CHAPTER 4
Mallory
This was ridiculous.
She was ridiculous.
Mallory gripped the paper cup between her palms like it might anchor her to reality, even as her pulse sprinted wildly under her skin.
Steam curled up from the coffee and gave her just enough excuse not to look around the resort café too closely.
The place smelled like fresh brewed coffee, bacon, and warm pastries.
All comforting, familiar things that should have calmed her down.
They didn’t.
Her friends were still in line while she sat at a small round table by the window and pretended to be deeply invested in the pattern of foam on her latte. She tried to act as though she wasn’t absolutely, one-hundred-percent waiting for him.
They had left the ball early and there was no reason for him to follow. If he even knew where to find her. She told herself she wasn’t expecting him to randomly show up.
But, lately she seemed to tell herself lots of things that were blatant lies.
The latte sloshed against the side of her cup as her hand jittered.
She forced it still, then immediately overcorrected and sloshed coffee dangerously close to the rim.
Great. Public humiliation via latte spill.
That would really sell the I am calm and normal lie.
At least she had changed out of her gorgeous gown before she ruined it.
The café door opened but Mallory didn’t look up. She didn’t need to because she could sense him.
Jakob walked in, all tall, dark, and handsome. His broad-shoulders were dusted with the chill of the evening. He, too, had changed out of his formal attire and must have left early. They had been told that the ball extended into the wee hours of the morning.
Was he there for her? Her heart practically slammed into her ribs.
Conversation volume quieted, the way it should when a king entered a room. A barista fumbled a cup. Someone near the pastry case whispered his name like it was a secret instead of a fact. Mallory’s shoulders tightened instinctively.
Footsteps crossed the tiled floor. Slow. Unhurried. Intentional.
And then he was there. Standing at her table. Looking at her like she was the only solid thing in the room.
“May I?” he asked.
His voice was low and smooth. His eyes locked onto hers with that same intensity that should honestly come with a warning label.
She nodded before her brain caught up.
Jakob took the seat beside her; like right beside her, not across from her like a normal person.
Close enough that her elbow hovered awkwardly, unsure where to rest. Close enough that she could feel warmth radiating from him and smell something clean and woodsy beneath the cold air clinging to his coat.
His knee brushed hers under the table, just barely, but the contact sent a sharp bolt of electricity straight up her leg. She sucked in a breath and nearly squeaked. She pretended to cough into her fist like a very convincing adult person.
Across the café, her friends were absolutely useless. They huddled together in line and whispered like gremlins who had just discovered fire. Brooke was already grinning. Violet had her phone half-raised like she was contemplating photographic evidence.
Traitors. Both of them.
Jakob didn’t seem to care that half the room was staring. His focus was entirely on her.
“You seem flustered,” he said softly. His head tilted just a fraction.
She let out an awkward laugh that sounded nothing like her own. “Probably because the King of Onyxheim just sat down next to me.”
His mouth curved, slow and faint. “You don’t have to call me that when we’re alone.”
She nearly choked on her latte. “Alone? In a public café full of witnesses and whispering baristas? I hardly call that discreet.”
But then he leaned in slightly and his shoulder brushed hers. The world shrank and the café noise dulled, like someone had turned down the volume on everything except him. Even the lights seemed warmer somehow and softer at the edges.
Her entire body fluttered, as traitorous as her friends.
Who were no help at all. Violet openly mouthed, obsessed with you, complete with exaggerated eyebrows.
Mallory’s face overheated to catastrophic levels.
She needed air. Immediately. Preferably oxygen-rich air that did not contain Jakob.
“I…I think I need a walk,” she whispered, already pushing her chair back. The legs scraped loudly against the tile, drawing even more attention because, of course they did.
Jakob stood with her instantly, like he’d been waiting for the excuse. “I’ll join you.”
“No!” she blurted, then winced at the volume. “I mean, you don’t have to. You’re busy. You’re the king. There’s…king stuff…that you have to do.”
His lips twitched. “There’s…king stuff,” he repeated, clearly amused. “That sounds terribly official.”
She groaned quietly and waved off her friends as she fled for the door before she could collapse into a puddle of mortified goo right there between the counter and the amused onlookers.
The cold evening air slapped her cheeks the moment she stepped outside, sharp and clean, and just what she needed.
She inhaled deeply to welcome the scent of pine and damp earth drifting in from the surrounding grounds.
Tiny lights were strung along the resort paths that glowed softly against the encroaching dusk.
Somewhere nearby, water trickled over stone.
She walked fast at first and her boots crunched on frozen gravel as she followed the winding path toward the tree line. Her breath puffed white in front of her, uneven just like her thoughts that revolved around a tangled mess of blue eyes and knees brushing and you’re going to be the end of me.
She slowed after a few minutes and her hands curled up into her coat sleeves. Her gloves were still on the table she had abandoned.
A sudden sound above her head made her look up. A large starling roosted nearby and had fluffed its feathers.
“Hello, bird. Can you maybe fly me out of here before I die of embarrassment?"
She grinned at herself. Her father had always teased her about talking to those who would never answer. It was an awkward habit at times.
This time, the bird just regarded her for a moment before it looked away and continued its slumber. For once, Mallory was happy it couldn’t talk. She needed quiet. Space. Anything to stop the replay of how Jakob had looked at her like she mattered far more than she had any right to.
She blew warm breath into the sleeves of her jacket to warm her hands. Which was exactly why she didn’t see the half-buried rock.
Her toe caught.
She squeaked and her arms pinwheeled uselessly as her balance disappeared. The ground rushed up way too fast as she fell.
An arm shot around her waist.
Strong. Fast. And impossibly secure.
She collided with a broad chest for the second time in two days. Once again, the impact knocked the air from her lungs.
“Careful,” Jakob murmured. His breath brushed her ear, warm despite the cold.
Her breath left her in a shaky rush as she stared at the lapel of his coat while her fingers instinctively curled into the fabric. Again “Are you following me?”
His chest rumbled with a low laugh beneath her palm. “I got my, um, king stuff done so came to catch up with you.”
That should not have made her heart leap.
She straightened and stepped back just enough to regain her dignity, but her foot slipped again on an icy patch. Jakob caught her bare hand before she even realized she was falling.
So fast. Too fast.
A jolt of heat shot up her arm, and she gasped softly. Jakob froze too, just for a fraction of a second, like he’d felt it as well.
Their hands stayed linked a moment too long.
The trees around them loomed tall and quiet while the branches creaked softly from the frozen weather. The path lights illuminated their breath in the cold air.
A shout echoed faintly from the resort behind them and made Mallory suddenly aware of how far she’d wandered.
“Why are you out here alone?” Jakob asked, his voice velvet-dark and far too intimate for the distance between them.
Mallory’s panicked brain blurted out the first thought that came to mind. “I…I was talking to a bird.”
His brows shot up and it was obvious that she had genuinely surprised him.
She winced and pointed to the resting starling. “I wasn’t actually talking to it. I mean, I talked, but it didn’t talk back. Obviously. Birds don’t talk, of course. Well, some do, but not that one.”
“So, it didn’t have the common courtesy to answer you?”
She snarked back. “Not yet, but maybe if you hadn’t interrupted us, it would have.”
Jakob closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “Mallory,” he whispered, sounding almost pained, “you’re going to be the end of me.”
Her stomach flipped hard enough she thought she might tip over again.
His thumb brushed her knuckles before he released her, and the absence felt more than the touch itself. Her skin still tingled where he’d held her.
When he opened his eyes again, they burned with an intensity that made her knees wobble.
Somewhere in the distance, the resort lights glowed warm and safe. Ahead of them, the trees whispered softly where the path narrowed into shadow.
And standing there beneath the darkening sky, surrounded by quiet and a man who felt far too steady beside her, Mallory knew, without understanding why, that this wasn’t just her imagination.
This was the beginning of something important.