Page 126 of An Inevitable Marriage

“I thought you’d still be at the office.”

“Tristan called. He saw your grandfather in the restaurant parking lot. He was worried.” I held his steely gaze. “When you didn’t return to the office or answer your phone, I knew you’d be here.”

Eyes searching mine, he stayed eerily quiet. After a long moment, his lips parted, but he quickly snapped them shut again. Three more times it happened like that before he finally spoke.

“You came home…for me?”

His disbelief was evident in the low tug of his brows and the uncertainty in his voice. My heart broke a little. He was so used to fighting his demons alone that he couldn’t believe someone wanted to be there with him.

I curled my hands around his wrists, the wild rhythm of his heart beating against my fingertips. “Of course I did.” I brushed my thumbs over the backs of his hands in the same gentle way he caressed my cheeks.

Liam sucked in a sharp breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Whatever war he’d been fighting was so apparent in the tight pull of his lips and the tense set of his jaw. My heart pinched a bit more.

I wanted to take his face in my hands and beg him to let me in. To let me help him fight whatever it was that needed fighting. I wanted to confess to him that he wasn’t alone and if he’d allow it, he’d never be alone again.

I couldn’t say any of that. So, I waited. Waited for those blue eyes to finally meet mine again. They did a short while later, and it felt a lot like someone had taken a baseball bat to my stomach.

There was no wall, just his raw, unfiltered feelings. And boy, was there a lot. I saw pain, so much pain, anger, and hate, but I also saw something else. Something big and scary, something I was too afraid to acknowledge because it filled me with equal amounts of hope and fear.

“I’ve never been more afraid of turning into my father than I am right now,” Liam rasped. “I have it, Snow, that I’m-so-fucking-angry-I-can-snap-at-anytime gene my father had. You saw it firsthand. I probably would have broken more than Shane’s nose if Marcus hadn’t pulled me off him.”

Shaking his head, he lifted me off his lap and got up. “And today, I wanted to kill my grandfather. Wanted to wrap my hands around his miserable fucking throat and squeeze until the life left his eyes.”

I got up, too, and as desperately as every cell in my body screamed at me to close the distance between us, my heart warned me that he needed space. Space and silence to get everything off his chest.

Finding the nearest bench, I sat on the edge and patiently waited. It wasn’t long before he spoke again.

“I hate him. I hate everything he stands for, but I can’t deny I have Maxwell blood running through my veins.” His gaze landed on me, wild and manic. “It’s only a matter of time before I hurt you, too.”

With an unsteady breath, his eyes lowered to my neck. He lingered there for a few seconds before he brought his hands to his face and flexed his fingers.

He’d never hurt me; I knew it as sure as I knew the sky was blue. But he’d also never believe me if I told him that outright. So I tried a different approach.

“Do you want to hurt me?”

His attention snapped to mine; his expression pained. “Fuck, no. I don’t want to.” The muscle in his jaw popped furiously. “But what if I can’t help myself.”

“Okay.” With a nod, I pushed to my feet, closed the distance between us, and gripped his wrist.

Liam’s brows drew together. I ignored his confused expression and lifted his hand to my throat.

“Snow,” he warned as he tried to pull away.

He needed this. Needed to see he couldn’t harm me in any way. He simply wasn’t capable of it. Using my other hand as well, I locked my fingers around his wrist and kept his hand poised at my throat.

“If this is who you really are, Liam Maxwell, then do it. Tighten your fingers around my neck and—”

“I can’t!”

His voice, broken and hoarse, reverberated through the room.

Relinquishing my hold on him, I pressed my palm against the left side of his chest. “Of course you can’t. You could never be like them. Never. Don’t mistake the anger youhave for the same poison they have running through their veins.

“You’re allowed to feel what you feel. You’ve witnessed terrible things no child should ever see. You were subjected to worse. There’s nothing unnatural about imagining taking the lives of the people who took so much from you.”

I moved my hand up to cup his stubbly jaw. “A little unhealthy, maybe, but definitely not unnatural. And it most certainly doesn’t make you the same as them.”

Liam’s throat bobbed once, twice, three times. “I’ll never forgive myself if I hurt you.”