Sierra is awfully quiet. Even after Winter left the car as we dropped her off. No, especially after that. I'm not sure why though.

We arrive at home, and when she still doesn't talk, I'm certain that something bothers Sierra. I'm betting my money on it being because of Nico. If his name alone annoys me, it can't do any good for her.

As we don't speak for another thirty minutes, I decide to go and work out a little bit, give Sierra some space. But right when I'm about to leave the living room, Sierra seems to find her voice. "Do you know where the money you give to Winter goes?"

I shake my head. I always guessed makeup or nails, clothes, perhaps?

"She gives it to her boyfriend, Atlas." Sierra sighs deeply. "I think you may have to talk to her."

"Clearly." What the hell though? I know I barely do anything to earn my money these days, but there was a time I had to work my ass off to earn just a bit.

Sierra jumps off her seat, running over to me. "Look," she says and holds her hands out to me. "I spent some of your money and made sure it's expensive." Aw, man. I never thought these words could make my heart jump. "Do you like them?"

For the first time in my life, ever, I actually spend my time looking at someone's nails, giving it all of my consideration. "They're pretty." I takes her hands in mine, pulling her close so I kiss her lips, brushing my tongue against hers.

"Do you like cookies?"

No. "Depends."

"Christmas cookies?" Not sure if that's a question or a statement.

I don't. "They're okay."

Sierra lets out a deep breath. "Why don't you like them?"

"I said they're okay, didn't I?" When did I become readable? Sierra tilts her head to the side, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "I don't like sugary things." But I'm sure she knows that by now.

"But why not?"

Trauma. "Growing up poor, the cheap stuff is the most sugary and oily stuff. I mean, candy is expensive, but baking cookies or a simple cake isn't. So we would have so many baked cookies and cakes at home at all times, eventually you get sick of it."

"Is that why you only ever eat fruits, vegetables and greek yogurt?" she asks. I nod. "Don't you grow sick of that too?"

I shake my head. "Perhaps. But at least it's not sugary."

"You eat fruits. Some of them are sweet." Her hands find to her stomach, lying her hand flat to it. She does that whenever she feel the baby kick.

"Still better than eating 100% sugar." Though I would eat spoons full of pure sugar if Sierra asked me to. "Besides, you're the sweetest thing I've ever gotten to taste, therefore, I might like sweet things after all." Sierra laughs, then presses her lips back to mine as though it's the only thing she could have done right now. I don't mind, I'll kiss this woman until we die. Together. I accept nothing else. "You want to bake Christmas cookies, don't you?"

She nods slowly, hope shining in her eyes. "You have everything at home. Even decorations, like sprinkles and icing."

"I don't recall buying icing." I truly don't.

"No, but it's easily made. Just need some powdered sugar and a lemon." Great, even more sugar. "It doesn't matter anyway. Baking for just myself would be a total waste."

I'm not sure why, or how, but the disappointment that's visible on her face breaks my heart. It doesn't just break my heart, it shatters it. Into a million pieces. Worse than finding out your brother is a rapist.

"Sweetheart, I would eat a whole 20-pack of donuts if you asked me to. I'll survive a few Christmas cookies. Especially when you made them."

She smiles, but it's not a sweet smile. Not the kind of smile I was expecting. Sierra smiles mischievously. Like she is about to say something I most definitely won't like.

"We made."

"Pardon?"

"Christmas cookies we made. Together. Please?" Ah, c'mon. That's not fair. She can't just throw in a please and—

"Fine," I sigh and pull her towards the kitchen.

It takes Sierra approximately five minutes to gather all the ingredients one needs to make the cookie dough. Another five to throw them all together. I don't think I've ever seen someone be that enthusiastic about baking cookies, yet here we are.

"You have to knit it," she tells me. Of course I do. "I don't have enough strength in me."

I let out a deep breath, just accepting my fate at this point. If it weren't for my love for this woman, she'd be long gone; and she sure wouldn't be able to command me around the way she does—or at all, for that matter.

Sierra watches me with amusement; making sure to laugh every single time some of the flour decides to cling to my suit like its life depended on it.

When the dough is finally toughroughly mixed, and chilled—and I am wearing less expensive clothing—it's time to cut some out with cookie cutter I had no knowledge of owning. I bet she bought them, planning this whole fiasco here.

After the first batch is in the oven, Sierra suddenly gets all nervous. "Atlas, can I ask you something?"

"Anything." It's the truth. I'd probably admit to murder—only if I did—when Sierra asked me about it.

"What was your first thought that morning in Vancouver?" Nothing she wants to hear.

I look her dead in the eye, answering, "'Why the hell is Sierra banging on my door?'" Sierra's face falls, confirming that this wasn't what she was expecting.

"Huh?"

"Someone was banging on my door that morning. That someone turned out to be Athena, of course. Since you weren't next to me when I woke up, I thought it would be you. Maybe you forgot your phone or anything important," I tell her.

"Oh, right. We were all waiting for you, and you simply didn't show up. They were all betting on you still being asleep thanks to having had a pleasurable night." She cuts out another cookie, groaning as the head of the snowman rips off.

"How would they know?"

Sierra shrugs. "Assumptions." She chuckles awkwardly. "Well, and they weren't too far off. You did have a...night." Her eyes meet mine as she looks at me through her lashes. "You're not all that bad-looking, you know. If you tried to, you could have a different woman in your bed every single night."

"Nah, I'm good with keeping my wife there, only my wife." A blush creeps up on her face a short moment after these words leave me.

"What did Athena say? When you, I assume, opened the door?"

"What the fuck, Atlas!" I chuckle, covering it up with a clearing of my throat. "She looked a bit like she caught me having sex. A bit shocked but with her usual nasty grin, you know?" Sierra nods. "Then she said 'Cody is going to kill you.' Not a clue why he would by then, but I found out a few weeks later." A beat passes. "She knew I was with you that night."

"Oh God." Sierra slaps her hands to her face, hiding. "And this woman acted all surprised when I told her about it. She dug for dirty information, which I couldn't provide because...well, I don't remember anything."

"I doubt you want to."

Now, she drops her forehead onto the island top, groaning. "Was it that bad?"

I go to lift her face out of the mountain of flour, wiping some of it off. "Sweetheart, it wasn't bad at all. Just nothing like you probably think it went down."

"Don't try to make me feel better about this. Let's blame it all on never having had sex before. Except—nope, I am not going down that road again." Thank God. I do not need a reminder of that asshole. "Were you surprised I was gone?"

I sigh. "No. I wasn't upset either. I was a bit irritated, but I could understand why you rushed out the second you woke up." Must have been pretty confusion waking up in her boss's bed with no knowledge of what happened.

Just when I think she's done with her questionnaire, Sierra continues. "Did you ever wonder what I thought when I woke up?"

This time, I can't help my chuckle from slipping out. "Most definitely that I am going to fire you."

Sierra pales, then blinks a couple of times before she breaks out in laughter. "That is pretty accurate, you know. Along with a bunch 'how the fuck did this happen?' and 'Nope, this is a real bad dream'. I also thought you'd want to get rid of me when you offered me that job in publishing."

I did. I needed her gone because I knew I'd not be able to stay away from her. But I certainly can't tell her that, so instead, I just shake my head.

Guilt grips me by the hem of my shirt, sending a cold breeze down my spine. "Sierra, you didn't trip." Guess the truth has to come out eventually. "When you were dancing and I caught you as you fell, you didn't trip. I bumped into you on purpose so I had a reason to look at you."

Her eyes widen, surprise and a bit of shock shining in them. At least she doesn't look horrified.

"The 'Oh, my God" Athena mouthed...it wasn't meant for you, but for me. She knew I did that on purpose. I just bet a second after that she ran off to find Cody and tell him all about it."

"Cody?" she questions, her eyebrows finding together in confusion. "It was a colleague-bonding-weekend—sounding more sexual than it truly was—Cody doesn't work for you, does he?"

"More or less," I answer. "But he wasn't supposed to be there. He followed Athena cause he wasn't letting her drive all the way to Canada on her own. You looked straight at him before you said something to Athena and left the room."

"God, of course," Sierra mutters. "I vaguely remember Athena kissing someone as I told her I'd leave. I didn't freak out on her though, which I would have done if she was kissing anyone but my brother." Guess that makes sense. "Atlas, I really don't remember most of it. All I really remember after that 'fall' is a short moment from the hallway, when you wrapped your arms around me and begged me for sex in that hallway."

Now it's my turn to look confused. "That never exactly happened."

"It did. I left the huge ball room and you were all like 'help me get you out of my system.'"

"The only time I said the word 'system' that night was in my hotel room. And that was more of a 'finally, I can get you out of my system." Though, to be fair, I still kinda begged." I tell her. "In the hallway, I repetitively asked you where your room was. Athena figured you'd be a bit too drunk to find it, so she made me walk you there. You know, to make sure you wouldn't get lost and sleep on some chaise in the lobby. Which is also how knew you were the reason for me being late, not anyone else. Anyway, you said you had no idea where it was, so I took you to my room. I admit, I did think about fucking you for a whole three months before Vancouver, but I wasn't out for it that night, only after you made me really fucking horny with those sex-eyes and whimpers."

Sierra shakes her head, being in utter disbelief. "Atlas, I know you said you weren't going to walk me through that night. But I am demanding a rundown of everything that went down."

"I said I wasn't going to give you a porn description," I correct.

"You may leave that out then. I doubt I want to 'remember' that part."

I laugh, partially because I truly just meant the porn part of it. "You mean the part where you put on porn on your phone and told me to make you come more often than the woman came in the video?"

"You're lying!" she accuses, pressing the piece of dough in her hand together. I shake my head. "I'm sorry, we might need a divorce because I can no longer look at you without feeling embarrassed."

"It was hot," I tell her, taking her hands in mine as I remove the few bits of dough that cling to them. "Anyway, that night, I just took you to my hotel room, only so you would have a place to stay. You continuously mentioned how I'll fire you, no matter how often I told you that I wouldn't. But then you also talked a lot about being horny and that it's a pretty new feeling to you."

"I didn't question that, didn't really dare to. And I was a bit preoccupied dealing with my erection than asking what you meant. I didn't want to make a move on you, but then you just stripped off your clothes and laid your hands on me. I could only be so strong, so I caved in. I warned you that if you didn't put your clothes back on and left my room, I'd end up inside of you. The entire time before I even got to touch you, you were all like 'this is so inappropriate', but when I asked if you want to put your clothes back on and leave, you kept saying no and only jumped me more and more." I suppose it sounds worse than it truly was. It was consensual on both sides, despite both of us being pretty drunk.

Sierra jumps off the barstool, ready to run for an exit. Before she gets to leave, I grab her wrist and pull her close to me. Her back is pressing flush against my front as I wrap my arms around her body, my hands instantly finding the bump.

"Don't be embarrassed, Sierra. There's not one reason you'd have to be," I almost whisper, planting a kiss behind her ear.

"I do have to be," she cries, little sobs breaking out of her. "You're stuck with me because I am simply stupid."

"You're not stupid." She better forget the existence of this word altogether. "And I'm not stuck with you because you're pregnant, Sierra. I also could have chosen to just pay you more so you wouldn't have any problems caring for our child, but I wanted you here."

"Right. That's why you married me, totally not because Cody made you."

That screams my sister's name. I doubt Cody would have told Sierra. Turning Sierra in my arms, I make her face me. "Sweetheart, I didn't marry you because your brother said so. I couldn't care less about what he wants. I married you because that was the only way I knew how to make you stay with me."

"Why?" I wipe a few tears away from her face. "There would have been other ways. Like..." She can't think of any. "It doesn't even matter. You're legally bound to me and we have no reason to be married. All there is is a baby, that we could have raised without being married. God, I could have lived with her having your last name and not mine, even if I wanted to have the same one as my child. That wasn't a reason to get married."

Alright, fuck it. "Sierra, I've been pinning after you since I was fourteen. And Cody had no idea, he still doesn't, I hope. You were stuck in my head. There was not a single day I didn't think about the little girl I've seen playing on the kitchen floor." Her eyes widen drastically, like she knows exactly what I'm talking about. "You were crying, but you still looked so peaceful playing with your Barbies. I might have watched you for a while before you looked up and your eyes met mine. You smiled at me, it was a soft smile but genuine. I wanted to talk to you, but before I got the chance to do so...you were gone. I never saw you again."

"The day my mother died?" Sierra questions, letting her hands rest on my arms. "That was you?"

I'm not sure how she knows the exact that, but I won't question it either. She remembers it. "Yeah, that was me. And you threw me off completely. I wasn't the ignorant asshole then; I wanted to know you, wanted to find out why Cody said you were strange and isolated yourself. I wanted to know why you would shy away from people and yet you smiled at me like you were...I don't know, glad to see me?"

"I was surprised," she tells me, speaking in a soft tone. "No one's ever looked at me the way you did. To be fair, I also never really allowed anyone to look at me. But you just stood there and looked down at me with a spark in your eyes that told me you weren't as scary as my conscious wanted me to believe."

"I had no idea who you were. As far as I was concerned, Cody was an only child. I knew of a cousin, so I just figured that was you. When you started to work for me, I had no clue we've met before, Sierra," I let her know, in hopes it somewhat eases her anxiety of only getting her job because I wanted to trick her into this. "I admit, something about you seemed familiar and I was clearly intrigued. The decision to employ you wasn't because of it. The decision to sleep with you wasn't made because I knew you were a relative of Cody's, if anything, that probably would have stopped it from happening. And when I made the decision to marry you, I merely let my feelings decide, not anyone else."