Free One Perfect Christmas (Short Story) by Stefanie Sloane

growing sense of unease that crept up his spine now.
    “And my brother?” he asked bitterly, desperate to maintain some sense of dignity though
     he knew it to bea pointless struggle. “I would venture to guess Langdon would be more suitable. Or
     sober, at the very least.”
    “I do not need Langdon. I need you.”

    Sophia folded her hands in her lap and stared at Nicholas. When she’d thrown back
     the curtains earlier and turned to look at him, she’d been stunned, frozen into stillness
     and too distracted to move or speak. The sunlight had arrowed through the window behind
     her and directly onto the bed. In that brief moment before Nicholas recognized her,
     she’d been shocked at the powerful, dangerous man sprawled on the rumpled bed.
    The blankets were pushed to his waist, his upper torso bare. Though she’d known him
     since they were children, he was suddenly unrecognizable. She’d been unable to look
     away from the flex and smooth ripple of well-defined muscles in his chest and arms
     as he pushed himself upright. It was only the sound of his sleep-roughened, deep voice
     as he spoke her name that convinced her she’d not wandered into the wrong room by
     mistake.
    Now that she was nearer, she could see deep crease marks from the crude inn bedding
     that ran the length of the left side of his face. He’d clearly been abed for some
     time and yet the dark crescents beneath his eyes intimated exhaustion.
    An air of dissipation and soul-deep weariness shrouded his handsome countenance. She
     wanted badly to know why he felt driven to drink when it only led to this—a dank room
     in an unremarkable inn, surrounded by nothing that could hope to bring him any peace.
     Despite their shared history, she felt a reluctance to question him. He’d always held
     some part of himself back, denying Sophia access for his own personal reasons.And it appeared his years in India had only increased the territory she was not allowed
     to traverse.
    He rubbed his knuckles over his jaw for the second time in as many minutes, the muscles
     beneath the unshaven skin rigid. “I find such a notion impossible to believe.”
    He was clearly exhausted. Still, there was more. There always was with Nicholas. Her
     presence at the Primrose wasn’t merely an irritation to the man; was he angry? Or
     perhaps embarrassed?
    Sophia felt her nerves tighten with the queer tension that always accompanied their
     interactions. She was never quite sure how he would respond to her. He was a wild
     animal and she the hapless human who’d had the nerve to disturb him. It could not
     be said that Sophia ever felt fearful in Nicholas’s presence, though at the moment
     the sudden quickening of her pulse gave her reason to pause.
    Theirs had never been an easy friendship. Her unqualified need to be near him matched
     in intensity only by his impatience for her very existence. Sophia had come to believe
     that he truly disliked her, although she’d never been able to discover what she’d
     done to earn his ire.
    Despite the distance he kept between them, she found herself unable to ignore the
     inexplicable pull his presence always exerted on her. “Langdon would refuse me. And
     as much as I chafe at the very idea, I cannot do this alone,” Sophia replied honestly,
     willing her heartbeat to slow.
    Nicholas captured her with a look of shock. “I’m sorry, Sophia. I don’t believe that
     I heard you correctly. Did you just say that you could not accomplish something on
     your own?”
    His eyes glinted with sudden amusement. There he was, the Nicholas she liked best.
     Capricious. Irreverent. Clever. He was the only man who could always makeher laugh, no matter the circumstances. “I missed you terribly while you were away
     in India. Do you know, I believe I didn’t laugh once while you were gone,” Sophia
     countered, relief and an affectionate smile curving her mouth. “But I will not relent,
     Nicholas.”
    He crossed his arms over