Page 130 of In Spades

Kristin smiled against my lips and wrapped her arms around my neck. Her fingers teased the short hairs at the back of my collar. “I love you too.”

I unfolded the sofa bed while Kristin brushed her teeth. I was wholly unprepared for a sleepover, so I was thankful when she walked into the living room with a pair of gym shorts. “These are Logan’s. I know you’re taller, but they’re clean and I figured it’d be better than sleeping in jeans.”

“You’re awesome,” I said, snagging the shorts from her hand.

She tossed pillows on the bed, and I shuffled off to brush my teeth.

Everything felt so natural with her. The way we moved together, dancing around the small house, getting the kids situated for the night, and making sure everything was locked up. It was like it was meant to be.

It was healing a part of me I didn’t even realize was broken—a part of me I thought was content being alone. I couldn’t change what happened to me in the past, but I could make sure I did better than what was done to me.

I crawled into bed and stretched out my arms. “C’mere.”

“Just a second,” she said as she plugged her phone into the charger.

“There’s an email from work, and I?—”

I reached over and plucked the phone out of her hands. “Your time outside of work is yours and yours alone. If you’re not on the clock, they don’t deserve your attention.”

She stared at me, blinking and dumbfounded.

“Get in the bed, sweetheart,” I demanded in a low rasp.

Kristin turned off the table lamp and slipped under the covers, curling into my side. We fit together like two long-lost puzzle pieces.

“I missed this,” I said, yawning.

She snuggled up and rested her head on my chest, her light breaths tickling the hair on my chest.

I wrapped my arms around her and traced idle circles on her shoulder. The little tank top and shorts she put on instead of pajamas made my dick hard.

“Now,” I said, planting a kiss on top of her head, “tell me why you were in such a good mood ten minutes ago, and why you got pissed the second you looked at your phone.”

“I’m not pissed,” she said, peppering my chest with kisses.

“Talk to me, Kris.” I wouldn’t let her flirt her way out of this conversation, even if I wanted her to keep her lips on my skin. Was this about the email, or did she overhear my conversation with Logan?

Kristin huffed, realizing I wasn’t going to back down. “It’s nothing. Just some work drama.”

She threaded her fingers through my chest hair, letting her nails graze up and down from my sternum to the waistband of my shorts. Over and over again.

It nearly lulled me into a trance, but I summoned enough willpower to stay lucid. “What kind of work drama?” I prodded.

Kristin sighed. “That woman—Elena—from the company that bought the inn. She’s annoying as hell and Rich is kissing her ass. I swear he has it out for me and is trashing me to her. The only silver lining is that she’s supposed to be gone before the staff Christmas party. Lord knows I’d probably lose my shit on her if they gave me free alcohol within spitting distance of her.”

My blood ran cold. The handful of interactions I’d had with Rich told me he was a rubber gun with no real authority. No one on staff had any respect for him. Sure, he could terminate employees, but he avoided it because he knew the rest of them would walk out on him.

But Elena had power.

I gave it to her.

Not directly, of course, but still. I should have made some calls to pull her off the acquisition the minute I started seeing Kristin. Maybe this was the universe’s way of forcing me to come clean. How mad could she really be?

I was probably just making it a bigger deal than it was, I told myself. I had perfectly good reasons to be tightlipped in the beginning, and things just got away from me.

Kristin would laugh about it when she realized how romantic our meet-cute really was. It was kismet. destiny. Kissing in the rain.

Our love story was made for Hollywood. It would be the tale we tell at holidays; how we met and fell madly in love. A bumbling billionaire gets scared shitless when the maid pops in to clean his hotel room.

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