Page 75 of The Heart of Winter

From the side, I hadn’t seen it before, but now… there were tears on his cheeks.

And I thought then, he must be lonely.

No one saw him as just a regular guy. Everyone had already decided who he was, what he must be like. No one ever gave him a real chance, never gave him a clean slate. Me included. Those assumptions overshadowed everything, made it so that he was disliked by default.

We both stepped toward the checkout at the same time.

And Sariel really did buy printer toner!

It was DTG printer ink, the kind used with heat presses.

We left the registers at the same time and headed toward the exit.

That’s when he finally noticed me. I saw the tiniest flicker of something cross his face before he quickly looked away and headed toward his car.

Picking up my pace, I knew I was about to do something really stupid.

He opened his car door, and by then, I was right next to him.

"Sariel, wait."

He stopped.

"I want to call a truce. I’m sorry if I treated you worse than the other employees, you didn’t deserve that. I’d like for us to start fresh."

His mint-green eyes widened slightly, but the sadness didn’t fade.

There was a faint pink mark on his cheek where my hand had struck his skin.

"Is that even possible between us, Winter? Starting with a clean slate?"

"Why not? We just have to make sure our… dynamic doesn’t turn into something less professional. And you can see for yourself, it’s already dangerously close," I said, exhaling slightly. Then I raised my wrist, showing it to him.

His gaze dipped to the two faint red marks on my wrist. Then he looked up, locking eyes with me.

One step. Then another.

And suddenly, he was in my space again, where, for all the wrong reasons, I desperately wanted him to be.

"But… there’s one thing I need to check before I go," he murmured.

Slowly, his hands lifted, sliding around me, one settling between my shoulder blades, the other low at my waist.

His fresh, minty scent enveloped me, and a strong shiver shot down my spine.

On instinct, I closed my eyes as he leaned in, his breath brushing hot and tickling against the sensitive skin of my neck.

My heart slammed in my chest, my breathing sped up, everything inside me propelling toward him.

Then his lips, warm, soft, grazed my neck, sending a pulse of electricity through me. They left a few openmouthed, damp kisses there, slow and lingering, each one making me tremble harder, blood flowing down.

And then, Fate, have mercy on me, I let out the quietest, most humiliating moan, my hip pushing forward, searching and… finding.

His hardness pressed against mine.

Sariel’s mouth traveled upward, leaving sensual, slow kisses along my jaw, brushing my chin, heading exactly where I craved him most.

I tilted my face up, lips parting—eager, desperate for the kiss I thought was coming.

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