Page 39 of Taken With Trouble

Cruz’s face goes as red as the dress she’s wearing, and she scowls at me. A glare so icy it alters the temperature of the room. “Well, I don’t.” She turns into the room, and only when she’s out of sight does my brain restart. I scoop up my phone, tapping it against my leg a couple times. What’s wrong with me? I’m acting like I’ve never seen a woman in a dress before. But I’ve never seen a woman likeherin a dress like that before. And it’s too incredible to process. She’s the object of my desire. I want to paint her, to immortalize her like that forever. She’s too beautiful to ever be forgotten.

I shake my head. I need to focus. On so many other things besides how sexy Serena looks.

Then she steps out again in a simple black dress, but there’s nothing simple about the way it hugs her curves. Every single one is on display like she’s the main exhibition in my favorite gallery. I could study her forever, from the deep V-neck down to the sheer skirt that makes her long legs seem otherworldly.

I step up next to her, grab her hand, and spin her around.

“What are you doing?” she asks.

“Enjoying this,” I murmur.

She shoves me away. “I’m not yours to enjoy. I’m done trying on dresses,” she tells the woman as she walks back into the room.

Abigail looks at me, her eyes carrying a warning. “You cherish her.”

“I will,” I say, without hesitation, surprising myself. I thought my heart was long gone, but it’s still right there in my chest where I left it years ago. And it’s beating like crazy.

Am I having a heart attack?

I raise a finger to my neck, feeling my pulse. It’s too fast.

What’s wrong with me? I can flirt and not care. But something inside me really cares right now. And that scares me more than anything. The last time I cared about someone like this, she died.

I catch my breath, holding it in, then releasing it slowly. That won’t happen again.

“Liam?” Cruz appears in my line of sight in her regular clothes. “Are you okay?”

“Perfect.” I pull a smile onto my face, though I don’t feel it. “Was that so bad?”

“Yes.” She deadpans. “I have trauma.”

“Come, I’ll help you work through it.” I grab her hand and lead her through the shop.

“No, wait.” She digs her heels in. “You misunderstood me.You’remy source of trauma.”

“In that case, I’ve heard immersion therapy works great. Let’s kiss.”

“In your dreams, Hawthorne.”

I love that she knows what I dream about.

Chapter 15

Serena

Liam insisted I wearthe blue dress so we could tour the Moore Estate. To be fair, he did figure out how to strap my gun to my thigh. I didn’t let him help, of course. I’m already feeling off-kilter after the dress store experience. Especially with the way Liam looked at me in the red dress with his wide eyes and parted lips. As if he were looking at a ghost.

As if he were looking at Scarlett. There’s a famous picture of her in a dress nearly identical to the one I was forced into. He was thinking of her. I could see it in his lost eyes.

I’m not a needy woman. I don’t have time for a relationship, nor do I want one with Liam. But like it or not, I have insecurities. My heart can’t handle being compared and judged against a woman who graced magazine covers. The woman his heart belonged to.

“Do I need to go over the plan again?” Liam asks, looking at me from the driver’s seat of his Lamborghini. When he pulled this out of a storage unit a couple blocks from his place, I nearly died. I never considered myself a car person… until I saw this work of art. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get in the driver’s seat for the last thirty minutes. “Do you need to practice pretending you are a tourist?”

“You do remember I’m a federal agent and capable of espionage, right?”

“Capable?” He rolls the word over his lips. “Sure. Accomplished? Not so much. I’ve yet to be impressed.”

“The feeling is mutual.”