Page 19 of Her Holiday Heartthrobs

The amount of guilt there now though has me sitting upright. He avoids my gaze.

“You’re not over there wondering what it would be like.”

“None of us should be wondering?—”

“No.” The righteous indignation doesn’t work with the truth plain on his face. “You look like you’re in agony because you know just how good it is, and you’re drowning in guilt over it.”

He rubs his brows with a finger and thumb, and that confirms it for me.

“What the fuck, Henry? When?”

He tugs at his collar, loosening the tie and top button. Stalling. So not since she started working with us—for us. Oh, how easy it would be to step past more boundaries if I thought of her as something other than my employee.

Henry clears his throat and looks at his hands. “The night before she left for college.”

A gong goes off between my ears, and I can’t think for a minute.

“When she was eighteen?”

He winces and looks out at the dark streets as we whiz home.

Jealousy flares in my chest, even though it really shouldn’t. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Jaw clenching, he peers down again. “Because it was a mistake.”

Sure, I get that, but beyond the guilt, he doesn’t seem to believe it. There’s more he’s not telling me. Fine. I’ll wait until we’re home, and Eli can badger it out of him. I grow tired of interrogations too quickly.

Besides, I’m already fighting the same idea. Wanting her is a mistake. A giant mistake.

Right?

My guts and heart argue that it isn’t one. This feeling doesn’t come along often. Not for me. I don’t generally like people. At all. But the way Paige isn’t afraid to test me, push against my prickly exterior, she lures me in. I want to bait the hook.

Fists clenched in my lap, I squeeze them as we turn onto our property. Our driver, Liam, parks us in the garage, and I run my hands through my hair before getting out.

Henry follows, shaking Liam’s hand on his way to the interior door. I give him a nod and meet Henry in the back kitchen. Tossing my jacket on the island, I narrow my eyes at Eli eating out of what looks like my container.

The white tile glistens bright under the ambient lighting. Frosted blue glass accents break up the endless expanse of clean white lines.

Eli swallows a mouthful of what I suspect is my leftover Thai and points his fork at us. “You fuckers took Paige home without me.”

I roll my eyes. “You make it sound unseemly.”

He stares at me for a moment. “Because it was. I can see it on both of you. And I got shit for saying something about her legs.”

“She’s Patrick’s daughter.” Henry stands in the transition of the kitchen and sitting room, hands locked in his hair.

“And…” I prod. He can’t sound so high and mighty if he doesn’t tell Eli why he’s being such a hard ass about it.

Eli lifts a brow and takes another bite of my pad Thai. I rub my face again and pull up a new delivery order on my phone.

Henry sputters once, making Elihmmat him. “Paige and I…”

Eli straightens, finally serious. “When?”

“The night before she left for college,” I say for him. I can’t stand how he draws it out. “Barely eighteen.”

He points with his fork at Henry again. “That’s the reason she keeps glaring at you.”

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