Troping Through the Snow by Alexa Riley

I bite the inside of my cheek, thinking about the possibility of him being a virgin too. It’s hard to believe when you see him since he’s all male dominance at a glance, but there’s this sweetness under it once you get through the grunts, which I love. I’m even starting to understand his grunts like they are a language only I can translate.

After cleaning off the tables out front, the staff left. They also tried to squeeze information out of me. When I head toward the back, I go up to my place to change. I want to put on something cute, but my bra and panty selection isn't great. I wonder if Carol is still open. She mainly sells dresses, but she does carry lingerie and the occasional matching bra and panty set.

That’s what’s on my mind when I collide with a body, and I scream as I jump back.

“It’s me!” Tinsel squeaks. “You scared me!” She puts her hand over her chest.

“You scared me!” I shout back at her. “I thought no one was left in the building. I didn’t know you were here.” She might live with Jack, but she still has a key.

“Really? I mean, that’s what I was doing. Honing my spy game.”

“I think what you were doing was waiting for me so you can launch an investigation.” I can already tell Tins wants the dirt on what’s going on between Clause and me. That makes two of us.

“I’m the one that’s asking the questions here.” She raises her chin.

“You’re a dork.”

“That may be true, but I’m a dork with a badge and a gun.” She reaches over to pat her gun and freezes. “Shit, I forgot it.” I snort a laugh. Her gun doesn’t even have real bullets in it. They only use the rubber kind to scare off bears.

“What time does Carol close?” Her hours have been a bit wacky, but she is knocked up. Tins should be over there grilling her on who the baby daddy is and not here asking me about my Clause. My Clause. It has a nice ring to it because I want to be his.

“Depends if she has appointments for alterations.” Tins lifts the lid on one of my pastry boxes, and I smack her hand. I filled up three boxes, and although it might be overkill, I wanted to bring a bit of everything to Clause.

“Those aren’t for you.”

Her mouth falls open in shock. “They’re for him, aren’t they? Just admit it!” She throws her hands up in the air. “You’re giving your treats away for free to him? Only I get free stuff around here.”

“Okay, I admit it.” She stares at me, but I stare right back. It’s not even about the blackmail thing anymore. At least to me, it isn’t. I never believed Clause when he said he’d tell everyone about my trip over to Westchester.

“Well…” She strums her fingers on the top of the box. “So you two are a thing.”

“I’m not sure what we are.”

“Well, you better not be friends, or he and I are going to have a problem. Not only is he taking free sweets, he's stealing my best friend.”

“I can assure you that he and I have done things you and I have not.” I can say that much.

“It better be sex stuff, cause if it’s skiing, we’re going to have problems.”

I snort a laugh. “I don’t ski,” I say, and she knows this.

“I’m just saying. I’ve been trying to get you to go for years, and if I find out the two of you are skiing together, I’ll throw him behind bars.”

“We don’t have a jail.” At one time we did, but it was from the thirties. I don’t think the lock works on it. Plus, Tinsel turned it into a room she filled with collectible nutcrackers. She had shelves put up for them and everything. I have no clue why she collects them, but I don’t know why she does a lot of things. She once made us drive three hours to pick one up. At least it’s not creepy dolls she’s into.

“We do too. Why do you think we got all those nutcrackers in there? Torture devices.” She gives me an evil grin that is more adorable than evil, but I’d never tell her that.

“Yeah, Jack is going to let you crack other men’s nuts?” He didn’t want her to see Clause without a shirt on. Her eyes widen, knowing I’m right. Hell, he might take away her nutcrackers if he heard about the ball-crunching plan.

“I’m only teasing. I’d never do that to my nutcrackers, but I have other things I can do.” She gets an evil smirk again. I’m sure she has a million crazy ideas forming in her head.

“Tins, I like him. Like, really like him.”

Her shoulders drop. “Why didn’t I notice this? I mean, I knew he was into you. I just didn’t know you were into him. You would never even make eye contact with him. That so not you. I mean, you talk to everyone. I…” She suddenly trails off, putting things together in her mind, and I know she’s pissed at herself. Tins might be a goofball, but she’s actually really good with knowing everyone in town. And I don’t mean by name. She truly knows them. “You’ve been crushing. Of course.” She face-palms herself.

“I’ve been infatuated,” I admit. There was something about Clause that always had my attention even if I wasn’t staring his way. I swear I could feel him enter my bakery without having to see him. I just felt him there. “Wait.” I pause as she follows me up the stairs to my place. “He stares at me?”