I took a step back, heart in my throat, and kept going. Kept walking until Lottie’s glare wasn’t so bold.
Then I was grabbed.
“Grayson?”
Grayson dragged me backward.
“Grayson, people will see.”
He ignored me, pulling me out of the ballroom, walking so fast I tripped over my feet. He dragged us past jewel-colored eyes peering out of their metal-and-lace masks. Dragged us until we were alone in a hallway.
“Grayson—”
He spun on me, his height seeming to grow in the shadows and howling wind, blue eyes wilder beneath his gold mask.
“I need to know tonight if your happily ever after includes me,” he said.
“I don’t know, Grayson. I can’t—I’m not ready.”
He nodded like he was expecting it, expecting me to deny him. “I don’t give a shit. You can have time later. Go grab whatever you need. We’re leaving tonight.”
My heart pounded.
Leave with Grayson.
Leave tonight.
“Can’t we—can’t you—why do you keep doing this?” I shoved him.
He frowned. “What?”
“Everything is on your timeline. I won’t do it.”
He gripped me above the elbow, thumb bruising, pulling me so my back arched and I was forced to feel the ache in his bruising eyes.
“You said you wanted me to fight for you,” he growled. “So I’m fighting. We’re leaving tonight. You can have all the time you need when you aren’t surrounded by fucking sharks. You can hate me out of Crowne Point. You can hate me for decades.”
He ripped me to him by my arm, crashing his lips to mine as the snow slammed against the windows. His other hand found my waist, anchoring me against his body. Our tongues collided as the chandeliers above us sizzled, and he kissed me until I couldn’t breathe.
Until I tangled my hands in his hair and forgot to care.
He pulled back, biting my bottom lip softly, gold mask glinting under the flickering light.
“Wake me up every morning in my bed with a slap to my face,” he said low, “but be in my fucking bed. I am done letting you go, Snitch. We leave tonight.”
He released me and I stumbled, my legs jelly.
“If your heart is caged by thorns now, I’ll spend the rest of our life together ripping them out.”
My heart cracked, and I looked at the window, completely white with angry snow. “Tonight?”
He nodded and headed down the hallway, but he paused, throwing a look over his shoulder like he’d forgotten something. With two fast strides, he had me against the wall, slamming his lips against mine until all that held me up was his weight on my body.
He pulled back, exhaled as if a rock had been lifted from his chest, and walked the way he’d been going.
“Wait!”
He paused, turning around.