I take a shaky breath. I can’t avoid him forever. But if he shows up right now – in this moment –if he touches me, or says my name in that voice, I will break. So I do the only thing that feels safe. I go home alone, lock the door, and turn off my phone.
Chapter 12
Graham
Snow drifts in thin, silent waves across the Hearthstone lot as I step out of my SUV. The lodge sits ahead, hulking and half-asleep, the wind tugging at its battered siding.
I’ve tried calling, texting and emailing to no avail. Willow will not respond. Then, I had a feeling … and I followed that feeling. Willow is here. Her SUV is parked crooked, like she pulled in fast and didn’t care about lines. My pulse kicks up as I take the steps two at a time and push open the warped front door.
The great room is dim, morning light filtering through fractured windows. Willow stands at the far end of the room, hands shoved deep into her coat pockets, staring at the mountain view like she’s trying to hold herself together. The second she hears my footsteps, she tenses. That’s not good.
“Willow,” I say quietly.
Her shoulders rise. Then fall. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“You should have,” I counter.
She turns, eyes sharp and wounded at the same time. “Your investors think I’ve been …what was it? Batting my eyelashes? Manipulating you?”
A cold fury ignites inside me. “They were out of line.”
“They weren’t wrong.”
“That’s bullshit.” My voice echoes through the hollow room.
She flinches. “This was a mistake.”
“No,” I say, stepping forward, “it wasn’t.”
She backs up a step. “I let myself think that you meant what you said.”
“I did.”
“That this wasn’t just a project to you.”
“It’s not.”
“That our kisses weren’t …”
“Willow.” I close the rest of the distance between us, slow but unstoppable. “Nothing about this was strategy.” Her breath catches, white in the cold. I lower my voice. “I kissed you because I couldn’t not kiss you.”
“Don’t say things like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll believe you.”
I feel the weight of her vulnerability. She’s right there on the edge. One push in either direction and everything breaks. I reach up, cupping her jaw softly — giving her every chance to pull away. She doesn’t. She just stares at me with eyes that look like they’re unraveling from the inside out.
“They don’t matter,” I say, meaning every word. “The investors. Their opinions. Their assumptions. What matters is what happened between us.”
Her breathing turns uneven. “And this project?”
“This project becomes what we build. Together.”
Her throat works, like she’s swallowing chaos. But her body leans toward mine — the smallest pull, the tiniest surrender. I lower my forehead to hers. “Tell me you don’t feel this,” I whisper.
A broken sound escapes her. Then she’s in my arms, fisting the front of my coat, pulling me down into a kiss that’s hungry and raw. Finally, Willow lets go after holding back for so long. I meet her just as fiercely, hands sliding into her hair, gripping her waist, lifting her onto her toes as she melts into me.
