Page 34 of Pucking Snowed In with the Enemy

“Here,” Nathan said and handed them money before they left. Everything smelled divine.

“Food first or talk first?”

“How about food and talk?”

“Only if you promise not to throw it at me,” he teased.

“Tempting, but I wouldn’t. I don’t want to get any on the furniture,” I quipped back, making him smile.

“That I do believe,” he said, taking the lids off the food.

“This is way too much. What is it with you and mass amounts of food?” I couldn’t even decide what to try. Pasta, steak, sausages, salads, and soups. It was an endless assortment, and there was also an entire tray of desserts.

“I didn’t know what you’d feel like having.” He grabbed two plates and set them on the table near the fire, then came back and picked up some more. “Don’t worry about choosing, just try it all.”

I carried a few dishes over and sat down as he popped the cork on the champagne and poured me a glass. This felt like a fancy date and a weekend away, all wrapped into one, when it should’ve felt like an interrogation. I was coloring so far outside the lines at this point that I didn’t even know where the lines were anymore.

Nathan held up his glass, and I tentatively did the same, not sure what we were toasting.

“To enemies that become lovers.” The devilish twitch of his lip had me smiling.

“Is that what we are now?”

“It was classier than saying what I really wanted to say,” he said, and I clinked his glass.

“Fair enough.” I sipped my champagne and looked out the window, taking in the view. What would it be like to live like this all the time? To have peace and quiet and do a dream job like writing all day.

I took a bite of the salad, and it was rich and sweet tasting with a medley of almonds, greens, and strawberries.

“This is delicious,” I said.

The smile on Nathan’s face slowly fell as he sighed. “Let’s rip the bandage off, shall we? Let me start by asking you this…how well do you think you know your half-brother?”

“You don’t have to keep saying half. I know Alex is only my half-brother,” I said.

“Trust me, you may change your mind about that.” He took a bite of steak. “So, what’s the answer?”

I pulled over the bowl of what looked like carrot soup. “Not well, at least not since I turned sixteen and our parents split,” I admitted. “But what does that have to do with anything? You said you didn’t have anything to do with his death.”

Nathan leaned his arms on the table. “I’m going to trust you with a number of damaging pieces of information.”

“Why?”

“Because I think we both know that this meal is more than simply lovers, but I also realize the unusual predicament you’re in. This is a show of faith in you, and I’m hoping you’ll extend me the same courtesy when I tell you what I know.”

“Why do I get the feeling I’m not going to like where this conversation is going?” I understood the undertone. He was going to tell me something he didn’t have to say, but in return, he didn’t want me to arrest him.

“Probably because you’re not.”

I took a few mouthfuls of the soup, then sat back and had to ask. “Before I agree to this, I need to know. Did you set out to make me a target that night in the hotel restaurant?”

He smiled and then laughed. “No. I don’t make it a habit of sleeping with people investigating me, but it is an interesting tactic.”

I glared at him. “I’m going to regret this. I know it.” I pulled out my phone and showed him that I was turning it off. “Okay, what do you want to tell me?” I was ready for him to say yes, he killed my brother and that he lied to me and then explain how he made it happen. I wasn’t prepared for what he said next.

“Alex is not dead,” he said, and I choked on my soup.

“What?”