Page 44 of Christmas Vows with the Devil

I freeze for just a second, willing myself to move, but terrified of what I’ll find beyond the cliff. Realizing I’m wasting precious time, I shoot out of the warmth of my car into the frigid wind and cold. I stop at the guardrail, scanning the field below.

It’s white as far as I can see, covered in a thick blanket of fine snow. She has to be down there. I don’t know how, but I know she is. My soul feels like it’s being pulled down the cliff, so my body follows, slipping and sliding through rocky snow.

I feel my stitches split open and curse, but I keep going. When I reach the bottom, I’m panting and clutching my side, but my eyes are scanning the field. Clumps of trees sway in the wind, and the sunlight bounces off the snow, blinding me and playing tricks on my eyes.

I almost miss it, mistaking it for a reflection. But no, a few feet away is a blinking orange light, buried deep in the snow. I rub my eyes to make sure I’m not insane. The mound of snow itself almost looks like it’s moving.

“Gia!” I yell, running to the blinking hazard light. “Gia, are you here?”

The mound stops moving for a second, and a muffled call gets lost in the snow.

“Gia, wait, I’m coming!”

The mound begins moving again. I’m limping toward the taillight now, out of breath, clutching the wretched stitches in my side.

Suddenly, pale fingers pop out of the mound. I instantly recognize the blood-red nails as hers. A heady flashback thrusts me back to last night when those same nails were clearly visible as she wrapped her hand around my cock.

I grab her fingers, squeezing tight three times. It’s our little silentI love youfrom when we were kids. The hand stills for a second and then starts digging wildly. I’m on my hands and knees in the snowbank, shoveling snow away from her hand.

Slowly, a delicate wrist appears. Then a flash of black nylon. I grab her arm, yanking hard, pulling her out of hell and into my arms. She collapses on top of me, gasping for breath.

I roll her off to check every inch of her body for injuries. She has a nasty cut on her forehead and across her cheekbone but other than that, everything seems to be in the proper place.

“Gia, what the hell happened? What were you thinking? Talk to me!”

I’m yelling like a madman, and she’s still trying to catch her breath, coughing and panting.

“You took your dad’s Mustang? In this goddamn weather?” I yell, frustrated and terrified that I almost lost her. “Were you that desperate to get away from me?”

She sits up slowly, taking deep inhales and blinking to focus her eyes again. I know I should calm down, ask her if she’s hurt anywhere, but I can’t.

The horror swirling in my stomach when I saw the broken guardrail pushes me to lash out.

She could have died. She almost died trying to run from me.

“Talk to me, Gia!”

“Would you shut up for a second?” she chokes out. “You just pulled me from a snowy fucking grave. Let me catch my breath, will you?”

I sit beside her, rubbing her back through the thin nylon jacket, feeling like an asshole. Of course, she must be terrified. But patience has never been my strong suit.

“What happened?” I try to soften my tone.

“There was a deer,” she finally answers.

“What the hell? You almost died because of a damn deer?” Rage hits me hard again. “Just hit the damn thing, Gia. There’s no need to swerve off the road.”

She stands in a huff, stalking away from me. I get up less gracefully, putting pressure on my torso to relieve the pain, and follow her.

“Where are you going?”

She whirls around, anger making her fairy eyes sparkle in the bright sunshine. I stop short of crashing into her and glare back.

“You think I’m stupid?” she yells back, getting in my face. “You think I’m down here because of a deer?”

I must look confused because she shakes her head and throws her hands up in the air.

“The brakes, Dante.” She glares at me, but her face falls, and tears stream down her cheeks. “Someone cut the brakes.”

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