Page 58 of Cleansed By Water (The Nature Hunters Academy 3)

She hoped so.

“Say it,” Liam ordered.

Her brow rose. “Say what?”

“Your face is very expressive, babe. It’s quite obvious when you have a thought you don’t want to share with someone.”

“If you know I don’t want to share it, why are you trying to make me?”

“Because that’s how relationships work. Communication, Gabs. It’s important.”

“You’re a relationship expert now?” she asked with a smirk.

“Kind of,” he replied, as he brushed a piece of hair out of her face. “I wasn’t exaggerating when I said my parents had an amazing relationship, and they taught me a lot.”

“What was that like?” she asked, genuinely curious what it felt like to have parents who cared about you.

“Sometimes, it was annoying,” he said, his eyes twinkling with the memories that were obviously filled with affection. “They used every opportunity to try to teach me stuff. If they had an argument, it was always civil. There was never any name calling. There was no yelling. They discussed, sometimes with strong emotion” —he winked at her— “which often led to them disappearing up the stairs.”

Gabby laughed. “TMI, Liam.”

“They had a healthy intimate life and weren’t afraid to let me know it.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I honestly wanted to one day have what they did, but somewhere along the way I just decided it wasn’t going to happen for me. I dated, but no one ever meant that much to me.

“My dad said he knew the minute he laid eyes on my mother that she was the one for him. But she said it wasn’t that way for her. In fact”—he chuckled—“she turned him down ten times.”

“Ten?” Gabby’s mouth dropped open. “And he just kept asking her?”

“The men in my family, present company included, are nothing if not persistent.”

Gabby pursed her lips. “Truth.”

“My dad said he wasn’t giving up until she said yes because he knew there was no one else that would make him feel the way she did.”

“I don’t see how that’s possible. He didn’t even know her.” She frowned as she thought about what it must have been like to want someone so completely from the first moment you saw them.

“It’s how I felt about you when I saw you on that training field for the first time.”

“That was the soul bond,” she pointed out.

“Who’s to say my parents weren’t soul mates? Who’s to say if they’d been elementalists that they wouldn’t have been soul bonded?”

Gabby considered his words. It was an interesting point. Were there humans that were soul mates? She didn’t know what she believed about soul mates because she’d never even thought she’d be with a guy, soul mate or not.

“I knew you were mine the second I saw you, Gabby. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t change. Even if you never want me, I will always be yours.”

She started to shake her head but stopped herself because she felt the truth of his words through the open bond. “You really mean that,” she said, not even trying to hide the awe in her voice.

“I do,” he said with a sharp nod. “I’ve never meant anything more in my life.”

“Where do we go from here?” Gabby asked.

“We take it one second at a time,” Liam said, lifting one shoulder as he pulled her closer. “You let me hold you when I need to, and at some point, you will be comfortable admitting to me when you need to be held.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he put a finger on her lips to stop her.

“I’m not saying that will happen tomorrow. It will take time, Gabby. I know that. Believe it or not, I can be patient.”

She laughed and pushed his hand away. “For some reason, I find that really hard to believe.”

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