The Billionaire’s Fake Christmas Engagement: Elkin Brothers Christmas Book Two

by North, Leslie

  “Well, I’m a conference center liaison in my day job. Do you hold events like that here? Or is it mostly tourism-focused?”

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

  “Oh, that’s great. I mean, not that you haven’t had time to do it, just that you have the space for it.” Anna smiled. “I would love the chance to get in on the ground floor with conference events. It gives you a chance to set up great policies in advance instead of coming up with them as things happen.” She raised her hands in front of her. “I won’t bore everybody with the topic, but if you ever want to talk conferences, 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 he hadn’t known he was holding. 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.

  “So, you’re a conference liaison? What does that entail?” Tana chimed in. “I spend most of my time on the slopes as the director of the ski program, so I’m not up on, you know, corporate events.”

  Anna looked tickled to be asked. “I work with companies or individual clients to either smooth out plans for an event that’s already in progress or with conference hotels to coordinate conferences with clients. Everything that has to do with conferences or big meetings—I’ve done it.” She laughed, and it was a lovely sound. “It doesn’t sound too exciting when I put it like that, but there’s rarely a dull moment.”

  “Is that how the two of you met?” His grandmother’s voice was soft but clear. She wore an unreadable expression in the candlelight, sitting there at the head of the table.

  Anna touched Gabe’s wrist and let out a low laugh. “I’ve got this one. He’s good at presentations, but this story gets him all flustered.”

  “It does not,” he insisted, slipping his hand into hers, and oddly pleased at the way she’d been brave enough to tease him in front of his family. “Not compared to how flustered you got when you saw the ring.”

  “You’re getting so far ahead of yourself,” Anna said, and then cleared her throat. “We started talking about—oh, six months ago? When Gabe needed my help getting his latest app in front of the right people.” She winked, drawing laughter out of both Jonas and Chase. “We got pretty close, working together for all that time. And the rest is history. Very recent history.”

  Gabe relaxed into the rhythm of dinner. After the soup was cleared, the main course arrived—a pork tenderloin that melted on his tongue and tasted like comfort and holiday spirit. And then came dessert. The waiters brought out individual chocolate cakes. He glanced at his grandmother, who looked back at him with a subtle smile. She’d chosen it for him knowing it was his favorite.

  His throat went tight, taking in the little cake with its dusting of powdered sugar. He savored each bite. Anna’s, on the other hand, was gone by the next time he looked over. She put her spoon between her lips and heat shot through him, making him imagine way more than he should about her.

  “Oh, I’m so sad that’s over.” Anna sat back, her comment a testament to how much she’d enjoyed it.

  “Take the last bite of mine.” He scooped it up with his spoon and offered it to her. Gabe, who had always loved chocolate cake so fiercely his family had made fun of him, offered his fiancée the final bite. The room seemed to hold its breath as if he were on the verge of snatching it back. But Gabe wasn’t that desperate child anymore and hadn’t been in a long time.

  Anna leaned in and took the cake onto her tongue, making a low noise of satisfaction.

  “Wow,” Chase said, amazement lacing his voice. “I think you’ve got yourself a match. Have you ever seen anybody who loves chocolate as much as Gabe?” He directed this last part to Jonas, who silently shook his head.

  At the head of the table, his grandmother smiled. A genuine smile, calm and a bit reserved, the way she always was. Something in him untwisted. She approved. His grandmother liked Anna and therefore believed their act was real. Guilt followed hard on the heels of his satisfaction. She approved—except it wasn’t real.

  “Let’s go caroling,” Jonas suddenly announced, surprising everyone at the table. He looked Gabe straight in the eye, as if testing him. All the brothers were intimately familiar with how much Gabe hated singing carols. And they also knew how much their grandmother loved them. “We’ll go down to the lobby and sing there, so we don’t have to get cold.”

  “That’s a wonderful idea.” His grandmother took Jonas’s hand for extra support getting out of her seat. “The pianist will still be there from the dinner hour. He can accompany us.”

  Gabe fought down his own nerves on the way to the lobby, where a baby grand piano was tucked next to the Christmas tree. The family gathered around as the pianist greeted his grandmother and went through her preferred list of carols. The area had been done up to the absolute maximum with Christmas decorations in gold and silver with sprigs of holly and red berries. Everything was color-coordinated and came across as expensive, even to Gabe. The lodge wrapped up like this was a gift to everyone who entered it. The grand piano sported a giant red bow, the curls of the giant ribbon a stark contrast with the gleaming black surface.

  He couldn’t sing and his brother knew it. The last thing he wanted to do was to make a fool of himself in front of Anna. Taking his hand, she squeezed, leaning in close. “I love Christmas carols,” she whispered softly into his ear. “Do you?”

  “Tonight, I love Christmas carols,” he answered dryly, keeping his voice low.

  The pianist launched into the simple, and all too familiar number of Jingle Bells. After the first verse, Anna leaned in again. “Your family is so close. I kind of love it. Even if you and your brothers did argue over—what was that again?”

  “Who was the better skier. And it was just Jonas and me.”

  Anna laughed, but not loud enough to disrupt the singing. “Isn’t Chase the best skier?”

  “Was. But back then, Chase didn’t count when it came to internal contests.” He shot his brother an apologetic look. Tana must have had one heck of an effect on Chase because he didn’t seem bothered by the comment one bit.

  “Internal contests,” echoed Anna, and he could tell she thought it was funny. Yes. More of that. A familial warmth spread in the center of his chest.

  Gabe really did love his family, no matter how much time he spent trying to convince himself he didn’t fit in. Not in the way that everyone else did. Gabe had wanted different things out of life—he hadn’t wanted to sign on to a permanent position at the lodge just because his brother had taken over the management of the place. But now, standing around the piano and singing Christmas songs, he wasn’t sure.

  If he really were the black sheep of the family, and if he really were a disappointment to them—his grandmother wouldn’t have asked him to come home.

  Maybe fitting in wasn’t the only criterion.

  “You’re not singing,” Anna said, whispering in his ear. He put his hand on her waist and pulled her close. She leaned in, curvy and soft, and melted into him almost as if it were the most natural thing.

  He’d been wasting time. The thought came to him as clearly as the opening notes of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. The other women he’d brought home would have excused themselves from singing carols. They would have stood stiffly by his side, hands folded in front of them. He’d spent so long dating women who were utterly uncomfortable being around his family, or they were just too wrapped up in their own worlds.

  It had worked at the time because he’d been wrapped up in his own world. He had come here each time knowing that the goal was to leave as soon as possible, only putting in a token appearance.

  This could be his real life. A part of it, anyway.

  Anna rubbed her hand down his back, the gestu
re genuine. It unlocked an old feeling at the core of him. Belonging. That’s what it was. He felt like he belonged, like the circle of people around him would never close with Gabe on the outside.

  But he’d never get to that closeness without somebody like Anna at his side. His heart beat hard, a triple drumbeat of sadness for the day when they inevitably weren’t together anymore. Those were the rules of a fake engagement. They didn’t go on to become real weddings. So as wonderful as this moment was, it was doomed to end.

  Not yet.

  He straightened up. His family didn’t care if he couldn’t sing. They’d all known it when they planned to go caroling in the lobby. And they wouldn’t care now. The pianist went into the next carol—Silent Night. And Gabe, with Anna close by his side, opened his mouth and sang.

  6

  The wine at dinner had gone straight to Anna’s head, and the effects persisted long after the singing was done. It made her skin feel warm, almost overheated, as she and Gabe took the elevator back to their suite. He didn’t drop her hand when they stepped out into the hall. He held it all the way back to the room, giving a little squeeze as he pushed the door open and led her inside.

  He brought her knuckles to his lips, brushing his lips across them with a satisfied light in his gray-green eyes. “That felt good,” Gabe said, his voice husky. “Didn’t it?”

  “Felt pretty real to me,” Anna said breathlessly. The two of them had stood with his family in the glittering lobby of the Elk Lodge. The tree was nothing short of perfection with its red bows, glass ornaments, and warm lights suffusing everything with a homey feeling. The kind of holiday she’d seen in commercials and movies, but nothing she’d ever experienced.

  And Gabe was right in the middle of everything that made it perfect. There was a good chance the warmth she felt was not all wine and holiday, but instead, Gabe. And maybe it wasn’t just warmth, but a fierce, hot want.

  He stepped closer, pulling her in with a soft touch on her hand, and Anna thought she’d never felt so much power concentrated in one tiny gesture. Gabe was strong. He scheduled enough gym time to keep himself lean and muscular, and he could have had her in his arms—but he didn’t. He waited, those eyes on hers, asking a silent question that she wanted to answer.

  Anna drew in a breath to say something, anything, but his lips hovered over her knuckles again. He lowered his mouth to the ridge of her fingers, drawing the pad of his thumb across the back of her hand. He kissed the place where his thumb had been, following it up to her wrist bone. “Yes,” she said breathlessly. And then, faster than she could blink, he closed the distance between them, and Anna was in his arms.

  She collided with the hard expanse of his chest, covered only in his dress shirt, and Gabe’s hand slipped down to her waist as her arms went around his neck. His lips met hers in a burst of heat and something like possession. Like they really were together, and it wasn’t all an act. Anna could taste it—a real holiday with him, a real heat in his touch.

  Gabe gave a low groan and his hands tensed on her waist. She pulled back, struggling to catch her breath. It was like a movie set, this hotel room, all sleek cream furniture and fancy touches, and Anna wanted to belong here. Wanted to be the kind of woman who curled up on the sofa with Gabe and watched the snow falling outside before family dinner. Wanted to go to bed with him at night, not because they were acting but because they needed to be together

  He was close now, his handsome face slightly flushed, and pupils dark with desire.

  Anna could kiss him again. And she knew, deep down, where that would lead. It would lead to clothes coming off and a rush to the bed, leaving all of her on display for Gabe.

  But then what? Could they just shake it off and go back to the parts they were playing? It would be challenging at best, and at the end of this vacation, she’d be no closer to what she wanted out of life. Her business, for one thing—but a real relationship, too. One with love and compromise and commitment.

  As if he could hear the storm of thoughts crowding her head, Gabe tilted her head up until their eyes met and held. “One night wouldn’t hurt.” He sounded so sure of himself, but Anna wasn’t. “It’s not unethical.” She trailed her fingers down the back of his neck until they met the collar of his shirt. Not unethical didn’t have the ring to it that yes, let’s go to bed did. “But, we shouldn’t.”

  She took a half-step back, and Gabe broke away from her. “You must be exhausted.” His voice was a bit strained, so unlike how he sounded when he sang with his family.

  “I am.” So not true. But it wouldn’t do any good to tell him she was breathless with want and wouldn’t be able to sleep. “An early night would probably do us good.”

  They carefully avoided each other while they took turns brushing their teeth and preparing for bed. Anna came out of the bathroom just as Gabe was on his way out to the living room with a pillow tucked under his arm.

  “Oh, don’t.” Guilt crashed into her. “You don’t need to sleep on the couch.”

  His eyes met hers with a searching focus. “Are you sure?”

  The question shimmered in the air. They’d been close to doing much more than sharing a bed, but sending him away didn’t feel right, either. “We managed it last night just fine.”

  He seemed to consider it, then headed back toward his side of the bed. Anna’s body thrummed with awkward pressure as she crawled in beside him and turned off the light on the nightstand. Gabe did the same, plunging them into the half-darkness of the room. Moonlight bled into the air through the cracks around the curtains, so she could still make out the shadowy shape of him.

  “Goodnight, Gabe.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Ugh. Now she was an arm’s length away from him in bed and feeling more needy and frustrated than ever. A pillow wall might be the only solution to keep her from rolling against him in her sleep. Nothing would be more embarrassing than waking up on his side of the bed wrapped around him.

  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 was so much 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. The Elk Lodge supplied the creamiest of soap and bath bombs at the side of the jacuzzi tub to entice guests 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 the 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 couch. 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 just focus on the matter at hand, don’t you think?”

  Anna tried to shake off the ringing temptation of him, 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.”