Page 50 of Christmas Kisses

The lack of Christmas decorations in her apartment already announces that she hates my tie, but she makes sure I can’t be mistaken by baring her teeth while glaring at the upside-down Santas dotted throughout the green design. I thought she’d think my tie is cute. It seems to have had the opposite effect.

“If you so much as whistle a Christmas tune, I will teach you that the Nutcracker has nothing to do with ballet and the land of sweets, and everything to do with family jewels.”

Fuck me sideways.

She just got ten times sexier.

“Have I made myself clear, Christian?”

I swallow again. My throat isn’t dry. I simply need to shift her focus higher before she learns how hard her taunt has made me.I love a woman with enough gall to go against a stranger as much as I love the good bones of her apartment.

When I reach Angel’s eyes, which are a fascinating shade of green, I wave the white flag I’m sure will be used at least a dozen times before midnight.

“Good.” After a final stare in Mrs. Richler’s direction, Angel mumbles something about needing a shower before heading toward the sole bathroom.

Mrs. Richler waits for the faucet to be turned on before she angles her head and arches a brow. She has the school principal’s scold down pat, and her scowl takes care of my hard-on.

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I murmur, bowing out of a fight unworthy of my time with a clipped tone.

“By the skin of your teeth.”

Huffing, I sling off my jacket and return it to the chair under the kitchen island. “Your exchange exposed that she has a soft spot for people down on their luck, so I utilized it. I had no intention of leaving.”

I feel shit about how I used Angel’s inability not to help against her, but I keep that to myself. I’ll let Mrs. Richler know what I want her to know. Nothing more.

“It is all part of the plan.” When she remains quiet, I work my scruff-covered jaw from side to side. “If you want her removed from your building, you need to trust me.”

She takes her time replying, which agitates me more than her unease about my plan. “I still don’t understand how any of this works. How will falling in love with you force her to vacate the premises?”

“It isn’t about how deeply she falls.” A trickle of doubt creeps through my veins when I sound devastated instead of scheming while quoting my brother. “It is how badly I break her heart aftershe’s fallen that will see her accepting her family’s invitation to move abroad.”

“Ifshe falls in love with you.”

I shift on my feet to face the bathroom before a smile tilts one side of my mouth. I started my ruse in a towel for a reason. I wanted to gauge Angel’s interest.

She’s invested in what I’m selling. The only difference this time around is that it is the first time in years I can admit the same.

4

ANGEL

My face burns with anger when Christian’s deep accented voice trickles through the vents in the bathroom floor. “She will fall in love with me. I’ll make sure of it.”

I inch away from the heat outlet to ensure my voice doesn’t project through it like Mrs. Richler’s and Christian’s before whispering in a low tone, “You dirty rotten scoundrel!”

It takes everything I have not to storm out of the bathroom to give Christian a piece of my mind. The only reason I don’t is this is the proof I’ve been seeking to prove to my lawyer that Mrs. Richler’s tactics to remove the scarce number of tenants left in our building are undermining and scheming.

Until now, I only had theories.

Now I have watertight evidence.

Well, I will once I activate the spyware I tried to put in the lobby last month when Mrs. Richler was out sick with the flu.

I knew there was more to Christian’s sudden arrival than he had made out. My spidey-senses were tingling all over the place, so I devised a plan before pretending I desperately needed a shower so it could be hatched in privacy.

Yeah, right.If you believe that, you probably still think Santa is real.

I’m not solely maintaining my cool for proof that Mrs. Richler is evil, nor to authenticate the size of the package beneath Christian’s towel. I merely have nothing better to do with my time, so why not dwindle the hours I dread more than my orphan status by teaching a man that not all women trip over their feet for the first sexy face they see?

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