“Don’t you dare look at my eyes!” I jump out of his reach.
“Should I look at your belly button instead? It’s quite cute.”
I drop the box on the counter and punch his shoulder. “This isn’t the real box.”
A slow smile grows on his lips. Lips that aren’t all that terrible to look at. Lips that make me shiver with memories I’m better off forgetting. A dark night at a bar, his hands on my…Stop.
“Iama thief,” he says.
“Were you really going to give the Winthrops the fake? Where’s the real one?”
He pats his chest like he’s looking for it in the crevices of his muscles. “Not here.”
I pull my gun from behind my back and aim it at his chest. “We’re going to get it. Now.”
“You know I find you extremely attractive in this position, but maybe you should stop being so trigger-happy. I’m beginning to think you only do it to turn me on.”
My nostrils flare. “Could you stop being an obnoxious flirt for two seconds?”
“I could. It might kill me, though.”
“One can only hope. Let’s go.”
I manage to find a pair of ripped jeans from the boutique downstairs that are only three inches too short, and a shirt only long enough in an extra-large size; clothes for six-foot women are extremely inconsistent.
Liam opens the same window I came through. The only problem? It’s much higher from this side.
I push a stool beneath the window then pull myself up. The cement scrapes against my stomach as I force my upper body through the window… butonlymy upper body. I’m stuck. My jeans are caught on the rusted windowsill. I push harder, but my muscles only shake. The pack of cheese and crackers I took from the apartment upstairs isn’t cutting it, but I wasn’t about to rob this poor woman blind. Apparently, neither was the thief. Before we left the apartment, I glanced back to see Liam stacking no less than ten hundred-dollar bills on the counter. The fact that they were dry was equally suspicious. Did he stop at an ATM or does a money cloud just follow him and only him?
I wiggle and push, but I’m really stuck. “A little help please,” I call down.
“What did you say? I’m busy enjoying a spectacular view.”
I grit my teeth and say the words I never thought would escape my lips. “I said I need help.”
“The mighty Agent Cruz needs help from me?” he asks, still not assisting.
“If I had any other options, I clearly wouldn’t choose you,” I growl. A sound echoes in the stairwell and I freeze. “Hurry, I think someone’s coming.”
“So…” he drawls. Purposefully. Annoyingly. “Let me get this straight—youwantme to touch your bottom?”
I grimace. “Help me before I put a bullet in you.”
His deep laugh rumbles as he climbs the stool behind me. It’s not a wide stool, and I’m cursing every measly inch of it that makes our bodies smash together. He grabs the side of my thighs, then slowly—sofreakingslowly—slides his hands up to my hips.
I clench my stomach, refusing to feel anything when it comes to this man right here.
“I think it’s your belt loop,” he murmurs… or at least, that’s what it sounds like. He’s trying to capitalize on my predicament and charm me, but the joke’s on him. I will not be seduced by Liam Hawthorne, no matter how warm and strong his hands feel on my waist. I’ve fallen for jerks before; it won’t happen again.
He unhooks my belt loop. Then he gives me a nice and completely unromantic shove out the window.
I crumple into the staircase head first, butt in the air. “I’m going to destroy you!” I yell.
He pops out of the window at the same time I pull myself upright. “Not if I destroy you first, darling.”
That’s what I’m afraid of.
Chapter 9