“Liam,” Cora sobbed and hugged him as best she could with bound hands. “I was so scared.” He held her close trying to give her some of his warmth and just happy that she survived.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I’m here now. I would never let anything happen to you. I’m so sorry I couldn’t prevent this.”
“But you c-c-came to me in time. I thought I was g-g-going to drown out here all alone. And when I saw you guys arrive and knew those men were hiding and w-w-waiting for you, I w-w-was so scared.”
“You don’t have to be scared anymore. I’m here. We’re going to go home remember?”
“Y-y-you said you’re going to marry me. Was that t-t-the truth or were you just saying that?”
Liam brushed the wetstrands of hair from Cora’s face. “I was being serious. I don’t ever want to live without you Cora. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to give you the world. If I have to give up my career to do that then so be it.”
“You w-w-would give up being Delta Force for m-m-me?” She asked the question innocently but knew a lot was riding on the answer.
“I threatened our new commanderthat I would put in my discharge papers if he didn’t allow me to come get you. So yeah, I would give it up for you.”
Cora smiled at him and hugged him and stealing some of his warmth. “I could never ask you to do that. B-b-being Delta Force is part of you. I couldn’t ask you to do that. As long as there is always honesty between us we can survive anything.”
Liam gripped the back of Cora’shead and pulled her in for a kiss. He kept it brief since she was still cold and they both needed medical attention. “Lie on your back and we’ll swim back to the island.”
“Can you unlock these shackles first?” She held up her bound hands to him. Liam quickly unlocked them and kissed each wrist. There were red marks around her wrists but he knew they would heal quickly.
“Now lie back. I knowyou’re probably tired so we are going to swim on our backs.” Cora did as he told her, and they made their way back to the island. Liam would occasionally stop and whistle out to Midas who would guide him back. Once back on the island, Cora was pulled from the water, and Doc pulled out his medical kit and bandaged her up, and Hound pulled out a blanket from his bag, and wrapped her up. Once everyonewas bandaged up, they used one of Alejandro’s boats and made their way to the landing zone where Commander Jones was waiting for them. They quickly ushered her on the plane and wrapped her up in more blankets before Commander Jones took off. Liam held Cora in his arms the whole time not wanting to let her go. No one had a spare set of clothes since it was such a quick mission, so she just stayedin the blanket until they made it back to base.
Back at home base, all the men shook Commander Jones’s hand, and thanked him for his assistance. Hannah waited anxiously off the flight line for them. As soon as Cora saw her she left Liam’s side to run into her friend's open arms. They hugged and cried together. “No more insubordination, understand me, Sunshine?” Commander Jones told him witha pointed finger, never breaking stride on his way back to his office.
“Sir, no sir,” Liam said with a smile. He had Cora and she accepted him for all that he was. He was the happiest and the luckiest of bastards ever.
Ben was trying to pry the women apart when Liam pulled Cora to his side and gave her a toe curling kiss.
“What do you say we go home and take a hot shower and work on thisfamily idea you have?” Cora whispered in his ear. Liam couldn’t get her home fast enough. As soon as they were home, he threw the blanket off her, and made slow gentle love to her in the shower being careful of her ribs. Afterward, they lay in bed with her resting on his shoulder and her hand over his heart. Life was perfect.
