Page 70 of Another Christmas from Hell

Clearing his throat, Sean did his best to bite back that smile that had her debating giving her cousin a warning, but this felt like one of those situations where she should probably keep her mouth shut and see how it played out, mostly because it would entertain her. That, and she knew that if she warned Jess that the man currently watching her every move would make her life a living hell.

“You were telling me about what’s going on between you and my brother,” Sean drawled as he leaned back against the wall, appearing bored in a move that she was painfully familiar with.

Trying not to panic, Cayley licked her lips nervously as she struggled against the urge to glance at her office door. “Was I?” she asked, matching his tone as she focused her attention back on her computer, willing her trembling hands to behave as she quickly finished what she was working on.

“You were,” Sean murmured, and she didn’t need to look back to know that he was still watching her.

“There’s really not that much to tell,” Cayley said, shrugging it off as she quickly read through the email that Connor sent her earlier and wrote up a quick reply, and since she had a pretty good idea what was about to happen, she moved to add a plea for help only to watch as a painfully familiar large tan hand reached past her and clickedSend.

“Oh, but I think there is,” Sean said, grabbing hold of her chair and slowly turned it around so that she was facing her best friend.

“I-”

“Why don’t we start with why you thought that my brother was treating you like a fuck buddy,” Sean said, placing his hands on the armrests, effectively trapping her.

“Umm, I didn’t actually use those words,” Cayley pointed out.

“No, you didn’t, did you?” Sean murmured, looking thoughtful as she started to move her hand to grab her cellphone off her desk, only to go still when Sean followed the move. “Does this have anything to do with Kevin?”

“Why would this have anything to do with Kevin?” Cayley asked, unable to help but frown as Sean looked back up and met her gaze.

“From what I’ve seen, he doesn’t look happy about Bryce suddenly being in the picture,” Sean said, watching her closely.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Cayley asked, wondering why he thought that she cared after Kevin made sure that she knew exactly how he felt about her, but even if he hadn’t…

It didn’t change anything.

She didn’t want Kevin and as much as she hated to admit this, she didn’t think that she ever really did. He was just…

Safe.

There was no other way to put it. She’d never worried if he’d break her heart, never found herself worried that she’d lose him one day and that should have clued her into the fact that she’d made a mistake. He’d never scared her the way that Bryce did.

“Seeing you with someone else, especially Bryce, is going to make him panic, Cayley. It’s only a matter of time before he tries to win you back,” Sean said with a heavy sigh as he pulled her chair away from her desk.

“I’m not interested in getting back together with Kevin,” Cayley murmured absently as she thought about what he just said. “What did you mean by ‘especially Bryce’?”

“He knew,” Sean said, shrugging it off as he released her chair and stood up, gesturing for her to do the same.

“Knew what?” Cayley asked, only to roll her eyes with a heavy sigh as she stood up, knowing that he wouldn’t say another word until she did what he wanted.

“What we all knew,” Sean said as he opened her desk drawer and removed a roll of duct tape that definitely hadn’t been there earlier and pulled a long strip free.

“And what’s that?” Cayley asked, trying not to panic as she watched him rip the strip of tape off.

“That you’re in love with my brother.”

CHAPTER39

He wasn’t letting her go, Bryce realized as he stood there, staring down at his bathroom sink as his grip tightened around the counter and-

Slowly exhaled as he felt his lips pull up into a smile.

He loved her.

God, he fucking loved her, more than anything, and it was time to stop pretending that he was going to be able to let her go. She was his. Always had been and he was going to do whatever it took to make her happy so that she never had a reason to leave him, including resigning himself to spending the night decorating Christmas stockings, Bryce thought with a long-suffering sigh as he pushed away from the counter and headed back to his room.

Mentally preparing himself for a night of picking glitter off his skin, Bryce made his way to his door, grabbing the bouquet of white and red roses that he’d picked up on the way home off the kitchen island and made his way to Cayley’s door and-

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