Total pages in book: 128
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“Good for you,” I retorted. “Now get off.”
“Only if you promise.”
“Fine. I promise I won’t hit you again.”
“There.” He released his grip on me and slowly sat up, keeping his gaze on me the entire time. “That wasn’t hard, wasn’t it?”
I scooted back on the sofa and sat up, giving him a dark look. “Don’t do that again.”
“Why? Afraid I might give in and kiss you next time? With the risk you might like it?”
“Not a chance.” I got up and walked towards the door with my heart beating as if I’d just ran a marathon. “Get that out of your head.”
William chuckled as I stepped into the hallway and looked back and forth. “Where are you off to?”
With a sigh, I turned around and looked at him. “I don’t know,” I said, stepping back into the room. “I don’t know where to go.”
He leant back into the cushions, laughing his ass off, and I turned around.
“Sod you,” I yelled over his laughter. “I’ll get lost, then.”
“Wait! I’m coming!”
CHAPTER TWENTY – GRACE
A Twist of Fate
“This weather is insane,” I said, hugging my cardigan around myself while I looked out of the window. It was dark now, but I could still see the snow as it swirled outside.
It was really coming down.
“I don’t think anyone could have predicted this,” William said, coming up behind me. “It doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon, either.”
“We won’t lose power, will we?”
He snorted. “It’s about fifty-fifty, but likely. This is still an old castle, after all.”
“Should have gone home,” I muttered, pulling my cardigan tighter. “Or even a hotel. I bet they wouldn’t lose power.”
William’s laugh rumbled over my skin. “A hotel would. This weather is pretty insane, even for up here. The media are calling it a snow bomb or something like that.”
“They call a snowflake a blizzard. I’m not sure I’d pay any attention to what they say.” I sniffed and stepped away from the snow-caked window to move closer to the fire. “At least we won’t freeze.”
“Not entirely, at least.” He followed me with his gaze as I plopped onto the floor in front of the flames. “You will set yourself on fire if you get any closer to it, though.”
“At least I won’t be cold.”
“No, but you might be dead.”
Honestly, that was a risk I was willing to take. I was probably going to die soon anyway. If not of anything real, just of pure embarrassment when I had to tell William who my family was.
I was trying, truly. I’d started and stopped about five times over the past few hours, but I couldn’t get the words out. I really didn’t know how to broach the conversation, so it was easier just not to.
I’d do it later.
Or tomorrow.
Or when I had absolutely no choice but to come clean.
Maybe it’d be easier if I was backed into a corner. Like if Carmen and Vincent or Granny showed up and forced me to tell the truth.
I couldn’t believe Granny was in Duncree. How she even knew the Glenrochs, I couldn’t figure out—I knew her parents, my great-grandparents, had been relatively wealthy, but I didn’t think that side had any connection to the aristocracy at all.
Obviously, Mum had become a countess upon marriage, but Granny had never really liked Dad, and I couldn’t recall many times Granny had ever attended any such events where she might meet someone like Morag Glenroch.
It was baffling, truly.
As for Carmen being here… Ugh. I couldn’t believe she was going to be here. And she was certainly going to tell my father that I was here, then I’d never hear the end of it that I was apparently dating William.
Because of course we’d have to keep that charade up. There was no way we could admit to his grandparents that we weren’t actually seeing each other, which meant this little soap opera was going to play out in my real life.
Christ, I’d made a right mess of all this, hadn’t I?
Amber had been right. It was a terrible decision. I should have known that it wasn’t going to be as simple as I’d convinced myself it would be.
And that was before I admitted to myself how attracted I was to William. I’d wanted him to kiss me earlier when we were playing around on the sofa. His body over mine had ignited about twenty-bazillion nerve endings in my body, and there was a very big part of me that wanted to make a very bad decision.
By kissing him.
And I might have done. I might have let him. If I hadn’t found out that we were childhood friends.
It explained a lot. When we’d first met, I knew I’d recognised him, and he’d even said as much to me. It made sense that we couldn’t place each other if it’d been twenty years.