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That’s what people do. They lie, cheat, and steal to take what’s yours. You can’t trust them.
That afternoon, hidden from the world, I felt a connection to the girl sitting across from me, even though our worlds couldn’t have been further apart. We sat in comfortable silence. I sketched her, and she watched. It was the first Parents’ Day I hadn’t hated.
I’d been wrong. We were completely different. Winter’s world and mine weren’t even in the same universe. Believing anything else was a waste of time, and not something I’d repeat.
Winter DeLaurie. Ice Queen. Cheerleader. Stuck-up brat. The girl I couldn’t stand. The one who wouldn’t leave my fucking head. For a year she’d haunted my mind, where she didn’t belong or fit. Where I didn’t want her. She wasn’t my type, not by a long shot, and yet, I would be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about her while I was in Colorado. She was hard to forget.
Cinnamon. Something clicked. I’d helped my mom make her sweet empanadas enough times to know what went in the apple filling. Was there even the slightest chance that the picky princess wasn’t as terrible as I’d imagined for the last year?
“Yeah, in your fucking place.” He leaned in, his hot breath against my lips. “On your knees…crawling, naked and humble, until the brat act dies…”
She protested softly, and I shushed her. “Don’t say another word, Ice Queen, or you’ll really start to annoy me.” The brat and the bully. We were born to crash into each other.
Grabbing some scissors off her desk, I got to work on her underwear drawer first. In my opinion, there wasn’t a single pair of panties in existence that couldn’t be improved by being crotchless, especially Winter’s. I had a hunch she’d really suit nipple-less bras, too. I planned to find out.
“Because you’re making the wrong choice! I’ll pay you — name your price…I’ll give you anything you want—” “Anything? Be careful with your words, Ice Queen, I’m not the sort of man who takes them lightly, and I’m no gentleman either…” He stepped in and cupped my cheek. “If you offer me anything, I’ll take everything.”
“I said I’m jealous. I don’t like seeing some other fucker’s number on you. I really don’t fucking like it, and it’s not happening again. You want to wear someone’s jersey, you wear mine.”
“You could be not okay with me. I don’t give a fuck,” he continued, and leaned in. His hot breath hit the top of my spine and moved along it. His lips traced silent words on my shoulder. “I don’t care if you’re crazy. I don’t care if you’re sane. It doesn’t matter to me. I’d play with you anyway.”
“Call our relationship a game one more goddamn time, and I’m going to write something on you again — but this time it’ll be my initials on your ass in tattoo ink.”
“So…” I cleared my throat. “What happens now?” The threat of Trent and his malicious intentions threatened to push into my happiness and spoil it. Asher chuckled lazily. “Already overthinking? You’re very talented.” “It’s a gift.” He sighed and buried his face in my hair. “Now you’re mine, Winter. My spoiled little brat, my smart and funny Ice Queen. Mine. And we’re at the beginning of everything. Got it?” “Got it.”
“It’s called a grapevine knot. Most commonly used in search-and-rescue missions. This knot means finding someone who’s lost and holding on to them and never letting go. Wherever you go, whatever you need…I’m with you.”
“So, we grab him, and make us tell him what’s going on.” “No. Winter hasn’t gone to this much fucking effort for nothing. I want to know what’s going on and I want to know from her. She’ll open up to me willingly, or I’ll make her.” “Who said romance is dead?” Marcus chuckled grimly and slapped me on the back. “Have fun.”
“There is nothing you could ever tell me to justify shutting me out. Nothing. Tell me you fucked someone — you sign his death warrant, but you don’t lie to me about it. Tell me you killed someone — I will make the fucking body disappear. Never try to tell me again that you don’t love me — because I will never fucking believe you. Our souls are two ropes that will never be unknotted. It’s too late, Winter.”
“Sounds good, I’ll pencil you in for tonight.” Asher laughed, low and throaty and sexy as hell. He picked up my left hand and kissed the ring on my finger. The ring he had made for me himself. “Pencil me in for every night, for as long as we both shall live…If anyone asks,” he tucked a wet lock of hair behind my ear, “you’ve got plans.”
“Oh, Ice Queen. Don’t you know, there’s nothing I wouldn’t dare to do, when it comes to you. You offered me anything, and I’m taking everything… till death do us part.”
