Page 135 of Liam

For a long moment, neither of us moves. Or says a word. We just wait for our breaths to even. Then Addie giggles.

I roll my head to the side, face her. “What’s so funny?”

“We have no self-control.”

“I know,” I murmur, kissing the top of her head.

“I have a scar right there, you know.”

“You do?”

She sits up slightly, taking my hand and guiding my finger to the raised, tough patch of skin just beyond her hairline.

“From the accident?” I ask.

She nods.

“Does it hurt?”

“Not anymore.”

“Not even when I pull your hair?”

She smiles to one side. “No. I promise,” she says, settling back into my arms. We’re still naked, still sweaty, still partially breathless.

I press my lips to her scar, then stroke it with my thumb. “Addie?”

“Mmm?”

“We just had sex in the back of my dead mom’s minivan.”

“Liam!” she almost yells, eyes wide when she sits up to look at me.

I chuckle, reaching up to cradle her jaw. I stroke the blush on her cheek, and she smiles, her eyes drifting shut as she leans into my touch. It’s the softest I’ve ever seen her. The most vulnerable. “Hey,” I say.

Her eyes flutter open. “Hey,” she replies.

“When you go back to Raleigh, you think you can send me your schedule so we can make plans?”

Her smile is slow—a build up to something glorious. And with every second it grows, so does the hope stirring inside me. “Liam?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you, too.”

My heart stutters a breath.

“And I’m not just saying it because you did or because I think I should. I wanted to say it right after you did, but I was scared. I hadn’t said those words, out loud, since Roman was arrested. And you saying it to me gave me the courage towantto, but… I wanted to say it to him first.” She pauses a breath. “I’m sorry if that made you question how I felt about you.”

I laugh once, relieved, and press my lips to her forehead. “It’s so weird that you said that… Just the other day, I was telling Lincoln how there was only one trait my future wife needed, and that was that she had a close relationship with her siblings.”

She giggles into my chest. “Futurewife?”

“You know what I mean… I just think it’s important that the person I end up with understands the bond that I have with my brothers and sister.”

She peers up at me. “So what you’re saying is—you’d choose Lincoln over me?”

“No.” I shake my head. “I just know you’d never put me in a position where I’d have to choose.”

---