This was the point where I normally drew back, put distance between the two of us. Somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to do that just yet.
He rolled onto his back, pulling me with him and arranging me on his chest. I let my chin rest on him.
“Why did you leave?” I asked, almost wincing at the vulnerability the question hinted at.
It wasn’t like I was some insecure teenager unable to cope with someone I was interested in being gone, but for some reason the manner of his leaving bugged me. Much as I hated to admit it, it had hurt he could head out without even a word.
Over three months without communication. It was hard to let that go. Especially given the direction we’d been heading in.
“I got word that someoneI’ve been searching for a very long time had been spotted. I didn’t think I had time to delay.”
I rested my chin on his chest as I considered him.“And did you find this friend?”
He stared up at the ceiling, his face pensive.“Yes and no.”
I lifted myself up so I could see his face better.“It’s a pretty straightforward question.”
His eyes turned me.“I found this person, but he is trapped.I’m not even sure he recognizes me. I don’t know how to free him. Yet.”
“This person is why you left?”
It was something I could understand. I had people I would drop everything to find if they ever went missing. From the way he spoke, whoever this person was, they were extremely important to him. I could hear the yearning in his voice when he spoke of them, sense his frustration that he didn’t know how to help them.
He made a wordless sound of assent.“It was supposed to be a quick mission, there and back. Unfortunately, complications delayed my return,” he said.
“Complications that followed you back here?”
The look on his face was all the answer I needed.
An irrational surge of jealousy rose. I already knew Niamh and he had had a relationship, now I had to consider whether that relationship was a little more recent thanI’d previously thought.
“I’ve lived a long life, not all of it good. There are things in my past thatI’m not proud of. I would prefer those things not touch you,” he said, his voice serious.
He wasn’t the sort of man who explained. You took him as he was or you walked away. There would be no changing Liam, no softening him or using feminine wiles to civilize him. The fact that he’d bent to explain that much said he took this thing between us seriously.
I didn’t react for a long moment, letting his words sink in. It was enough that I didn’t get up and walk away, though it was tempting. He had heartache written all over him.
“Niamh is one such thing?” I asked, giving in.
His nod was small.“Yes.”
“She wants you back,” I said. Liam was a fine specimen of manhood. The way she’d looked at him had been possessive, not the sort of look a woman gave an ex-lover.
“She is a collector,” he said.“She sees me as a challenge, someone who got away, something that she can possess. However, she will not let that desire interfere with their purpose here.”
I drummed my fingers on his chest.“You had me look over you and Eric to see if either of you were under her influence.”
“Yes.”
“And ifI’d found her fingerprints all over you two?” I asked, lifting up, alarm finally taking hold.
“I would have had to take drastic action,” Liam said in a calm voice.
I didn’t have to ask what kind of drastic action that would be. I remembered the screams of the woman when the geas had taken hold.
IfI’d found evidence of influence, Liam could very well have gone the same way.
The knowledge I might have come close to losing him struck deep. In all our back and forth, I had never considered a world without him in it. It was a much-needed reminder that despite the fact we were both immortal, life was still short. You had to grab it while you could or else be left standing battered and beaten in its wake.
