Page 4 of Snowbound with the Santas

Ashton is dangerous.

Cruel.

I can’t be trapped here with him.

Ican’t.

“I ask again,” I say, fighting against that bubble to keep my voice steady. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I was invited.”

My mouth falls open. “Bywhom?”

I can’t fathom a single person in my inner family who knew Ashton who would even invite him here. My mother never liked him, but only because she thought he was a commoner. She was blind to the abuse I suffered at his hands.

I was too good at hiding it.

“Well, byfamily, of course.”

“This isn’t your family,” I snap.

“Isn’t it?” His eyes narrow slightly behind his rectangle spectacles. “It would have been our family if we had stayed together.”

“You dumped me,” I remind him.

“Aterriblemistake.”

“A lucky stroke for me.” I clench my jaw until my ears pop and clutch my purse tightly. If I need to, I can use it as a weapon to defend myself. I’m not the same crushed girl he grew bored of and left in the dirt.

I tell myself this repeatedly as we stare at each other, as if believing it can stave off the rising fear that crawls like a snake up my spine.

“I don’t have time for your games,” I snap, lifting my chin. “Go torment someone else.”

My strong words fuel my steps as I try to shove past him and leave the supply closet, but as soon as I’m close enough, he grabs my arm once more.

“What, you don’t have time for a catch up?” Ashton uses the grip on my arm to haul me closer against his broad chest, and my heart begins to race. “It’s beensucha long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Pity it couldn’t be longer,” I spit out between gritted teeth.

“Well, if you hadn’t done such a good job of avoiding me, maybe it wouldn’t have been long enough for me to miss you.”

“I certainly don’t miss you.” I tug at my arm and brace my heels down, but it does nothing to pull me free of Ashton’s grip. “Let mego.”

“Don’t you want to hear why I’m here?”

“No, honestly, I don’t. I don’t care what lie you spun to get an invite. I don’t care who you managed to manipulate. As soon as I tell my mom you’re here, you’ll be out on your ass.”

“But Rayne. Yourmominvited me.”

My racing heart drops down to the pit of my stomach. “What?”

His face, once the most handsome I’d ever seen, melts into a wide smile. This close, his blind eye peers at me as if I’m theonly thing it can see. A perfect row of white teeth glisten at me, framed by some well-trimmed facial hair dusting across his strong jaw. That smile wooed me when I was just a teenager. A smile that held so much promise.

Now I see it for what it really is—the grin of a snake.

“That’s correct. She wrote to me directly. Well, I suppose if you want to gettechnical, she wrote to my fiancée, but imagine my surprise when my finance,Phoebe, turned out to be one of your distant cousins.” Ashton speaks slowly, each word a calculated threat.

Phoebe?

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