Page 85 of The Naughty List Agreement

“What are you hiding?” she asked.

He shook his head, reaching for his jeans and pulling them on. “That I really do have to get married.”

“That’s not a secret.”

“Then how about this? The only woman I want by my side is you.”

The blood drained from her face and her body. Tingles spread throughout her. Married? To her? “Uh … are you asking me?”

“No. But only because you’re not ready.”

“That’s condescending.”

“Are you ready?”

“No. But I don’t like that you assumed. I could have been,” she said, getting irritated. Mostly at herself but a bit at him too. They’d been talking about wassailing and the festival. Sex had been the cherry on top. She loved how comfortable they were with each other. So natural. It was, if she was honest with herself, exactly what she’d always wanted in a relationship.

But now?

Now that he’d said marriage, her back was up and she wanted to kick him out of her house and her life.

Yet she couldn’t.

She liked him. A lot. More than a lot. She’d never felt this way toward another person. He made her smile when she saw him for the first time each day. He made her laugh at small and silly things. She wanted that to continue.

Could she trust him to stay?

Her life had been a long and lonely path. It was nice to have burgeoning friendships now with Hannah and Fliss, but the truth was harder. Letting down her guard to allow those women close had been easy. They both had other people in their lives.

Nick was at the center of hers. He didn’t realize what a big ask it was for her to let him in. He’d sort of slipped in with his sexy, worn jeans, flannel shirts and silky beard, with those twinkling blue eyes that sparkled when he boomed out his laughter and made her stomach feel like it was full of snow swirling around.

If she knew what love was, she might call these feelings just that. But she wasn’t going to assign her emotions to a word that people used with no thought. Her emotions for Nick were too strong, too real, too precious for that.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said suddenly, and she felt the bottom fall out of her stomach.

CHAPTER 22

He couldn’t put off telling her who he was any longer. He hadn’t meant to get into marriage tonight. He’d been playing it chill—or as chill as he could when it came to Cora. Each day he was more drawn to her. He examined her knot on the Yearweave every single day, looking for minute changes to justify his feelings. He had no hard evidence, but his gut told him he was right, she was the one, and it was time.

Glancing around her bedroom he realized how comfortable he’d gotten living in her world. His wood carving tools were in a leather bag on the table she had nestled between two armchairs. In the evenings when they came here, she’d read while he whittled. He’d made her a small figurine of the Christmas tree from the festival. When he’d given it to her last night, she’d touched it with soft fingers, her eyes glistening with tears as she’d thanked him.

Cora was so special—the kind of person that had the power to really change the world. Her influence wasn’t based on money the way he’d suspected in the beginning but instead on instinct. He wasn’t sure why the Naughty List hadn’t picked up on the changes. Her name was lighter in the book but it was still there at the bottom of the list. Her event was only successful because she cared for people. She claimed it was her toys and drinks that people loved, but the truth was she gave everyone something special to reach for.

“I’m asking you to believe in me,” he stated. That was it. The truth, and all he could really do.

It saddened him that she’d never believed in Santa, but he understood. Santa hadn’t been there for her. He’d gone back through the gift logs and found that she’d been sent a present when she was ten—the present attributed to her stepmother which she had never opened. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but there simply wasn’t time to check on every child to whom he delivered a present.

But the truth was, she hadn’t changed so much as awakened. The woman he saw standing before him was still Cora, just less lonely and more open to the seasonal magic she’d once sneered at.

“Believe in you? Do you believe in me?” she asked.

“I do,” he said, coming closer to her. This wasn’t the right place to tell her about all the details of his world. If they were at his place, it would be easier. He could show her around the castle, take her to the workshops and the barn; introduce her to his world in a real and concrete way.

“What do you believe?” she asked.

Nick had one chance to get it right, to say the right words to convince Cora that he wasn’t toying with her. She’d pulled on that mantle of dignity and cold reserve that he now knew came from fear that she would be left, abandoned, forgotten.

“That you are a woman who sees her commitments through, who isn’t afraid to try new things, who fights to achieve her goals. A woman who makes me laugh and makes baking gingerbread cookies sexy.”