Page 45 of Christmas with Her Millionaire Boss

Hope.

That was why James authorized the window displays every year, and why he kept the Boston store unchanged despite his insistence they focus on the future. The Boston store wasn’t selling a greeting card fantasy to tourists. It represented his Christmas fantasy.

How on earth had she missed it? If anyone knew what it was like to hope on Christmas... She’d bet he didn’t even realize what he was doing.

“You’re staring,” James said.

“Am I?” Lost in thought, she hadn’t realized. “I didn’t mean to stare. I was thinking how stubborn you are.”

“Me, stubborn? Says the woman who refused to move a moose?”

“Elk, and that’s different. Fryer is part of our great tradition. And at least I fought to protect something the town has had for years. You’re going out of your way to avoid looking sensitive.”

As expected, he rolled his eyes again. At least, there was a blush accompanying it this time. She was making progress. “You know,” she said, sitting back in her chair. “There’s nothing wrong in admitting a vulnerable side. Some people might even be impressed.”

He laughed. “Some people being you.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged. Truthfully, she was already impressed. Probably too impressed, if she stopped to think about it.

She waited while he studied their hands, a smile playing on his lips. “I never should have told you I enjoy it when you challenge me,” he said.

“Yeah, well, hindsight is always twenty-twenty,” she teased before sobering. “What I’m trying to say—very badly, apparently—is that it’s okay for you to let your guard down around me. That is, you don’t have to feel awkward about showing...”

Thinking of all the ways he’d already opened up, she realized how foolish she sounded. Psychoanalyzing and advising him on his feelings. “Never mind. You don’t need my encouragement.”

Slipping her hand from his, she pushed her chair away from the table and started folding her napkin. “I wonder what time it is? We probably won’t get back to Fryberg until after midnight.”

“Once,” James said.

“Once what?” She set her napkin on the table and waited. James hadn’t moved. His eyes remained on the spot where their hands had been.

“You wanted to know how often I bought out restaurants to impress women. The answer is once.” He lifted his eyes. “Tonight.”

Holy cow.

His answer rolling around her brain, Noelle stood up and walked to the window where, a few blocks away, the lights of Rockefeller Center created a glowing white canyon amid the buildings. “I was pretty sure you were joking about the whole rich-and-trying-to-seduce-you thing, but at the same time, I thought for sure you’d done stuff like this before.”

She heard his chair scraping against the wood floor. A moment later, her back warmed with his presence. “Stuff?”

“You know... Sweeping a girl off her feet. Making her feel like Cinderella at the ball.”

“Nope,” he replied, mimicking the way she’d said the word earlier. “Only you.”

She pressed a hand to her stomach to keep the quivers from spreading. “What makes me so special? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Silence greeted her question. The warmth disappeared from behind her, and then James was by her side, leaning against the chair rail. “I’ve been trying to answer that same question for two days,” he said, “and damned if I know. All I know is you’ve had me acting out of character since Thanksgiving.

“Damn disconcerting too,” he added under his breath.

“Most men would have answered a little more romantically,” she said.

“I thought you knew by now that I’m not most men. Besides, you wanted me to drop my guard and be honest.”

“Yes, I did,” she replied, and James did not disappoint. What she hadn’t expected was how enticing his honesty would be. Romantic words could be laughed off or discounted, but truth? Truth went right to your heart. Noelle liked that he didn’t know why. Liked that his behavior frustrated him. That made her feel more special than any word ever could.

Suddenly, James wasn’t close enough.

She moved left until they stood face-to-face, hip to hip. “I can’t explain why you get to me either.”

There was heat in his eyes as he wrapped her in his arms. “Then we’ll just have to be confused together.”

CHAPTER TEN

“I KNOW WHAT’S topping my Christmas list this year.”

Beneath Noelle’s cheek, James’s chest rumbled with his husky voice. She tucked herself tighter against his rib cage and let her fingertips ghost across his bare chest. “What’s that?” she asked.

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