Page 77 of Austen Persuaded

I stood as quickly as I could, since his face bore a look of impatience. But before I could take a step, I was again swept into his arms as though I weighed nothing. “What—Kylan, what are you doing? I canwalk!” I sputtered as I grasped his shoulder tightly.

He glanced at me with raised eyebrows and then fixed his eyes on the door. Before I could blink, we were back outside, and I braced for the shock of the swirling cold nightmare around us. His arms tightened around me, and he said something I couldn’t understand as he began trudging through the snow, which was higher than his knees in some areas.

After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, I tried to get his attention. “Hey.” When shouting his name didn’t seem to work either, I tried punching his shoulder.

Finally his eyes, shaded by brows and lashes covered with snowflakes, met mine. “Yes?” he asked with an edge in his voice.

It was probably the worst thing to ask any man, but this was kind of a dangerous situation, both physically and emotionally, for us both. “Are we lost?” I dared to ask.

He couldn’t have parkedthatfar from the door to the office, and we were walking somewhat slowly by necessity, but notthatslowly. I’d given up trying to see anything in the whiteout around us, but I knew we’d taken quite a few turns.

“No.”

“If we can’t find your car, we could just go back inside. It’s not ideal, but—”

“I said, no.” He turned his face away from me once again.

My jaw hung open until I realized I’d be swallowing a lot of snow that way.

Why is he dragging me along with him if he’s so annoyed with my presence?

So infuriating!

Not a minute later, he’d taken more steps to who knows where, and we were suddenly under a kind of shelter. I scanned the area, startled. We appeared to be at the entrance of some kind of business or residence. Maybe a hotel?

I gasped. “What the—Kylan, you said you were taking me home,” I said as I slid out of his arms to the wet ground just outside the door to the building.

“I did.”

“This isn’t—”

“I couldn’t very well drive in these conditions, Annie.”

“Well, why didn’t you just say that? You said—”

“I said I was taking you home,” he said.

He smiled, catching me off guard. Way off guard.

His smile, it’s—I can’t even—

“Which I did,” he added.

My eyes skipped around wildly as I tried to understand what was going on and tried to avoid that smile, the one that told me to forget everything else and just … melt. Run to him and melt.

He waved his hand in the direction of the doors. “This is home, Annie. My home. For now, anyway. I’m staying here with my sister while I’m in town. It’s just a couple blocks from the office, and I didn’t really see any other viable options to get us somewhere safe tonight.”

Us?I wanted to ask, but didn’t. Instead, I followed him shakily through the double doors into what I hazily began to suspect were some fairly high-end apartments, if the uniformed security guard and well-dressed reception staff were any indication. I had a million questions, but they all died on my lips as I looked around, astounded by the opulence in everything from the massive chandelier to the soft leather seats in front of a stately fireplace. This was where helived? Or his sister, rather. I knew they’d both grown up without wealth. Perhaps his sister had married rich, or they’d come into some kind of inheritance.

I shook my head. It didn’t matter. I’d grown up with wealth, and I knew the kind of people who had it. Most of them I wanted nothing to do with, but I tried not to judge everyone based on my mother’s lifestyle and those in her orbit.

As the elevator doors closed on us, I dared to glance up at Kylan. His piercing eyes were sweeping over my shivering form, and he cursed before tearing the blanket away from me. “This is soaked. It’s only making you colder!” he barked.

“That’s … I guess that’s true,” I said, my teeth still chattering. After a long beat of silence where he stared at the doors until they opened and then strode out of the elevator like the devil was after him, I spoke up. “Hey.” When he didn’t seem to hear, I found the energy to speak a bit louder. “Hey. Kylan.”

He halted and waited for me to catch up, saying nothing and looking in my direction but notatme.

“You could have justsuggestedI take off the cold blanket.Toldme where we were going.Askedif you could haul me like a sack of potatoes.” My anger rising, I placed my shaking hands on my hips. “Show some d–damn respect.”

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