Page 29 of Trouble

And I’d known I was in love with him since our last nighttogether.

I’d tried to suppress it, because I knew only heartbreak lay down that path. Until he stood in my door with pain written across his face. Pain, and a yearning that mirrored myown.

Boyfriend.

Liam grimaced. “Audrey… I’m not one of the good guys. And I don’t want you to gethurt.”

“I think it’s too late for that,” I said softly. “I… there’s something about you thatI…”

“I know. I feel it too.” He rubbed his free hand across his face and drew in a deep breath. When he looked at me again, there was more of his old self back in his gaze. “I need you to tell me… if you could choose… if you’d never met me that day in the park, you’d continue on with your life as always, and you’d be safe. Or… we were together, but… something awful might happen. You might get hurt. Which would youchoose?”

I wrinkled my nose at his cryptic question. “Somethingawful?”

“If King Kong suddenly climbed the Eye, or giant spiders roamed the streets,” he said, as if that explainedanything.

“Ew. Giant spiders, really?” Ishuddered.

Liam made a vague hand gesture. “It was the worst I could come up with off the top of myhead.”

I sighed. “I’d probably take the spiders. But I’d also never leave my apartmentagain.”

He smiled, but there was a touch of strain in the set of his sensual lips. “I need you to be sure,love.”

“Why? What’s this about,Liam?”

He rubbed his face again and exhaled deeply. “It’s about me being a selfish fuck. I don’t want to leave you alone, even though I know I should. It’s not fucking fair! I’ve never felt like I do with you in my arms, nothing’s ever felt this goddamnright, but I… if you get hurt because I can’t stay away, thenI…

“I can’t even tell you, that’s the most fucked up thing. Just know that… if we keep seeing each other, I can’t promise you… There is a very real chance you could end up getting hurt. And I need you to tell me that that’s not a risk you’re willing to take. I need you to tell me to leave, because I don’t think I can do it if youdon’t.”

I put my free hand on top of his and looked into his eyes, searching for what I’d been too scared to even hope to find there. Until tonight. And I found it. This was the man I was meant to be with. This redheaded player with his easy smile and his demons he couldn’t tell me about. This was it.Hewasit.

“Liam, I don’t care. I just want to be withyou.”

“Audrey—”

“No. I don’t care. No bullshit, remember? You asked me to choose, and I did. I pick you, spiders and all. Just promise me… promise me this isn’t just some fling for you, okay? Because I…” I paused, not quite capable of saying the words even though everything inside me ached to tell him. But it was too much, toosoon.

I loveyou.

“If we’re doing this, I want it to be the real deal. I can’t… I can’t docasual.”

He smiled then, but despite the relief in his eyes I saw the sadness in the set of his full lips. “I don’t want casual, either. But I wish you’d choosedifferently.”

I shook my head, pinching my lips with determination. “It’s not achoice.”

“I know,” he rasped, before he pulled me into a kiss. It was soft and tender, and it made warmth flood through my veins and fill my blood with a happiness I couldn’t remember ever feeling before. When he withdrew, there was nothing left of the confusion and worry in my body. Only the warm buzz of the joy I’d always felt whenever he was nearme.

“So we’re doing this?” Iconfirmed.

“Yeah,” he said. “Weare.”

I gave Liam a wide smile before I climbed into his lap. Myboyfriend’slap. “Guess that means you’re coming with me to my dad’s birthday dinner,huh?”

14

Louis

“Where are you off to?”I raised my eyebrows at my twin as he walked into the kitchen, wearing a pressed shirt and smart jeans. Not completely unusual attire for him, but he looked somehow… neater than usual. And he was fiddling with his cuff, like he usually did when he wasnervous.

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