She liked it.
No, craved it.
The attention. The safety. The maddening, impossible temptation of being seen for more than her breeding or her usefulness. Just… her.
He looked at her like she wasn’t a problem to solve or a daughter to marry off. Like she wasn’t a scandal waiting to happen. And that was why this moment, this warmth, this closeness, felt less like a dream and more like a revelation.
Maybe that’s why she didn’t pull away. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want to.
Because deep down, she wasn’t afraid of Sebastian’s attention.
She was afraid of how much she wanted it.
“This feels like a dream.”
He tilted his head toward her. “Oh? A dream? How so?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I mean, it was rather terrifying, but now it’s just… dreamlike. I shouldn’t feel so at peace. I should demand you build me a sleigh and whisk me home like a proper gentleman.”
He smiled, slow and lazy, like he wasn’t in a hurry to be anything except right here. “You’d freeze before we made it down the hill. And besides, I’m not certain I qualify as a proper gentleman after this.”
“No,” Maddie agreed. “You’re something worse.”
He raised a brow. “Worse?”
“Infinitely more dangerous.”
A beat passed. The fire snapped betweenthem, throwing golden light against the walls.
Sebastian leaned back on his elbows. “That sounds suspiciously like a compliment.”
“Of course a man would think dangerous is a compliment.”
“It definitely is.”
She laughed, the sound surging up from her throat before she could stop it. And he grinned at that, unabashed and boyish, and so different from the Sebastian she’d known when this all began. The broody sneezy man.
Or perhaps, not so different at all.
Perhaps she was just seeing what had always been there, beneath the surface. Beneath the careful distance he kept, like a man who’d never expected to want someone close.
He wanted her close.
And, heaven help her, she wanted to close the distance between them too.
Her laughter quieted. Her gaze lingered.
And something in the air shifted.
Sebastian’s smile faded, replaced with something else. “Maddie,” he said, her name almost a whisper. “If this is improper, say the word. I’ll walk back out into that snow and go find help.”
She looked at him, really looked—at the worry in his eyes. He wasn’t playing games with her. Not now. Maybe not ever. He was offering her a choice. And it wasn’t a game. It was a risk. For both of them. “Just because you’re a man, doesn’t mean you’re invincible. You’d freeze to death, too. Besides, there is nothing I’d change about this moment.”
He didn’t move. Didn’t speak. But something shifted in his posture, the tension in his shoulders easing, as though her words had settled something inside him too.
Maddie reached to feed another small log into the fire; the flames crackled their approval. The sound was oddly soothing, like aheartbeat. Steady. Alive.
“You say this feels like a dream,” Sebastian murmured, his voice low and thoughtful. “But what would your real one be? If you could choose. No rules. No scandal. No society.”
