The Cost Of The Forbidden

Sev kissed her in a way he perhaps shouldn’t if Naomi was going to keep her head.

Side on, eyes open long enough for them to know that what they were doing was breaking their rules.

Their legs were entwined, but now there was time for more. And so Naomi kissed him in a way perhaps she shouldn’t. Three months of restraint had ended on the plane, but a different restraint ended this morning. She had never known a kiss like it. Their tongues swirled, mouth played with mouth. She took in his lower lip just to feel it between hers, they stroked at each other’s mouths, caressed the other’s tongue. Yes, she had never known a kiss like it—and she guessed after this morning she never would again.

Irresistible Russian Tycoons

Sexy, scandalous and impossible to resist!

Daniil, Roman, Sev and Nikolai have come a long way from the Russian orphanage they grew up in. These days the four sexy tycoons dominate the world’s stage—and they are just as famed for their prowess between the sheets!

Untamed and untouched by emotion, can these ruthless men find women to redeem them?

You won’t want to miss these sizzling Russians in this sensational quartet from

USA TODAY bestselling author Carol Marinelli—available only from Mills & Boon Modern Romance!

The Price of His Redemption December 2015

The Cost of the Forbidden January 2016

And watch for Nikolai and Roman’s stories … coming soon!

The Cost of the Forbidden

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CAROL MARINELLI is a Taurus, with Taurus rising, yet she still thinks she’s a secret Gemini. Originally from England, she now lives in Australia and is a single mother of three. Apart from her children, writing romance and the friendships forged along the way are her passion. She chooses to believe in a happy-ever-after for all and strives for that in her writing.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Irresistible Russian Tycoons

Title Page

About the Author

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

PROLOGUE

‘YOU’RE ENGLISH?’ NAOMI watched from the other side of a large polished desk as Sevastyan Derzhavin flicked through her résumé with little enthusiasm.

He’d already made up his mind that she hadn’t got the job, Naomi decided. So it was now just a matter of going through the motions.

What she didn’t know was Sevastyan never went through the motions.

Social niceties did not apply to him.

‘I was born here and my father lives here in New York,’ Naomi answered. ‘So I’m legal...’

‘I wasn’t asking for that.’ He shook his head. ‘I’m not really big on red tape. It was your accent that had me curious. How long have you been here?’ He continued to look at her résumé and frowned as Naomi answered him.

‘Twelve days.’

‘You’re staying in a hostel?’ he checked.

‘Just till I find somewhere to live, though that’s proving harder than I thought it would.’

He glanced up and saw that she was blushing—she had been since the moment he’d called her name, or perhaps her complexion was just perpetually red?

‘I thought that you said that your father lived—’

‘His wife just had a new baby.’ Naomi interrupted.

‘I don’t blame you, then.’

‘Sorry?’

He stiffened.

It was the third time that she had said it.

‘I don’t blame you for not wanting to stay with him if there’s a screaming baby.’

Naomi didn’t respond but her slight swallow and blink told him that, very possibly, his comment was the wrong way around—that her father didn’t want Naomi staying with him.

He had been about to tell her that they were wasting each other’s time. Sevastyan didn’t deal in emotion. Computers were his thing. Books too. Not people.

There was no point in dragging things out and so he would tell her that this wasn’t going to work; that she could never be his PA.

And he would tell her why if she asked.

Naomi Johnson had one of those apologetic personalities that irked Sev.

One of the last English words he’d learnt had been ‘sorry’ and he rarely used it.

Naomi had said it twice even before taking her seat.

She had said sorry when he’d gone into Reception to call her in for the interview and she had knocked over her glass of water as she’d stood. Then, as she had taken a seat in his sumptuous Fifth Avenue office, he’d politely asked how her morning had been. Naomi clearly hadn’t made out what he’d said and it had been ‘sorry’ again.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ had been his irritated reply.

And now she had just said it again.

‘I don’t think it will work,’ Sev said.

‘Mr Derzhavin—’

‘Sev,’ he interrupted. ‘I’m not a schoolteacher.’ He looked up into serious brown eyes and, seeing her rapid blink, he reeled back a touch from his usual abrupt dismissal. She—Naomi—had clearly made a huge effort for the interview today. The hostel she was staying at was a dive yet she was here in a smart suit. It was a touch tight, Sev thought, noticing her curves. Her dark brown hair was neatly tied back and she looked...

Sev couldn’t quite place it.

She reminded him of something, or rather someone.

He didn’t really want to examine who or what it was, there was just, he decided, no need to be brutal.

‘Look, Naomi, you’re clearly qualified and for a twenty-five-year-old you have a lot of experience and you interview well but...’ He watched her nervous swallow and found himself wanting to let her down gently. ‘You’ve an extensive list of hobbies—reading, horse riding, ballet, theatre... It goes on. The thing is, the only hobby my PA can reasonably expect to have is me.’

‘Felicity has already explained that to me,’ Naomi said. Her first interview with his current PA had been thorough enough to leave Naomi in no doubt that the role would be a demanding one. Sevastyan Derzhavin’s skills in cyber security were globally in demand. Apart from an impossible workload he was a rich playboy and had a little black book that was his PA’s to juggle, along with his private jet and helicopter.

Yes, she had been told exactly what the role would entail. He was arrogant, emotionless, worked you to the bone but he paid through the nose for attention to duty.

Him.

From the bitter twist to Felicity’s voice Naomi had soon guessed that there might be a more personal reason for the sudden vacancy.

‘Even so.’ Sev went to drop her résumé on his desk and, Naomi was sure, terminate the interview and send her on her way.

‘Would it help if I told you that I’d lied on my résumé?’

‘Probably not.’ Instead of standing, he leant back in his seat. ‘Go on.’

‘Well, I do like the ballet and theatre but it’s stretching it to say that they’re hobbies of mine and I haven’t been on a horse since I was fourteen...’

‘What about reading?’

‘I’ll read in bed.’

Sev opened his mouth to say something and then, very sensibly, he closed it.

God, he could so easily and so very inappropriately have responded to that. Clearly Miss Awkward had recognised the opening she had just given him because just as those full cheeks had been starting to pale, they had once again flushed pink the second she’d said it.

‘Well, I can’t command your time in the bedroom,’ Sev said, and he hesitated again because, actually, he wouldn’t mind doing just that...

He made a very abrupt verbal U-turn. ‘I warn you—if I offered you the role then most of your waking hours would be devoted to me. Your time would be spent on a laptop, or the phone, sorting out my life. You wouldn’t even have time to read your horoscope, it will be mine you turn to first.’

‘I don’t believe in them.’

‘I bet you still read them, though?’

‘Is that relevant?’

She was tougher than she had first looked.

Sev gave her an intense stare, barely noticing her full lips and round cheeks as her deep brown eyes drew him in.

And with that look Naomi revisited her need for the role—twelve-to eighteen-hour days didn’t trouble her, rather it was the company she’d be required to keep that did.

‘I see you’re engaged.’ Sev glanced at the ring she wore before returning her solemn gaze.

‘Again,’ Naomi asked, ‘is that relevant?’

‘Actually, it is,’ Sev tartly responded. ‘Because you’d have to have the most understanding fiancé in the history of the world to put up with the demands that I would make on your time.’

‘Well, my fiancé isn’t here in New York with me, however...’ Naomi hesitated for a moment and then decided that, no, if by some miracle he did offer her the role she wouldn’t accept it anyway.

Twelve minutes ago her world had been complicated yet ordered.

Well, not ordered as such but twelve days ago she had arrived in New York.

Twelve minutes ago she had texted her father to suggest that they catch up for lunch after her interview.

She had just put her phone back in her bag and gone to take a drink of water when Sevastyan Derzhavin had walked out of his office and called her name.

‘Naomi.’

He was beautiful.

Just that.

Dark haired, pale skinned, he had very long legs and despite the immaculate suit he looked as if he should be wandering out of a club or casino at 5:00 a.m. he was so rumpled and unshaven.

His tie was loosened, his grey-black eyes were a touch heavy lidded and he gave her not a smile as such, just a nod in the direction of his office and a vague, unrelated memory had popped into her head—she had remembered the time she’d gone to see her lovely familiar female doctor for a pap and a sexy-as-hell locum doctor had come out.

Naomi had flunked it and had asked the sexy doctor for a flu injection instead. And she’d flunked it again as Sevastyan had come out of his office and greeted her. As she’d stood, she had got all flustered and knocked over her drink. When he’d enquired, in a deep, Russian-accented voice, about her day, she’d been so entranced that she hadn’t really heard what he’d said and he’d had to repeat himself twice.

With every question he’d grown sexier.

With every vowel he uttered she wondered if the chair she was sitting on might be battery operated. Somehow even her list of hobbies had led them to bed and so now all Naomi wanted to do was stand up and get the hell out of there.

I’m an engaged woman, she wanted to say. How dare you make me feel like that?

No, she didn’t want the role.

‘You don’t speak a second language,’ Sev checked.

‘No.’ Naomi shook her head. ‘I don’t.’

‘At all?’

‘Non,’ Naomi said, and then laughed at her own feeble joke.

He didn’t laugh, just stared back at her.

‘You know,’ Sev finally said, ‘the English are lazy.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I mean the English-language-speaking world.’

‘Oh.’

‘They rely on others speaking their language.’

‘How many languages do you speak?’ Naomi asked him.

‘Five.’

Good, Naomi thought. She didn’t have the job.

‘Still, given that most everyone speaks English,’ Sev said, ‘I’m sure that we can work around it.’

Help.

‘I just want to clarify that I’m only going to be in New York for a year,’ Naomi said, giving him an out now and rather hoping that would be it, but he merely shrugged.

‘You’d burn out long before then. I don’t think I’ve ever had a PA last longer than six months. Three months...’ He gauged. ‘Yes, I think you would last about three months, though I’d hope for more.’

‘Look...’ Naomi flashed him a smile. ‘I don’t want to waste your time. Though your assistant was very clear that the hours were demanding I didn’t realise that it would be quite so full on. I like my weekends...’ She gave him another smile, which he didn’t return. ‘I’m actually here to get to know my father a little better and so—’

‘You’d get weekends off.’ Sev dismissed that obstacle. ‘Unless we were overseas.’

‘And also,’ Naomi added, just to make certain that he didn’t hire her, ‘I don’t really have experience in your field.’

‘Experience in my field?’ Sevastyan frowned and he knew exactly what she meant but he was enjoying watching her get flustered. ‘I’m not a farmer.’

‘I meant that I don’t know much about cyber security.’

‘If you did then you’d be my rival.’

She stood and held out her hand.

‘I’m sorry, I—’

‘Part of the package is an apartment overlooking Central Park. Well, once Felicity moves out. It’s nice...’ he mused. ‘Well, I like living there.’

‘We’d be in the same apartment block?’

It got worse and worse!

‘It’s huge. Don’t worry, I shan’t be knocking on your door to borrow a cup of sugar. It’s convenient if there’s an early morning or late-night meeting. And it saves time when we’re travelling, which there’s a lot of. Being in the same building shaves off ten minutes if I don’t have to pick you up from another address and there’s a helipad.’ And then he told her what her wardrobe allowance would be, which should have had her cheering.

‘No, really...’

Naomi wanted her life back.

She wanted a world where she had never seen this man. But Sev now wanted her.

She was as plump as forbidden fruit and, God, but he loved the word ‘no’. He considered it a pesky firewall to get around or disable.

It really was a great motivator.

‘Thank you for your time,’ Naomi said, still holding out her hand, but he didn’t offer his.

‘Sorry,’ she said again, only this time it didn’t irk him. He simply sat in silence and watched her leave.

He picked up the next résumé and read through it.

Yawn, yawn, Sev thought, his mind still on the girl with the sad brown eyes.

Spaniel brown.

Like some puppy expecting to be kicked but hoping for love.

And a stray he did not need.

He headed out to call Emmanuel in.

The waiting room was empty.

‘Felicity...’ he called out to his PA, but her seat was empty too.

And her bag was gone.

There was her farewell message to him on the computer screen.

I FAKED IT!!!!

‘No, you didn’t.’ Sev grinned but his smile faded as the lift opened and Emmanuel, presumably, dashed down the corridor.

‘I’m so sorry that I’m late, Mr Derzhavin...’

Sev frowned. He recognised him. That’s right, he had interviewed Emmanuel a couple of years before and now he was back for another go.

And he was five minutes late.

‘Not the best first impression,’ Sev said.

‘I know but—’

‘Let’s not waste each other’s time.’

‘But...!’

Sev didn’t wait to hear his excuses. Instead he headed back to his office and caught the last floral notes of Naomi Johnson. His mind made up, Sev picked up his phone.

Naomi was just checking hers when it rang and, given her recent text to her father, naturally she assumed it was him. He’d actually seemed impressed when Naomi had told him about the interview with Sevastyan. Maybe he was ringing to find out how it had gone?

‘Hi, Dad, I was just—’

Her voice was all gushing and needy and not one she’d used on him, Sev thought. ‘It’s not your father. This is Sev.’

‘Oh.’

He heard the sag of disappointment in her voice, which was a first for Sev—women were usually falling over themselves to get a call from him. ‘Your boss.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Ha!’ Sev said. ‘We’ll have to work on that one. Congratulations, Naomi, you’ve got the job.’

Naomi stood in the foyer and knew that she should end the call.

Simply hang up and get the hell out of there.

‘I thought that I’d made it clear—’ Naomi attempted, but Sev interrupted her.

‘How about I sweeten the deal with quarterly trips home to the UK? I’m actually going there in November for a private visit. You can have a couple of weeks off. I’m sure your fiancé will be pleased to see you.’

Naomi swallowed but then frowned at his next question.

‘Why didn’t he come with you?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘To New York?’ Sev said. ‘Why did you come alone?’

‘We trust each other...’ Her voice was shrill because, bizarrely, at this very moment, Naomi didn’t trust herself.

‘I wasn’t talking about trust, I’m just curious why he didn’t come.’

Oh, he was like a shower of needles, getting into her skin. His question was one that Naomi had asked herself several times.

‘He has an important job.’

‘So do I,’ Sev said, then he decided it didn’t matter. A fiancé, and an absent one at that, was completely irrelevant to him so he deleted her fiancé from the file in his mind named Naomi Johnson.

Irrelevant.

‘Come and work for me, Naomi,’ Sev said, and Naomi closed her eyes and then opened them but she still felt giddy.

Breathless and dizzy just at the sound of his deep voice.

‘Do we have a deal?’ Sev asked.

She was playing with fire, Naomi knew, but then again it was an internal one, and she doubted whether a man as suave as Sevastyan was, at this moment, self-combusting at the thought of her.

It was just a matter of keeping her private feelings in check and, Naomi knew, she was extremely good at that.

She’d been doing that for most of her twenty-five years after all.

She thought of telling her father that she’d scored such a prestigious job, that maybe, finally, she might see a flare of approval in his eyes.

It might be the new start they needed.

‘Naomi,’ Sev pushed. ‘Do we have a deal or not?’

‘We do,’ Naomi croaked. ‘When would I start?’

She hoped that he’d say a month, or even in two weeks’ time.

Or Monday.

She just wanted a little space to clear her head before she faced him again but then came the deep of his voice.

‘Turn around and get back in the elevator,’ Sev replied, and then, like some expert quizmaster, he hit the stopwatch on her life. ‘Your time with me starts now.’

CHAPTER ONE

NAOMI WOKE UP lying in a very warm, comfortable bed. She just stared out into the darkness and waited for dawn with butterflies dancing in her chest.

Last night she had called Andrew and had told him that they were over.

As expected, he hadn’t taken it well at all.

But, then, he hadn’t taken her coming to New York to spend time with her father well either. In fact, they had broken up the night before Naomi had flown out. The next morning he had turned up at Heathrow with an engagement ring, telling her that he would wait.

Now she didn’t look back at that time with tenderness. She had been sideswiped, Naomi knew. It had taken these months apart to see that she had said yes under pressure and that she didn’t need him to magnanimously grant her a year’s leave of absence.

It was done and while she should feel relief and did, Naomi wasn’t thinking about Andrew any more.

Instead the butterflies had turned into a flock of sparrows and she felt sick with dread at another difficult conversation she would be having at some point today.

With Sev.

Of course, Andrew had asked her if there was someone else and Naomi had hesitated for a beat too long before answering him.

No, there was no one else, she had told him, and that was the truth.

Sort of.

Naomi had been working for Sev for three months now and, yes, he’d tried it on a couple of times.

Once when they had been stuck in his jet for hours on a runway in Mali and he’d put down the book he always read on take-off and had suggested she might want to go for a lie-down.

With him on top.

Or she could be on top.

He was generous like that, he’d told her.

Another time had been in Helsinki when he’d come to her hotel suite to bring her up to date on a business meeting and to tell her that he’d changed his security code. Naomi had been making notes when Sev had declared himself permanently cured of his yen for blondes.

And had suggested bed.

Of course Naomi told him that, as flattered as she was by his offer, not only was she engaged, she would never get involved with her boss.

He was the least romantic person she had ever met.

And Naomi was completely in lust with him.

For all she had been told how cold he was, Sev didn’t seem that around her.

Despite dumping Andrew, Naomi looked down at the ring on her finger and was grateful for the decision she had made last night to keep wearing it while she worked out her notice with Sev.

So, while technically there was no one else, Naomi would take all the help she could not to succumb to Sev’s charms.

Oh, she’d love to sleep with Sev just to have slept with him.

It was the aftermath she did not need.

Or the absolute lack of aftermath on Sev’s part.

Her phone buzzed an alarm and Naomi turned it off and then pulled back the covers and padded out to the kitchen and fixed herself a coffee.

It was a beautiful apartment, with thirteen-foot-high ceilings, mahogany doors and gorgeous fireplaces. Not that she used them. Instead she relied on the regular heating, worried that she’d burn the whole complex down.

Sev had the penthouse suite and he had been right—apart from the occasions when they prearranged to meet in the foyer their paths rarely crossed out of work.

The problem was work and very long days spent together and even longer trips abroad.

Or rather Naomi’s problem was her feelings for him.

She took her drink back to bed and wondered if she was about to make the biggest mistake of her life by quitting her job, and then, as if in answer, her phone rang.

It was 6:00 a.m. on a Monday morning, but that meant nothing to Sev.

Naomi was available pretty much 24/7 and there was no space from him. There was little to no time to catch her breath from the roller-coaster ride, no time to slow her racing heart down and regroup.

‘Hi, Sev.’

‘What time is it?’ Sev asked.

Naomi bit back a smart retort—oh, she could have said that she wasn’t his personal talking clock but she conceded that he paid her enough for her to be one, if he so chose. ‘It’s six,’ Naomi said. ‘Six a.m.,’ she added.

Just in case.

‘Okay, can you cancel my morning?’ Sev said. ‘Actually, just cancel the rest of my day. I’ll be back on board tomorrow.’

Oh, no!

Now she understood the odd question about the time. He wasn’t even in the same time zone.

‘Sev, where are you?’

‘On my way back.’

‘But from where? You’re supposed to be meeting Sheikh Allem at eleven and then we’re having dinner tonight with him and his wife. It’s been booked in for ages, it’s taken weeks to arrange.’

‘I know all that.’

‘So you have to be here.’

‘What’s the flying time from Rome to New York?’ Sev asked.

Forget the time zone, Naomi thought. He wasn’t even on the same continent. ‘Just over eight hours,’ Naomi sighed.

‘So you see it’s not possible.’

She could almost envisage him shrugging.

‘Sev,’ Naomi appealed. ‘Allem rang last night to say how much he and his wife are looking forward to this visit. He’s been so patient.’

Sheikh Allem had been. He had asked Sev to come to Dubai to review his hotel’s security system yet Sev had been putting the visit off. Now he had flown with his wife to visit him.

They were friends more than business associates but Sev didn’t need friends—he wanted Allem and his wife to back off.

They refused to get the message.

‘Okay, okay,’ Sev snapped. ‘I’m on my way to the airport. When I get to the plane I’ll ask the pilot to put his foot down or whatever it is they do. Look, I haven’t a hope of getting there before three.’

‘What should I say to him?’

‘That’s what I pay you to sort out,’ Sev said. ‘Just use your charm, Naomi.’

‘It’s all used up.’

‘I have noticed,’ Sev responded. ‘You’ve been very...’

‘Testy?’ Naomi offered.

‘I don’t know what that word means.’

‘Bad-tempered, irritable.’

‘Yes, you have been very testy of late.’

‘Because my boss keeps disappearing on me. Just what exactly are you doing in Rome?’ Hell, she ran his diary, booked his flights, arranged his schedule and, Naomi knew damn well that he wasn’t supposed to be there.

‘You want to know exactly?’ Sev checked.

Naomi closed her eyes. She knew, of course, that it would be about a woman.

And that was why she was being so testy. Naomi, more than anything, loathed confrontation, or rather she could not stand to be the one who brought things to the boil. In fact, she actually wanted Sev to fire her. It would be better than having to resign later today.

‘I mean, why are you in Rome?’ Naomi said. ‘I’m just trying to work out what to tell Sheikh Allem.’

‘Well, I guess it just seemed a good idea at the time.’

‘And I guess that time was Saturday night.’

‘You know me so well. I was at a party and—’

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ Naomi snapped. ‘I don’t need to know. I’ll come up with something for Allem.’

‘You’re sounding very English,’ Sev said. ‘Work something out. Oh, and can you organise some flowers from me?’

Naomi closed her eyes.

‘If you can send two dozen white roses...’

He really didn’t need to tell her that—it was always the same routine with Sev.

On a Monday Naomi would arrange flowers for whoever he had seen over the weekend. Around Wednesday he might ask her to organise a hotel for the following one.

The next Monday it might be a case of more flowers but generally he’d lost interest by then.

‘What’s her name?’ Naomi asked, as she reached for her pen. ‘And what message do you want?’

‘Actually,’ Sev said, ‘don’t worry about the flowers. Apart from Allem, am I missing out on anything else?’

‘Just a scheduled beginning-of-the-month meeting with me.’ She had been going to tell him then that she was resigning.

Sev was silent.

‘It’s November,’ Naomi said.

‘I know that.’

‘I’m just checking that you do.’

‘Anything else?’

‘No, everything was cleared for Allem.’

‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. Tell Allem...’ He thought for a moment. ‘Just tell him what you have to and if he acts up remind him he’s the one who wants to see me.’

He didn’t say goodbye, he simply rang off, and, no, Naomi thought, she wouldn’t miss this part of the job—reorganising his schedule at a moment’s notice and letting people down. At least that was how it felt to her. His clients didn’t seem to mind in the least. That he was unattainable made him all the more desirable. The more elusive he was the more in demand he became.

‘Bloody Sev,’ Naomi grumbled, then sank back on her pillows to enjoy a rare lie-in.

There was no need to rush in now. She could work here for a couple of hours, so she lay back and waited for sunrise and thought about what she was about to do.

Most would say she was mad to give up such an amazing job and all the perks that came with it.

For the past three months Naomi had been telling herself the same.

Yet she was fast learning that location, location didn’t equate to happiness. A designer wardrobe and manicured nails and a fabulous haircut didn’t magically put the world to rights.

On sight she had fallen for Sev.

Hard.

And, like her many predecessors, Naomi knew how futile hoping for anything other than the briefest of flings with him would be.

She should get out before she succumbed, Naomi had decided. She was already conflicted enough, trying to forge some sort of relationship with her father as well as ending things with Andrew.

A temporary fling with Sev she certainly didn’t need, for though it might be temporary for him, an encounter of the sexual kind, Naomi knew, would add a permanent tattoo to her heart.

He wasn’t cold at all. In fact, sometimes it felt as if he had been put on this earth with the sole reason to make her smile.

Which he did.

A lot.

He was inappropriate, yes.

But he was no more inappropriate than her own thoughts.

The chair in his office still felt battery operated.

His voice made her stomach curl.

And as for emotionless...

Whether he was or he wasn’t, he brought out all of her emotions effortlessly.

The morning was arriving and it looked crisp and clear from the warmth of bed. Somebody must have been out with a paintbrush last night for Central Park was a rich palette of burnt reds and oranges and she wondered what it might look like to lie in bed in winter with the bedroom fire lit, looking out at the trees stripped bare and heavy with snow.

She wasn’t going to be here to find out.

And she would tell him so today.