Page 72 of Another Christmas from Hell

“She’s fine where she is,” Sean murmured, shrugging it off as Bryce leveled a glare on his brother.

Nodding, Bryce said, “You’re done doing this shit to her. You know that, right?”

“It’s our thing,” Sean said, only to wave that off as he moved on. “You were telling me why you decided to fuck over the woman that you love for this deal.”

“I didn’t fuck her over for this deal. I just…” Bryce said, slowly exhaling before admitting, “I can’t lose her, Sean. I don’t think I’d survive.”

“And yet, you stupidly agreed to this deal,” Sean said with a pitying look.

“This deal had nothing to do with Cayley. It was typical Bradford bullshit,” Bryce said, wishing like hell that he’d told Cayley about the deal from the start. He didn’t regret the deal. Not even a little fucking bit. Not when it meant that she was finally his.

“The Bradford curse,” Sean murmured with a nod of understanding.

“All I had to do was spend time with her for a month and prove that the Bradford curse was bullshit and the house was mine,” Bryce said as he began pacing the room again, needing something to do besides stand there, terrified that he was going to lose her.

“No offense,” Sean said, sighing heavily as he climbed off the bed, “but you fucked that up from the start if you were trying to prove the curse was bullshit.”

“I couldn’t stay away from her,” Bryce admitted, shaking his head in wonder. “When I was around her, nothing else mattered, absolutely fucking nothing. I tried to tell myself that I was doing it for the house, but I quickly realized that I was full of shit.”

“Go on,” Sean murmured as he focused on a large box resting on the nightstand that Bryce hadn’t noticed before.

“I thought I’d be able to walk away, but-”

“You love her,” Sean said, nodding to himself as he pulled out the red and white roses that Bryce bought and set them on the bed before grabbing matching candles.

“I don’t want to lose her,” Bryce said hollowly.

“And Thomas House?” Sean asked, throwing him a questioning look as he placed the candles on the nightstand and lit them.

“Doesn’t matter,” Bryce said without hesitation.

He would happily give up Thomas House if that’s what it took to make her happy. He was-

“This pleases me greatly,” Sean murmured, once again nodding to himself as he made quick work of sprinkling the rose petals over the bed before grabbing the box and made his way to the closet door, leaving a path of rose petals behind him.

Once he was done, Sean nodded, released a satisfied sigh as he tossed the box aside along with the stems and made his way back to the bedroom door. As he moved to close the door behind him, Sean paused to throw over his shoulder, “By the way, I lied. I had no fucking idea that there was a deal in place.” That was followed by a shrug, making him frown in confusion until Sean added, “She’s in the closet,” making Bryce realize just how badly he’d been fucked over.

CHAPTER40

“Oh…fuck…no…” Bryce said hollowly while Cayley sat there, seething in justified rage as she narrowed her eyes on the large man that looked like he was about to be sick.

She didn’t say anything, mostly because of the tape covering her mouth, but then again, it didn’t seem as though there was anything left to say. So, she simply sat there, taped to a chair as she watched Bryce swallow hard seconds before a look of resignation came over his handsome face as he turned around and headed into her bathroom.

A moment later, he returned with a pair of scissors, and without a word, began cutting through the tape. As soon as her right arm was free, Cayley was reaching up and tearing the tape off her mouth before reaching over and tearing the tape off her left arm. Once she was free, she stood up, stumbled, ground her jaw, and turned around, grabbing hold of the chair that she’d spent the last two hours taped to and dragged it out of the closet.

When Bryce opened his mouth to say something, Cayley shook her head once with a glare as she picked up the chair, tested its weight, and with a nod, she turned around and dragged it behind her on her way to her door, only to find it locked. Not really surprised, Cayley closed her eyes, slowly exhaled and when she felt that she wasn’t going to start screaming, she opened her mouth, only to shake her head, close her mouth, and slowly exhaled again.

That was followed by counting to ten before she opened her eyes again, cleared her throat and said in her sweetest tone, “Sean?”

“Yes, pookie?” came the bored reply from behind the safety of her locked bedroom door.

“Can you please open the door so that I could have a word with you?” Cayley asked, picking up the chair and got into position as she waited for the bastard that finally went too far to open the door so that she could beat the shit out of him.

“That’s really not going to work for me, not after I went through so much trouble to do this for you,” Sean said with a heartfelt sigh, only to follow that up with, “You’re welcome.”

Slowly exhaling, Cayley said, “Open the door,” as her grip tightened around the chair.

“And ruin the incredibly romantic night that I have planned for you? I really don’t think that’s an option.”

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