Chapter 240 - Little Demons, Unleashed
Liam was racking his brains for something to say when his phone saved him by ringing. He had turned it back on since Ximena knew he was faking the low battery and it had rang at the right time.
"Oh, it's Desmond. He mentioned that Rosaly wanted to say hi to me." He smiled, looking forward to speaking to the girl who would probably become his goddaughter unofficially.
"Rosaly?" Ximena raised an eyebrow at the name.
"Desmond's daughter." He explained briefly and answered the call. Sure enough, it was Rosaly and she wanted to video call. Liam accepted the video call request with permission from Ximena.
"Hello princess."
The girl waved at the screen with her pencil in hand, which made Liam smile dotingly. "Are you doing your homework?"
"I just finished. Daddy helped me."
Liam held back a laugh. Desmond helping a little girl do her homework, now that was something one didn't get to witness every day.
He talked to her briefly because it was almost her bedtime and he didn't want to keep Ximena waiting, so the call ended 0retty fast.
"I still can't wrap my head around the fact that Desmond has a daughter." Ximena commented.
Glad that she was opening up to talk about something else, he chimed in. "Right? But fatherhood suits him. He has always wanted kids." Just not with Angela, he thought. It was ironic that the woman he least wanted to have kids with just happened to be the one to bear his first child. He couldn't put it past her to deliberately skip her own pills considering what a scheming woman she had turned out to be.
"It's not that." Ximena was annoyed. "It's the thought of what it means for Zaria."
"What are you talking about? I know you are worried for your friend but you don't have any reason to be. They are still together and well, Rosaly is still young and not like he is getting back together with Angela or anything."
"I would rather have him get back together with Angela." She sighed.
"Why would you say that?" He was shocked by her remark.
"I mean, think about Zaria's situation. She's going to be stuck stepmomming all her life."
She didn't look pleased by the thought, which made him even more curious about her thoughts.
"It's not necessarily a bad thing, right? There's a chance that Rosaly and Zaria hit it off or even love each other. It doesn't always have to be your biological child for you to love them. It's why adoption is a thing."
"Adoption…" The word triggered something in her that she hadn't realized she was ready to face. Since they were on the topic, she took the chance to casually ask, "Would you adopt a child instead of having one of your own?"
He remained silent for a while as if it was a difficult question. She was about to dismiss it when he finally asked, "And why would I need to adopt? If my wife and I can't have kids of our own, or if a friend or relative can't take care of their kid and puts them up for adoption?"
Her hands trembled and she pushed them under the table all while trying to maintain a straight, nonchalant face. "What if your wife can't have kids even using IVF? On the other hand, you can have kids and really love them. What do you do in this kind of scenario?"
"Uhm… if there's a reason why surrogacy is not an option, adoption will be a great choice." He finally answered.
She had been studying his eyes the entire time for signs of bullshit. In case he was lying to her to make her think he was a great guy or some other creepy reason. However, he was not. His response was casual like he was talking about his favorite snack.
"Don't you want kids of your own? What if your parents pushed you for a biological child to take over the family business, for instance?" She pushed.
"No. And, if I adopt a child, that's my child in every way that matters. They are entitled to everything my biological child would have and if anyone has a different opinion, they can fuck off. But why are we having this discussion?"
"I was curious." She hid her smile by biting her lip. How could she have been so mistaken about Liam's opinion? For the first time, she was happy to be proven wrong. She didn't mind adopting kids either so why the hell did her infertility bug her so much before?
"I'm a little hungry. Do you have anything edible in your fridge?" She asked.
It was out of blue and had his mind spinning for a while before he pointed a finger in the direction of the kitchen. "Raid any section of the kitchen you like. Bring some snacks for me too."
She smiled at his last order and dashed for the kitchen, where a maid immediately showed up.
"Ma'am, do you need anything? I'll help you get it."
"No. I'll just check the fridge." She opened the humongous fridge that could probably store more food than she could eat for a couple of months and grabbed ice cream. She had just made a discovery. Between his choice of snack at Ember's house and the tubs filling an entire section in the fridge, it turned out that Liam loved ice cream. Probably more than anyone should, but it made her mind run wild. Would he want to lick it off her body? Or maybe, she should be the one licking it off his.
She blinked away the dirty images forming in her mind and grabbed a frozen yoghurt for herself, a tub of vanilla ice cream for Liam and a packet of spicy chips from the shelf which they would share.
The man was waiting for her in the living room and when he saw her, he almost couldn't recognize the random multiverse dimension he had travelled to. Why in the heavens was Ximena smiling her way out of his kitchen with snacks in both hands and looking like she couldn't wait to cuddle with him and watch some melodramatic rom com movies?
Not that he enjoyed getting ignored by her but shouldn't there be some sort of warning before things took such a huge change?
"I thought you'd want this. If you don't, I can bring you something else." She placed the ice cream on the console table.
"I like it."
He opened the lid and took a scoop on a spoon, shovelling it into his mouth as she stared. She caught herself licking her lips while staring at his and turned away.
'Get a hold of your hormones, Ximena!' She yelled mentally at her inner demons. They had probably been unleashed as soon as they learnt that he might not mind her weakness.
However, having an opinion and actually accepting the situation were different matters. One could be ready to be with a woman who is unable to have kids but once they found out that it is impossible, they may have cold feet and want to back out. On the same wavelength, he might have a specific requirement but end up treasuring a woman who is nothing like the type he wanted. It was too soon to make a conclusion.
"Do you want to stay a little longer?" He grabbed her by the waist, daring to ask since she was in a good mood.
Alas, she rejected him.
"I can't. I left Zaria on her own and I should get back to her." Although she said no to him, he could tell from her suddenly ragged tone that she, in fact, would have loved to stay.
"But Zaria is not a child anymore. Surely she can handle some alone time?" He protested.
"Not when her brain is going off on random tangents. Besides, I promised to go back to her as soon as I dropped you off and that's long overdue."
He didn't push his luck anymore. "Okay."
She finished her yoghurt and it was the most agonising cup of her life. Liam was practically plastered against her and she could neither push him nor move away. She didn't want to. His close proximity did things to her body that she would never admit to him. What was more torturous than having a Greek god beside her and not being able to touch him? Paired with the ice cream fantasy that was crossing her mind at random, it felt like a won battle when she finally finished her snack.
"I should get going." She announced.
"I'll drop you off?" He offered, to which she laughed.
"I drove here. Remember?"
"Of course." He cleared his throat, walking her to the garage.
"Ximena," He called as she headed for her car. She turned and looked him in askance. "Will you…call me when you're home?"
"I will." She promised before she could stop herself.
He was overjoyed and didn't bother to hide it.
"Goodnight, Liam." She waved a gentle hand and turned to open her car door.
A hand slammed the door closed in the next moment, nearly startling her out of her skin. She would have screamed if she hadn't heard his hurried footsteps approach.
She turned to reprimand him, acutely aware of the fact that she was now trapped between the car and him. "Liam, what are you.."
Her words were swallowed into his mouth as their lips clashed.. He held the back of her head and kissed her as passionately as he had wanted to since he saw her biting her soft lips earlier.
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