tapped her mouth. “Why did you do that?”
    “I’m—” Liam paused, not having a ready answer to a valid question. “I wanted to keep you from falling.”
    “By kissing me?”
    “That wasn’t something I planned on happening.” He started toward her, but stopped when she retreated again. “Why did you kiss me back?”
    Her fingers paused against her lips, and then she dropped her hand. “It’s late. Why are you here?”
    Okay, no more talk about kissing. That was probably for the best. “I saw you step outside. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
    “You saw me?”
    He debated if he should keep what he’d discovered to himself, but honesty won out. “I never realized until tonight the view from my master bedroom allows me to look down and see much of the apartment.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “How much?”
    “The main room, the kitchen and the porch.”
    “Did you see Casey and I—did you watch us when we were talking?”
    He nodded again, deciding at that moment there’d already been enough deceit between them to last a lifetime. “How is she? She seemed a bit upset at times.”
    “She was, as I expected she would be, but in the end... I’d say she’s handling all of it amazingly well.” Missy’s shoulders rose in a delicate shrug. “Then again, Casey has always been so easygoing about most things. I see now she must get that from—”
    She bit hard on her bottom lip, cutting off her words.
    “From me.” Liam knew exactly what she’d been about to say. The comparison made his heart pound. “You were going to say she gets that from me.”
    “Well, she certainly doesn’t get it from my side of the family.” Missy walked toward the porch railing again, still keeping space between them, her gaze out on the water. “We Ellingtons are as uptight as you Yanks make all British people out to be.”
    He smiled, glad that she didn’t seem to be in any hurry to go back inside. Mimicking her pose, he turned to look out over the lake, too, resting his forearms on the railing. “Oh, I don’t know. I seem to remember you loosening up. Eventually.”
    “Eventually.” She brushed back the hair the breeze swept across off her face. “Being in Destiny was vastly different from what my life was like in London. It took me a long time to feel...comfortable.”
    “But not comfortable enough to stay.” The moment the words popped out of his mouth, he wished he could take them back. The last thing he wanted tonight was to argue about the past. “Missy, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
    “Well, an apology. How nice. Does that make up for the one I never got sixteen years ago?”
    He looked at her, confused. “What?”
    “Please don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.” She faced him. “About the plans I made? To go to college in Wyoming, jumping through hoops to make that happen. Giving up my placement in university back home, applying for a student visa, dipping into my trust fund to pay for it all. Not that any of that seemed to matter to you.”
    “It mattered. Of course, it mattered.” He straightened and faced her. “And no, I never forgot. I also didn’t have any idea what you were planning back then.”
    “I wanted to surprise you with the news that we would be able to be together. Instead, you surprised me—not to mention your entire family—when you announced you weren’t going to college after all, but planned to be the next John Wayne.”
    “John Wayne never rodeoed, except in a movie or two, I think.”
    Missy rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
    “Yes, okay, you surprised me that