Page 46 of Even if You Fall

I drew back a little as I turned, but all it did was slide my arm through his tan, tattooed hand until he was holding my wrist, his fingers curling against my palm and leaving tingles every place they touched.

“What are you bringing me into?” I asked, hating how breathless I sounded.

His head shook as he took a step closer, forcing me to inhale quickly at the lack of space between us. “That’s just it, Bubbles... I don’t trust you.”

A wave of hurt and embarrassment slammed into me, but when I started pulling my arm from his grasp, he tightened his hold and drew me even closer.

“You lie as easily as you breathe,” he said, his amber eyes bouncing between mine as they searched for some hidden answer. “Why would I trust you?”

My tongue darted out to wet my lips as my head shook. “I really don’t know what you expect or want from me.”

“You.” At my blatant shock, Adam gave a harsh shake of his head and quickly amended, “I wanna see therealyou, not the mask you force so everyone thinks you’re all sunshine and rainbows. I wanna know I’m not stepping into a trap by trying to protect you.”

My chest pitched with a strained laugh, but I wasn’t sure if it was out of self-preservation or dejection because I’d just been reminded Adam didn’t see me as anything other than a frustration—and now, a job.

“Why is it so hard for you to accept this is who I am?”

“Because it’s a lie,” he snapped. “I told you, you’re a good liar, Chloe. But I’ve seen glimpses behind the mask, and I swear I just saw the real you for asecondbefore you slipped back into that lie.”

He dipped his head, making me wonder, for a brief moment, what it would be like to push up on my toes and kiss him, but then he continued, and that fantasy abruptly faded. “People like that usually turn out to be threats, Bubbles. Now, tell me why I’d let a threat set foot anywhere near my family. Tell me why I’d let a threat live.”

Horror washed through me, making me feel at once feverish and cold because I knew from the cruel look in his eyes that hemeantit.

And for the life of me, I wondered why Asher would send me with Adam, given what’d already happened between us last week, but especially with what Adam was telling me then. Or maybe Asher wasn’t aware of his thoughts...

I tried in vain to swallow, but my throat was suddenly so dry. “I’m not a threat,” I said, the words sounding pathetic, even to me. “I’m not...I’m just...Adam, I dunno how to be anything else butthis.”

“I saw a different you not ten minutes ago, so I don’t think that’s true.”

“But I—” I sucked in a startled breath when his free hand curled around the side of my neck, the touch pleading and gentle and so at odds with this conversation.

My head was spinning, and it had nothing to do with the flight.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me that joy is genuine,” he softly begged. “Tell me you’re not hiding behind it. Tell me you aren’t using that infuriating smile to blind people from seeing something you don’t want them to.”

I studied the tension in his jaw and the pleading in his eyes. “I can’t.”

Where I’d expected to see victory, I only saw concerned acknowledgment. Even Adam’s hands seemed to tighten on me for a moment as if begging me to take it back.

Silence engulfed us for long moments before he gave a resigned dip of his head and pled, “Then tell me what you’re hiding.”

My chest started pitching in sharp, too fast breaths as I considered doing exactly that.

But I’d never told anyonethis.

“I’m not—Adam, I’m not a threat. I’m not what you—whatever it is you’re thinking I am, I’m not. I just...Ihaveto be this.”

“Why?” he all but begged, drawing me even closer so I was pressed to his chest.

And even though a part of me thrilled at being pressed against Adam Thatcher, the man who had been plaguing my every thought for weeks, I untangled myself from him and maneuvered around him and toward the back of the jet as I struggled to take a deep enough breath.

“Chloe—”

“Why can’t you just let it go?” I cried as tears pricked at the backs of my eyes. “No one has ever—” A strained sob caught in my throat, and my head shook as I struggled to force back all the unwanted emotions.

When his hand slipped around my wrist again, I quickly snatched my arm away and whirled on him. “You’re the only one who’s ever been bothered by who I am. Why does my personality bother you so much?”

“Need you to breathe,” he said instead.

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