Page 55 of Christmas with the Elkin Billionaires

The minutes ticked by, and still sleep didn’t come. Anna corralled a herd of sheep in her mind and counted them one by one. Who’d have thought she’d be lying there thinking of mattress commercials after how well the dinner and caroling had gone? Not her.

Next, she tried meditational breathing exercises, and then pretending to be asleep. Nothing worked. After what seemed an eternity, she pushed back the covers and tiptoed out of bed, moving quickly for the living room.

At least she could take a deep breath out here.

There wassomuch space to roam. Anna headed for the kitchen to get a glass of water and then took another turn in the bathroom, washing her face for the second time that night. Elk Lodge supplied the creamiest of soaps and there were bath bombs next to the jacuzzi tub enticing her to linger in this little piece of heaven. Raspberry Relaxation seemed like a promising choice. Tomorrow, she’d treat herself to a relaxing bath.

Anna made her way to the picture windows in the living room, taking in the view. The slopes really were stunning, especially with the snow clean and white, starkly contrasting with the vast dark sky above.

“Are you all right?” Gabe’s voice from the bedroom door pulled her away from the window. “You’ve been gone quite a while.”

“I couldn’t sleep. Obviously.” She laughed, but it was a tired laugh, and concern flared in Gabe’s eyes. He walked closer, Anna unable to look away from where his pajama pants were slung low on his hips and his sleep shirt—a Henley that she found unfairly irresistible—lay unbuttoned at the neck. “Couldn’t turn my brain off.”

Gabe took a seat on the leather sofa facing the window and spread out his arms over the back, the movement stretching the shirt over his biceps. Anna sucked in a deep breath.Breathe, girl. Breathe.

His eyes swept over every inch of her. “Does this have anything to do with the phone call you got earlier?”

The real world pushed back into her mind with an unpleasant jolt. Anna turned away. She didn’t want to discuss her family or her past, or that she shouldn’t be at a place like Elk Lodge with a man like Gabe. “I got out of a bad relationship recently,” she hedged. “My best friend was worried I’d made a mistake on the rebound by coming here with you.”

One eyebrow arched upward and for a moment all the things she hadn’t wanted to talk about crowded together at the tip of her tongue. If she spilled her secrets here and now...

Well, she wouldn’t.

But suddenly she was aware she was standing there in a tank top and sleep shorts, Gabe’s gaze fixed on her. It was like when they’d come into the room before—and the heady, reckless feeling returned, this time more demanding.

He let out a short breath and shifted on the sofa. The temperature in the room seemed to skyrocket. Gabe’s pajama pants weren’t thick enough to hide his arousal. More than anything, she wanted to hear him make that noise again—that soft, deep groan in the back of his throat that sang with wanting her.

Gabe blinked, and his professional expression fell back in place. He ran a hand through his tousled hair. “Best if we focus on getting through the holidays here, don’t you think?”

Anna tried to shake off the ringing temptation, which filled the room and made her want to keep breathing in that excitement forever. This was precisely why they couldn’t have sex. Just the act of standing near him made her feel like she was being pulled in. Gravity teased her nipples and a point down low between her legs until it was almost unbearable. Gabe was like an undertow, and it took all her energy not to get swept away.

Which was probably for the best. Gabe asked her here to do a job for him, and it would never work once they went back to the real world. That was the nature of contract work. There and gone again, faster than you could blink.

“You’re right,” she said, and then she let out a yawn. It started out fake but turned into something real by the end, and Anna found herself stretching her hands above her head. From beneath her eyelashes she caught Gabe gawking—stretching like this emphasized her full breasts, especially in a tank top. She hastily put her hands back down by her sides. That wasn’t playing fair. “Let’s go back to bed.”

She caught a flash of frustration on his face—let’s go back to bedcertainly didn’t sound like something they would say to each other at any other meeting—but that was the situation.

Gabe Elkin.

One bed.

Christmas getaway.

Anna headed for the bedroom and slipped back under the covers, her heart beating fast. Surely he wouldn’t stay out on the sofa in his own suite. Half of her hoped he would, just for some breathing room.

And the other half—

Yearnedfor him. Anna had mostly read about yearning in the context of her mom’s old romance novels, the ones she’d kept stored in a cardboard box in the back of her closet and Anna had snuck up to her room as a teen. This was exactly what she’d imagined it would feel like.

Gabe returned and slid into the bed without a word, turning away from her. Sleeping next to him and not touching seemed all wrong, but apparently he was okay with it. So, Anna would be too. Rolling over, she faced the other way and closed her eyes. Instead of going back to counting sheep, she reminded herself over and over:it’s just a job, it’s just a job. As sleep slowly claimed her, she had a fleeting thought.What if it didn’t have to be?

7

ANNA

“Ican’t believe you guysdothis,” Anna murmured into Gabe’s ear as she leaned closer and snuggled next to him in the sleigh. It was drawn by a team of two white horses with bells on their harnesses, which jingled as they pulled the sleigh over the flat cross-country trails at the back of the resort. The trees to either side of them had been decorated with lanterns and silver bows. “I’ve never even seen a horse-drawn sleigh, much less ridden in one.”

Not in Nevada, anyway. There had been sleighs in Christmas parades, sure, but they sat on the back of parade floats or were on wheels. She wondered how well a sleigh would run on desert sand, but suspected it would be difficult for the horses.

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