Page 32 of Kiss Me

“That’s a good start. Keep going.”

“What more do you want?” I hold my arms out to my sides.

“The truth.”

“I just told you the damn truth.”

“You told me what you think would get me off of your case.” He steps closer and places a finger under my chin, making me meet his gaze. “But when it comes to getting what I want, I’m just as dogged as you in competition. Why the hell are you lying to the world?”

I slap his hand away and step back. “Why are you so fucking persistent about this?”

“Why are you so damn intent on keeping your secret?”

“Because I wanted … no,neededsome damn time off,” I burst out, throwing my hands in the air. At this point, I know I must appear a little crazy, but fuck it.

He asked so now he’s getting my full truth. Since I don’t have anyone else to share it with.

“Because it’s Christmas and I can’t remember the last damn time I had a week off to celebrate the holiday. I wanted time to sleep past five-thirty in the morning, time away from constantly watching my diet because the next competition is just around the corner, and I wanted to relax in the last place my family spent together. Before my dad became my manager and when my mom was still alive to celebrate her favorite time of year.”

Now that I’ve opened my mouth, I can’t stop.

“Is it a crime that I wanted to go back, even for just a little while, to the time in my life before a damn mack truck slammed into my mom’s car, and overnight my father changed from the man who used to love tickling me awake and carrying me on his shoulders and my biggest cheerleader, to the man who runs the empire that is Tania Casey?

“Back when I was his ‘Ace’ just because it was enough for me to be his little girl, and not because I was the next ‘It’ girl in the world of snowboarding. So yeah …”

I defiantly wipe away the stupid tears that fall.

“When I took that fall at my last practice and slightly twisted my ankle, I saw my chance to embellish. And hell yeah, I paid offmy doctor to tell my coaches and father that it was a bad sprain and I needed to rest for weeks in order to be ready for next month’s competition.

“Then after I did that, I booked a week-long stay in the one resort I haven’t been back to in the ten years since my mother died. The last place she and I baked cookies together and danced in front of the fireplace as we sang ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’ while my dad filmed, laughing right along with us.”

I stop, starting to pant, for some reason.

“I just …” I suck in a deep breath, doing my best to fill my lungs. “I just wanted that feeling again. To remember why I love this sport in the first place.”

I hold up my hands and move away when Taehyun tries to approach me.

“There’s your fucking truth. And when you go to the media, make sure you tell them that they all can kiss my ass.”

I head for the door, blurred vision from tears and all.

Taehyun

I don’t save things.

I’m not a man who’s moved by helpless creatures or so much even by sob stories. It’s something I’m neither proud nor ashamed of.

It just is.

Which is why it strikes me as disturbingly odd that the tears streaming down Tania’s cheeks cause something deep to move across my chest. It’s almost as if?—

No.

I won’t go there.

Instead of trying to assess my fucking feelings, I ignore them at the same time I reach for the woman heading toward the door like she’s about to leave.

She’s not.

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