Page 39 of Montana Silence

I smiled once and let it drop.

“You don’t believe me.”

“It’s hard.”

A kiss warmed my forehead. “I hope someday you’ll be able to see how strong you are. Because I see it. I feel it.”

Breathing out, I leaned my head against him. “I feel it more when I’m with you. Even if I shouldn’t.”

“Why shouldn’t you?”

“Because I don’t want to use you as a crutch. You deserve better than that.”

Liam pulled me away from him just far enough so I could see his face, lifting my chin so I was looking at him and his gorgeous brown eyes. “Would you need crutches if you broke your leg?”

“Of course.”

“But crutches aren’t the only things that help you heal. They’re just one of the tools. You have the cast and boot, the doctor’s appointments. Making sure you get enough rest. And when you’ve healed enough, you don’t need the crutches anymore.”

I shook my head. “That’s why you can’t be one. I—”

My voice stopped, and Liam smiled like he knew what I was going to say and didn’t. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I promise. And I don’t mind if I’m part of helping you heal. I would love that. But what I want more is for you to be happy and feel safe. For you to be able to leave this in the past, if that’s where you want it. I’ll be as big or as little a part of that journey as you want me to be.”

We settled into silence for a while, and I enjoyed the sensation of Liam’s hands moving up and down my spine. I wanted more than this with him. So much more. But tonight wasn’t the night. As much as I wanted it, I didn’t want any of our firsts to be tainted by Malcolm.

“I’m sorry we had to come all the way down here for nothing.”

“I’m not. We got to spend time together.”

I laughed, and it felt good. “Me being a complete mess and silent?”

Liam grinned too. “Even when you’re not talking, you’re speaking. You say everything with your eyes.”

This was what I wanted. Ease and comfort. At some point, we would probably be hungry, but right now, I didn’t want to move. “Tell me something,” I whispered. “A good story or memory.” Anything that didn’t have to do with me and The Family.

“Hmm. Let’s see. I grew up in California.” I blinked in surprise, and he chuckled. “I know. That’s the reaction I get most of the time. But I never really fit in there. It was too crowded and too loud. Montana is much better.”

“You were a beach boy. Now I understand why you were a SEAL.”

“That was part of it,” he admitted. “But not all of it. That’s a story for a different time. This story is about the time I decided to run away.”

I smiled and settled in to listen.

“I’d seen some people living on the beach, and I never wanted to leave the ocean. So when I was ten, I decided I was going to run away and live on the beach. I actually got all the way there, ready to start my brand-new life as a bum in the sun. Unluckily for me, my favorite place wasn’t a secret. My family found me and brought me back before dinnertime. Sometimes I still wish I could go spend some time on the beach, but I’ve learned to love the mountains. And what the mountains gave me.”

My face asked the question, and I flushed when he just grinned.Me. The mountains gave him me.

“Now I want you to tell me something,” he said. “I want to know about your tattoos.”

“What about them?”

“I’m just curious what they’re for and why you got them. I’m especially curious about the one on your back. I’ve only ever seen a little piece of it.”

Heat curled deep inside me, pleased he wanted to see it. “When I started working with Rayne, one of the first things we did was work on ways I could reclaim things. She didn’t pressure me or give me the idea, but we did talk about it. I wanted to put something on my bodyIwanted to be there.

“The only marks I’d ever had on my body were when they beat me. This was still pain, but it was pain I chose.”

The anger in Liam’s eyes was pure fire. I wished I could see him unleashed on Malcolm. There wouldn’t be a contest.

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