Page 120 of Fighting With Light

He grunts, and I’m almost done when he lifts his other hand and pushes my hair back behind my ear.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he rasps.

“I just hope it was all worth it,” I mutter.

“It is. We got exactly what we needed and helped some women and kids escape slavery. I’d say it’s all in a day’s work.”

I smile, knot the end of the stitch, and cut it off. I clean it again, put some gauze over it, and tape it up. “Alright, it’s all better.”

“You forgot to kiss it,” he says.

I throw him a look and kiss the gauze. “There.”

“Thank you,” he says.

I nod and wash my hands. Liam’s arms slide around me, and his palms splay across my stomach. I reach for the towel and dry my hands, meeting Liam’s eyes in the small mirror above the sink.

My nose burns, and I can’t keep it in anymore. I’ve been crying in the shower for weeks. After everything that happened tonight, I just can’t keep it buried.

A sob bursts from my lips, and Liam spins me around, pulling me into his bare chest. My heart feels like it’s breaking, for me, for Liam, for those women we rescued and the pain of healing they will have to do.

None of this is fair. Liam’s family and mine were dealt a bad hand, and our whole lives we have tried to work with what we have. Liam and his brothers are trying to take back control when I’ve spent my time running. Until I met him…

Liam gave me a reason to start fighting for something better. I’ve been fighting with myself and the guilt of my father’s sins for so long that I forgot that fighting with light is better than running from it because fightingforit is worth the risk.Heis worth the risk.

I pull back from Liam’s chest and stand on my tiptoes, pressing my lips to his. It sends an electric zing through me every time. It’s like the charge right after lightning strikes. You can feel it in the air, and it makes you feelalive. From the moment I met him in Bali, I felt thatspark.It doesn’t matter how we got here, I hold nothing against him. But what matters to me now is what we do today because tomorrow is not guaranteed.

“I love you,” I whisper against his lips.

He pulls back to look me in the eye, and he grabs my face between his palms. I don’t expect him to say it back. I understand why he wouldn’t. It’s not in the cards, but…what if?What if we ignore all the reasons why we can’t be together and just choose each other? For once, we can choose ourselves, we can choose to fight for each other.

“You broke me, you know that?” he says.

I frown and start to pull away.I should have known.

“No, no, let me finish. You’ve left me a little speechless,” he says, with his hand at the small of my back, pressing me against him.

I wait for him to tell me thank you, but no thank you or for him to crack a joke.

Then he says, “You have changed everything for me, princess. You have helped me see the world differently. You have brought me to the end of myself.You have ruined me, Aelia Costa, for any other woman in this world. I don’t think I know how to breathe without you anymore. I love you, too.”

Our lips slam together, my stomach untwists, and my soul brightens.

The kiss turns heated quickly, as it always does, and he wraps his hand around my hair, fisting it and tugging my head back. I gasp as he trails his lips over my neck and jaw.

“Liam,” I whisper. I love saying his name. I lovehim.

“I love you, princess. I never thought I’d be able to tell you that. I thought that…maybe I didn’t deserve to tell you.”

I rub my hand across his cheekbone, marveling at how beautiful this man is. Granted, his whole family is beautiful, but he’s just…something. All I want to do is stare at him.

“So does this mean that you’re my Tarzan and I’m just Jane?” I ask.

He chuckles dryly. “No, this means that you’re mine, and I’m yours, and I will do whatever it takes to keep it that way.” He pauses and kisses me. “But for the record, you were neverjustJane.”

I lean up, capturing his lips again because I want him now. Ineedhim now. Reaching for his button, I slide the zipper, and then there’s a knock at the door.

“Are you guys done making out? Because I have to take a piss,” Emerson grumbles.