Page 66 of Fighting With Light
What she failed to remember is that I’m a strong swimmer. I dive under the surface, and in three long strokes and kicks of my legs, make it to her side of the pool. Reaching for her foot, I drag my hand up her slippery body until my head pops up out of the water. This side is too deep, so I have to tread water, and I kick one more time before grabbing the edge of the pool with both hands, caging her in with my arms.
Her head tilts up and she looks me in the eye. I lean forward and she meets me halfway, smashing her lips against mine between staccato breaths and sloppy kisses. “I want to stay here forever,” she whispers, keeping her lips against mine.
I purse my lips, kissing her again. She links her arms around my neck and lifts a knee to my hip, pressing her wet body to mine.
My stomach flips and I lean in, bypassing her mouth to kiss her jaw where her sweet scent is still strong because she refuses to wear sunscreen. Her skin has gotten darker with the sun and it has pulled little freckles across her nose and chest.
“I wish we could, too, princess,” I murmur into her ear.
She shudders against me and I pull back to look her in the eye.
“Our whole lives…” she says, dragging her hand over the base of my head through my wet hair. “Our fathers’ choices forced us to live like this and it feels wrong. They took something from us and it feels like I have no right to say that.”
I don’t say anything, giving her the space to say what’s on her mind.
“I know you’ve done something with yours. You’re a seasoned surfer and rock climber, and I think that’s amazing. Kids that surf or rock climb look up to you. I feel like a whiny baby, but I don’t know what I’ve done with mine. What do I have to show for it? People think money and power will make you happy, but they are hollow. My dad wasn’t like this. He was nevergood,but I think Mom was happy at one point, especially when they started having kids. But now, she’s just so sad. He changed and I’m…” she trails off.
I brush my lips against hers. “You can tell me, princess,” I encourage her.
She takes a deep breath. “I’m afraid I’m going to become like my mom and die that way, with nothing because someone else decided for me.”
“You are not her, Aelia,” I whisper, leaning into her, dragging my nose up the side of her face. Her hands twitch at my neck. I get what she’s saying. I didn’t have control over a lot of my life until I grew up. Mom wanted us to try to live our lives the best we could, and my brothers and I refused to leave her until she agreed to a full-time security team. I don’t think it eased the fear for her. My father was stillthere,the threat looming over all of us. But if Aelia and I succeed,she doesn’t have to let anyone decide anything for her anymore. We’re working towards that outcome right now.
I lean back to look Aelia in the eye. They’re glassy and she blinks rapidly, trying to push the tears back, but one escapes, anyway. I wipe my thumb over her cheekbone and stick it in my mouth. Her lips roll, and she leans into me so our foreheads are leaned against each other.
“Maybe I wouldn’t be her if I could keep you,” she whispers.
And I think a bullet to the heart would have been easier to take than her words.
Time is ticking, and we still have work to do, but our time together isn’t up yet. “Be here with me now, princess. I need yournow,” I tell her.
She nods and angles her head up while I hold us floating in the pool. Our mouths press together and at first, it’s sweet and slow, making my insides burn. She whimpers into my mouth and I pull away. Her eyes are still closed and she opens them one at a time while I focus on the way the sun makes her skin glow.
Our gazes lock together and I can feel her heart jump because she’s pressed against me. We wordlessly swim to the other side, back to the stairs. I grab her bridal style, carrying her out of the water and over to a lounge chair with our towels on it. Sitting down with her still in my lap, dripping water onto the stone patio, she smoothly moves to straddle my legs and I scoot us so my feet are resting on the chair.
It’s reclined slightly, and I lay back with Aelia above me. I thought everything between us would be hot, fast, and intoxicating. It’s hot, and it’s intoxicating, but we naturally go slower with each other. I want to memorize every single part of her, so I have something to take with me when this is over.
Every moment we’ve spent together, I’ve tried to commit to memory the way her lips part when she’s about to speak, then second-guesses herself. I want to learn by heart the determined look on her face when she’s trying to do something, or when she’s focused on the tape recordings from earlier. I want to stain into my memory the way she looks above and below me at the end of herself as she loses control because I took it. I wish I could take a picture now of her perched above me with wet hair, radiant skin, and longing in her eyes.
Running my hands up and down her wet thighs, she leans into my chest, holding my gaze a moment longer before she brushes her lips against mine, sending a tantalizing shiver down my spine. Then, all at once, she drags me under, and I can’t hold the need rolling through me back anymore. Sliding my hand around the back of her neck, I keep her there, depleting every breath of air from her lungs because it belongs to me.
Teeth clash and lips are nipped before she takes both hands, pushing me back. My hands roam from her thighs to her hips to her butt. I squeeze them once, then drag my hands up either side of her spine, yanking her in closer to me.
Aelia’s hips roll and she brushes me, and it’s as if she shocked me with a taser. I groan, and she grins, doing it again, biting her lower lip. Watching her move above me takes every bit of restraint in my body not to demand control. I move one of my hands from her spine to the apex of her thighs and glance up.
She’s looking down at my hand and rolls her hips with the silent plea for me to put my fingers where she wants them. The tips of my fingers slide over her and she moans with the contact. Instead of giving her what she wants, I grab her hips and rock her onto me. She holds onto my shoulder and tips her head back.
“Liam,” she moans.
“Yes, princess? I ask, pulling her down to my lips.
She kisses me deeply and a warm heat curls in my sternum as I consume her without hesitation, hoping that I will be able to recall every second of us like this. Looking up at her, I hear the crash of the waves against the cliffs, birds chirp in the distance, and it steals the breath from my lungs. She is everything.
She holds my face between her hands and plunges her tongue into my mouth as she moves. I help her, gripping her hips. She gasps into my mouth, inhaling sharply.
“More,” she whines.
I thrust up, and she moans into my mouth. Pressing my heels into the teak wood chair, it groans beneath us as I lift her. Aelia’s hands scramble for purchase and gathers my head into her chest, holding onto me.
