Page 60 of Falling For Liam
“I know, but—”
“No buts. I’m free now to get on with my life, my future.”
“Our future?” he asks, hesitantly.
“I wasn’t planning one without you in it.” A wide smile spreads across his face and a thought pops into my head. “Did you play that song this morning after mine for a reason?”
“Hmmm…” he mumbles as he runs his finger over my collarbone and down towards my breast. “What was that?” he asks innocently, but I know he’s playing with me. “What song?”
“You know, the one that said something about being in love.”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” His hand slides around the back of my neck and he pulls me down to kiss me. It doesn’t distract me from what I was really trying to ask him, but I also won’t push it either. He’ll tell me when he’s ready, if that is how he feels.
* * *
“I’m sorry for not telling you what I was planning, but I knew you’d never allow me to do it,” I say quietly as we lie wrapped in each other’s arms in the dark a while later.
“Damn fucking right I wouldn’t have let you. I love you, Liv. My job is to protect you, not allow you to put yourself in danger.” His words fade out as those three little words rattle around my head, and I still.
“Liv?” he asks when I don’t respond, and it’s not until I let out a giant breath that I realised I stopped breathing.
“Wh…what did you just say?”
Untangling his legs from mine, he pulls himself up so he’s on top of me. Our noses almost touch as his breath tickles across my face.
“I said…I love you.”
I stare deep into his dark eyes as I allow the tingles those words ignite to filter through me. I’ve been told them before, but I’ve never felt the power behind them that I do right now. The strength of his feelings for me is clear in his eyes every time he looks at me, but I don’t think I ever really accepted they were there until the words just left his mouth.
He’s silent as he continues to look down at me, waiting for what my response might be, but the giant lump in my throat stops me from saying the words I want to say. My heart feels like it’s about to burst, and I don’t want the feeling to stop, but I’m afraid I’ll do something to ruin it. Liam’s offering me everything I’ve ever wanted, but the thing about getting everything you’ve dreamed of means that you’re at risk of having it all ripped away from you.
“Are you going to say anything?” Liam asks with a playful smile and a nudge to my nose. He’s trying to play it cool, like he didn’t just open his heart for me to stomp all over, but I can see the concern lurking in the depths of his eyes that I’m not going to return the words.
“I…” I stutter, struggling to find the words, and I watch his face drop. “Wait.” Bringing my hands up to his face, I take a deep breath and try to calm the eruption of emotions within me. Running my thumbs over his cheeks I smile before I say the words I’ve been feeling for a long time. I think I fell for him long before I realised I had. From the moment I met him, he managed to lodge himself deep inside me. He was my light in a whole truckload of dark. My escape from reality when things got too much, and he’s been the one to pick up the pieces when I didn’t know what I needed. “I love you, too.”
His eyes darken as he continues to see into my soul before his face breaks into the most incredible smile I’ve ever seen.
“I’ve been waiting a fucking lifetime for you,” he whispers before settling himself between my thighs and dropping his lips to mine.
* * *
“Why are you up so early?” I complain when I hear movement. What I don’t expect to find when I open my eyes is Liam fully dressed and placing a tray of breakfast on the bed. “What’s this?”
“Breakfast.”
“I can see that. I meant, are you going somewhere?” I can’t help but pout. I kind of hoped we’d get to spend some time together now everything between us is sorted.
“Yeah, it’s my brother’s birthday, and I promised my parents I’d spend the weekend there.”
“You’re going to be away all weekend?” I sound like a whiney girlfriend, but I can’t help it.
“I’m sorry.” His shoulders sag in defeat as he looks down on me.
“Can’t I come?” His mouth opens like he wants to say something, but nothing comes out.
“Liv…”
“No, it’s okay. I get it. You go. I’ll be fine here.”
