Page 52 of Snowed In with the Bosses

Ethan rolled his eyes, but a smile tipped his lips. “You sound like a high school boy in gym class.”

“Oh, really?” Liam elbowed Ethan in the gut. “Think you can do better?”

“Yes.” Ethan squared up with Clara and stood at military attention, his right hand grasping his left wrist and his legs locked. “We’re prepared to protect you, Miss Perry. Nothing and no one will come between us and you.” The richness of his voice raised the hair on the back of my neck. Damn the man and his radio smooth tenor.

Clara turned slowly. The top of the escalator appeared, and she stepped off onto solid ground. “I’d like to believe that.”

“You can.” The temptation to reach for her overwhelmed me, and I skated a knuckle down her cheek. “Is there anything we can do to prove we’re worth trusting?”

Her hesitation—slight though it was—ruined me. She stopped trusting us. When? Why?

“It’s not that I don’t trust you.” Her words said one thing, her actions another.

I understood what she meant about promises as her voice flowed over me.

“We’re in a delicate position.” Her hand lifted to her cheek where I’d touched her. “Even here, in this place where no one knows us, we’re at risk. What if you hug me, or kiss me, and the wrong person sees? We could lose everything.”

Silence met her statement. The noise of a busy mall infiltrated, but I ignored that in favor of Clara and the sudden insight she’d given us. “We would not let anything happen to you. What we are, what I feel for you, is not the kind of thing that passes on a whim.” It was the closest I allowed myself to come to admitting my real feelings. “Have you decided you’re done?”

She jolted, her head jerking up and eyes flying wide. “What do you mean?”

“You know damned well what I mean.” I strode toward the nearest store with the least amount of patrons. “Are you done with us?”

“No.” The quiet exhale and lowering of her chin spoke the truth more than the single denial. “It’s complicated. You understand how this could all fall apart, right?”

Of course I did. But I’d made my peace with the possible repercussions. Apparently, Clara had not.

“I thought we came here to shop?” Liam walked around me, cutting between me and Clara. “We can hash out semantics later. We’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves.”

Leave it to Liam to cut through the bullshit and remind me that I couldn’t bulldoze my way to an answer. Not with Clara.

“Yes. Let’s shop.” Clara turned and marched into the nearest store, a boutique full of dresses that lined all three walls. Mannequins dressed in glittering gowns sparkled from pedestals. Clara stopped in front of one and tipped her head to the side, one finger tapping her lips. “Seems a bit chilly.”

Liam’s sly grin snapped out. “If I saw you in that, it would be up around your hips in five seconds.”

“Oh, really?” Clara’s eyebrows arched.

He dipped his head. “Really. What was it you said in the theater? Next time you wanted all of our clothes off.” He jerked his chin toward the dress. “What if we were naked while you wore that?”

Her breath hitched and for the first time in weeks, her eyes filled with that delicate heat that set me on fire. “I think I’d like that. A lot.”

“I’m buying.” Ethan strode over to the cash register.

Clara’s mouth fell open with a pop. “I didn’t…I mean…”

“Don’t bother trying to stop him.” Liam took her hand and led her around the room. “We brought you here to spoil you. Anything you want, you get.”

“Anything?” She whispered while taking in the dresses. Sparkles shone and sequins glittered, and the look on her face was enough to drop me to my knees.

I waited for her and Liam to make a complete sweep of the room before I stopped them with an outstretched hand. “What about the jewelry store next? There’s something I’d like to get for you, but I want to make sure you like it first.”

“Dresses and jewelry.” She shook her head like it overwhelmed her. “You know I could take offense to this. It almost feels like you’re bribing me, or trying to buy me.”

I stiffened so fast my neck popped and a spasm of pain ran across my chest. “We would never.”

“I know.” She smiled up at me, and it was the genuine smile that fully reached her eyes, lighting her up from the inside. “That’s why I’m not offended but flattered. You don’t have to buy me anything.”

“I want to.” The adamant need clawing through me demanded I do anything to keep that smile on her face.

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