Page 571 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

The girl shrugs. “Whatever. It’s all help, right? We can call someone for you,” she says to Chloe, reaching for my arm. “Come on, Bruno. The hot tub is calling. Do you hear it?”

“Look, I’m not going anywhere,” I say, shaking off her hand. “She’s hurt, and I’ve known you for two seconds…too long. Think you’re gonna have to find another hot tub buddy, Amy.”

Amy. That was it.

Amy’s eyes practically pop out of her skull. “You’re choosing the hot mess overme? Are you serious?”

“I’m choosing to be a good person.” I turn to Chloe with a grin. “Not an asshole.”

“For once,” Chloe mutters.

“Fine. And it’s not Amy, dick. It’s Ally!”

Ally. Oops.

She flips around and storms back to the lodge.

“Um, I really need an ENT. Can we please get moving?” Chloe says, with a smirk on her face.

I chuckle. “Yeah, but I think we need to get those skis off you first.” I bend down and unclip them from her boots. She steps out of the right ski without a problem but cringes when her right foot hits the ground.

“Dammit, what if it blows up? How am I going to get my foot into a shoe for the wedding?”

“You have a couple of days. Is it that bad?”

She nods. “I think I need someone to pull me back to the chateau on a sled.”

I bend down and with one swift sweep, I lift her into my arms. “How’s this for service?”

“So now you’re trying to service me?”

“I didn’t think that was even a remote possibility. You ever think that maybe I’m just trying to be a good guy?”

“No.” Chloe wraps her arms around my neck. “If you were, things would be different between us,” she mutters.

Her words hang in the air like a toxic cloud.

“You knew who I was when we met.” My snow boots dig deep into the snow, my breaths clouding in the cold air. “I never hid it from you.”

“You lied to me. You told me you’d give it up and then…”

She doesn’t need to say it. We both know what I did.

“I wanted it to work, Chloe.”

“Right.” Her body stiffens in my arms. “Just not badly enough since you had no problem leaving me that night and completely ghosting me afterward. You’re completely full of shit and we both know it. You chose your family.”

“And you chose yours,” I grunt.

Her family. What a bunch of pompous, arrogant asshats. Fucking rich bitch judgmental mother who spent more time getting sauced than talking to me the one time we met. And her father who actually offered me cash to forget his daughter. Like I was some derelict from the streets who needed two nickels to rub together.

Chloe shifts in my arms and I get a whiff of her perfume. It’s my favorite one. It’s not flowery or fruity. Just clean. Like she just got out of the shower.

Fuck. Wrong time to think of her soaped up and naked under a scalding hot spray of water.

“Look, we have two days to put up with one another,” she snaps. “And then we never have to see each other again. Can you handle that for our best friends?”

My heart sinks into my boots.

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