Total pages in book: 62
Estimated words: 56462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
I shove him away again, only this time he doesn’t budge. He simply catches my hands against his chest, the way his heart is racing just as fast as mine almost brings me to my knees. “You took away my right to choose.”
“I took away your ability to hide from what you truly wanted,” he tells me. “You’re scared of wanting something you shouldn’t. You’re scared of letting yourself actually feel for a change. I gave you what your heart truly desired. So what if I had to kidnap you to make it happen? I won’t apologize for that. I get to have you every fucking day now.”
I scoff. “You’re not having anything.”
“So be it, Mila. But just knowing you are here in my home is more than enough for me. I don’t need to fuck you to know I still have you.”
Yanking my hands free, I tear away from him. “You’re a cocky bastard.”
“Yes,” he agrees. No question about it.
“So, just like that, I’m trapped here for the next twelve months?”
“The North Pole is so much more than the reindeer farm outside the window. Give it a chance, Mila. Despite what you might think, I know your heart, and I think after you truly see what it is we do here, you will fall in love with this place. The next twelve months won’t be enough for you, and soon enough, you will start to realize how wrong you were to ever want to go back to your mundane, lonely life in New York. You belong here with me. You just don’t know it yet.”
14
MILA
He is legitimately crazy, and a part of me actually believes that he thinks he’s done the right thing by kidnapping me. He might not have gotten his rocks off by knocking me out, but having me here in his home is definitely getting him hard.
This is all my fault. I welcomed him into my home every year, wished for him to come, and slowly fell in love with the idea of him. Only when he touched me, everything changed.
Why did I have to fall in love with a guy who has no moral compass? Surely that must make me just as messed up as he is.
I sit in his oversized living room, my knees pulled right up to my chest on the couch that is even more comfortable than it looks, but I’m not about to tell him that. Though, I’m getting a sick sense of satisfaction from the way his eye seems to twitch by me having his big-ass boots propped on the cushion. Seems someone likes his home to be nice and clean. I’ll be sure to make a mental note of that and not accidentally make the kind of messes that drive him insane. After all, I wouldn’t want to make these next twelve months miserable for the man who literally stole me from my home.
Wish or not, he shouldn’t have done it.
“So this is how the next twelve months are going to play out?” Nick asks, circling the back of his dining table and clutching the top of the chair as his gaze remains locked on me.
“Look around you, Nick. Your home is surrounded by reindeer and snow. It’s not like there’s exactly a lot to do apart from fucking each other, and unfortunately for you, the only thing you’ll be fucking is your hand.”
“Better than being fucking delusional like you are.”
“Delusional?” I demand, but the grin on his face suggests he’s saying it just to get a rise out of me, and damn it, it worked like a charm. Refusing to play into his bullshit, I avert my gaze and stare at the reindeer out the window.
Clearly realizing that I’m more than happy to spend the next twelve months ignoring him, Nick lets out a sigh. “I’ve got shit I need to do. Is there anything you need first?”
Glancing over my shoulder, I offer him a surgery-sweet smile, batting my lashes and watching the way his whole body seems to soften. “Only for you to pull out the knife currently in my back, sweetheart.”
His face falls, and I can’t help but wonder if he thought for just a moment that I’d actually started to come around. But surely he knows better than that.
I watch as he finally gives in, realizing that I’m not about to break. He lets out a subtle sigh, and with that, he disappears into his bedroom . . . our bedroom.
A minute passes, and I hear Nick undressing. It’s a sound already so familiar to me, and within seconds, I get lost in the memory of what it’s like every time he undresses around me. He might have asshole tendencies, but when it comes to giving me exactly what I need, he’s never let me down.