Page 69 of Christmas with the Denton Billionaires

Sure, they’d had plenty of sex the night before. But was this sort of intimacy welcome, or even allowed? This type of intimacy had them moving from sex-with-abandon into tell-me-all-your-woes territory.

Mitch downed his drink, then sighed through a grimace as he set the glass down. His big hands smoothed over her shoulders and then ran down her back. A shiver raced through her.

“That’s sweet of you to say.”

Not the reaction she’d been expecting. She couldn’t tell if he was touched by her insight or just politely sidestepping her interest.

“Want to talk about it?”

His jaw worked back and forth, his gaze distracted but bright as he searched her face. “Wouldn’t even know where to begin. Complaints from guests who were frustrated that it snowed earlier this week and they weren’t able to go do touristy things because everything was closed.” Jules rolled her eyes at that, which made him chuckle. “My father, of course, wanted an update on the gala, which I gave him. The reservation software we use decided to glitch, so I had to place a call to the developer. He was able to connect remotely to upload the updates to get us back up surprisingly fast.”

“Well that’s good news,” she told him.

“It was. Although Gabe Elkin wasn’t particularly happy with me calling him at 5 a.m.” He chuckled at that before adding, “His company just had a successful product launch and he’s been putting in late hours and had only been asleep for a couple of hours when I woke him.”

“Oh well, lucky him, he got to sleep in,” she deadpanned, and Mitch grinned at her.

“That’s exactly what I told him; although he didn’t see the humor in it. He did warn that he would be adding a PITA fee to his invoice.”

Jules frowned. “Pita fee? He wants you to send him bread?”

Mitch shook as he laughed. “Now there’s an idea. I’ll have to mention that next time. No. PITA stands for ‘pain in the ass,’ since I called him rather than his company’s tech support line.”

She snickered. “So does this mean my surprises are well-timed?”

He hugged her, smiling—the one that made his dimple flash. “Yeah. More well-timed than you could have realized.”

“Come here. Let me show you around.” She took his hand in hers and started a slow walk around the penthouse, showing off all the different touches and accoutrements that she’d added. They stood for a long time at the tree, admiring the different ornaments: the golden baubles, the dangling, icicle-like tendrils, the sparkly tinsel draped over the evergreen limbs. Because of the tree’s height, she’d added a mix of twinkle lights and larger lights, which cast the room in a soft glow. She’d draped the evergreen garlands across the mantel and around the doorways, complete with large ribbons and more twinkle lights. A train tooted its horn, and he looked down to see the train making its way around the base of the tree.

“Oh wow.” He squatted down and watched as it made a turn around the track. “I haven’t seen this since we were kids. My mom always set it up like this, and when we were little, my brother, our cousin, and I would send things to each other via train. Where did you find it?”

“In storage in the basement. I’d asked for help finding decorations, and it was in one of the boxes that was brought up.”

“Everything looks so beautiful. Thank you for doing this,” Mitch said, rising and sliding his hand over the small of her back.

“Well, Christmas is my specialty. And I can’t believe you didn’t have this done already! Christmas is coming up soon.”

Mitch’s smile slowly faded, his brows drawing together. “But your place wasn’t decorated either.”

Her mouth parted. “Right. But you havethisplace. This place deserves to be decorated.”

“And yours doesn’t?”

His question made her think. Her house had always been her safe haven, until her most recent move to a smaller, more affordable apartment just made her uninterested in unpacking and really inhabiting the place.

“Fair point. But I haven’t lived there very long and I have to confess, I’ve had zero interest in unpacking the rest of my boxes. I know I need to because as I’m sure you saw, there’s cardboard boxes stacked all over the place. But…” She shrugged, not sure what else to say.

“It’s more fun decorating other people’s places?”

Jules nibbled at her lip, thankful he wasn’t pushing for more information. “It definitely is, especially when the place is as beautiful as yours.”

“Well, the place looks great. You’ve clearly got a knack for this sort of thing.”

“Thanks.” She smiled up at him, but something in her chest hurt. His words had cracked something open. She just wasn’t sure yet what it was. “You hungry?”

“Starving.”

“Great. Let me feed you now.” She squeezed his hand and led him into the dining room. After a stern command for him to sit his butt down, she got the plates and silverware out, and then loaded up a fancy white serving platter with the roasted chicken and vegetables.

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