He Froze Me Out, So I Married a Billionaire

It was Valentine's Day when my fiancé, Gavin Pierce, took me out to that survival course in the Catskills — him, me, and Riley Harper, the girl his family took in when she was fourteen, after her parents died.

I'd asked for a table at the Gramercy Tavern. He'd said he hated standing in line for a reservation, that he wanted to do something that actually got our blood moving.

So he booked the three of us into a couples' wilderness challenge — which should have told me something, right there, when the booking was for three.

The final round was a solo penalty draw. One of us would pull the short stick and spend ten minutes locked inside The Freezer.

Riley hooked her arm through Gavin's, half pouting, half flirting. "Gav, if I pull it, are you gonna come get me out?"

Gavin laughed. "Rules are rules, Ri."

She stuck her lip out in a sulk.

Beside her, I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding.

Then Riley drew the black stick, and her tears came instantly, like a faucet turning on.

Less than a second later, Gavin spoke.

"It's too dark in here. Drew the wrong one, didn't I?"

He slid the safe stick out of my hand and swapped it with hers — smooth enough that it took me a beat to understand what I'd just seen.

"You're up, Caro."

Riley's tears dried up on the spot.

Gavin turned and murmured close to my ear, "Come on. Riley has a thing about tight spaces. You're tough. Ten minutes. You'll be fine."

This wasn't the first time Gavin had dropped me the moment it counted.

I looked down at the cold already seeping through the soles of my boots, and the phone sealed in my waterproof pouch lit up.

It was the man my father had been quietly pushing on me for months.

[Valentine's Day, Miss Langley. Have you made up your mind?]

"Gavin, do you actually think this is fun?"

They raised the steel door of The Freezer.

I walked out soaked to the bone.

Gavin was at my side in two steps, pressing a thermos into my hands — he'd had it ready the whole time.

"Drink your hot toddy before you freeze solid. It was ten minutes, for God's sake. How are you this cold?"

I didn't open it. I couldn't — not with the naproxen I'd already taken, not with the way my hands had stopped cooperating.

But Gavin didn't remember the medication. He never did.

His voice carried the same old practiced concern. He was already peeling off his jacket, reaching to drape it over my shoulders.

I turned my head and dodged his hands.

"I asked you a question. Was swapping the sticks fun for you?"

Gavin's hands hung in the air.

His brows drew together, something uneasy flickering behind his eyes, gone again before I could name it.

"I told you. The guy running it made a mistake."

He shoved the jacket into my arms anyway and softened his tone.

"Don't make a scene. People are watching."

Riley stood a few feet behind him clutching a plush toy he'd won for her at the booth.

She peeked around him, voice very small: "Caro, please don't be mad at Gav. It's my fault. I was just so scared…"

"If you're really that upset, I'll — I'll apologize."

Her eyes welled up again, tears trembling on the edge and never quite falling.

Gavin moved in front of her without thinking about it.

"You know Riley has claustrophobia."

"You're strong. You handle yourself. What's ten minutes out of your night to cover for her?"

I looked at this man I'd spent five years with.

Last winter, we went skiing in Vermont.

A blizzard came in and the car died halfway up the mountain.

Gavin stripped off every warm thing he had and wrapped it around me.

His lips went blue. He still had his arms locked around me like a cage of bone and heat.

Caro can't take the cold. I'd freeze to death before I'd let her hurt.

Those were his exact words.

And tonight, over a party game, he'd put me in an icebox himself.

He remembered Riley's claustrophobia. He forgot that cold settles into my joints and locks them up — that there are winters I can't close my hands around a coffee cup.

Somewhere along the way, his heart had drifted so far from me I couldn't see the shore anymore.

When I said nothing, he sighed.

"Caroline, you're standing right here, aren't you?"

"Riley doesn't have anyone else. You're the one with a family to go home to."

"Fine, I handled it badly."

"But she was genuinely terrified. Do you really need to shove her in there yourself for it to be fair?"

"Gav, don't talk to Caro like that."

Riley tugged at his sleeve, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have played at all."

Gavin closed his hand over hers, thumb stroking her knuckles.

"It's not about you. She's blowing this out of proportion."

I watched their fingers laced together and felt the whole room tilt into something ridiculous.

I pulled my phone out of the pouch.

The message from Ryan Vanderbilt was still glowing on the screen.

[Valentine's Day, Miss Langley. Have you made up your mind?]

My fingers were ice. My hands did not shake.

[I'll take the deal. Let's meet tomorrow.]