Page 8 of Let Me Win You

“It probably was,” Invi said confidently, and I trusted him on that, too, maybe because I simply longed to believe that keeping the connection with my dad was possible somehow, even now when he was gone.

“Thank you.” I glanced up at Invi.

“For what?” He arched an eyebrow in question.

His light brown skin had turned ashen in the cold. His lips had gained a slight violet hue. With his shoulders hiked up, he held his hands deep in his pockets, and I feared his trendy leather jacket failed to keep him warm.

“You’re freezing. Here, take this.” On impulse, I unwound the long, woolen scarf that Jess knitted for me still back in high school. It was soft, wide, and warm like a furnace.

I gestured for Invi to bend down to me. He was taller than an average man, and I was shorter than an average woman. If he stood straight, I’d have to literally climb up him to toss the scarf over his neck.

He leaned down to me, and I wound the scarf around his neck, covering his ears and chin then draping the rest over his wide shoulders.

“You’re so not dressed for the weather.” I tucked in the ends of the scarf to keep it from unraveling. “Don’t you know how brutal our winters can be?”

There was my fault in his predicament. He’d probably arrived at the club by a cab or even a limo, and I made him walk.

A shiver ran across his shoulders as he nested his chin into the scarf. “It’s only November, not winter yet. It shouldn’t be this cold, should it?”

“It’s cold here at least six months of the year.” I fought a sudden desire to kiss the tip of his nose to warm it up. “And the rest of the year, it can be breezy, chilly, nippy or sweltering hot.” I shrugged. “We get everything.”

He hugged the scarf closer to his neck.

“It’s…it’s incredibly kind of you.” He seemed confused, unsure about how to respond to a random act of kindness like this. “But how about you? I can’t possibly allow you to be cold.”

“No worries.” I zipped my puffer jacket all the way up and drew the hood on. “I’m already wearing my winter coat. See? Warm and snug as a bug.”

He chuckled, giving me a once-over. “I can see the resemblance to a bug, or more like a silkworm in a cocoon.”

“Hey!” I nudged him with an elbow. “It’s better to be warm than sorry, even if it makes me look funny.”

“Not funny but adorable.” He squinted at me with a smile. “Nicole, dearest, you are the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

He drew me into a side hug with one arm as we kept walking, and I snuggled into his side, feeling almost giddy but unsure why. I’d been called cute and adorable before. That was what people usually called me instead of pretty or beautiful. It was the look that Invi gave me that was new to me. I couldn’t remember a man ever looking at me with such warm affection, definitely not a man I’d just met, a man who still remained largely a stranger to me.

I cleared my throat, needing to learn more about him.

“So…how many siblings do you have?” I asked.

“There are fourteen of us,” he replied casually. “Seven brothers and seven sisters.”

“Wow. That’s a lot.” Maybe I’d judged his mom too harshly by thinking of her as neglectful. Bringing up fourteen kids all on her own couldn’t have been easy. “Are you guys close?”

“Not particularly. No. Some of us get along better than others. But most seem to dislike me.”

“Why?” I couldn’t believe it.

He gave me a curious glance.

“You don’t think there are reasons to dislike me?”

“Well, I don’t know you that well, but so far, I honestly haven’t seen anything unpleasant about you. Other than your appearance, of course,” I teased. “You look disturbingly handsome.”

“That can’t be helped,” he said earnestly. “I have no control over my appearance in this world. Frankly, I find it extremely limiting.”

I laughed, because it sounded like a joke, and he smiled in response, gazing at me with that unique expression of his, as if he’d searched for someone like me forever and couldn’t believe that he had finally found me.

I ran a hand over my face, trying to break the spell of his brilliant green eyes directed at me. Invi’s presence made it increasingly difficult to stay in touch with reality.

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