Page 79 of Another Christmas from Hell

“Well,” Sean began as he reached over and snatched the pillow out from beneath Connor’s head so that he could shove it behind him, “you could start by telling me what you’re up to.”

“What makes you think that I’m up to something?” Rory managed to ask with a straight face as her husband was forced to pull her closer so that he could hide that evil smile that still managed to bring her to her knees.

Blinking, Sean countered with, “What makes you think that I won’t tell your children all of the seriously fucked up things that you did to each other growing up?”

“You could do that,” Rory murmured as she took her time finishing off her sandwich before she added, “but, then again, I could tell Cayley why her cousin really hates you.”

Rory watched as her brother’s eyes narrowed on her as he debated his next move until finally, Sean said, “You’re bluffing.”

“You won’t really know that until you do something to piss me off, now, will you?” Rory said as Sean sat there, considering her as he tried to figure out his next move.

“Fair enough,” Sean said, nodding slowly.

“Then, we’re done here?” Rory asked, eager to get back to sleep so that she could get a few more hours of sleep before she had to get up with the kids.

“Not even close,” Sean said, folding his arms over his chest as he leveled a glare on her. “Start talking.”

Blinking, Rory asked, “Didn’t we just establish that I had the upper hand?”

Sending her a pitying look, Sean asked, “Did we, though?”

“We really did.”

“Then, I guess I’m left with no choice but to tell our brothers about the plans that you have for them,” Sean said with a sad shake of his head as he moved to climb off the bed.

She should let him go. She really should, but…

“What do you want to know?”

CHAPTER44

Christmas Eve

“You still haven’t thanked me yet,” the bastard that barged into the room a few minutes ago said with a satisfied sigh as he shifted to get more comfortable on Cayley’s bed.

“I also haven’t stuffed your body in a crawlspace and left you there to rot,” Bryce pointed out, running his fingertips over the small box, needing the comforting touch that had been helping him get through the past week. As he paced her bedroom, he wondered if he’d ever been this nervous before.

“True,” Sean murmured as he reached over and plucked the stuffed snowman that Bryce won for Cayley at the Christmas fair that she’d dragged him to the other night off the nightstand.

“Why are you here?” Cayley asked from the bathroom, drawing Bryce’s attention to the closed bathroom door where the small woman that he was hoping to spend the rest of his life with was getting dressed for a party that he really didn’t want to fucking go to.

He’d never thought this day would come and now that it had…

He was terrified that he was going to fuck this up.

“Because you need me,” Sean said, tossing the snowman on the bed with a bored sigh.

“I really don’t, though,” Cayley assured him, making Bryce chuckle even though he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t tempted, really fucking tempted, to stay home tonight but that wasn’t an option. Not tonight. Tonight, he was going to tell Cayley that he was in love with her.

Over the past week, he’d been tempted to tell her that he loved her, but he wanted to do this right. So, instead, he’d made plans to make this night absolutely perfect and, in the meantime, he’d showed her how he felt about her. He’d held her, kissed her, made love to her every chance that he got, went sledding with her, made Christmas cookies so that she could go nuts decorating them with frosting, sugar, and a shitload of sprinkles, watched shitty Christmas movies, and let her drag him to every fucking item on her list just so that he could see her smile.

God, she was fucking everything to him, and tonight, Bryce was going to make sure that she knew that. He was going to take her to this party, make sure that she had a wonderful time, and then he was going to bring her home, make love to her and tell her that he was in love with her, and then Bryce was going to-

“What do you think?”

-forget how to breathe, Bryce thought as he took in the incredibly beautiful woman standing in front of him.

She was…breathtaking.

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