15. NICK
15
NICK
FEbrUARY
T here’s no doubt about it. When Mila Morgan commits to something, she really fucking commits. We’re six weeks into the year and seven weeks into our new living arrangement and not a single fucking word has come out of her devilish mouth.
We’ve quickly learned how to be around each other without communication. Well, at least one of us attempts to communicate while the other pretends she isn’t listening. Sure, I understand why she’s doing it. She wants to punish me for stealing her away from the life she had in New York, but I’m not sorry. The moment she finally decides to give this place a real chance, she’ll understand why I did it.
Mila Morgan belongs here. She belongs with me, and despite what she might think right now, she is mine and I am hers.
Our days pretty much consist of Mila pretending she’s asleep when I get up to work. Only, joke’s on her because most nights I stay up watching her sleep, and the moment she’s in a deep sleep, she’ll roll right into my arms and stay there all night.
I head off to work, figuring out all the ins and outs for the new year of gift giving while Mila spends her days with the reindeer. She didn’t come right out and ask, but she wanted to know how to care for them, so I showed her exactly what to do, and she loves it. Every day there’s a smile on her face, but it doesn’t go unnoticed that the only thing she won’t do is muck out the stalls. She leaves all that shit for me to deal with. Fair enough, though. I didn’t ask her to take on that responsibility. She does it because she wants to.
The moment I get home, I make dinner and watch the way she watches me, all while she’s pretending not to even notice me in the house. She’s learned my routine. When I prefer to eat. What foods I like, right down to what time of day I like to shower. It also doesn’t go unnoticed that every time I finish in the shower and walk into my walk-in closet to dress, she’s always right there, sitting on our bed as though she doesn’t possibly have anything else to do. And the second my towel disappears, her eyes are only for me.
Every day is the same, and despite how she still refuses to talk to me, I sense her peace. She likes it here, and I like having her here. I like her in my space. I like her in my home. In my bed. But most of all, I like just being able to see her every fucking day. I’ve gone from years of craving her to getting her every day, even if all she has to offer is to unintentionally hold me while she sleeps.
APRIL
Grabbing my shit, I go to leave for the day and come to a standstill as I find Mila blocking my exit. She’s usually out with the reindeer every morning, and when I leave, I watch her out in the field as she teaches them how to trust her.
I won’t lie, I’m starting to get really fucking jealous of the attention she gives them. I’d give anything to see her smile at me the way she smiles at them, but beggars can’t be choosers, and she’ll eventually come around. She just needs to understand it first. It might have been a selfish act for me to bring her here, but I was granting her wish and giving her exactly what she wanted. If only she realized that. She’s too busy blaming me and too fucking stubborn to see that I was doing exactly what she asked. I guess that’s exactly what I love about her.
“You need something?” I ask, not bothering to try and figure it out this time. Usually she just stares at me until I make suggestions about what she could possibly need, but not today. I haven’t heard her voice in four fucking months, and it’s killing me.
Mila just stares, but I can play this game a lot longer than she can. She’s got no idea what stubborn really means, and she’s playing with the fucking master.
She glances away, not willing to meet my stare, and I step right into her, watching as she sucks in a breath. Her hands twitch at her sides as if physically restraining herself from reaching out and touching me. “What do you need, Mila?”
She visibly swallows, her bright green gaze lifting to mine once again, her chin tilted with defiance. She hesitates, wanting to ask for something, but she’s too stubborn to open her damn mouth. So instead, I go to step around her. If she wants something, she can be the one to break.
“Have a good day,” I tell her, before walking down the path.
“Fuck,” I hear behind me, the sweet tone of her voice bringing me to a stop. “Nick. Wait.”
I whip around, my brow arched, and I wait patiently for her to continue, but the words get stuck in her throat as she wars with her inner demons.
A soft smile pulls at my lips. She tried, and that’s all that matters to me. I make my way back to the door, noticing she’s wearing real clothes today, not just the sweatpants and hoodies she usually wears when spending the day out on the farm. This time, I step right into her and brush my fingers beneath her chin, forcing her stare right at mine. I hold her there, taking advantage of her closeness. “Tell me, baby,” I murmur, my lips so close to hers that all she’d have to do is close the distance. “I can’t give you what you need if you don’t open that pretty mouth of yours.”
Her brows furrow, desperately wanting to prove a point, but she lets out a sigh instead, defeat flashing in her sweet eyes. “I want to come with you.”
My brows fly up in surprise. “You want to come into town?”
She nods, going straight back to giving me the silent treatment.
“Are you ready?”
Mila nods again and with that, I step back out of the doorway, more than ready to show her off to the whole damn town. She makes her way up the pathway to the snowmobile I have stashed out front, and I’m not surprised when the walk remains silent.
I climb on the snowmobile, and she reluctantly climbs on behind me. I make a point of taking her arms and wrapping them around me.
She watches everything as we fly toward town, taking it all in with wide eyes, and I have no doubt that she’s doing what she can to memorize the route we take.
A thought hits me that I want her to have the kind of freedom she deserves. I’ve never told her that she needs to be confined to just my property. I’m more than happy to have her wandering around town, getting to know the helpers and my parents. It’s been her decision to remain on the property, and the fact that she’s ready to start exploring gives me hope.
Bringing the snowmobile to a stop, I glance back and meet her concerned stare. “Do you want to learn how to drive this thing?” I ask her. “I have a bunch of them. If you knew how to drive it, you could get yourself around.”
“Really?” she rushes out before remembering that she’s supposed to be giving me the silent treatment.
I nod and indicate for her to climb over me to the front, and the moment she does, my dick hardens behind her. Having her so close every day and not being able to touch her has been more than a little challenging, and the contact erections are right at the top of my list.
With Mila tucked safely in front of me, she puts her hands up on the handlebars, and I reach around her before showing her what to do. She starts slow, and I won’t lie, the first few minutes I fear for my life, but she quickly gets the hang of it, and I direct her the rest of the way, trusting that if she were to take herself into town, she’d no doubt come back to me each night.
We drive through the town, and as we go, she looks out at everything with a newfound fondness, getting slower with every second. “This is the local grocer,” I say, pointing to the right before switching to the left. “Hair, nails, and all that beauty shit you girls like is in there. Also doubles as a bar on Friday nights and weekends.”
“What?” she grunts. “How the hell does that work?”
“I have no fucking idea, but in a small town, people have a way of making things happen.”
I point out our equivalent of Starbucks, and before I know it, we’re coming to the very end of the street, right where my workshop is.
Mila brings the snowmobile to a stop right out front and simply stares up at it in wonder, and to be honest, I’m not surprised. This is generally how most people look at it. It’s the very place they’ve imagined throughout their childhoods, but the movies don’t do it justice.
“Holy fucking shit,” she murmurs in awe.
“You can say that again,” I mutter, climbing off the snowmobile and offering her my hand. “Come on. Let me show you around.”
Mila doesn’t take my hand, but she moves in next to me, standing a lot closer than she has the whole time she’s been here, and as we make our way inside, I point everything out. The helpers stare in shock. None of them had a clue that I had her stashed away in my home.
I give her the grand tour of the workshop, introducing her to a few of the helpers I think she’d get along with before taking her down to the ground floor where the sleigh resides. Her eyes are wide the whole time, looking like a kid in a candy store, and I can’t resist taking her right back up to the very top level to the vault and showing just how quickly she managed to get herself on my naughty list.
“This is incredible,” she murmurs.
“I take it you’re finally talking to me.”
“No,” she says, glancing away. “I’m simply playing nice to get what I want.”
“And?”
“It’s working like a charm,” she says. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
I can’t help but laugh as I drop my hand to her lower back, leading her back down the hall toward my office. I won’t lie, it’s always been a fantasy of mine to fuck her across my desk, though something tells me she’s not quite ready for that. Give it time though. She’ll come around.
Reaching my office, I push the door open only to come face-to-face with my parents, the two of them gaping at me in horror.
“Ahh fuck.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Mila breathes beside me, gaping at my parents the same way they seem to be gaping at her. Only Mila looks starstruck while my parents look confused. Mila smacks me as she stares at my father. “It’s Santa and Mrs. Claus.”
“Yep,” I say. “My parents.”
“No one gives a shit about that,” she tells me. “It’s the real fucking Santa Claus.”
“The fuck, babe? I’m the real fucking Santa Claus.”
“No you’re not. You’re just some dude who took over,” she says, stepping past me into my office and staring at my father in awe. “This is the real Santa Claus.”
My father laughs and offers Mila his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, darlin’. It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on you. Though I must admit, I’m a little surprised to see you.”
“I bet you are,” she says, glancing back toward me. “I take it your son failed to mention I was here?”
“You guessed correctly.”
“Ahh,” Mila muses just as her eyes begin to sparkle with wicked delight, and I realize this right here is the reason she wanted to come. Fuck the town and the workshop. She wanted to meet my parents just to drop me in a world of shit. “So, I take it that he also forgot to mention that he kidnapped me?”
Well fuck. She didn’t even try to sugarcoat it.
My parents glance at me, concern in my mother’s eyes, while my father just seems . . . unsurprised. “Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask, stepping deeper into my office and closing the door behind me, figuring that whatever is about to be said in here isn’t meant for the whole town to hear.
Dad offers me a tight smile before dropping his gaze back to Mila, taking her hand and leading her to the chair opposite my desk. He takes the one beside her, and in that sincere way my father has become so famous for, he looks at my girl and gives it to her straight. “Oh, sweet girl. I know my son can be quite . . . difficult to deal with sometimes, and I’m sure you’ve had your moments of frustration, but it wouldn’t be possible for him to kidnap you if you hadn’t wished it into existence,” he explains. “You’re in love with my son, aren’t you?”
Mila gapes at him, her gaze flicking back at me. “I . . . I’m too angry at him to be in love with him. I mean, I guess I am, but I’m really trying to focus on not loving him, and it’s working really well for me.”
My mother laughs and looks at me as though she’s never been so proud before striding over to join Dad and Mila. She takes Mila’s hand and holds her stare. “Let me tell you about the day this old buffoon kidnapped me right out of my bed in Colorado.”