Page 77 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

“Good thing,” Linc echoed flatly.

“Hey, you know what. I just remembered there’s a case of wine with the gifts out in the car. Let me grab a couple of bottles for this thing your having tonight.”

“No. We’re good—” Linc couldn’t finish the sentence before Paine was opening the front door and stepping outside.

Now that they were alone, Linc turned his attention to Eva.

“How did that all happen?” His heart was pounding and his voice sounded odd.

“Poppy called me in a panic. She was still at work when Paine called her from the side of the road. He broke down in her silly little Alfa Romeo,” Eva explained.

Linc was no pauper himself but he felt like one next to Paine. He just didn’t flaunt the Wilder family’s money by wearing fancy scarves and driving Italian sports cars and carrying around cases of no doubt pricey wine. At the moment, he kind of wished that he did.

“Did she know he was coming?” he asked.

If so, no one had told Linc. Nor had they informed him that Paine Van Clief, heir to the Van Clief hotel fortune, was such a flirt or that he had a thing for Eva.

“I think it was last minute. It’s okay. We have plenty of food.”

“Mm-hm,” he agreed, jaw clenched.

Food wasn’t the problem. Food, he’d share. What he wouldn’t share was Eva. But what he was worried about more was losing her completely.

“Hey.” Eva was suddenly very close… and smirking. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing.”

She narrowed one eye at him. “You have your gift done for tomorrow morning?”

“Yes.”

“Is the log all set for the fire, Mister Lumberjack?” she asked, running her fingers down the buttons of his flannel shirt.

“Yes.”

“Then everything is perfect.”

The door opened again. Paine stepped in and Eva took a step back, proving everything was far from perfect.

Linc had gone along with Eva’s desire to keep their relationship a secret before. Tonight, he’d never wanted to shout it from the rooftops more.

She was his, dammit. At least she had been for almost every night since that first time they fell into bed together. And he was getting pretty damn tired of no one knowing that. Especially one pretty boy rich guy from New York.

But as the celebration went on around him a bit later, no one else seemed to be worried about the predator in the room.

“Paine, is it true you brought real food with you from civilization back in New York?” Olivia, just happy to be out of the house for the first in weeks, beamed brighter than Darcy on Christmas morning as she sat in a chair by the fire.

“I did.” Paine nodded, casually holding a wine glass in one hand while he perched on the arm of the sofa near Eva’s elbow like he was in a damn commercial.

“He brought real pizza,” Poppy chimed in.

Eva audibly groaned and Linc frowned.

“We have pizza here,” Linc pointed out.

“Not New York pizza.” Eva shot him a glare before glancing up at Paine. “I haven’t had a decent slice of thin crust, grease-laden pizza in a year.”

“That’s not all I brought.” Paine smiled.

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