To Have A Heart (A New Adventure Begins - Star Elite 7)

Mallory watched him. “Tell me.”

“He is alive – just,” Will growled. “He landed on Edward.”

Callum groaned and sucked in a huge breath as he opened his eyes. He stared up at the sky but saw nothing except for Will.

“Jesus,” he hissed.

“Don’t do that to me,” Will growled. “What in the Hell?”

Callum stared at his friend for many years. He struggled to comprehend what had happened. It had all happened so fast. One moment he had been stepping backward with Edward’s shoulder in his stomach and the next he had been falling.

“What happened?”

Will huffed a laugh. “I think you have the luck of the Irish, that’s what happened.”

“What?” Callum frowned at him.

Mentally, he took stock of his injuries. Apart from some soreness around his ribs, he was fine apart from his head, which pounded fiercely.

“You landed on Edward,” Will grinned. “It says everything that the man who tried to take your life actually saved it instead.”

Callum groaned when he tried to look around and see for himself where Edward had landed. Every bone in his body ached, but he was blessedly alive.

“Mallory.”

When Callum forced himself upright, he saw Mallory on her knees beside him. She didn’t move or speak as she watched him. Instead, tears trickled steadily down her face as she stared at him with such mute appeal that Callum wondered briefly if she had been hurt.

Without saying a word, she lunged forward and threw her arms around him.

Callum gathered her against him and held her tightly. Mallory buried her head in his neck and clung to him with every ounce of strength she possessed. She couldn’t comprehend just how much the last few moments had proven the depth of love she felt for him. She wasn’t at all sure she could describe to anybody how she felt, even herself. What Mallory did know was that Callum was more precious to her than life.

“You nearly died,” Mallory whispered.

“I am here,” Callum replied, his voice shaking with the strength of his own restrained emotions.

Leaning back, he forced her to look at him.

“We are alive,” he said, as if either of them needed it confirming.

Mallory stared at him. All sorts of thoughts, feelings, and emotions coursed through her. She wasn’t at all sure which to talk about first. Out of the swirling fog of confusion, fear, and torment, came the certainty that she loved him. This wasn’t any passing phase, or brief connection. This was something much, much more.

“I nearly lost you,” she breathed.

Mallory blinked because her view of him was blurred by her tears. When she still couldn’t see him, she cupped his face with her hands and rested her forehead against his.

“I nearly lost you,” she repeated tearfully.

“You won’t get rid of me that easily,” Callum growled.

“I don’t want to get rid of you,” she cried. “I want to keep you.”

Callum slid a hand into her hair to keep her head against him. There wasn’t an inch of space between them, but he didn’t mind. He wanted her to be as close as physically possible, not least because he needed her beside him forever. Only Mallory could introduce him to a life outside of the Star Elite. He had been working with them for so long now that it had become who he was – or so he had thought.

“I want a life; a life that is more than just work,” he whispered. “I want a chance of a future with you.”

Mallory leaned back to look up at him. The words were Heaven to her ears. He was saying what she so desperately wanted to hear. However, Callum’s words were also the very worst she could listen to as well.

“I don’t want you to say things you might regret later,” she whispered.