Page 34 of Stealing His Christmas Present

Or maybe Pablo didn’t want to bother heating it all up because this room was empty. That had to be why he’d given me the sweater. Did that mean he cared if I was cold?

But why would he?

Pablo glanced at me as we strolled down a long hallway.

This place was... um, huge. There were so many doors, and I wasn’t sure where they led. Getting out of here wouldn’t be easy.

I couldn’t see any guards, though. Everything was quiet—only our footsteps echoed through the emptiness—and a little sad.

A huge house like this was supposed to be filled with things and people, but it was empty.

Soulless.

Somber.

Cold.

Like Pablo, eh?

“This is my room,” he said, pushing the door open.

I entered the spacious room, my frown deepening.

Same gray walls and floors. A huge bed in the middle. A large closet on one side. A table with a desk.

“Where’s the TV?” I asked.

“I don’t need one.”

I inched closer to the windows and took a peek outside.

Aw fuck.

“Open the window,” he said.

I glanced at him and did as he asked. A loud noise of an alarm pierced the air. I was about to cover my ears when Pablo got his phone and turned it off.

“Every door and window that leads out of here is under alarm,” he said.

I pressed my lips into a tight line. Well, that wasn’t good.

I couldn’t see anything except thick trees outside, and I had no idea where we were. Where were the guards?

I couldn’t see them, so they had to be well hidden too.

Not good.

How was I going to escape this place?

I’d have to get Pablo’s phone so I could turn off the alarms first, and I doubted he didn’t have a ton of protection on it to prevent something like that from happening.

I turned to him. The anger that usually lingered in his eyes wasn’t as prominent anymore. He seemed much calmer and less tense.

But even though I wanted to ask him about what had happened to him and more about this weirdly empty house that seemed more like a prison than a home—maybe he was here just because of me and it wasn’t where he usually lived—I didn’t dare to ruin his somewhat better mood.

“I wish I could feel the sun on my skin,” I said.

We had to be on the north side of the house because I couldn’t see the sun when I looked up at the sky. It had to be on the other side.

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