Released (Caged 3)

Tria traced the edge of my jaw, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes again.

“Oh, Liam,” she said softly, “I love you, too.”

Her words hit me in the center of the chest, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I felt as if I’d just been hit in the gut with a dodgeball.

“When?” I asked.

“When what?”

“When did you know? I mean—know for sure?”

Tria smiled gently.

“That’s easy,” she said. “The first night I moved into your apartment and I woke up with you holding on to me. I knew then.”

My eyes probably bugged out of my head.

“You never said anything.”

“No,” she replied. “If I had, you would have freaked out on me. You certainly would have then, but even later, I knew you wouldn’t be ready to hear that until you said it yourself.”

“That didn’t bother you?”

“I knew how you felt,” she said with a shrug. “That was all that mattered.”

“When did you know that?” I asked.

“When you punched Michael for calling me a hooker.”

I laughed.

“You are a very observant woman,” I informed her. I grabbed onto her hips and pulled her on top of me. “But there’s no way I’d let anyone say something about you to make you feel less than what you are. You are too wonderful for anyone to…”

A lump lodged itself in my throat, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe.

I was such a fucking idiot! I hadn’t even considered what all of this meant—what had to happen and happen quickly before…

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed as I sat up in bed.

Tria squealed a little and grasped my shoulders to keep from toppling off of me.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Shit, shit, shit!”

“Liam! What’s wrong! You’re scaring me!”

I looked straight into her eyes and placed both my hands on the sides of her face.

“We have to get married,” I said. “We have to get married right away so the baby doesn’t realize it was an accident!”

*****

My impromptu marriage proposal last night didn’t go over all that well. The only saving grace was the realization that she wouldn’t be able to benefit from my medical insurance unless we were legally bound. The whole idea didn’t seem to make Tria happy at all, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that though I agreed to drop the subject for the time being.

I wanted her. I wanted our family. What better way to solidify that than by getting married?

Apparently, she wasn’t so sure about that.