There will be times you will want to throw something at me. But I will never give up on us, and I will never walk away from you.”
“How can you say that?” she whispered. “How can you know you won’t get tired of me? I’m not okay, Liam. I’m not Shelly or Tara. I’m broken. I don’t know if I can ever give you back the things you give me.”
“I don’t care, baby.” He pressed his forehead to hers and chuckled. “I wish I could make you see what I see when I look at you. Damn woman. You’re amazing. You’re beautiful and badass, and you take my breath away. But that’s not why I know I will never get tired of you. I know I will want you for the rest of our lives because I chose you.”
She shook her head. “No, you were stuck with me through this whole supernatural soul bond shit.”
“We are soul bonded,” he agreed. “But the soul bond doesn’t make me love you. I choose to love you.”
Gabby’s eyes snapped up. “You can’t.” She frantically shook her head and tried to back away from him, but he held her tight. “You can’t love me. We’ve only just met.”
“There are no rules to love, Gabby.” He stared at her for a minute, then his lips lifted into a small smile. “My parents taught me that. What I wouldn’t do to give you the kind of parents I had. I saw devotion in them. I saw them choose love every single day up until the day they died. And they weren’t perfect.” He suddenly laughed, and his eyes lit up with good memories. “My dad drove my mother absolutely insane. He was pushy and sarcastic.”
“Sounds a lot like someone else I know,” she muttered.
“Won’t deny it, babe,” he said, his smile still in place. It was a damn good-looking smile. “Let me show you,” he said, and the smile dropped away. His jaw clenched as he dropped his hands from her face and wrapped them around her before pulling her against him.
“Liam,” she said, placing her hand on his chest. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to push him away or pull him closer.
He closed his eyes and released a slow breath. “I love it when you say my name. Please, say it again.”
Gabby bit her bottom lip. Her stomach danced with butterflies on crack at his words.
“Please,” he said, sounding a little more desperate.
“Liam,” she said so softly she barely heard it.
His eyes snapped open. They swirled even faster, like a hurricane in the ocean. “Let me show you what love is supposed to be. I can’t promise I won’t inadvertently hurt your feelings. But I can promise I’ll do everything to make it right when I do. I can promise you that, short of death, I will never leave you.” He tilted his head slightly and said, “In fact, if it were up to me, you’d never leave my side. I’d never let you out of my sight.”
“I don’t understand this,” Gabby admitted. She felt like the floor was dropping out from underneath her and there was nothing left to stand on. The principles she’d built her life around were crumbling, and she found herself needing desperately to believe him. Gabby wanted to let Liam in. She wished she could grab onto what he was offering with both hands and hold fast to it. She knew if she did, she would take out anything that threatened to take it from her grasp.
“Let me hold you, Gabby,” Liam whispered. “Let me love you.”
Gabby didn’t want to cry, but her body betrayed her, and the tears fell anyway. Her entire body began to tremble.
Liam scooped her up and carried her over to the bed. He sat and held her in his lap, tucking her head under his neck, and ran his hand down her hair. “It’s okay to cry. You have every right, baby. And I bet you’ve only ever cried alone. But not anymore. Never again, Gabby. You will never cry alone again.”
His words only made her cry harder. Her hands gripped his shirt, balling it up and tugging it close as if holding on to him would keep her from falling apart. She never wanted to fully fall apart because she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to put herself back together again. But she wasn’t alone now. If she fell apart, would Liam put her back together again?