Page 5 of Snowbound with the Santas

My mind spins, searching through the countless names my mother barked at me upon arrival here a few days ago. My immediate family is small, but my mother comes from a larger family, and the rich fuck like rabbits. They marry often too, so children from multiple families eventually get caught in the net and there’s no telling who is a blood relative, who is from marriage, and who just writes enough checks to be included.

The name is distantly familiar. My throat burns faintly and I swallow down the urge to vomit.

“A new victim, then?” I choke out.

Ashton’s hand tightens painfully on my arm, and I gasp aloud, only to be silenced when he shoves me back up against the shelving unit. Countless bottles and items tremble along the shelf, and a few wobble far enough to clatter to the ground.

“Is that really how you see yourself?” Ashton snaps, and his tone is deeper. Darker. Much more familiar. “Do you really dare call yourself a victim after what youdid?”

“What I did?” I gasp out, using my purse to shove against his chest. “You’re the fucking leech that saw me in a terrible place and decided to take advantage!”

Ashton’s smile turns cold. “Is that really what you think? We had fun, or don’t you remember?”

“How would I?” I spit, shoving harder at his chest. “Maybe you punched me one too many times and knocked those memories loose.”

Ashton suddenly shoves against me and his eyes narrow to slits. “Those are dangerous lies, Rayne. Didn’t I teach you better than that?”

“Fuck you,” I spit, hating the way my racing heart makes my voice tremble. He scares me. He’s always scared me, but I don’t want him to know that.

“Is that an invitation?” He surges forward, and the moment his cold lips make contact with my cheek as I turn my face away, my free hand flies out and collides with his face.

“Don’t you fucking dare! I don’t want anything to do with you, do you hear me? And when I tell Phoebe?—”

Ashton’s other hand crashes into my cheek, whipping my head to the side with the force of the blow. Then he grabs my chin and presses his fingertips painfully into my cheeks.

“Did you fucking forget that Iownyou?” Ashton hisses in my face, spraying saliva over my lips. “Did you forget that I’m the one who knows everything about you, Rayne? That I’m theonlyone who knows? You clearly forget what I’m capable of.”

“No,” I whimper, using all my strength to push back against him. My cheek throbs hotly, and my spine cries out as the edges of the shelving press the bodice painfully against my back. “You lost all of that the moment you walked away.”

“Maybe if you hadn’t been so boring, I wouldn’t have walked away, but I neverleft. I just gave you some time to experience life without me.”

“It was heaven.” Each breath slowly becomes a struggle. Between Ashton taking up all my space and my racing heart forcing quick breaths past my lips, I’m growing more dizzy by the second. “You walked away, and I was free.”

“You wereneverfree.” Ashton leans in the last few inches and his cold, damp lips stroke along my cheekbone. “You were just on pause.”

“Fuck you!”

Finally finding some stability on my heels, I lift one leg and slam my knee upward as hard as possible. I miss his crotch by an inch and instead knee him in the thigh, but it’s enough to shift his balance, and he stumbles backward when I shove forward.

“You don’t own me anymore, Ashton. And I don’t care about your threats or whatever this game is. I’m not the same person I was back then, so you can go and fuck yourself. I hope the flight home isturbulent.”

My anger surges and I push at him again with all my strength. He stumbles backward, surprising the both of us, but anger floods through me like lava and I suddenly feel invincible.

I’m not his victim anymore. I healed myself. I made my peace with my demons—most of them—and I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol in four years.

Ashton, unfortunately, doesn’t take the hint. He uses his grip on my arm to haul me backward against his body, then he shoves me face-first into the shelves and pins me there.

“A different person? Is that what you’ve been doing while you’ve been hiding from me, Rayne? Changing your number, moving apartments, always running like you could escape what we did together?” He leans in close and his hot breath seeps through my hair. “Whatyoudid?”

My blood runs cold and my stomach flips sharply. I know what he’s referring to. Try as I might, those terrible memories start to resurface.

“After everything I did for you?” Ashton growls low. One of his hands drops to the skirt of my dress and he pulls the material upward with his fist.

“I lost my fucking eye because of you, bitch. So you'd better treat me a little nicer, or do you really want to ruin Mommy’s night with amurdermystery?”

3

RAYNE

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