Page 3 of Stolen

“Oh. Right.” I shook my head. “Sorry. I must’ve forgotten your names with all the back-and-forth last night. My apologies.”

“Do you have a plan?” Jacob’s tone was gruff. “Not to be rude. I was just checking in.”

“A plan?”

“For being snowed in.” Jacob nodded toward the windows. “I don’t think you’ll be able to do any of the photoshoots outside unless the guys are willing to risk hypothermia. Or worse.”

“Uh, of course, I have a plan,” I lied. “It’s my job to always have a backup plan. Anything can happen, right?”

Jacob slightly tilted his head, like he didn’t believe me.

Like he was somehow able to see right through me.

“It’s okay if you didn’t plan for this kind of weather,” he went on. “Most people don’t. But you should start making a plan now, at least. So, you can be ready to ride the rest of it out.”

“I already said that I have a plan?—”

“We should batten down the hatches, make sure we have enough resources to last through the storm.”

“Right, of course, we can?—”

“How do you feel about taking orders?”

“What?” I blinked a few times, taken aback. “Taking orders? As in, from you?”

“Yes.” Jacob continued staring down at me. “If it came down to taking orders from me, would you do it? Or are you someone who can’t see past their own ego for the greater good?”

“I…” My words trailed off, everything in me felt knocked off its axis.

No one spoke to me like this; so direct, so honest. It was such a shock to my system that I barely knew how to respond. As I stood there, frozen by his question, Jacob moved even closer to me.

So close that we were only a few inches apart.

“It’s Leo, right?”

“…Right.”

“Well, Leo, I’m going to need you to answer my question.” His voice was low. “How do you feel about taking orders from me?”

2

JACOB

“Yes, sir.” Leo finally answered my question, with a small smirk. “Anything you say.”

He was beautiful, his blond hair reminding me of an L.A. surfer type, but there was something so clean cut about him that I could just as easily imagine him at the head of a boardroom. I’d been trying to take my eyes off him but for some reason I couldn’t, finding myself openly staring as soon as I’d walked through the lodge’s front door.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like he minded.

“Do you mind showing me around? So I can get a good look at everything we have?” I asked, as I slightly shifted away from him. “We need to know if we need to start rationing things ASAP.”

“Yeah. Sounds great.” Leo nodded as he spoke. “You can just follow behind me?”

“Will do.”

“And I’ll go let the rest of the crew know that we’re officially in snowed in territory,” Tommy added. “Bradley, you mind coming with me to field all the weather questions? I don’t know a damn thing about this kind of snow.”

Bradley offered Tommy a thumbs up before the two of them headed down a separate hallway.

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