Fighting With Light (The Coldwell Brothers #2)

14. Liam

14

Liam

The next day I woke up to find Aelia making eggs in shorts and a t-shirt with her hair in a messy bun. I stare at her for a moment because I’m amazed she cooks for herself.

“What?” she asks.

I smile and shake my head. “Oh nothing, princess, good morning,” I murmur.

Her face brightens and she looks for a fork in the cabinets. I come around her, open the drawer with the cutlery, and hand her one.

“Thanks,” she says quietly.

The day after tomorrow is day one of the competition. If all goes well, I’ll have my heat and then we’ll have another two or so weeks before we have to go to El Salvador, but when it comes to the ocean, you take what she gives you. You’re not in control, and I’ve been fighting with her from the moment I started surfing.

I don’t know why I decided to go pro for surfing. It was something I was good at and I left it at that. But rock climbing is my favorite thing to do. It’s the one thing I feel like I can control in my life. I think surfing is the challenge for me to let go and accept that I don’t have control and that’s difficult when you’ve barely had it your entire life.

“Do you have something against shirts?” Aelia asks me, drawing my attention away from the ocean.

“Uh, no?” I say, unsure.

She stares at me and takes a bite of eggs. “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to burn something just hanging out, out there?” she asks, smiling around her fork .

“Are you trying to tell me you don’t like this?” I gesture to my naked chest.

“I never said that. I was just curious if you had a thing against shirts.” I give her a dirty look and grab the eggs she left out. I crack four into a bowl, pull out the cooked bacon, and batter the chef made last night to make pancakes.

“I don’t, for the record. Do you want pancakes and bacon?” I ask her.

“Sure.” She sits down at the island on one of the bar stools. I get out the griddle and heat my bacon. Once the pancakes are going, I get them stacked up before I start my eggs.

“How did you sleep?” I glance at her over my shoulder and flip the pancakes.

“I never sleep well the first time in a new place.”

I get that, but she’s safe here. “You could have come in if you wanted,” I tell her, surprised at my own words. I know we agreed on an arrangement, but I figured she wouldn’t want to share a bed and do nothing in it. Maybe I was wrong, or maybe I need to get my head out of the gutter and try to be better than my past, different than what my brothers expect of me. So this might be a good thing overall. I’ve never had a casual girlfriend for more than a month or two, especially if I was staying somewhere for more than a few weeks. Not that Aelia is my girlfriend. Regardless, I’ve always made sure they knew it was temporary. That didn’t always go over well, and I don’t like to admit it to myself, but I felt bad when it was all said and done. Yet, I continued to do it. Maybe I’m my own worst enemy.

“Liam!” Aelia yells. I look down, realizing I’m burning the pancake, pull it off the griddle, and pour more batter. I’ll eat the burnt one. “Are you okay over there?” she asks.

“What? Oh, yeah, I was just thinking.”

“Oh well, um, thanks for the invitation. I might take you up on that.”

I wink and watch the pancakes carefully.

“Did you…” Aelia trails off and I flip the pancake before looking at her again. “Did you want me to come to your bed last night, or maybe you come to mine?”

The corner of my mouth tips up. I study her a little more. I like her relaxed like this, zero makeup and a little messy. She’s never once appeared messy, not a single hair out of place, so seeing her like this makes me think she’s truly comfortable around me, and I like that. “I wouldn’t have said no,” I tell her, watching her reaction.

“I’ve, uh, never done this before, so I guess I don’t know the…etiquette on the subject,” she says, avoiding eye contact.

I grab the pancake and pour the last few, then flip on the skillet for my eggs. “It can be whatever you want it to, Aelia. I’ve never done this before either and it feels…I don’t know, weird or awkward. Right?”

She giggles in her hand and I pour my eggs into the hot skillet.

“What’s so funny?” I ask her.

She keeps laughing and takes a breath before she says, “We clicked instantly, yet we are so awkward, and you’re one of the most charming men I have ever met, and we’re both…experienced. So the fact that this feels weird is hilarious to me.”

I snort and stir my eggs. My smile turns into a chuckle and I look at her again.

“Maybe we need to just chill out and go with the flow. I’ll be honest, sexy time was the last thing on my mind last night,” she says.

“Same here,” I grumble.

I stare at my eggs, scrambling them. “I’d like to take you out, though, for real.”

“For real?” she asks.

“Yeah, I want to take you on a date that doesn’t have the end goal of you tied to a bed.”

“Well, if you remember correctly, I didn’t say that was the problem.”

I laugh nervously, flipping the pancake and my stomach flips right with it. I’m not nervous around women, or anyone, for that matter.

“Well, maybe you should be awake next time.”

“Yeah,” she sighs. “I would prefer that.”

“Noted,” I quip.

“So when are we going to go rock climbing?” she asks.

I flip the other pancakes and move the done ones off the griddle and stir my eggs. “Not until after my competition. I hope that’s okay.”

She hums .

I haven’t forgotten about her bodyguard. After TSA released him, he got on a plane to Portugal, so he’s likely here already. Unless he got a wild layover that took more time. “Have you heard from your Ben?”

She sighs and reaches for her phone on the counter. “Yeah, he texted me and told me he was here and told me to meet him. I told him I was with a friend, but I think he might find us sooner rather than later.”

I shake my head and flip the stove off. “He won’t. I disabled your location.”

Her eyes widen. “Why? He’s going to notice, then he’s going to tell my dad. Then my dad is going to freak out, and it’s not even because he’s worried for my safety. It will be because —” She cuts her panicked words off and I set my plate down.

“Aelia, it’s fine. I just redirected the location, so he can’t directly trace you. It’s like the equivalent of an untraceable call.”

Her shoulders drop. “Oh,” she says.

“You should text him, though, so he doesn’t think something is wrong. Keep him out of the loop enough so he doesn’t have a reason to go to your dad,” I tell her.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

I hand her a plate of pancakes.

“Thank you, these look good.” I hum and sit down at the island next to her. We eat and I go over the list in my head for what specific information we need for the case. I figure if we don’t hand everything to the authorities on a silver platter, they won’t pursue it.

For this case to be worth looking into, we need cold, hard proof of wrongdoing in order for the authorities to move forward with my father. We need unequivocal evidence that he is working with a mob boss, and unfortunately, a handshake won’t cut it.

We’re going to need audio, video, and photos, and I’m really hoping I can find evidence of a paper trail. That one is going to be harder than it seems because it’s not like they put illegal guns on the manifest for the contents on a cargo ship.

The research that I’m hung up on, though, is Dad’s money. He has to have some kind of proof as to where that money is coming from or who is paying him, only I don’t know how to get that information. Aelia’s phone buzzes and I glance at her.

She frowns and then types quickly. “This is not going to keep Ben out of our hair for long.”

“Hopefully, we’ll be gone by the time he figures out you’re not in the country anymore.”

“I doubt that, but a girl can dream. So, are you ready for the big day?”

I nod, shoveling a mouthful of pancakes. “I’m always ready, princess.” I grin and take a sip of coffee.

She rolls her eyes and eats more of her pancake. “Are you?” she says and kicks my stool out from under me.

I manage to drop my fork and catch myself, landing on my butt on the floor. I grab my wrist, holding it up to my chest. “Shit, that hurt,” I grumble.

Her face goes pale and she hops off her stool, squatting down next to me, trying to look at my wrist.

“Oh my gosh, Liam, I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t— shit ! You have a competition tomorrow, let me—”

I cut Aelia off, sweeping my foot under her, throwing my weight so I’m on top, and grabbing her wrists, pinning them to the floor above her head. Her chest moves rapidly as she tries to keep up with the adrenaline pumping through her veins and I grin in victory.

“How about now?” I ask her.

“Ass,” she grumbles.

I lean forward and press a quick kiss on her nose.

“You’re cute when you’re frustrated,” I say, and brush my lips against hers. She lifts her head to kiss me as the energy changes around us. I pull away and then she lays back, relaxing her body beneath mine.

I kiss her jaw and then her temple, avoiding her lips until she’s huffing and frustrated at me. “I should knee you in the balls.”

“Go for it, I’ll block it.” I taunt, and her expression turns determined, making my heart rate bump up. I feel her move and at the last second release her, blocking the knee to my junk, and roll off of her. Before I know it, she’s on top of me with her hands around my neck.

“I like where this is going.”

She rolls her eyes.

She’s so small, I easily flip us again, pinning her with my hips and forcing both of her legs together with my thighs, rendering her immobile. “Tap out, princess.”

Grunting with effort, she tries to break free of my hold. I lean in closer to her lips and she leans up and bites my lower one, hard. “Ow! Aelia,” I mumble and then slam my mouth on hers. Electricity spikes through me as she tilts her chin, trying to take control when I have all of it. She moans into my mouth and I swallow it as I sweep my tongue against hers.

Aelia finally leans her head back, relenting and letting me take over. I release her hands and slide mine down her sides. She shudders beneath my palms and loops her arms around my neck. Then she squeezes, catching me off guard, and throws her weight to flip us again.

She hops to her feet and looks down at me on the floor, taps her elbow, and leaps into the air, intending to land on me. I catch her and she giggles, dropping her weight onto me as I roll us over again. We’ve rolled our way into the living room and when I stop with her on top of me, she drops her weight, resting her head on my chest.

“For the record, I didn’t tap out,” she mumbles and her breath brushes against my skin, making me shiver.

I bring my arms up around her, hugging her to me. “I didn’t think you did,” I say.

She laughs. “I’ll get you to tap out next time, though.”

I laugh and drag my hand up her spine. “Maybe we can do it naked,” I suggest.

Aelia lifts her head and looks at me, and I wiggle my eyebrows.

A smile grows on her face and she snorts. “You are such a flirt. I don’t know how I didn’t see through it.”

I smile widely. “You did say I was the most charming man you’ve ever met. ”

She scoffs. “And now I’m significantly regretting uttering the words.”

“I’m not,” I whisper and grab her chin.

She lifts up and leans over me. Pieces of her hair fall around her face from getting all messy rolling around on the floor. I slip my hand behind her neck, bringing her to me. Our mouths meet in a rough clash.

Aelia pulls back and kisses my cheeks and the sides of my jaw. My hands slide to her butt and I squeeze the muscles, making her whimper. She kisses me again, then tucks her head beneath my chin and all I can smell is her cherry scent.

“You always smell so good,” I tell her.

“You smell like the ocean and sunscreen,” she says.

“I hope that’s a good thing.”

She nods against my chest.

“I need to look through Ferreira’s legal businesses and see which ones he uses to ship out from the port you mentioned.”

She sighs and draws her finger in small circles over my chest, messing with the fine dusting of hair. “I don’t actually know if that’s the port he ships his guns out of or if he uses multiple places.”

“I’ll figure it out,” I mutter, focusing on the way her body feels on mine. The curve of her spine against my hand. I don’t want to move right now. Shipping containers can wait for just a little longer. I’m spending time with my temporary girlfriend.