Page 57 of The Heart of Winter

Winter nodded, avoiding direct eye contact. "Familiarize yourself with how the application’s current beta version works, both from a low-access user perspective and as a super-user. By next week, you can prepare initial proposals and visualizations of changes. Please do interactive mockups. If you see areas that require more significant modifications, include those as well. Also, handle the color scheme and overall styling of the application."

I froze. That was a lot. A serious responsibility for someone who had only been with the company for such a short time, especially on a project for a major international client.

"Thank you very much for this opportunity. I’ll do my best," I said sincerely.

Winter nodded again. "Manager Lorens will provide you with all the details and access to the application. If you need anything else, let me know."

What I really needed was to know the taste of his lips.

Of course, I didn’t say that, duh! Just thinking it had to be enough.

That’s when I realized, I was still holding the figurine in my hand.

I was about to turn and leave, but my heart started pounding. It demanded action! I made a split-second decision.

"I have something for you."

Winter looked up at me, his eyes so light, so crystal clear, framed by those snow-white lashes.

"I… I recently won this in a lottery," I blurted out. "It’s supposed to be an ice elf prince or something. I thought it looked like you, though not quite as… beautiful. I wanted to give it to you."

I just said it. Put it out there.

Standing in front of him, I suddenly felt ridiculous, like a little kid offering their crush a wilted flower. But I still extended my hand and placed the figurine on his desk.

Winter didn’t say a word. He just stared at it. And stared. And kept staring.

I swallowed hard. "Well… I’ll be going now."

Maybe it was a good thing he didn’t say anything, because that also meant he didn’t reject it. The figurine was still sitting on his desk.

His lack of reaction was strange, but in a way, it made sense.

I left his office, my heart pounding in my chest.

My God. I was acting so weird. But I just couldn’t help myself.

WINTER

That weekend, I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing.

I had slept in until 10 am, which almost never happened, probably because I hadn’t been able to fall asleep the night before, tangled up in a mess of emotions I couldn’t even begin to unravel.

The name ‘Finn’ flashed across the screen.

I cursed under my breath. Another week had passed without me answering his calls. He was probably starting to think something had happened to me. Maybe I should pick up? But my fingers refused to press the damn button.

Eventually, the ringing stopped. A few seconds later, I heard the chime of a new voicemail. I played it back.

"Seriously, Winter? This isn’t normal anymore."

That was all he said.

Ugh. Come on, Finn… I let out a quiet sigh and sank back into bed.

I, Winter Nolan, a serious department director, a level-headed man, always in control, was having sexual fantasies about one of my employees.

Yeah. That’s right.

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