BELLA
“Can I give you a lift?” Liam asked me after we were dressed. Unexpectedly, he swooped his arm under my bum, scooped me off the ground and carried me to the boat which floated a short way off shore.
“Liam! I can walk, you know. I do it all the time.”
He laughed as if he found me delightful, and I realized I had never heard him sound so carefree. His smile was lazy, like a Sunday afternoon. “Can’t have my princess walking in pond splooge now, can I?”
“Pond splooge?” I repeated. “Is that a scientific term?” I realized that I had grown to love looking at his face, his scars were as handsome to me as the most unflawed and traditionally handsome features on the planet, because they belonged to him, and I thought of him as mine.
“Are you hungry?” I raised myself over the buzz of the s
