Page 14 of The Naughty Or Nice Clause

“They’ll have you killed,” he said bluntly.

His words cut through her like glass; she felt the blood drain from her face.

Klaus smirked. “Breathe – I was only messing. Just trying to lighten the mood.”

“By saying I could be murdered!” She resisted the urge to strangle him with his stupid tie.

“They won’t kill you, but they’d put you on trial, and if you were found guilty they would wipe your memory. A simple tonic, and you’d forget all about this little adventure,” he said, as if it wasn’t a big deal. When she didn’t respond, he continued like he hadn’t put her in danger. “The only outsiders who are allowed in Yule are those already wed or engaged to a villager. No one has ever come here without some important bond – not in a couple of hundred years, anyway. The law is a little outdated, but still valid,” he said.

Still valid!In the morning, I need to get the hell out of here before they find out the truth.She gripped her hands together to stop them from trembling. The thought of having her memory wiped felt like a gross invasion, and she didn’t even want to know about the tonic they used to do it.

Klaus opened the door to the last room on the right. Lyla looked to the other doors along the corridor.

“There are so many rooms – can’t I sleep somewhere else?” she asked, feeling her cheeks flush at the idea of sharing with him.

“I think staying in separate rooms would raise questions we don’t want answered.” He stood in the middle of the room, motioning for her to join him. “I won’t bite; you’re safe here,” he added, offering her a reassuring smile which did little to ease her worries.

“There is no way I’m sharing a bed with you,” she insisted, looking at the welcoming bed in the middle of the room.

“You don’t need to worry about sharing the bed. Once my family is asleep, I’ll sneak into one of the guest rooms downstairs so I can be close to the office. I’ll return before they wake up.”

She felt her shoulders relax, knowing she would get some space from him, even if it was only to sleep. “Thank you,” she said, knowing he was taking a risk going to another room when he could have taken the couch in the corner.

She examined the far wall, lined with old-fashioned wardrobes. Mason opened one, revealing the suits and smart shoes inside, then quickly moved on to the next. Lyla watched him go through T-shirts and jeans before taking out a plain white jumper and a pair of black joggers, which she guessed were for her. Watching him move from one end of the room to the other was making her dizzy. Everything felt like it was moving too fast. She didn’t care about the clothes any more; she cared about answers.

“Can you please stand still for a moment and look at me,” Lyla pleaded, putting Jones down on the bed.

Klaus closed the wardrobe and turned to look at her as if she was inconveniencing him.

“I’m all ears, but you really should change,” he said, handing her the clothes.

She tossed them on the bed. “You can’t be serious about the penalty being a memory wipe. That was just a shock tactic,” she said, trying to make sense of the situation.Klaus… Claus. Is this a joke, as in Santa? There’s no way.As much as she loved Christmas and wanted Saint Nic to be real, she couldn’t believe that the ancient being’s son had been working down the corridor from her, disguised as the seasonal grouch.

“The laws were written back in a more barbaric time, and it was rare that anyone broke them, so there was never any reason to amend them.”

“Marry you or memory loss?” Lyla exclaimed. “I want to go home, right now!”

“You can’t – you need to stay.” He pointed at the clothes. “Wear these into the village tomorrow. They’ll do for now until we get you some that fit,” he said, like a parent to a child. She groaned in frustration.

“First the villagers see me in pyjamas, and now in your clothes. They’ll think I can’t dress myself. How are you expecting anyone to take me seriously?” She followed him to a bathroom which housed an empty tub the size of her kitchen. She fought the urge to turn on the taps and soak her frozen feet.

“I don’t care how the villagers see you, as long as they see you as my fiancée.” He seemed to care more about rearranging his bath products than talking to her. “Everything you need should be under the sink. Mum must have been keeping my room in order since I left.”

The thought of Mrs Klaus maintaining her son’s room not knowing whether he would come back was awfully sad, but Lyla didn’t have time to dwell on it when her memory was at stake.

“I don’t care about toiletries. I can’t marry you!”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You only need to say we’re engaged; we met at the company—”

“I don’t know anything about you. We’ve only known each other a year!” She clenched her fists, willing this nightmare to end.

He shrugged. “My family hasn’t seen me in nearly ten years – hasn’t heard from me at all. You know where I live, where I work, what I do most days.”

“Technically– but I know nothing about you! The only thing I do know is that you dragged me here on false pretences.” She remembered his bedroom in Dublin. “And that you like books way too much,” she added under her breath.

“Books? How do you know that?”

“Hundreds of them in your house, around your bed, like a madman. Reading is fun and all, but the stacks are excessive.”

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