Page 47 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

“What does that matter?” Gabe cocked his head to the side, blue eyes skimming over her skin and heating her up from the inside. “This is only a charade, not a real engagement, and even if it was a real engagement, a person’s past doesn’t matter nearly as much as the present. And the future.”

“It couldmatter,” she argued, keeping her tone light and pretty. “Wouldn’t that kind of thing matter to your grandmother?”

“She’s not going to dig into your past if that’s what you’re saying.” A grin flashed across his face and disappeared. “She’ll be preoccupied with the holidays and being happy. She’ll like you, Anna. That’s why I want you to come with me. You’ll be wonderful for her.”

I could be wonderful for you, too.But she didn’t say that out loud.

“Listen.” Gabe leaned in another inch, nudging his plate out of the way so he could speak to her in a low voice, one that sent desire curling through a place in her belly Anna had ignored since the breakup.

Desire! Who got such a mad crush on her own boss? Or colleague—whatever he was.

“We’ll stay at my family’s luxury ski resort for the holidays. It’s one of the nicest, most sought-after places in the country for winter vacations. Seriously. Every year, the place is decked out like something out of a Christmas movie. No expense or Christmas tradition is spared and if there’s something that’s missing, you just have to say the word, and I’ll make it happen. Come on, what do you say? There will be tons of Christmas traditions, like carols and cocoa and the whole nine yards. Lights on the trees—everything. Enjoy your Christmas in a winter wonderland and we can also talk about your dream.”

“What dream?” She wrapped a hand around her champagne glass and took a sip. They’d traded dreams back and forth over the many hours they’d been working together, but it had always been lighthearted and joking. For the life of her, Anna couldn’t remember what she’d told him.

“Of owning your own public relations firm. There are ways I can help you with that.” Gabe’s mouth curved up in a smile so attractive that she felt a gravitational pull toward it and had to keep herself firmly planted in her seat to resist it.

Anna would never have dreamed of asking him to give her a hand up. She’d worked hard all her life to overcome the lousy hand she’d been dealt—the father with the criminal record, the mother who married four times and couldn’t ever decide when to come down to earth, a brother who—well she wasn’t going to think about him. Holidays had been nothing like the picture Gabe was painting of his family’s resort. No cocoa, no carols, just fighting and bitter silences. She’d actually been relieved the year her parents had finally split.

Not that she was going to tell Gabe all of that. Getting that deep into her history would bewayacross the line for two people who worked together, no matter how close they’d been over the past three months.

“And...” Gabe sat up, looking her square in the eye. “Don’t forget, my grandmother is dying.” The confident look on his face slipped. “Please. Do it for me. It would mean the world to me if she knew I was engaged to someone wonderful and had my life all sorted out.” He let out a breath. “There. That’s it. That’s all my cards on the table.”

Anna felt like she was still holding a fistful of cards with things like acriminal fatherand hermother’s four marriagesin her hand.But none of them could top the pleading look on Gabe’s face, or how incredibly handsome he was. She’d stolen so many glances at him while they were working together, trying to ignore the twist of want in her chest. Up until now, she’d been pretty successful at it.

Beyond that, the offer was one of the most attractive she’d ever received. Christmas at a luxury resort, far from anywhere she’d ever lived. No tense hours spent trying to calm high emotions with her parents. No new husband showing up with her mother. It would be like stepping into a different world for the holidays—the kind of world she saw in Hallmark movies.

“For how long? Fly out Christmas Eve, come back Christmas morning?”

“Oh, no. My family wants me there as soon as I can get there. I’m planning to fly out tomorrow morning, if possible.”

Her breath caught. “You want me to spend almost two weekswith you out there?” Suddenly Colorado seemed like a vast state of forests and wildlands, Anna trying to picture a luxury mountaintop resort they’d need snowshoes to get to.

Gabe shrugged. “Two to three. We’d leave in the morning and come back after New Year’s.”

“But my job...”

He gave her a look. “You and I both know there’s nothing scheduled from now until after the holidays. Everybody’s going home for Christmas.” His eyes twinkled. “Honestly, Anna, no pressure. If it doesn’t seem like something you can do, then I’m not going to hold it against you. But it would be nice if I could show you off as my significant other.”

“I know you wouldn’t hold it against me.” She heard the sincerity in his voice as clearly as she felt it. Gabe moved fast when it came to making plans, but he was flexible, too. It was why they’d managed to put together such an excellent product launch. It was why they’d hooked all those international clients on his app. It was another success in his portfolio.

If that was how he was when it came to romance...

No. This wasn’t going tobea romance. This was going to be a project, like the one they had just wrapped up, only with more acting. A bright spark of anticipation lit up in her chest. A luxury Christmas—the very first in Anna’s life. Anda chance to collaborate with Gabe on her own business idea. When she landed in Vegas after the New Year, life could be completely different.

The ten-year-old version of Anna, who had wanted a whole new life more than anything in the world, had become her personal cheering section inside her mind.

Look at him!that part of her squealed.Go to Christmas with him!

And really, she had nothing to lose...except Gabe as a client if the whole thing went south. Anna had never allowed a project to end on bad terms in her entire career. She wasn’t about to start now.

Gabe rested his fingertips on the linen tablecloth, his plate abandoned, and his body tense. He was ready to gonow,she realized.Right now. And if she waited to leave until morning, she might lose her nerve. Might decide that it wasn’t very professional to jet off with one of her clients to spend Christmas as his pretend fiancée. Might consider all the many and varied possible consequences and decide that it wasn’t such a good idea after all—for either one of them.

“Let’s go now,” she said quickly.

His eyes went wide. “What?”

“Isn’t part of the bargain a flight on your private jet? How soon can it be ready?”

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