Page 113 of Christmas with the Denton Billionaires

Chris dropped the pastry bag and rolled his neck in a slow circle. It was time for a break anyway. This sort of meticulous, detail-oriented stuff was his least favorite part of baking and decorating, and he’d much rather delegate it to someone else, but that wouldn’t look good on camera if he wasn’t equally involved in all the different tasks.

He washed his hands and then floated out of the multipurpose room, humming yet again. Damn, he couldn’t wait to get started on the globetrotting culinary show. This had been his brainchild a full three years ago. Something he’d been working toward. Something that he was positive would become his dream job.

It wasn’t that he disliked his cooking show. He’d been excited when he got the offer, and when he shared the news with his family, his cousins had both been quick to congratulate him. Even his Uncle Mitchell had told him he was proud of him. On his first day of filming, both Josh and Mitch came to cheer him on. Josh had jokingly called him Chef Chris in front of the director, and the moniker stuck. But the show and occasional cookbooks only went so far. He wanted something more. He was pining for the open road. For somethingdifferentanddistant.This competition had been the means to achieve that goal.

And now, the end was in sight.

An impassioned conversation drew his attention once he was in the hallway. One of the voices sounded like Mara’s. He followed the sounds, and when he rounded the corner into the lobby, Mara and Dan were just stepping into the building and shrugging off their coats. Dan pressed a hand to the small of her back as they headed for the hallway while Mara chattered happily.

Jealousy spiked inside him while the remaining puzzle pieces clicked together. She showed up late. With Dan. After throwing Chris off her trail the night before.

Yeah. They were fucking.

Chris’s forearms tensed as they approached. Mara’s gaze swept up and landed on him, and she gasped, stopping mid-stride.

“Chris!” She laughed nervously.

“I better go,” Dan said, cocking a finger toward Mara. “But let me know when you need anything, okay?” He trotted off the other way down the hall, leaving Mara and Chris standing there awkwardly in silence.

“I was actually just about to call you and make sure you were okay,” Chris said, feeling foolish. He ran a thumb over his knuckles, all the happiness of his good news dissipating. Mara could still deliver the worst gut punch of them all. “You’re late. I was worried.”

“Yeah. I’m late. But everything is fine. You don’t have to worry.” She stepped closer, nervousness written all over her face. God, he’d caught her red handed. And the thought of Dan waking up in her house when Chris still hadn’t even set foot inside it—that burned most of all. Who knew how long they’d been dating? He’d been right to doubt her all along.

He just hated having proof of it.

“It was weird. You’re never late.” He clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times, mulling over his next words. “Was there something that made you late?”

Mara’s mouth parted, and her eyes slowly narrowed to slits. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, just admit it, Mara,” he said in a low tone. “You and Dan have been fucking. I get it.”

Mara’s gasp sliced through the air, and she glanced around. She glared and pointed behind him down the hall. “Come on. Follow me. We’re going to talk about this.”

On the inside, he rolled his eyes. What else was there to talk about when she was still fucking her ex from high school? Honestly, her spending the weekend with him was probably a revenge tactic. Well, he’d fallen for it. And now here they were. In the last week of the competition and everything that had been beautiful between them was now broken and shattered once more.

He followed her anyway. She stormed down the hall and into the lounge. It was empty. Once the door clicked shut, she turned to him with hands on her hips.

“I can’t believe you think that I spent the night with Dan.”

He scoffed. “Why wouldn’t I? Every time you show up here, it’s with him. Every time I look around, you’re talking to him. Either you guys have been banging since high school, or this guy is on the hunt.”

“Heison the hunt,” Mara spat. “But I turned him down the first day of filming. Not like you care to hear thetruth.”

Chris narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

“And you know what? It doesn’t even matter.” Mara clutched at the sides of her face, looking up at the ceiling as she took a few steps away from him. “I can’t handle this anymore. You never trust me. It doesn’t matter what I tell you, you’re always gonna think Dan and I are hooking up.”

“Well, you haven’t given me many reasons to trust you,” Chris countered.

Mara’s eyes widened and she turned to him in slo-mo, the way haunted dolls do in horror movies. “Excuse me?”

“You act like you’re hiding state secrets when I ask about your appointment yesterday. And now this. I guarantee you weren’t going to tell me why you got here late.”

Mara’s gaze darkened. “I don’t know why it matters.”

“Becauseyoumatter! Christ, Mara. I’m trying to get to know you again. I thought we were, I don’t know,doing somethinghere.” He laughed incredulously.

“Yeah. I thought we were too.” Mara’s lips thinned. “But you keep your own secrets, so it doesn’t even matter.”

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