Page 17 of Meet Cute the Virgin

“No.” The bold one, Kent, is shaking his head. “It’s because of?—”

“Me,” I tell her. Teddy stiffens before she slowly turns to face me. I see the recognition.

“Mr. Vanderbilt, we were just escorting her out.” Kent stands up straighter.

“She’s not going anywhere.” Teddy’s eyes widen when I grab her elbow.

“Hey!” She tries to jerk out of my hold. “Stranger danger!” she shouts.

“You want to see Lily?” That stops her from trying to fight me.

“It’s okay,” she tells the two guards. “No need to call the police on Tristan here.”

Kent chuckles. “We would never do that.”

Teddy’s brows pull together, not liking that response. “But he was kidnapping me.”

“This conversation is over. I’m done with this little game.” I pull her toward the back elevators. “You think you could pull one over on me?” I ask her. What did she think she was going to do with a lightsaber?

“I think you’re a jerk-face.” She glares up at me. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.”

“Oh, I know.” I smirk. I pull her into the elevator and hit the button for my floor. “Killian Kotov is here.” I watch the blood drain from her face, realizing I knew from the start.

Then I feel something hard press into my stomach, but it’s too late. Voltage rips through me, locking every muscle for three endless seconds. My teeth grind together. I don’t fall. I don’t make a sound beyond the breath hissing through my nose.

Teddy stares at the Taser in her hand like it betrayed her. “Well,” she says, “that’s awkward.”

I rip it from her fingers and crush it under my heel. The plastic cracks, batteries spilling across the elevator floor.

“That was rude,” she mutters. Is this girl all there? Not my problem.

The elevator rises. My body throbs where the prongs hit, a deep ache that will bruise by morning. I flex my hand, testing control. Still functional.

The doors open onto my floor.

The penthouse stretches before us, open and modern, floor-to-ceiling windows showing the city sprawled below.

What matters is the smell. Vanilla and something softer, something that lives in my lungs now. Lily. Her smell still lingers in the air. The scent wraps around me, familiar and infuriating, proof that she belongs in this space even when she’s trying to escape it.

“Walk,” I tell Teddy, pushing her forward.

She stumbles, catching herself on the back of my sofa. “You can’t just?—”

“I can.” I cross to the windows, looking down at the street. “I did.”

I pull out my phone and hit call.

“You’re playing a deadly game, Tristan,” Killian says when he answers.

“The way I see it, we’re even at the moment,” I counter, barely hanging on to my control.

“Your Lily isn’t worth anything compared to Teddy.”

I glance over to the girl fixing her crown. “I don’t care whether you think she’s worth it or not. We trade.”

“How do I know you have her?” He knows I do, but I give him the bait.

“She tased me.”