Page 188 of Sweet Nightmare

“No, you can’t.”

“Good to know.”

I close my eyes.

I’m about to hang up when Junie speaks again.

“You’re one lucky bastard, you know that?” she says. “That woman is gorgeous, and you’ve had her all to yourself for days without the outside world interrupting. Tell me—which god pissed on you to give you that kind of luck.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose and look through the library’s glass walls at the snow outside. Sunlight hits the snow, making the entire estate look like someone threw glitter all over my mountains.

The sheer beauty of it reminds me of her.

Shit.

“The fuck do you want?” I snap.

“We’re just calling to let you know we’ll be there tomorrow morning.”

I straighten in the loveseat. “Tomorrow?”

“Yep.”

Fuck.

“You do remember why she’s there in the first place, right?” Zymon asks.

Right.

The reason we’re both here.

The fashion collaboration with Artemis.

I’d almost forgotten about it or maybe I’d just gotten too comfortable pretending the outside world didn’t exist.

The thought of that happening annoys the fuck out of me for reasons that have nothing to do with the collaboration itself.

It’s because once the work is done, Artemis will leave.

“We figured we’d get everything done on the same day and be done with it. So you won’t have to endure the heiress longer than necessary.”

Something in my chest twists at that.

“Fantastic.” The word comes out too quickly. Too flat and too fucking forced. I swallow hard to stop myself from saying anything else.

Then Junie laughs.

“You sound disappointed.”

“Goodbye, Junie.”

“You are disappointed. Admit it.”

“Fuck off.”

I disconnect before either of them can say anything else.

Assholes.