Page 49 of The Heart of Winter

I squeezed my eyes shut for a second, hard. No way. This had to stop. It wasn’t possible that I was having this charged chat with him. This had to be a nightmare.

"I think you're exaggerating. You're not a freak."

Yeah. I actually said that.

"Thanks, but you don’t know everything about me." He smiled wryly. "I’m not like other people. I’m… just different. But it’s whatever. No big deal. The elevator’s here now. Sorry for keeping you, Director."

Again, he was the one giving me an easy way out of this embarrassing conversation. How considerate of him.

"So, what’s the preferred… inclination this time?" He raised an amused brow.

"Actually, I need to get back to my office. I have something to take care of," I muttered, pressing my lips together as the realization hit me: this crack that had just formed between us couldn’t be easily sealed back up… not after my dumb answer.

"So, have a productive day," I mumbled, turned around, and walked away in a hurry.

For fuck’s sake, Winter, what the hell is wrong with you? You’ve lost your mind. Completely lost it.

Muttering to myself like a madman, I made my way back to my office, slumped into my chair, and opened the most tedious, soul-crushing report I could find to work on, while at the same time fighting… a semi.

I needed to get my head straight. To erase this whole incident from my mind, like I could somehow will it out of the timeline entirely. It was just absolutely unacceptable.

So why did I actually … enjoy it?

Damn it, I was the fucking head of an entire department, and I had just asked my employee why he hadn’t had sex yet, and revealed to him my sexual preferences. Potentially giving him a reason to report me to Jacob and get me fired on the spot.

Though… did he want that? I wasn't so sure, to be honest.

Mindlessly, I glanced at my inbox, scrolling through the company’s internal message board. HR had posted the results of their occasional employee raffle, and I spotted Sariel’s name among the winners.

Something fluttered in the pit of my stomach.

Who cares? Focus, Winter!

The report. The damn report.

SARIEL

I didn’t pick up my prize for a few days. I had no idea why I even entered that stupid raffle. Probably out of boredom, just something to occupy my thoughts.

Ever since that bizarre yet interesting interaction with Winter by the elevator, I’d been walking around like my feet weren’t even touching the ground. I couldn’t shake it. My mind kept circling back to that moment, Winter’s face, stunned, like I’d never seen it before. For a second, his carefully controlled mask had slipped, and underneath… there was something else. Something even he didn’t seem to recognize in himself.

For a few minutes, it was like he’d thawed.

Unbelievable.

Was that layer of ice really so thin? Was he just barely holding it together most of the time?

Three days after getting the email, I finally dragged myself to HR to claim my prize.

And wow, was I in for a surprise.

It was a small glass figurine, an ice elf!

What the fuck, Fate? Are you messing with me?

As I left HR, I passed Winter’s brother, Skye. He gave me a surprised look but didn’t say anything, just walked past.

For a second, I thought about stopping him, starting a conversation. Maybe it would’ve helped smooth things over with Winter? But I didn’t have the guts. I ran into him a few times in the elevator, but he always seemed lost in his own world. I didn’t want to intrude.

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