Page 66 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

You’ll belong here if Anna stays,a voice whispered at the back of his mind—but Anna wasn’t going to stay. She was only here becausehewas here, and when he left, so would she. The thought of her leaving gave him a pang of sadness. Impossible. He couldn’t be sad about it.

The quiet of the room pressed in on him. He wanted to be back in his own place and he wanted to fithere.Such a bizarre contradiction. The person who would make everything seem less fraught would be waiting for him in the suite, so he left as quietly as he’d come.Anna.

The first thing he wanted to do was kiss her. And then he would pull her in close and breathe in the sweetness of her hair and feel the sensuous curves of her body beneath his palms. There would be no more ringing silence because she would make those little noises she always made in the back of her throat. It would be delicious.

He pushed open the door to their suite only to discover she was gone.

Disappointment punched him in the chest. Gabe rubbed absently at his ribs, trying to dispel an ache that he didn’t want to feel. Anna didn’t have to be at his side every second for the full duration of their time here. That wasn’t the deal they had.

A note waited for him on the narrow kitchen counter where they’d spent so much time baking cookies.

Gabe

Chase and Tana invited me to take a ski lesson. I’ve only been once, and it was a long time ago, so I’ll probably make a fool of myself. See you in a bit!

Anna

He threw the note down on the counter, smoothed it out with his hands, and read it again. Chase and Tana. Of course. They liked Anna, and Elk Lodge was a luxury ski resort. It would only be right for them to invite her to a lesson.

What was wrong with him?

Gabe went to the window and looked out at the slopes, trying to pick out her slender form. Not spotting her, he had to shove down the urge to run out after her and bring her back. He’d come here to tell her everything and ask for her support, but clearly, that wasn’t going to happen.

He shook it off, stepping away from the view. Gabe had always been able to find something to do—he’d never needed another person the way he needed Anna now. In fact, he couldn’t keep needing her this way. It was entirely outside the bounds of what they’d agreed to, and no matter how many times she kissed him back, there was no guarantee that she might reciprocate his feelings.

Maybe it will be okay.The thought came paired with an image of Anna sitting close to him on the sofa, cuddled into his side. If she listened to what he had to say, and if she told him it would all be okay, if she laughed—then maybe it would be.

12

ANNA

Anna had told a small fib in her note to Gabe. She’d been to a ski hill once but hadn’t done more than a couple of runs. Her parents had fought and cut the visit short, never mind that they’d driven up into the mountains just for the experience. Andwow,had things changed since she was a kid. Her knees felt wobbly, and her butt burned after a single trip down the bunny slope.

“You’re doing great,” Tana called out as she made an excruciatingly slow snowplow move to stay close to Anna.

They’d gone down again and again, and Anna noticed it was getting smoother on the descent, even if it was slow. It wasn’t enough to keep up with everybody else on the slope. Tiny kids whizzed by on either side of her, Tana cheering them on by name. More than a few of the children had jingle bells clipped to the zippers of their jackets, identifying the students so the ski staff would be there to offer extra cheer on the slopes.

The perfection of the scene in front of her made her want to shrink into her ski coat and disappear. Not because she thought Tana shouldn’t cheer for them—she should. She was agreatteacher, and the cheerleading was part of it. Anna simply couldn’t fathom a childhood where she’d have had regular vacations like this, with enough ski lessons to be incredibly good at it. It embarrassed her.

If she and Gabe stayed together—which they wouldn’t—she might be able to find that kind of time. She would have the ease of all the skiers. Eventually, people wouldn’t be able to tell her apart from the rest of the family, or the guests.

That was the dream, wasn’t it? It hadn’t been when they’d taken off from Vegas, but now that she was in the middle of it, it was tantalizing. A sense of belonging and home that was very different from her childhood.

It was like movie theater popcorn. She never thought about the wildly expensive treat until she was standing in line to buy a ticket. Then she found it nearly irresistible. Unlikethe popcorn, obviously, she couldn’t buy a little taste of being Gabe’s wife. This was it. This was the taste, and it was all she would ever get.

Chase came down and cut by on the left, moving down the bunny slope in a slow, broad curve.

“Head up, Elkin,” Tana hollered, causing him to throw back his head and laugh.

Ace Elkin. She still couldn’t believe that he was Gabe’s younger brother and that she was spending time with him. She’d thought again about telling Elena about it, but every time she reached for her phone, she stopped. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to her friend’s disappointment in her.

Anna’s thoughts became darker as she wondered if she would always be someone on the other side of the window looking in instead of being a part of the happy family inside.

“What’s on your mind?” Tana asked. She’d turned her full attention back to Anna and slowed down even more to match her speed. “You look distracted.”

If anyone understood, it might be Tana. She and Chase were newly a couple, maybe she could provide some perspective. “They had a good childhood, didn’t they? The Elkin brothers,” she clarified, nodding her head in Chase’s direction. “He looks happy.”

Tana smiled. “He looks happynow,butthere was a long while where happiness was in short supply and he never thought he’d ski again. In fact, he’s only been skiing for a few days and only on the bunny slope.”

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