Page 77 of Snowbound in Her Boss's Bed

Because he was not.

He could not.

The idea alone shot him back to the day in the hospital, waking up alone in a way he had never imagined he would be again.

He wanted Miri, was crystal clear on that fact, and more than he had ever desired a woman before in his life, but he could not risk that. Not again.

He wouldn’t survive a third time.

As much as her words cut through him now, he could not fathom what it would be like to lose her after falling in love with her.

He said nothing.

When his pause had lasted long enough to become its own answer, she said, “Storm or no storm, I don’t think we should do this anymore. I don’t think it’s—” Her breath hitched and the sound of it tore through him. “I don’t think it’s good for either one of us,” she finished in a rush. “I’d like to leave as soon as possible.”

He listened as she padded to the door then, cracking it open and slipping out without another word.

And because it was the way his life worked, when the sun rose on the eighth day of Hanukkah, it brought with it blue sky.

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