Her Hidden Falls Bodyguard Billionaire Cowboy - Taylor Hart Page 0,40
them. It wasn’t fair to him.
“Don’t hide anything from me.” Sean said it desperately. “Remember, the truth.”
The breath went out of her. “I love you, Sean.” Her words felt tiny, small. Like she might not mean them, like the wind could sweep them away. But once they were out, they flooded her with a force she hadn’t expected. “I love you.” She laughed through her tears. “And I don’t know how this will end up. I don’t know if we’ll be together or if you love me or …”
She didn’t have time to say anything else, because he crushed his mouth against hers. She sank into his kiss, the intensity of this man. He deepened the kiss, and she groaned. Her hands were in his hair, running over his shoulders. She felt frantic for him in a way she’d never felt before. She’d never allowed herself to feel this way before.
When they broke apart, he laughed. “Dang, woman. Once you decide you want something, you really go after it.”
She laughed and started to pull him back to her, but she stopped right before kissing him. “I’m going into WITSEC, Sean.” Reluctantly, she nudged him away. “So we can’t.”
“Then I’ll go too.” He was smiling as he pressed his lips to hers.
She couldn’t believe it. She kissed him for a bit, then pushed him back again. “No, you can’t. Your family. You’re in the Bureau. You can’t.”
“I can.” He cupped her face in his hands. “And for the record, I’ve loved you since almost the day I met you.”
“You have?”
Sean brushed his lips against hers again. “I have.”
“But you didn’t even know me.”
He pulled her into a hug, rubbing light circles into her back. “Oh, but I did. Because I saw the real you the whole time. I realized that over the past couple of days. I fell in love with a glimmer of you at first, and now that I know all of you, all facets …” He pushed back and put his hands on her face. “I love you even more.”
“How is that even possible?”
“I don’t know, but it is. It is the truth. And I’m being truthful with you, too.” He laughed. “It’s like at every turn, the more I discover about you, the more I want you, need you, love you.”
She blinked, and tears fell down her cheeks. “Wait a sec. So you’re saying that the worse it gets, the more you love me?”
“It’s insanity, right? But I do.”
Zoey seized him in an embrace, and they kissed and didn’t let go of each other. She didn’t have any answers, she didn’t know the future, and she didn’t know if they were even going to make it on a yacht today … but she knew one thing. She loved Sean Hardman, and she trusted him completely.
He pulled back. “We need to figure out how to use this chip to get you free.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe negotiate with the FBI for the information.”
“Can we do that?”
“I don’t know, but I’d rather try to negotiate with them than be faced with a situation where we’re negotiating with the mafia.”
Her heart fluttered. “We?”
“Yeah, we.” He said it with unflinching determination. “Get used to it.”
She laughed, feeling a sense of relief. “So you need to text the Winters. No yacht time today.”
Sean pulled her in, holding her close. “No yacht time. We have work to do. We need to secure your freedom.”
She could feel his heart pounding against hers. “You think you can?”
“I don’t know, but the more I think about all of this, something just doesn’t feel right.”
“Sean, I have to testify against the man. He needs to go down for his crimes.”
“I know, but I want to make sure that if there is a mole at the FBI, you won’t be in the same situation you were in before.”
“Thank you.” It was so hard to express what his support did for her. “Sean, I think we need to think about the fact that someone could be watching or listening.” She looked around. “We need to be careful about that chip.”
Chapter 20
Sean had played high school sports. He’d always played tailback on the football field. He’d loved when he intercepted a ball and could figure out a way to take it in for a touchdown. It was how he’d gotten the nickname “game changer” one year.
The chip in his hand felt like a game changer.
But there was one problem. If the information was tracked and they accessed it, they would be