Liam fingered the paper. “This almost sounds like you’re not coming back.” He looked up at her.
Her eyes focused on the skin below his eyes. “I’m not.” She connected. “I’m a child of the wind, Liam. No one can control me or put me in a cage—I have to be free.”
“I don’t want to control you and I don’t want to put you in a cage,” he said. Then he gave a sad smile. “I want to love you.”
The corners of her eyes turned down even as the corners of her mouth turned up. “You remembered Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
He stepped closer, folding up the letter and slipping it into his coat pocket. “I’m a writer, remember? I don’t forget anything—especially about the woman I love.”
She hesitated, looking into his eyes. The questions that were normally floating in them had vanished, replaced by a shining certainty she’d never seen there before. She closed her eyes to cut off their pull. “No, Liam. Haven’t you figured it out by now? For me, commitment doesn’t mean what the dictionary says it means. It means promises not seen through and years of staying with someone because of fear even though he drains you of life and hearts sliced open when they are offered to someone else.”
Liam let her words hang in the air. “Then let me redefine commitment for you.” He took her hands. “Commitment means freedom—the freedom to fly with your own wings knowing there’ll be someone to welcome you when you get back.” His grip grew firmer. “It’s a warm grasp that remains even after the dance is over. It’s a bond with another’s soul that can’t be broken, not when it is true.” Liam released one of her hands and gently tipped her chin. “Have I ever lied to you, Elyse?”
Her eyes moistened. “No.”
He smiled. “Then believe me when I tell you that I love you. That is my commitment to you.”
Elyse squeezed her eyes shut as tears dripped onto her cheeks. She used her free hand to wipe them away and gave a nervous laugh. “Are you going to kiss me?”
Liam’s thumb stroked her chin as a soft wind blew by. “No. You’re too sacred for that.”
Elyse’s shoulders rounded, and she fell into Liam’s chest, allowing his embrace to ward off all the demons that had chased her for so long. However, she knew that he was not her savior. No—he was giving her the strength to be her own for the first time.