Page 42

“Yeah,” he repeats, “I don’t do much.”

I look at him, shakily. “H-how?”

“You’re holding the check for an average job, an average job I do roughly three hundred times a year. What do you mean how? We live in a tourist town. The locals call me when they want something in their homes updated or stuff breaks, but businesses are also swamped when a bunch of pretentious rich kids rent a lake house and punch holes in the walls. I get that overflow. Regularly. The math’s not hard.”

I… Well. Yes, I suppose it isn’t hard. “And this is…just one of your accounts?”

“Yeah. It’s the one not doing anything, and honestly it shouldn’t have this much in it, but I pulled from a few money markets shortly after you moved in, just in case we needed to move.”

I settle, just a little. “So the other accounts aren’t like this, because you transferred a lot to this one.”

Wynnter’s lips purse as he looks at me out of the corner of his eye.

Tension returns to the pit of my stomach.

“Sweetheart…” he begins, very slowly, “I’ve not been doing much for a while, and you know I started taking these kinds of jobs after I met you in high school.”

My heart twists, because I suppose I do recall that Wynnter would often head off to jobs after school let out. I thought it was cool and handsome and remarkable. The man I loved had an incredible work ethic, and that was hot. I don’t know what I was thinking beyond that. “Why didn’t you ever tell me you were rich?”

“Is it important?”

“No.” I drop my attention to my lap. “I’m just…surprised. It’s unexpected.”

“’Cause I rent a little cabin in the woods instead of own a mansion with lake-front property?” He kisses my temple. “Baby.” He kisses my cheek. “I’ve wanted you from the moment you showed up. Of course I got good with money. I knew I’d want to take care of you in a way you were used to if fate ever smiled on me.” His stubble scratches as he smothers me in a hug, a low sound rumbling in his throat. “Never could have expected you’d like getting so dirty with me. I’d planned to give you an ivory home of pearl and marble. I pictured building it myself, exactly the way you wanted me to. Instead, you like this quaint cabin.” He kisses my neck. “And you don’t want anything other than me.” His hot breath fans against my throat. “I had this whole scheme. I was gonna save a million dollars and make my case to you. It was gonna be super elaborate. I was gonna say, ‘I know I’m gruff. And dirty. And don’t match you at all. But. Look. Money.’ Then you’d leave your parents and come away with me.”

“Was I really that shallow to you?” I whisper.

“No. I just figured that telling you I was willing and able to maintain your current lifestyle would help my chances. I’ve never thought we matched. I’ve always considered myself as the Beast to your Beauty, so I at least wanted to say I had a castle with a library for you.”

That is the most romantic, most kind thing I have ever heard.

He chuckles against me, arms tightening around my waist. “But you don’t want anything else. Just me.”

My heart can’t handle this. “W-well. Of course. That’s what love does. Makes you blind to the potential of having a personal library. Honestly, I’m a fool.”

“You can still have it, if you’d like. You absconded with so few books, and most of them are August’s. I owe you a library.”

“I mostly read on Kindle and only get physical copies of my favorites or the pretty special editions.” I twist. “But you best believe I’ll accept a library.”

“Want me to look into the paperwork to put an add-on here?”

“You’d build me a library? Just like that?”

“I’d build you a castle. Just a library is nothing. Wouldn’t even take me a week.”

Flushed, dazed, and seduced by Wynnter’s bedroom gaze, I hurriedly change the topic. “Thanksgiving. You mentioned Thanksgiving.”

“Mm.” He snuggles, facial hair scratchy and nice. “We usually head to Granee’s house. The whole family. You met many of them at August’s wedding.” He licks me and nips. “Before you got drunk.”

I buzz. “Right. Yes. Did…anyone see that?”

“No. I caught you after you downed a line of shots, then you passed out on my bed. You wouldn’t wake up for nothing the next morning, and I had a job to get to, so I texted August. She spouted some nonsense about how you must be turning into a vampire and told me to bring you over. She and Alister helped me get your car to her place, and I left you tucked in on the couch.”

The couch? I blink. “I woke up in her casket.”

Wynnter stills. “Alister put you…in the casket?”

“I guess so.”