Page 2 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)
“Nuh-uh.” He grinned at her, his eyes crinkling and his lips quirking.
He was so damned charming that even Winter felt an unwelcome pitch in her stomach, and she was practically immune to playboy charms. Then again, Eriksons’s brand of charisma had always had a little something extra.
Just ask the dozens of women he’d dated. “You’re coming with me.”
“Not happening.”
“That’s why I’m here. You owe it to your sister to be at her wedding and to let her enjoy her day without worrying about you, and I owe everything in my life to my brother, so if that’s what he wants, that’s what he’s getting.”
“I’m sorry about the wedding. Tell Holly I wish I could be there.”
“Tell her yourself.”
“I can’t.” If she talked to her sister, Holly would badger her until she broke. Holly would never accept Winter’s decision to remove herself from the family, and Winter needed them to let her go for their own safety.
Confusion flashed across his face. “Why are you doing this? I know you and your sisters are close, so I don’t understand why you would choose to hurt her.”
“Exactly. You don’t know anything about me or why I left.
I have my reasons.” Despite those reasons, his words tunneled beneath her skin with a sting.
She didn’t want to hurt her sister, and she was afraid Holly might never forgive her for missing her wedding, but she had to chance the consequences.
She couldn’t let anything happen to them, and if she went home where the Shadow Council could easily find her, something awful would happen. She’d seen it.
Erikson invaded her space, bringing with him the scent of something spicy and woodsy that was entirely him.
When the crew had wrapped up filming five months ago, Erikson had peeled out of her driveway without a backwards look and she hadn’t seen him since, but she still remembered this—how he smelled—from their brief encounters.
She remembered how it had felt to be the center of his attention.
Erikson smiled and disarmed and played with ease, but he had an unnerving intensity of focus when he wanted.
And right now, that focus was entirely on her.
Winter had been relieved to watch Erikson’s taillights disappear when the show was over, but she’d known she’d eventually run into him again because his brother was marrying her sister. It seemed her reprieve was finally over, and at the worst possible time.
She eyed the distance to the dock. About a hundred yards now.
Winter silently assessed the hard planes of Erikson’s face: the ungiving press of his mouth and the solid jaw that might as well be carved from stone.
She was fierce and she was fast, but Erikson was giant.
If she physically pitted herself against him, she wasn’t sure she’d win, and she needed to escape.
If this were summer, the docks would be crowded and she’d be able to slip away, but with the chilly advent of November, very few people were braving the nipping winds for a view of the ocean, especially not when the sky overhead was steely and low.
That didn’t leave her a lot of choices, but Winter was not going back with Erikson.
“You don’t understand,” she said urgently, the wind tearing the words from her lips and forcing him to lean closer. “There’s a reason I ran away. If you knew what it was, you wouldn’t be here.”
His eyes frosted. “Are you in danger?”
“I’m keeping everyone safe. That’s all I can tell you. You need to let me walk off this boat, Erikson.” She forced out the next word, even though it scraped like glass off her tongue. “ Please .”
His all-too discerning gaze swept her face. “Tell me what’s haunting you, Elf. Let me help.”
“There’s nothing you can do.”
“That’s not good enough for me, which means it sure as hell won’t be good enough for your sisters. Give me more, Winter.”
She sighed. These stubborn Grimm men never knew when to cut their losses.
She glanced at the dock again. Fifty yards.
“Do you know why I came here?” When he shook his head she said, “It’s because I love the ocean.
We used to visit when I was a kid, and I’d spend the whole day in the waves.
” That was a lie. Her deadbeat dad had never brought them to the beach.
Erikson smirked. “That sounds like you, choosing to fight the waves rather than lie in the sun.”
“Did you go to the beach as a kid?”
“I grew up in Massachusetts, so yeah, we used to visit. Connor and I would swim out to a little sand bar when the tide went out.”
Winter closed her eyes briefly, acting as if she were resignedly taking in her last few moments of coastal air, when really she was grateful to learn he could swim.
Her hand shot out, fisting in the front of his sweater, and she dragged him so close that she could see the flecks of gold in his blue irises.
Erikson allowed her to tug him near, his eyes widening with a little curiosity and a lot of suspicion.
“Erikson,” she said softly, “don’t come after me again.” She jerked him forward, just enough to pull him off balance for a moment, and with a sharp twist and a pop of her hip, she pushed him over the railing into the frigid water below.