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Classic Winter. Overthinking everything to death until it no longer sparkles.
Aleck tightens his hold on my hand, charging across the street to the entrance of the resort. I struggle to keep up with his determined pace, feeling exhilarated and scared equally. Once we enter the Resort, it becomes real. I need to be sure of what I want. I need to know he won’t treat me like shit tomorrow. Or think this is going anywhere it’s not. If I do this, it ends tonight.
“Wait,” I spit before we enter the revolving door.
Aleck stops and I almost slam into his backside. He turns, staring down at me like I’m a housekeeper who just prepared his salt bath wrong.
“How do you know I evenwantthis?” I bark, not knowing what else to say to slow this down. I need time to think.
His eyes narrow into slits. “I’m a lawyer, Grimm. I notice everything. You want me. And in light of recent realizations, I want you. Why scrutinize?”
“Uh, because this could be disastrous.”
“Yeah. It could also be worth the devastation.”
I drop my gaze to our feet, not able to hold eye contact, annoyed that he’s so stoic and staring at me like he’s waiting for me to sign a contract. The consequences will surely be more dire for me. Aleck steps forward and wraps his arm around my waist. His handprint on my bare back is like an iron on my skin.
He pulls me flush to his chest. “What do you need to feel comfortable?”
The words every single woman on the planet wants to hear before she’s with someone new.Oh, he’s good.
“I barely know you, Aleck,” I whisper, eyes still fixed on our feet.
“Winter, I don’t talk to people. Don’t trust them. I told you about my parents, my brother… You know me more than most.”
That can’t possibly be true. But if it is, that’s so tragic.
“Tell me one thing,” I whisper. “One thing that will make me trust you.”
“My birth parents died on my tenth birthday.” His voice was like electric honey between us. He didn’t even think about his answer or that he can trust me with it.
I snap my eyes up, slipping in the puddle of his warm blue pupils.
“Murdered over drugs by a neighbor in the trailer park I grew up in.”
“You were adopted…” I whisper.
He nods. “I was adopted.”
My insides tighten and sadness pricks the backs of my eyes. But succumbing to the sadness isn’t a possibility. Sadness isn’t why we’re doing this. Aleck and I owe each other nothing. We barely evenlikeeach other. We’re safe. We’re cleansing each other.
“My mom died when I was sixteen. Hit and run. I’m her twin so everyone who knew her looks at me like I was the one who died. Especially my dad and brothers.”
It was my biggest, saddest truth, and now Aleck knows it.
Aleck lifts his hand to my face and slides it over my cheek, caressing it with his thumb. “You’re no one’s twin to me. You areveryuniquely Winter Sommers, the woman with two seasons for a name, a closeted romantic with the voice of a siren.”
Jane. Austen’s. Ghost.
I smile, feeling my heartbeat in my ass. “Let’s go.”
Aleck smiles back, then his jaw tenses almost instinctively, and his determined expression returns. He grabs my hand again and ushers us through the resort entrance.
A woman at the front desk throws on a bright smile when she sees Aleck coming. “Good Evening, Mr. Fox. You have two messag—”
“Not now.” Aleck doesn’t look in her direction. Instead, he leads me to the elevators, pressing the button with determination.
While we wait, he doesn’t look at me. No flirtatious glances. No warmth or idle chit-chat. Just his hard body standing with perfect posture and his stoic glare.
