Chapter Fourteen
HOME? THAT WAS A LAUGH.
But Colin wasn’t laughing. Jaw set, he glared at her. Who did Sabela think she was? He made the rules here.
“If you want to go home, that’s fine. You can pay back the cash that you owe me on different terms.”
“It always comes back to that, doesn’t it? Okay, I don’t care. I’ll make payments, and I will pay you back every single dime.”
“In the next twelve months, with the agreed-upon interest accrued onto the amount borrowed.” He let that news hang in the air between them.
A waitress at a little diner like Pinkie’s didn’t make a fraction of what she owed over the course of a year. Was she delusional?
“That’s not possible,” she said.
“Of course it is. It’s in your contracts. Don’t tell me you still haven’t read them?”
She raised her chin. “I don’t have the copies with me.”
He shook his head slowly. “I’ll provide you with them … when we’re done with your skiing lesson.”
Sabela, incensed, struggled to release her skis. She poked again and again with her poles but kept missing. Her ineptness was amusing and he couldn’t help smiling.
She saw his smile and her pretty face puckered up into fury. She pounded down at the ski releases, was finally successful and stepped into the snow.
She stood, hands on hips, and glared at him, obliterating his smile. Why did the venom in her gaze hit him as hard as it did?
For maybe the first time in his adult life, Colin found himself wanting to apologize, though he wasn’t sure what for.
“Fine. That’s fine. I’ll figure it out. Whatever,” she said.
“What?”
“Paying you back. I said I’ll figure it out, somehow.”
She was so angry that she wasn’t thinking sensibly. Colin watched her flounder her way downslope through the deep snow. He skied after her.
“You’re being ridiculous,” he told her.
She was breathing hard as she struggled to lift her legs. “I-I-don’t care what y-you think.”
All of this because of what? Because she’d tried to ski once and decided to give up? Colin wasn’t impressed. Sabela was a hard-working woman, and he expected more of her.
“Why are you acting like this?” he demanded. For now, he contained his own frustrations.
She stopped and turned on him. “Because you’re unreasonable!”
“I’m unreasonable?” Colin asked. “You’re the one who tried to ski once and then gave up and attacked me because you didn’t turn into a world-class skier on the first go. No one skis well the first time.”
“I never wanted to ski in the first place!”
“But skiing is important to me, so I want it to be important to you, too.”
Colin wondered what was so hard to understand about that. The arrangement was that she was here to learn about him, and skiing was a big part of Colin’s life.
“You came here to pay off your debt,” he said. “You should be thankful I’d even consider hiring you for an easy job like this. All you have to do is be nice and agreeable. Is that so hard?”
She rounded on him, eyes ablaze. “I didn’t come here! You forced me onto a jet and made me fly off into the unknown!”
“I never forced you.”
“You intimidated me into it, just like you’re trying to intimidate me now.”
This conversation was going nowhere. Both of them were getting more and more frustrated with each other, and Colin didn’t want to lose his temper again.
He moved in close to her and reached out.
She pushed against his chest. “Stay away from me!”
“Calm down. I’m going to carry you down the slope. You’ll never make it down on foot, not at the rate you’re going.”
“No! Don’t —”
But he picked her up anyway, sweeping her into his arms. “Be still, or we’ll both fall.”
He began a slow descent, not that one could go very fast on this slope anyway. Sabela was light, and he had no difficulty maintaining his balance once she stopped struggling.
Her breath came fast and hard, puffs of steamy breath rising from her mouth and nose as if she were an enraged she-dragon. Colin had no doubt that, if she were a dragon, she’d be spitting fire at him.
He came to an expert stop at the bottom of the hill. Sabela didn’t say a word or even meet his gaze while he removed her ski boots. As soon as she could, she stalked away, heading back to the house. He let her go while removing his own gear.
Once inside, he took off his wet outerwear and made his way into the east lounge. Marie had a large fire already roaring in the massive fireplace. He stood in front of the windows and looked out over the pristine powder. What a waste of a beautiful day.
He turned in surprise when Sabela entered the room. She didn’t greet him, but simply moved to the fire, rubbing her hands together to warm them.
Was she serious about wanting to go home? Colin couldn’t tell. What he knew was that going home wasn’t on the agenda.
If only she’d listened to his instructions a little better and not given up at the first signs of failure. A sunny afternoon on the slopes learning and laughing together would have been a great start to a whirlwind of a romance.
And, if he was being honest with himself, Colin had been looking forward to teaching Sabela about something he loved.
Maybe he was being too pushy. It had been a long time since Colin had spent time with someone not on his payroll.
In a way, though, she was in his employ. If she didn’t stay here and work to pay back her debt like he wanted her to, she’d owe him for the rest of her life.
But what woman kept promises for that long? Colin frowned. Not even Blanca, the woman he thought he’d spend the rest of forever with, had been honest with him.
And now here they were.
“When can I leave?” Sabela demanded. Her hands were still stretched out towards the fire.
“Bruno can take you to the airport as soon as we know the passes are open. It could be later today but likely it won’t be until tomorrow.”
The snowstorm last night had played out in his favor. Sabela would have to stay until the roads were clear, and that would give him a chance to calm her down and change her mind.
There was silence. Curious, he glanced over at her and saw her crestfallen expression. Much of her anger had disappeared, replaced with disappointment.
Was he really that terrible of a man to spend time with? And what about this magical chalet? Who wouldn’t want to be here?
“How much do I owe you?” she asked.
He nearly sighed. She didn’t even know the balance of her debt. This would be an unpleasant surprise, then. With the salary she made at Pinkie’s, Colin ball-parked that she’d be able to pay him back in thirty years.
And that was only if she didn’t spend much of what she earned.
Across the room was a small table next to a landline phone with a note pad and a pen. Colin strolled over to it, penned the amount onto the top paper, and ripped it free. Then he joined Sabela by the fire.
“If you want to simply divide that number into twelve monthly installments over the next year, I will accept that,” he said evenly.
Sabela looked at the paper almost as if she was expecting it to bite her, as if he were offering her a snake. He supposed, in a way, he was. Reluctant, she took the piece of paper at last.
Her gasp stabbed at his heart, but he fought back the sensation. She was a pawn, he reminded himself. A pawn in a bigger game. And besides, he’d never actually make her pay back the debt. It, too, was only a tool to be used as necessary.
“Th-this can’t be right,” she stammered.
“I assure you it is.” Colin sounded cooler than he felt, a good thing. “I’ll have the ledger for the account sent over if you don’t believe me.”
“The ledger?”
“You’ll have twelve months to pa
y it all back. You’ll find those terms listed in the contract you signed. You’ve already agreed to them, so there’s nothing to negotiate.”