Page 38

Liam and I are lying on the bed, facing one other. I throw my arms around his waist while he draws me closer to him. His hand is on my back, over the fabric of my sleep shirt. The other hand massages my head while I hide my face in his chest.
I absorb his aroma, feeling comfortable and secure in his embrace. These past several days in the cabin have been like a dream that I don’t want to wake up to.
I hope that we could remain like this forever.
He abruptly says, “What is your dream, Emily?” “What do you want to do with your life?”
You are my fantasy come true. I want to answer that, but the second question makes me think that he’s really asking about something else.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I haven’t applied to any college because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to afford it.”
I recall exactly why I took the position Ethan provided me.
I never expected that it would turn into something like this.
With the money Ethan already put to my account, I will have no trouble assisting my family financially and applying for college. But I don’t want to go just yet. In fact, I don’t think that I’ll ever want to leave Liam.
“What do you enjoy the most?” He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear.
I look into his lovely grey eyes, sinking in them.
“Maybe it can help you choose your major,” he suggests.
I sigh, closing my eyes as I shake my head. I lean against his chest even closer, my fingers grabbing the back of his t-shirt.
“I don’t know,” I answer. “I like giving help to people, though. I honestly thought of becoming a nurse or being involved in a volunteer program for kids somewhere in the world,” I stop. “Why are you suddenly asking me about that?”
I tip my chin up and find Liam giving me a serious look.
“Don’t you have a plan for your future?” he says quietly.
Now that he asks me, I honestly haven’t thought about it in detail.
I shake my head again. “I haven’t thought about it in detail. What I do know is that I want to help Kate and my brother Tyler with money—”
I wrinkle my brows as I ponder hard about what I want to achieve in the future. Liam is asking me these things, but I don’t think I’ll be able to live like a normal person now that I’m a part of Eagle Wings.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” he murmurs.
I can see that he is worried when I glance at him again.
“Never mind,” I say with a smile.
He pushes my chin up again with his finger and kisses me softly on the lips. I moan with pleasure and lean against him.
This time, I start the kiss by putting my arm around his neck. I s**k on his lower lip and press my mouth against his, which makes him moan. He quickly tightens his grasp on me, throwing his arms around me possessively and starts to kiss me hungrily.
I kiss him back with all my heart, and before I know it, we are blazing with passion and want. Our tongues flirt with one other as I put my leg around his waist. He grunts, and the next thing I know is that he turns me onto my back.
He clamps my hands on my sides, his jaw taut. “Emily,” he growls, warning me.
“I’m sorry.” I gasp. “Sorry.”
His eyes soften, and suddenly he releases me. I laid on my side, facing the opposite direction.
Again, I pushed him too far.
I admonish myself for how foolish I am. Liam is not ready yet for that level of closeness.
I feel him going behind me and spooning me. He leans his chin on my shoulder, and I grin.
“Cuddling time?” I tease. “Okay. Cuddling only.”
“You’re going to be the death of me,” he mutters under his breath and plants a delicate kiss on my neck.
I sigh dreamily, feeling him laying more lips on the back of my neck.
“Liam.” I chuckle. “It tickles.”
But he doesn’t stop, and more chuckles explode from me.
I clench my eyes, feeling the ray of early sun touching my face. When I open eyes, I’m met by the same cabin I’ve been staying in with Liam for these past several days.
I tilt my head to my side and see that his side of the bed is vacant. When I skim my fingertips on the sheet, it feels chilly. I frown.
Liam must have been out of bed for a long time.
I shout out, “Liam?” My voice is still sluggish from sleep.
I sit up, stretch, and get out of bed. I move cautiously toward the living room and find that it’s empty. The curtain shifts, blown by the mild morning air, but other than that, there’s no evidence of any other activity.
I wonder where Liam is, but suddenly a lovely grin touches my lips. He normally sits at the back patio in the morning if he gets up earlier than I do. I shake my head in bewilderment owing to my own cluelessness.
Maybe it’s because he was holding me close all night that I anticipated him to remain by my side when I opened my eyes — he acted like he didn’t even want to let me go for a second while we slept together last night.
I stroll onto the patio, only to find that it’s abandoned as well. My brows furrow in perplexity.
Is it feasible that he’s taking a morning jog?
But he never did that throughout our stay here — he was still traumatized by what Arthur’s brother did to me.
“Liam?” I call again, hurrying back into the living room.
I push through the front door and find the grass empty.
My concern grows. Where could he go?
He hasn’t gotten to know the area outside the cabin very well yet.
Unless he went to the hammock.
My mind takes me there, and my legs move me closer to the trees before I even remember moving them. I go along the way to the hammock. My heart is racing.
When I eventually approach the place, I’m already panting.
He’s not here.
My pulse quickens even more. I race back toward the cabin, anxious about Liam.
Is he in the toilet? But it’s been so quiet that I don’t even think he’s here with me.
I hurry into the cabin and knock on the door to the bathroom. “Liam, are you there?”
No response.
I open the door with my heart pounding against my ribs. It’s not locked, and when I look inside, no one is there.
My lips start to shake because of the awful feeling that suddenly comes over my heart.
I walk back into the bedroom and see my phone on the nightstand.
He couldn’t have left without telling me, therefore he must have called me.
I take my phone from the nightstand with a sad heart, and there it is on the screen.
A communication from him by voice.
It feels like everything around me has stopped. I want to know what’s in that message, but a part of me shouts not to open it because I don’t want to hear what it says.