Page 61 of The Christmas Wife

"Not a chance"

"But you’re hurt."

"And you’ll be hurting on parts other than the soles of your feet if you don’t shut up."

"Oh," she draws in a breath. "I can walk," she mumbles.

"You’re not wearing shoes." I stalk forward. "How could you be stupid enough to come out without your shoes?"

"Excuse me for caring enough about little Max," she huffs.

"You should have stayed inside, like I told you to."

"Why the hell are you angry now?" She frowns.

"You don’t want to know." I stalk toward the cabin. "It’s enough that I have to take care of the mutt, add you to the mix and?—"

"You don’t have to take care of me."

"Right," I mutter. "Tell that to the thief who decided to break in."

"Not my fault that the lock to the cabin was weak."

"There’s a security system for both the cabin and the shed… And one that runs around the perimeter of the property that?—"

"The cabin," we both say in unison.

I jerk my gaze down to hers.

Her face whitens. "You don’t think he went to the?—"

"Only one way to find out."

I tighten my arms around her, "You should stay here while I go check out the cabin."

The lights flicker then go out.

"Oh, no," Amelie squeaks. "Do you think the intruder had anything to do with this?"

I frown, not wanting to answer her.

She draws in a sharp breath, coils in closer to my chest. Hmm... this is not too bad, huh?

"Are we safe here?" She gulps, "Maybe you should call your driver and we should leave here?"

What, and miss this opportunity to find out how much more she can take before I break her? No fucking way.

"Relax." I infuse a tone of reassurance into my voice. "It's probably the incoming storm."

"You... you sure?" She peers up at me.

"Positive." I glance down at her upturned face. The starlight brings out the silver in her blue eyes, turns the blonde hair about her shoulders to spun gold.Spun gold?What the fuck? Clearly, I've been reading too many fairytales to my younger niece. Jesus, do I still have my balls or what?

"Oh, look." She raises her chin.

I glance up as the first flakes of snow hit my nose. "That’s all we need," I grumble. "Fucking snow."

"It’s beautiful, isn’t it?" Her voice is dreamy.

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