“Hey.”
Tall, dark, and handsome had chosen his next victim. His voice was smoother than the Tennessee Whiskey I’d tried last summer on Amelia’s daddy’s ranch.
My eyes skirted to the large, picturesque windows that took up the entire back wall of the lodge. The sun was setting, leaving sparkles across the snow. I itched to get back out there, even if it didn’t mean getting on a board. All I wanted was to be outdoors.
The man cleared his throat and said again, this time unsure, “Hey?”
A sharp pain radiated through me as Danielle elbowed me in the ribs. I whipped around so quickly I swore my spine cracked. Instead of finding Danielle staring at me, I was looking into the glacier eyes of the mysteriously hot stranger. His smile was devastating and pointed right atme.I blinked up at him in shock. For a split second, it seemed like the rest of the lodge faded away.
That smile couldn’t possibly be aimed at me. My lips parted as I thought of something—anything—to say to this gorgeous man, but no sound came out. His eyes flickered to the other women around me, and disappointment zinged through me. I’d lost him all because I was stupidly surprised that a hot man such as himself would want to speak to me.
Trisha jumped to the rescue and nudged me forward. “This is Poppy,” she said with enthusiasm. “She’s not usuallythis slow, but she had a long day on the slopes and the elevation must be getting to her.”
His slight smile only stretched farther across his face as he held a hand out to me. “Nice to meet you, Poppy. I’m Ivan.”
I placed my much smaller hand in his and could have clenched my thighs at the roughness of his palm. This man was not a pencil pusher, but he also didn’t strike me as a CEO. His hands were callused in the only way they could be—hard work and not in the gym.
Timidly, I smiled back. “It’s nice to meet you, Ivan. How long are you staying for?”
His light eyes clouded for a moment as he thought of an answer, and I wondered if I had asked the wrong thing. “I have a cabin nearby that I like to frequent this time of year.”
“Do you come here for the slopes or the dashing company?”
His tongue traced a path on his bottom lip, and I wondered how I was going to continue to have a conversation when I was now thinking of kissing him. Which was silly. I wasn’t the one who went home with someone at a bar.
At least, I didn’t think I was. I’d never done it before.
“A little bit of both, though I can’t say that I’m very good at the slopes bit. I prefer the food here and the brandy.”
The girls were stone-still behind me. “Can I buy you one, then?” I didn’t know where the question came from, but I knew that I was at least getting a goodnight kiss before bed tonight.
His smirk could drop panties left and right. “I would like that. Lead the way?”
With as much courage as I could muster, I held my head high as I walked around him and made a beeline for the bar. I couldn’t believe I’d asked him that. I couldn’t believe I was doing this.
I smiled to myself.I was doing this.
Chapter Five
Ivan
Poppy didn’t drinkany alcohol, but once she was away from her friends, she lit up. In the last hour, I’d learned that she didn’t like to ski, but instead was an avid snowboarder. Her mother begged her to come home when she stayed out here for too long. She loved the outdoors and went camping as often as she could. And if it weren't for the thirty-thousand-dollar watch on her wrist, I would have assumed she was here with her friends to mooch off of their daddies. I’d never met another woman with money that was as down-to-earth as she was.
I took a slow sip from my brandy as I watched her over the rim of my glass. She was animated as she spoke, and somehow, I couldn’t get enough of it. She yanked on the end of her braid before she took a sip out of her water glass. “What do you do for work?”
How did I tell her I was a hunter of humans? I obviously couldn’t tell her I was a mercenary, an assassin for hire. But Ihad also never had a conversation before that required me to come up with something on the fly.
My hand stilled on my glass. She had no idea she was smiling at a monster.
“I enjoy hunting and traveling. I don’t reallyworkmuch, and I didn’t want any hand in my father’s family business, so I decided I was going to try to live on my own terms.”
She sighed wistfully. “I wish I could do that. My mother refuses to let me work or really leave… She wants me to be a member ofsociety.Whatever that means. I just want to study, travel, and enjoy the world.”
“Study? You would like to go back to school?”
She nodded enthusiastically as her eyes sparkled. “I’d love to keep learning. Maybe abroad. Different cultures, different languages…”
Something shifted in my chest. When had I ever had a conversation like this?
