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“Sure thing.” The sleigh slows to a halt. “You two have a good night.”
“You too,” I tell him.
Akara jumps off, then extends a hand to help me down. I could jump to show off, but any excuse to touch Akara, I’m swimming my fastest towards, like the Olympian I am. With a bigger smile, I clasp his hand, and I step off the sleigh. “Where are we going?”
“On an adventure.”
Something bursts happily inside me.
Take me, Kits.
He’s quick to lead me while I trail behind his assured footsteps. He’s reaching back, and his fingers are hooked with my fingers in a breathless embrace. This is what a bodyguard would do in a jam-packed crowd, but we’re not weaving through bodies.
I realize he just wants to hold my hand like I want to hold his.
After a pitstop where Akara buys me spiked hot cocoa, he guides me towards the entrance to a snowy garden. Green hedges are snowcapped and form a wonderland maze. Butterflies flap wildly inside me. Have I ever been anywhere this romantic?
If I have, I shirked romance away. I focused so much on my goals that I never breathed in the atmosphere, but tonight, I’m zeroed in on love.
My face hurts from smiling.
We stop at the garden’s entrance, and I sip my hot cocoa with gloves way too big for my hands. The black leather is identical to Akara’s gloves.
Earlier tonight, I saw Banks and threw a snowball at him with bare hands. Akara pelted him too, and my fingers went numb.
Banks lent me his gloves for the night.
I love him.
And I utterly fucking love the man standing in front of me. Both can be true. Both are true.
Akara steps closer, and a sliver of air between us is aching to be closed. When I drop a hand, his hand dances inches away from mine. Our fingers are charged with electricity.
He brushes his fingers against my fingers before fixing his comms mic. Our eyes latch. Energy zips from my fingertips, up my body, and into my heart.
“Kitsulli!” A young girl in puffy pink earmuffs waves a hand to us, then nudges her cluster of friends and points.
My stomach tosses. I haven’t felt this exposed since the football game, and maybe even the carnival fundraiser. I’m very attuned to the staring all of a sudden.
Out in public, the whole Kitsulli rumor is less like a whisper and more like a banshee cry.
As I brush off the girl with zero response, her shoulders droop, dejected. To her friend, she says loudly, “Jane Cobalt would’ve waved back.”
Fuck.
I’m not Jane.
I can’t easily make myself available to strangers. Especially when these people are fans of only one guy and not the other.
Akara sees me shrink into myself, and he takes a slight step away from me but around to block the girls. He’s quelling the rumors, but the distance hurts, still. I just want to enjoy being with Akara without all the other bullshit attached.
I want to go back to the woods.
Back to our island.
Am I going to feel like that every time we’re out with strangers?
“Sulli,” he breathes out my name, seeing my hurt.
“No, you’re doing the right fucking thing,” I affirm. Kitsulli doesn’t include Banks, and the ship I want to sail involves both men.
Akara stares at my oversized gloves as I hold a mug. “Are you okay that Banks isn’t on your detail tonight?”
I nod, “I understand why.”
To support Moffy, Xander Hale left the comfort of his home for the Winter Festival. Whenever Xander braves events of this size, it’s a major ordeal. Most of the squeals I’ve heard tonight have been over him.
Akara made the call to put a second bodyguard on Xander, so my little cousin has Donnelly and Banks. He could’ve put the new floater Gabe on his detail, but Gabe is protecting Maximoff while Farrow is on med-duty for the event.
What time I do have with Akara lately is precious and not always endless. He’s juggling a lot this year, and I just cherish every little moment with him.
I tell him, “I really like that you both want to take me out separately too.” I sip my cocoa. “And I like how the three of us were together earlier. It’s just…”
“Euphoric,” Akara says with rising lips.
“Yeah.” I smile back, and I don’t think—I just feel the words as they reach me, “Like a hug and a laugh when you need it most.” That’s how we are together. It’s perfect effervescence, but no one can see that or feel that but us. “Anyway, I think the three of us would’ve broken the weight max on the sleigh if we rode together.”
Akara laughs. “We definitely would’ve. It’d come crashing down.”
“I’d roll into the snow.”
“Banks would throw you over his shoulder.”
“And you’d take my face in your hands.”
We’ve drawn even closer.
