19. Chapter 19 #2
Rainn’s lips were clamped shut, and he stared at his feet for a long moment.
Finally, without looking at her, he said, “Fine, I’ll take you.
Let’s not drag this out further. Meet me at the front door.
” With that parting note, he turned and walked away.
I stared after him. I’d never known Rainn to act this way.
Yes, there was a little resentment between them, but I’d had no idea the animosity ran this deep.
And Sofia appeared as though she could murder him.
She didn’t look too happy with Kylan either, I noted with a twisted sense of satisfaction that I quickly stifled.
“Sofia—” Kylan started.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kylan. I have to go gather my things to meet my ride .” She glowered at him.
“I’m sorry, Sof, but at least now you can be with your sister,” I said in what I hoped was a sympathetic tone .
Her face softened, and she nodded. “Well, I hope you both stay safe. Don’t stay at work long—for real, girl, cancel the book club if you haven’t already, Annie.”
As she left, Kylan turned to me. “Have you?”
I shook my head, trying to ignore his nearness. “I told you, I’m not canceling. Minnesotans don’t stay home every time it snows.”
“You’re not a true Minnesotan though,” he said lightly.
I pursed my lips. He was right—I’d only moved here for college, but I fit in here better than I ever had when living in California with my mother. “Still not canceling.”
My phone buzzed, and I unlocked the screen to see a text from Hakeem. Kylan’s arm brushed mine as he leaned over, and I fought the urge to shudder from the delicious warmth of it.
“Oh, good, now you don’t have a choice.”
“What?” I mumbled, disoriented from his touch as I focused on the words on the screen. “Oh … Bookshop is closing early. Ugh, seriously?”
Kylan smirked. “Oh, darn. Well, get your work wrapped up so you can head out before the worst of the snow comes.”
“Is that an order, boss?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
He frowned, something unreadable in his piercing grey eyes. “No. Just a friendly suggestion. I know you’ve been working late because you want the promotion, and I wouldn’t stop you. But I may decide to close the office if it gets bad enough because, you know, safety.”
With a huff, I turned on my heel to go … somewhere. To the vending machine, maybe. Why I was angry, I didn’t even know. But I wasn’t about to let him, or a little snow, dictate my day. Or my evening, as it happened. I might as well work late since book club was canceled.
But snow had a way of dictating a great deal of life in Minnesota.
Hours later, it was dark, and I was out of options.
I hadn’t even wiped the snow off my car yet when I dropped my car keys in the fluffy white stuff.
Lacking winter gloves or anything sensible to keep my fingers from going completely numb, I was forced to take frequent breaks in my search for the keys to try to warm my shaking hands.
But this was a losing battle. I was freezing and shaking and wet and on the verge of tears when I heard a low voice cut through the furious wind and swirling snow that extended in every direction around me.
At first I couldn’t make out his words or even see him as my eyes darted around desperately, my teeth chattering and eyelashes coated with snowflakes.
At least I’d found some stylish boots and a sweater in my bottom desk drawer—a forgotten stash—so my feet weren’t frozen in sandals.
When a thickly gloved hand landed on my shoulder, I knew the warm, wet breath so near my face could only be his .
“Annie, I’m going to carry you back inside.”
Before I could even begin to protest, I was off my feet and nearly lost my breath. His arms cradled my slender, wet, shaking form as shock coursed through me. “K–Kylan,” I mustered.
“Shhh,” he said into my ear, his hot breath on my skin the best thing I’d ever felt. “You can yell at me when we’re back inside.”
I pressed my lips together and relaxed my head on his shoulder as we made the short but arduous trek back to the building through several feet of snow and ice.
Warm air surrounded me as he carried me under the eave and through the open door and then quickly deposited me on a nearby chair in the lobby. “Stay here,” he ordered, an edge in his tone.
Too weak to argue, I simply nodded, not that he noticed, as he was already jogging away toward the offices. He came back quickly with a blanket and a duffel bag. I eyed the blanket as a starving person eyes a meal, and he arranged it around me, his eyes hard as he watched me shaking.
Was he angry?
I began to form more coherent thoughts as the warmth began to slowly return to my body.
Great, his anger is just what I need right now.
I closed my eyes and buried my head under the blanket.
“Don’t go to sleep,” he warned. “We’re not staying here. ”
Is he going to kick me out of the office, knowing I can’t very well drive home?
What the heck is the point of bringing me in from the cold only to toss me back out there?
My fury began to rise as my body temperature did. “I don’t—see how—my car—lost my keys,” I managed, teeth still chattering.
When he didn’t reply or even acknowledge me, I added, “There’s a sofa in—office library—”
“We’re not staying here,” he repeated, sounding annoyed as he strode toward the window, which was nearly impossible to see out of.
“Are you …” I hesitated. “Are you going to, uh—take me home?”
He turned back, a blank look on his face. “Yes. We’ll have to go back out there, of course. Are you ready, or do you need to warm up some more first?”
I wanted to protest that I couldn’t walk in these flimsy boots, that we’d never get out of the parking lot, that it was far easier to just stay here.
But his jaw was set with determination and probably annoyance, so I decided not to bother arguing with him.
I simply nodded and said, “I’m fine. Ready. ”
He looked at his phone for a few minutes and then stuffed it in his pocket. As he inhaled and exhaled slowly, his eyes were on the ceiling before he strode over to me. “Let’s go.”
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 can walk !” 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 parked that far from the door to the office, and we were walking somewhat slowly by necessity, but not that slowly. 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 he lived ? 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.