Page 52 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

“Gorgeous.” His eyes moved down over her body and flicked away, the glance so short she thought she might have imagined it. “Dinner is down one floor in my grandmother’s apartment.”

“Lead the way.” Anna kept her chin up, tossing a lock of hair back over her shoulder, all while anxiety prickled in the pit of her stomach. If Gabe’s grandmother’s rooms were anything like the suite they were staying in, it would be a very fancy place. Anna was familiar with opulent hotels, but she mainly frequented the meeting rooms, not the private suites for the owners. On the next floor, her steps faltered.

Gabe squeezed her hand. “You did so great in the lobby this morning.” The familiar tone grounded her. It was the same way he’d praised her after a productive meeting or a killer presentation. “And I’ll be right there next to you if you need anything.”

How close?She wassonervous she couldn’t quite believe it. And he was so comforting that she wondered who this man was she’d been working with all along.Thatman would never have squeezed her hand and coaxed her in to dinner. Anna took a deep breath and stood up straight, just as Gabe slid an arm around her waist and bent down to kiss her cheek.

“I’m a professional,” she murmured. “I won’t embarrass you at dinner. Or myself.” He nuzzled into her neck, planting light kisses on her skin. “Gabe...” She put one hand up around his neck. It felt so comfortable with him. So terribly easy. Not to mention out of view of his family. This couldn’t be part of their performance. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing for dinner.”

The words made sense, but she blushed deeply, heat spreading across her cheeks. Anna let herself sink into him—just for one moment, to see what it felt like—and wished as fervently as she’d ever wished for anything, that this wasn’t pretend.

He broke away from her but stayed close enough for his hand to linger on the small of her back. Anna wanted to curl back into his arms, but not because it was a job. She needed to remember she was playing his fiancée and not lose herself in the role. “I’m good,” she said, as much to herself as to Gabe. “Let’s do this.”

5

GABE

Gran’s apartment—most of one floor of the big building they called Elk Lodge—reminded Gabe of his childhood. It was only now that he’d been living away from here for so long that he could appreciate it for its elegant beauty. There was something different about the quality of the light on Cardinal Mountain. The nights seemed to come earlier, making the glow of the silver candlelit centerpieces warmer. The staff had set the long table in her formal dining room, decorating the table runner with some of the family’s treasured tabletop Christmas pieces. The family’s formal china gleamed the way it always did when used on special occasions.

“Glad you could come.” Jonas was first to greet them, sticking out his hand to shake like old business associates and not brothers.

Anna shook his hand, but then stepped forward to kiss his cheek and Gabe tried to keep a poker face at the look of surprise on his brother’s face.

“Thank you for having us. This is all so lovely.” She gestured to the room and Gabe tried to look at it through her eyes.

“Well, uh, thanks. But this was all Grandmother.”

Gabe coughed in an attempt to hide the laugh he couldn’t stop. His brother was never at a loss for words.

They made the rounds, and Chase was far more open, greeting them both with a smile as he introduced them to his beautiful new ski director-instructor girlfriend, Tana, and her daughter Lindsey.

The walked over to his grandmother, Anna leading the way and tugging his hand so he would follow. “Mrs. Elkin, Elin, thank you so much for inviting us. Everything looks so lovely.”

“Thank you, dear. This is my favorite time of year, and I admit to enjoying showing off.”

Gabe looked her over. His grandmother’s silver shawl and black outfit did the heavy work of hiding how thin she’d gotten, making him worry that she was downplaying how bad she was feeling. While Chase, Tana and Lindsey added gaiety to the evening, their laughter echoing around the room, the sound did nothing to help him relax.

Gabe wanted to know what had made Anna so nervous earlier. It couldn’t have been the performance element of all this—she was too good at her job to let something like that shake her. The urge to take her into a secluded corner and lean in close to whisper questions in her ear got stronger every second.

Maybe telling her about how his previous girlfriends had all traditionally bombed this portion of the family schedule had put her on edge. They either refused to eat anything but undressed salad, used their phones under the table to fire off social media posts or send business emails, or excused themselves to make calls. Gabe had nothing against salad—that wasn’t it—just the tension it caused with everyone else. Hedidhave a problem with the phones. But he’d always found himself squarely in the middle, which meant he pleased no one.

The group sat down around the table, and his grandmother waved in uniformed servers who came in with the soup course. Anna watched all of it with bright eyes and a big smile. “Jonas, tell me about running the resort,” she asked as one of the servers ladled a delicate vegetable soup into their bowls. Anna made it a point to thank the wait staff, taking the time to make eye contact.

Jonas paused with his spoon halfway to his mouth. “What do you want to know?” Mild shock registered on his face. Of all Gabe’s girlfriends, not one had ever cared to ask Jonas about running the place.

“Well, my day job is in public relations, and I often help set up conferences. Do you hold events like that here? Or is it mostly tourism-focused?”

“We—” His spoon went back into his bowl. “We can accommodate it, but I haven’t had much time to attract clients interested in larger-scale events.”

“Oh, that’sgreat.I mean, not that you haven’t had time to do it, just that you have the space for it.” Anna smiled. “My first job in the industry was working for the Las Vegas Convention Center and I would love to help you set up policies in advance for conference events instead of coming up with them as things happen. I also have a lot of experience with social media campaigns, if you ever decide you want to expand your offering here.” She raised her hands in front of her. “I won’t bore everybody with the topic, but if you ever want to talk conferences and PR, I’m your girl.”

For once, Jonas didn’t frown, didn’t hesitate. “I’ll take you up on that at some point, I’m sure.”

Gabe let out a breath quietly. So far, so good.

“I’m so glad.” She’d started with Jonas,and not five minutes into dinner, they already had plans to talk business.

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