Page 12 of Frozen Heart
BRONWYN
“Okay,”I mumbled to the mirror. “I may have underestimated on the seashells.”
A half hour curling my hair into soft waves had given me definite princess-of-the-sea vibes. And the thrift store dress Jen and I had covered in giant sequins made a pretty good mermaid tail. But it turns out, seashell bras work better in cartoons, especially when the mermaid is big up top. However much I tugged at the cardboard shells, there was a lot of sideboob or underboob or justboobboob.
Jen put her head around the door. She’s been my best friend since middle school. She’s curvy, like me, but with ash-blonde hair and a gorgeous, golden tan, and she consumes detective fiction like I consume romance and fantasy. She’s always eager to work a shift in the store because her acting gigs aren’t enough to pay the bills, and I love working with her. I’d take her on full time if I could afford it. “They’re all ready for you,” she told me. “About twenty kids.”
I sighed. In an hour, I’d be closing the store forever. I wanted to sob in a corner, not be happy and upbeat. But I wasn’t going to disappoint the little ones just because some hedge fund prickdecided to put me out of business. “How do I look?” I asked, turning to face her.
Her jaw dropped and she came into the room. “Like The Little Mermaid started an OnlyFans.”
I swatted her arm, then took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m going out there.”I started shuffling towards the door: the dress trapped my legs together but at least the tiny steps were easy on my joints. Goosebumps were rising on my skin: I had the heating on but seashell bras are not designed for January.
Jen opened the door for me, looked outside and quickly closed it again. “It’shim.”
I felt my skin flush, and my heart rate shoot up like someone had stamped on the gas pedal, and I wasn’t even sure if she meanthimhim yet.God, what is this?“Who?” I checked, trying to sound casual.
“The eight-foot-tall scowly Russian with the cheekbones—he’s coming in!”she jumped back as the door crashed open.
Radimir’s face was an icy mask...then he focused on me and that mask justshattered. He gawpedat my hair, the tail, the seashells and then his eyes flared with raw lust. His gaze licked up and down my body. Suddenly, my exposed skin wasn’t cold anymore.
“I…” I looked down at myself. “I’m about to go read those children a story,” I said apologetically, waving towards the front of the store.
“I’ll stall them,”said Jen immediately and backed out of the door, giving me franticgo for itgestures behind Radimir’s back. She’d been trying to get me dating again since Nathan dumped me. She’d seen Radimir when he came into the store to buy the second book, but she had no idea who he was, and I didn’t dare tell her. I knew she’d warn me to stay away.
The door closed and I looked at Radimir, confused.
He stepped forward, pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket and unfolded it. “This is your new lease,” he told me, handing it over. “The rent is back to the normal rate. And it’s locked in for five years.”
I stared at the lease. I was struggling to read the words because my mind was short-circuiting as it tried to process what he was saying.The rent’s back to normal? I can stay open?
I CAN STAY OPEN?!
I drew in a breath and felt it shudder. Oh God, was I about to happy cry for the first time ever? “I don’t—I don’t understand, how did you—Did you talk to him or?—”
That’s when I finally managed to take in the logo at the top of the lease.Aristov Incorporated.My eyes flicked to Radimir’s face.
“I am your landlord, now,” he confirmed.
I could feel my mouth hanging open.What...the fuck?He was staring right back at me and there was a war going on in those frozen sky eyes, a ferocious warmth struggling to get out from behind bars of ice.
He bought the building?!“W—Why are you doing this?”
His jaw twitched and he dodged my gaze. Then he tugged his waistcoat straight. “I’m a property developer and I want to encourage small businesses in the area.”
I stared at him. I knew that wasn’t the truth. But the other explanation, that he’d done it for me...that was even crazier. I put my hand on the wall to steady myself, overcome.I can stay open. I can stay open!And then I remembered something. “The coffee shop next door: will you give her the same deal?”
Radimir blinked at me. From his face, he’d forgotten there evenwasa coffee shop. He frowned, like he couldn’t understand why I’d care. Then his face softened, and he looked at me like I was a freakin’ baby bunny. “Of course,” he said levelly.
My lungs filled. I’d have to call Cassie, the woman who ran the coffee shop, and tell her the good news.Everything’s going to be okay. I mean, the bookstore was still losing money and things were going to be even tougher, now that I’d sold off half my stock in my going-out-of-business sale. But I wasn’t closing down tomorrow and that made all the other problems feel manageable. “Thank you!” I told him and, instinctively, I put my arms out to hug him.
He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, his eyes sweeping down my body, and that’s when I remembered I was wearing two cardboard seashells held on by elastic. But now it was too late because he was stepping forward and his arms were coming up and Oh God his eyes wereblazing?—
Our bodies met and my mostly naked breasts pillowed against his chest. His arms wrapped around me and his big hands took possession of my bare back, one just above my waist and one between my shoulder blades. Everywhere he touched was naked skin and I could feel the warmth of him soaking into me, rolling inward in waves and turning into liquid heat as it reached my groin. I inhaled and felt my chest swell against him, the flimsy cardboard seashells shifting and moving, and he growled low in his throat, just as he had in my fantasy. I was pressed up against him tight, all the way down to our ankles, and I could feel his cock thickening and lengthening against my thigh.
I looked up. Oh God, he really wasbig:I was barefoot, under the mermaid tail, and my mouth was only just at the tops of his pecs. And now I was looking up athismouth, at that hard upper lip and that soft, full, lower one.
He stared down at me, his eyes molten, and his hands tightened on my back, tugging me a little harder against him. This wasn’t a hug, anymore. I could feel the huge, hard musclesof his back under my palms, feel the sheer brute strength of him…