“Yes,” Sterling answered seriously, which made me think he was lying.
“Better than a stay at the Shoreside Inn,” Jasmine joked.
I laughed, knowing how much she hated it there. “Good! So, what did you want to tell me?” I leaned against the desk and crossed my arms while I waited.
Sterling frowned at Jasmine. “I’m sorry, but do you mind if I speak to Cassian alone?”
“Really? Don’t you think it’s better if I’m here?” she asked. Clearly, she already knew whatever Sterling was about to say.
Sterling sighed, rubbing the lower half of his face with one hand, which I’d noticed he did when he was stressed. “You understand why I want to talk to him one on one, don’t you?”
“Oh. Right. Sure,” she said, hesitating before she headed for the door. She gave me an uncomfortable nod before shutting the door behind her, leaving Sterling and me alone.
I immediately pushed off the desk just as he extended his arms, pulling me into a hug. “I missed you,” I said against his chest, my voice muffled in his thick shirt.
“I missed you too,” he said, squeezing me tight. He leaned back, sliding his hands up to hold my face. He leaned in to press a gentle kiss to my mouth, and then he went in for another. And another.
I laughed against his lips. “What’s the matter?”
He sighed as he glanced at the door to the lobby. “Let’s talk in your room.”
“Our room,” I said, already taking his hand to drag him there.
“Right.”
I shut and locked the door before facing him, my curiosity eating me. “Seriously, what’s the matter? You’re scaring me.”
Sterling raked his dark curls out of his eyes. “You might want to sit down for this.”
My heart beat fast, and my mind raced with possibilities. Had he figured it out? Would I believe him? I had to. I promised I would. I numbly took a seat at the table beneath the window. The moon lit the snow outside a bright shade of blue. Sterling remained standing.
“Cassian, I…” He fiddled with his hands, watching them instead of me. “I don’t think you’re going to like what I have to say. I’ve grown very fond of you, and I want to be sure we come out the other side of this conversation in one piece.”
I nodded, but that scared me more than anything. What kind of information did he have that he thought would break us up? “I don’t want to break up.”
“Good,” he said, looking past me out the window. The blue light from the moonlit snow reflected off his beautiful face, lining his soft expression with gloom. “Nothing was adding up, and I felt stuck, so Jasmine asked me to talk it out with her. It only left me more confused, because I had nothing to go on, but there was one person I hadn’t considered. Someone who didn’t want to be here, who could only benefit from a forced sale of the inn.”
My brow furrowed. He couldn’t be implying what I thought he was implying. “Sterling…”
He lifted one finger in the air. “Even in my most objective state of thinking, I couldn’t believe it. But Jasmine… she said you seduced me.”
I stood up, already feeling the sting of tears. “Sterling, you don’t really think that, do you?”
“Of course not,” he said.
I shook my head, unable to stop the flow of tears. “So, what? You don’t believe I seduced you, but you still believe I cursed my own inn and lied to you about it?”
“I know it wasn’t you, Cassian,” he said.
“What are you saying, then?” I demanded.
“Jasmine was more willing to pin the blame on you than you were willing to even pin the blame on Ricky. It didn’t add up until I let myself really consider her, Cassian. I’m so sorry. Jasmine cursed the inn.”
I didn’t hear anything he said after that. He was still talking, probably listing all the reasons he thought it was her, but despite my promise to believe him, I didn’t. Finally, I shook my head and said, “It wasn’t her.”
“Cassian—”
I stepped away from him. “You got it wrong. Look at the evidence again. It wasn’t her,” I said.
