Page 78 of Taken With Trouble

“Did I hurt you?”

I prefer fighting to coddling. “Of course not,” I lie, snatching her wrist, pinning it around her body as I spin her into me. Her back lands against my chestand for a split second, I allow myself to savor the feel of her like this. Because she’s never going to let me hold her again. She’s never going to see me again.

“I missed you, too,” I whisper into her smooth neck.

She jerks her foot toward my groin, and I jerk away, losing part of my grip on her. She stomps on my foot, and there goes the rest of my grip. She spins, kicking her foot to my face. I catch her leg near my ear.

“I’m starting to take this personally.” I drag my hand down her calf and curve her leg behind my back; she fights me the whole way. “Admit it, you love me.”

She gapes. “I do not.”

“Prove it,” I challenge. “Kiss me and don’t feel a thing.”

“It didn’t work the first time; it won’t work now,” she breathes, trying to pull out of my arms.

“It won’t?” I whisper, brushing my lips over hers with the words.

“No.”

I pause at the corner of her lips. “Then I guess I’ll take one for the team.”

I kiss her. And not like a man who should be on the run. I kiss her like a man with nothing to fear but everything to prove. I kiss her like I’ve never kissed anyone before. I think she’ll pull away, but she wraps her other leg around my waist, and I hoist her up, pressing her body to mine. She groans, and I spin, resting her against the wall. I want to drink her in, savoring the contradiction of her soft lips with her strong kiss.

I never stopped loving her. That much is clear now.

What else is clear is how I need to take this box to Sebastian before he comes looking for her. She needs to leave the country and get safe. She can keep my heart; it’s always been hers anyway.

I lean back, gazing into her dazed eyes. “I’m sorry, Serena.”

Her dark eyes search mine. “Why?”

“I’m sorry I’m not the kind of man you deserve.”

“I never said I wanted you,” she snaps and reaches for my pack. “I just need that box.”

“You snooze, you lose.”

There’s more than annoyance in her eyes—there’s something like desperation, a hopelessness that feels personal. “No, Liam, you don’t understand. That video I was talking about… The evidence is in that box.”

The evidence?

That’swhy they want the box. And her. They need to get rid of the evidence and the witness.

I curse. That changes everything. I run through my options. Either she can take it, and my grandfather dies, or I can take it and her life remains in danger. Because they’ll never stop hunting for the only person who knows the truth… but maybe she can get it to the right people.

“Cruz?” a voice calls, and I face the harsh reality of my situation.

Her partner is here. I have to go before he sees me. Serena needs him, not me.

I’ve failed her many times. I can’t do it again. I blamed myself when she disappeared the first time. If I hadn’t tried to kiss her under that willow tree, her grandmother wouldn’t have sent her away. Things could have been different for her.

I swallow the sudden lump in my throat and pull out the box. I put it in her arms before I can think better of it.

And I run as fast and as far from the failure that I am.

Chapter 33

Serena