Page 39 of Another Christmas from Hell

Smiling, Sean pushed away from the wall as he said, “Yes, you do.”

“I’m not in love with her,” Bryce said, shaking his head because, at the moment, he had no fucking clue what he was. “Just drop it.”

“I could do that,” Sean said, sounding thoughtful as he made his way to the kitchen and helped himself to a Coke out of the fridge, “or I could help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” Bryce said because the last fucking thing that he needed right now was Sean’s help.

Nodding as though he hadn’t spoken, Sean said, “We’re going to need a plan of attack.”

“No, we don’t,” Bryce said firmly.

“We really will,” Sean mumbled to himself, looking thoughtful before he glanced at Bryce and said, “It wouldn’t kill you to start prettying yourself up to make this easier.”

Rubbing his hands roughly down his face, Bryce said, “I really fucking hate you right now.”

“Shhhh, not while I’m planning,” Sean whispered as Bryce dropped his hands away, only to sigh when he found his brother sitting on his kitchen island, looking lost in thought as he devoured the ice cream he bought earlier.

Bryce opened his mouth to tell his brother that he didn’t need his help, only to close it, knowing that it was pointless at this point. “I’m going back to bed,” Bryce said, heading back to Cayley’s apartment.

“You do that, pookie,” Sean murmured absently.

“Don’t call me pookie, asshole,” Bryce said as he headed across the hallway to let himself back in Cayley’s apartment, only to find her standing there, glaring up at him accusingly.

Worried that she’d heard the asshole, Bryce opened his mouth only to bite back a smile when Cayley grabbed hold of his hand and turned around, making her way back to her bedroom as she dragged him behind her, grumbling every fucking inch of the way.

God, she was fucking adorable.

* * *

You were warned.

Swallowing hard, Cayley looked from the text message that she’d received ten minutes ago when she pulled into Rerum Highland Construction’s parking lot to the building in question and found herself swallowing hard when she spotted Sean standing in the second-floor window watching her. Even from here, she could see the predatory gleam in his eye, the same one that he’d been wearing for the past week and the one that left her on edge and-

She couldn’t take this anymore.

She just couldn’t.

For the past week, she’d been looking over her shoulder, jumping at every sound, and living in fear of when the jerk that had been making her life a living hell would finally strike. But so far, nothing. Not one word or even a text until this morning.

For the past week, he’d been ignoring her and Cayley would have said that he’d also been avoiding her, but she couldn’t say that, not when he kept showing up first thing in the morning to devour everything in her kitchen and randomly showing up at night. He just stared at her, which was creepy enough, but sometimes she would get up in the morning to find him already sitting at her table, waiting for her so that he could screw with her head first thing in the morning. Before she had a chance to ask him what he was doing, Sean would head for the door, only pausing long enough to shoot her a wink.

It was deeply disturbing.

But it made it easier to accept the fact that she’d been banned from coming to work for the past week. They’d needed her out of the way so that they could gut the foyer, which meant that she’d been stuck working from home longer than she’d planned. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if Bryce had been able to join her, but he’d been forced to get up earlier than usual and stay later over the past week, trying to get the building ready for inspection and…she’d missed him.

Every morning she found herself reaching for him before she opened her eyes, only to bite back a disappointed sigh and resign herself to the long, lonely day ahead as she did her best to stop staring at the clock, counting down the minutes until he came home. Cayley never thought that she could miss someone so much, but when Bryce wasn’t around, she felt like part of her was missing.

There was really no other way to describe it. When he was with her, Cayley felt like she was exactly where she needed to be and she didn’t know why. Several times over the past week, she’d found herself wondering why he made her feel this way, why she couldn’t stop thinking about him, and why the thought of sleeping anywhere but in his arms felt wrong. It just didn’t make sense. Then again, none of this made sense but that didn’t stop her from shoving everything off her lap and racing for the door when she heard him coming home at night.

The only thing that stopped her from throwing the door open and jumping in his arms was the fact that it would probably reinforce his earlier assumption that she was in love with him, which she wasn’t. Not at all. No, the reason why she waited by her door and counted to a hundred before racing across the hallway and let herself into his apartment so that she could start making dinner while he was in the shower was because she was a dedicated employee.

It really was that simple.

Every night, she would get out all the ingredients for whatever yummy-sounding recipe she found that day while she’d been bored out of her mind and get everything ready while Bryce finished his shower. When he was done, he’d join her in a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips and take over, putting her on stirring duty while she did her best not to stare at him. While they made dinner, she filled him in on her progress with the Dawson Project, which admittedly wasn’t very much since Mr. MacGregor was still refusing to sell.

They’d be able to pull the project off without him, but it would cause a bit of a problem with the rest of the houses on the street restored to their original state, only to have the oldest and largest house on the street looking like it was on the verge of being condemned by the city, which in all honestly, it probably should be. But that was a problem for another day. Right now, Rerum Highland Construction owned ninety percent of the houses on the street, with four more houses under contract since Monday.

The neighborhood had once been the home of the town’s most affluent families. They’d all built huge, lavish houses with the latest amenities, beautiful gardens, and meticulous lawns while each family did their best to outshine the others. For over a hundred years, Dawson Road was the most sought-after address in town until the Great Depression hit, and one by one, they’d been forced to sell their homes for a fraction of the price or abandon them and flee the town for the city with the hopes of starting over.

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