open-handed slap to the face and it jerks me out of the bed and onto the floor. I don’t care what my clothes look like now, only that I have some on, and at the last moment I grab for the bag and hold it tight while I shove my feet back into my shoes.
I have to find him, before he disappears into the mines. Before he hides from me forever. I thought I was a long-term hire, but my experience in the mountain has been nothing compared to his.
I’m desperate to know about it.
And I’m desperate to tell him something else.
I take the stairs down to the street two at a time and the space by the landing is empty when I get there. No one in the street, except one end of the long table. Voices rise above it, laughter threading through the conversations. We haven’t been gone very long.
I rush back out into the street and search for him.
He’s almost at the other end of the table—how?—and I run without a second thought. Without a backward glance. Without looking for Sarah or anyone else. I don’t care about making a fool of myself now.
I chase the white shirt down until he turns the last corner. Fear grips my throat—what if he wasn’t real, what if none of it was real, it was just a holiday fantasy that seemed real? Stress can do that to a person. Surely, it can, but—
I round the corner, and there he is, hands in his pockets, still walking.
“Cole. Stop.”
He does, instantly, turning back toward me. “You’re supposed to be getting out of here.”
I rush up to him in case he is an apparition and brush my fingertips over his sleeve to be absolutely sure. It’s a struggle to catch my breath. “Are you kidding?” I fan my face with my hand and straighten up. “Do unto others.”
“You keep saying that.” He laughs a little, but I can tell from the way he stands that he expects me to back away.
I don’t back away. “I’m not going anywhere,” I insist.
“Leona—”
“Without you.”
Cole’s eyes narrow, then go wide. “Oh, for god’s sake. I handed you a bag full of diamonds to leave this place, to follow your wildest dream, and you want company?”
All at once, I see it—his own fear, lurking deep behind his eyes. The pieces fall neatly into place. A runaway. Years of bonuses and holiday diamonds. Years and years. This is the only place Cole has ever known. “I want your company. And only yours. When is your contract up?”
He looks at the ground, and for a dizzying moment I think he’ll say never. “It’s been up for a while, but I keep signing up for three-month gigs.”
Hope, bright and clear, fills my chest. “When?”
“January,” he says. “Right after the holidays.”
I see it—I see it. Open skies and Cole’s hand in mine. A lifetime’s worth of conversations. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.”
“You don’t know me.” Another flash of fear, and it’s obvious now, obvious out here in the strange lights of the mountain, that this man, this confident, beautiful man, has a weakness. And it’s the thought of stepping outside this mountain only to discover that there’s no one left for him. “You might not like what you find.”
I laugh, a real, genuine laugh, for the first time since my mother died. I’ve been certain about two things in life. One was that I had to take the contract here to pay for her care. The other is that my body sings for Cole. Sings. Every nerve on fire, all of my skin sensitive, my very bones wanting to reach for him. Is it weird to say I’ve been obsessed with him for three long years? I have been. On a cellular level. And now that he’s been inside me—
New blush heats my cheeks and this time, when I reach for his hand, it’s not by mistake. It’s not thoughtless. It’s with all the intention I should have used three years ago. “I’ll love what I find. I think I already do.”
He pulls me to him then, kissing me long and deep, and his mouth is still on mine when a voice breaks in.
“Lee-Lee! What are you—oh.” I pull myself out of the kiss, but Sarah has a hand in the air, warning me not to speak. “Don’t say anything, because you cannot ruin dinner with the news that you’re leaving.”
“How would you know that?” Unbelievable. Truly.
“I said don’t tell me. Are you two