Page 20 of Snow Drift

12

KALLIE

As soon as my eyes open, I'm filled with warmth and comfort…followed by a huge wave of nervousness. Even though sleeping in Moore's arms all night long was possibly the second most incredible experience of my life, I don't know what is supposed to happen next.

Sneaking out of bed, I quickly get dressed and find a scrap of paper to leave a note: "See you at breakfast."

I rush to my own room to wash my face, brush my teeth, and change my shirt. Thank goodness I didn't sleep here last night. In just three minutes I'm almost frozen through.

By the time I get to the kitchen, the dining room fire is already blazing, and the power is back on. Maya has made coffee, so I start cleaning and organizing as Rosa prepares breakfast.

I can hear our guests in the dining room, and have another wave of uncertainty. Do I go say good morning to Moore? Do we go back to keeping things professional when other people are around?

More likely, am I overthinking everything?

Once half a coffee has kicked in, I tidy up the tea lights from last night, and put them away in the drawer in the butler's pantry.

"Hey."

Spinning around, I look up into Moore's deep gray eyes. "Did you sleep well?" He approaches me cautiously, as if I were a baby deer that he's afraid of frightening away.

"Yes. Toasty warm all night long. Thanks."

"Good." He comes closer, slipping a hand around my hip. "I was thinking about something this morning, and wondered if you could help me."

"What," I grin. "Help you think?"

Wow, he is just too handsome for his own good when he smiles at me like that. "Yes, actually. I need your brain at full power."

"Okay. I've had coffee. Hit me."

He picks me up, setting me on the counter so that he can stand between my knees, his hands resting on my legs, looking up at me. "I'm capturing you for a minute so you can't run away. I want you to think about this very carefully."

"I'm intrigued."

"Good." He takes my hands, kissing the back of each of them in turn. "I would like you to think about what it would take in order for you to feel safe living with me."

My jaw drops, and my heart quickens.

"Purely as a mental exercise for now. I ask because I'm about to buy a house, so if there's a certain kind of neighborhood you'd prefer, or a certain kind of fencing, I could take that into consideration and make that happen. Security systems. Cameras. That kind of thing."

"You cannot be serious."

"I am totally serious." He drops my hands to grip my outer thighs, slowly running his palms up and down my legs. "You're aprofessional cleaner. There's a great gym in Oakton that's had a revolving door of cleaners over the past year. Apparently they're all flakes."

"A gym?" I let that idea roll around my brain for a moment. "That actually sounds like an interesting change from hotels."

"Yeah. That's where I work out, and a bunch of the guys I know there are professional bodybuilders. Once I tell them you're my girl, you'll instantly have twenty to thirty bodyguards all over town. If you were ever anywhere and needed help, you could look around and I bet you'd spot one of them."

I can't believe he's given all this so much thought. He doesn't just want me to live with him. He's taking my paranoia completely seriously.

"I'd also get you a car, of course. So you could come and go as you please."

"I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything yet. Just – think about it, please? Make some notes if you like. Mull it over."

It's hard to pretend everything is normal when I'm slightly freaking out. This is a lot to take in.

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