Page 20 of Snow More Secrets

I took a step closer to Hannah and pierced her with my furious gaze. “You don’t think being married qualifies as us knowing each other?”

Cammie, Hannah, and Raven, along with the rest of the women in the room, gasped while the guys behind me tried to muffle their laughter.

“How about Cara and I take the girls to the playroom?” Colin didn’t wait for an answer. After a little rustling, I saw him in my peripheral vision at the entrance from the inn to the lodge. His wife, Cara, had appeared with their daughters, but he muttered something to her, and they were quickly gone.

Grateful not to have an audience of little ears, I refocused my full attention on Hannah. “A drunken wedding on Christmas Eve in Vegas might not be enough for us to claim we know each other.” I took another step closer to her and lowered my voice. “But what we did that night and for the next two days straight sure as fuck does.”

Hannah’s eyes grew big, and her face drained of color as she glanced around us before glaring back at me.

She was hot as fuck when she was mad, and I tried not to be distracted by my body’s response to her.

I heard some jingling, then Caleb called my name. “Jake.”

Tearing my gaze from Hannah, I glanced back at my brother-in-law. He held up a set of keys, and I turned, lifting a hand to catch them as they whizzed by Raven’s head. “Master key. First cabin on Holly Lane is vacant.”

Perfect. With a devious grin, I pivoted around again.

“Let’s go, Hannah,” I demanded, holding out my hand.

My tone warned her not to disobey, but she shook her head and backed up. I followed, stopping only when I was right in front of her, my expression hard.

“I’ll carry you there over my shoulder like a naughty child, but then you better be prepared for the consequences,” I threatened.

The room was silent for a minute, then it broke when one of her friends blurted, “You’re the Vegas hookup?”

I snarled as I lunged for Hannah, grabbing her waist and tossing her over my shoulder. “Husband, not a fucking hookup!” I shouted as I stalked out the door with Hannah cursing in a furious whisper.

Ten

HANNAH

“Put me down, Jake Ashley!” I shouted once we were outside. My words were carried away with a gust of wind, and I shivered. I’d bundled up when I left the cabin, but we were intending to get right in a shuttle, then on an airplane before taking another airplane and landing in Southern Italy, where it was nice and warm. Which meant the heavy snow was already soaking through my clothes.

“Fuck,” Jake muttered. He swung me down into his arms and pressed my face into his chest and wrapped his scarf around my head before he broke out into a jog. “What the fuck are you doing dressed like this in a blizzard?”

I didn’t bother to answer, preferring to wait until we were inside somewhere before I gave him hell. Besides, he wouldn’t hear me with my mouth muffled by his clothing.

After a minute, he sat down, and I heard the purr of an engine starting. I tried to pull back, but his arm was like a band of steel around me. When we started moving, I guessed we were on a snowmobile. It didn’t take long before he was slowing down, then finally came to a stop.

I peeked out when he climbed off the vehicle and saw that we were surrounded by cabins, but they weren’t in the same area as the ones we’d been in last night.

It was tough to see more than a few feet in front of us, but I could just barely make out a path beneath his feet. The walkway had obviously been shoveled and salted at one point, but the snow was coming down too fast and thick for the salt to melt it before it piled up again.

Jake trudged through it until he reached the porch of the first cabin, then quickly unlocked the door and shoved it open with his shoulder. I waited until he’d kicked it shut with his foot before I started wiggling and demanding to be put down.

“Hannah, if you don’t settle down, so help me, I will spank your ass until you can’t sit tomorrow,” he growled. “I’m still considering it.”

“What?” I gasped. “You can’t…can’t…you can’t do that!” I sputtered over the words, shocked by them and by my body's reaction. Was that turning me on? Seriously??

“I sure as fuck can, baby,” Jake muttered as he toed off his boots, then stomped across the cabin to the bedroom and into the en suite bathroom. “I should blister your pretty little ass for what you’ve put me through the past year.”

I stiffened as he gently set me on the ground and tugged my phone out of my hand, setting it on the bathroom sink. He pulled off my gloves and hat, tossing them over his shoulder. Then his hands went to the zipper on my coat, and I batted them away before trying to put distance between us. Only to realize I had nowhere to go when I backed into a wall. “I didn’t put you through anything,” I protested. “I tried to let you out of this…this…”

“Marriage?” he supplied with a sardonic lilt.

“It’s not a marriage, Jake. This is two people who made a huge mistake while they were drunk.”

Jake crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles in his biceps bulging, making my hands itch to feel them. I forced myself to meet his gaze rather than ogle his body like I wanted to. Throughout the year, I’d tortured myself by collecting any articles or ads that showed his picture and watching any TV clips I could find multiple times. He’d been gorgeous, as always, but I’d somehow forgotten how different he was in person.

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