Page 25 of A Bloom in Winter

“You mind if I work on these laces?” Oh, for fuck’s sake, that sounded—

“That sounds dirty.”

As she smiled again, Mayhem stopped breathing. If she was pretty when she was serious, she positively glowed with that expression.

“What’s your name?” he said softly. “I forgot to ask.”

Because, really, it didn’t matter. When he looked into her eyes . . . nothing actually mattered.

“Mahrci.”

Now he was the one smiling. “It’s nice to meet you, Mahrci. So what puts you in this remote house in the winter?”

When she didn’t immediately answer, he hedged, “Is your mate around?”

Pleasesaynopleasesaynopleasesay—

“Oh, I’m here alone,” she said. “I mean, there’s the groundskeeper next door, of course, but otherwise, it’s just me.”

“So you’re in charge of the house?”

She looked around the space. “Oh, it’s not mine. None of this . . . is mine.”

The touch of embarrassment was totally uncalled for. He didn’t care that she was a housekeeper or a maid. That was honest work, and besides, who wanted to be with some rich, useless female who sat around eating bonbons all night and ordering things from Saks.

“Is there anyone we should call?” Just so he was perfectly clear on things. “I mean, family or a boyfriend—”

“No.” She shook her head. “It’s only . . . me.”

Mayhem was aware of the tension in his shoulders easing. Yet the loneliness in her was sobering.

“Okay, well, how about we get both these boots off,” he said roughly. Because he wanted to do something, anything, for her.

“Please,” she said as she fell back into the couch and started shrugging out of her parka.

The way her body moved, so sinuous as she arched and twisted, so subtly powerful, did things to him that he had to put out of his mind.

At least focusing on all the glass eyes staring down at him and judging him helped. As did trying to improve his sloppy de-booting: His fingers, normally so sure, skipped and slipped, buteventually, he got the Merrell loosened and pulled the thing off. Her sock underneath was black, and she was wearing black long underwear.

And he refused to allow his mind to wander any further than that.

Flexing her foot, Mahrci moved things side to side. Made a circle one way. Made a circle the other.

“I really think I got away with it,” she murmured.

Then she brought her leg up and took her sock off—

Oh, God. She had gorgeous feet. And he’d never been feet-sexual before.

Pulling the layers up, she nodded. “I wasn’t sure if—well. I got lucky.”

What was lucky was that he and Apex had come up on the attack when they had. If they hadn’t, that wolf would have finished the job those coyotes had started. But there was no reason to bring any of that up—

The heavy front door swung wide, and the cold rushed in, bringing with it a swirl of flakes . . . and Apex. Who was sporting a glower like he was part of the blizzard itself.

As the male shut things behind himself, he dragged the temperature down with all his grim.

“Hiya, sunshine,” Mayhem said dryly. “Rough day at the office?”

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