LITMIR.BIZ

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what’s that, then?’ she asked, heart drumming in her chest.

      ‘I wanted to get you alone.’ He’d moved closer, suddenly, close enough that her blood hummed.

      ‘You’ve had me alone all morning,’ she pointed out, turning away again.

      ‘No,’ Lucas said, patiently. ‘I’ve had you and Santa and the elf and the tree. Not what I need.’

      ‘Didn’t seem to stop you asking all manner of inappropriate questions.’

      ‘It stopped you answering them, though.’ His voice was soft, like he was talking to a frightened kitten. Gentling her along. ‘Dory—’

      She spun round, cutting him off. ‘What? What do you want to know? Or do you just want to tease me and make me feel even more uncomfortable here than I do anyway? If you’ve got a real question, ask it.’

      He watched her for a long moment, then nodded. ‘Okay, then. Why are you pretending to be in a relationship with my brother?’

      ***

      ‘What do you know?’ Dory asked, her face pale in the bright white lights from the tree. ‘I mean, what are you talking about?’

      ‘Too late, sweetheart,’ Lucas said. ‘You already slipped. I know you’re not the woman in those photographs, for a start. Want to tell me who she is?’

      Dory shook her head, staring down at the decoration in her hands. ‘He never told me.’

      ‘But he convinced you to come along and take part in this little play-acting thing he’s got going on?’ She nodded. ‘What did he promise you?’

      ‘A trip home.’ She looked up, eyes bright and words coming too fast. ‘I couldn’t afford to go home for Christmas, you see, and he knew I really wanted to go. So he said if I’d do this, come here for a few days, he’d give me two weeks off and a plane ticket home for the 27^th. I couldn’t… I just wanted to go home.’

      Her expression, pleading with him to understand, made something inside his chest ache. Had he ever wanted to go home that badly? Even when he was in boarding school? He didn’t think so. ‘That doesn’t explain why he didn’t just bring his actual girlfriend.’

      Dory’s gaze darted away again. ‘He just said that bringing her would be worse even than your parents finding out he was dating his assistant.’

      God, that really didn’t sound good. ‘And you didn’t demand to know who she was?’ He would have. Would never have gotten mixed up in something like this without knowing the full score.

      ‘I just wanted to go home,’ Dory said again.

      Lucas sucked in a breath, then let it out slowly. ‘Okay. Okay, I understand.’ He gave her a lopsided smile. ‘And actually, it’s kind of a relief.’

      ‘It is?’

      ‘Yeah.’

      ‘Why?’

      Could he say it? Should he? Lucas stared at her, waiting to hear what he had to say, her wide eyes curious now, rather than afraid. Screw it. He’d come this far. ‘Because it’s kinda bad form to fall for your brother’s girlfriend.’

      Her breath came out in a whoosh. ‘You’re… I mean, you… You too?’

      You too? With those two little words, he knew he wasn’t alone in this. That he hadn’t imagined the connection between them, in the car, or eating cake late last night. Even fetching the damn tree that morning. She felt it too.

      Relief flooded through him and, without thinking, he stepped forward, needing to be closer, but she dodged back. ‘What is it?’ he asked.

      Slim fingers held up the ribbon of one of his mother’s precious decorations. ‘Let me put this out of harm’s way.’

      He chuckled, watching her place it carefully on the tree. Then she turned back to him, lower lip caught between her teeth. ‘Lucas… we still can’t…’ she stopped and tucked her hair behind her ears. ‘I’m here as Tyler’s girlfriend.’

      ‘Pretend girlfriend,’ he clarified.

      ‘It still has its responsibilities,’ she said, with a small smile. ‘We’re in the main hallway of your parents’ house, Lucas. If someone walked in here…’

      ‘Yeah. Yeah, okay.’ She was right. Of course she was right. Whatever secret Tyler was keeping… he needed to find that out before he could blow apart this fake relationship they’d set up. He needed to know what trouble Lucas was in, and how he could fix it, without getting dragged back into the family responsibilities.

      One step at a time. Talk to Tyler. Fix the problem. Go home to his farm and check on the restaurant. Take a trip to the city to see Dory, as soon as she got back from Britain. And then…

      There was only one problem with the plan, Lucas thought, as his body swayed closer to Dory’s again, almost without his permission. He never had been a patient man.

      ***

      She should step back. She really should step back. Move away, out of the aura of possibility that Lucas projected. She couldn’t be here, couldn’t do this. Her job, her trip home, keeping up the illusion of her perfect life, everything depended on her being Tyler’s perfect girlfriend this weekend. She needed to stop this.

      But Dory didn’t step back.

      Lucas’s hand wrapped around her hip, pulling her closer, his lips descending on hers, firm and decisive, as if telling her it wasn’t worth arguing with him.

      Not that she particularly wanted to.

      Her hands moved up to his chest, feeling the strength of him through his sweater, snaking around to his back as the small gap between them disappeared completely. Suddenly she didn’t care how much she shouldn’t be doing this.

      Lucas’s grip tightened as both arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close, and he deepened the kiss. Dory’s whole body tightened, desperate for more. If it weren’t for all these pesky clothes – and her boss and his family in the house…

      Reality snapped back into place, and reluctantly Dory pulled away from Lucas’s lips. Breathing harder than seemed reasonable from just one kiss, she looked up into his eyes as he rested his forehead against hers, arms still tight around her.

      ‘We can’t,’ she said, voice soft.

      ‘Yet.’ Her heart lifted a little at the word, and the husky way he said it.

      ‘Yet,’ she agreed. ‘I’ll be back in the country in a couple of weeks. Tyler will have to break it off then – or I will. The deal was only for these few days. Once I’m back…’ What? What would happen next? What did she even want to happen – besides getting Lucas very naked in her bed?

      ‘I’ll call you,’ Lucas said, only that didn’t sound like enough. To him either, it seemed, as he went on, ‘I’ll visit. Or you can come out to the farm. See the restaurant.’

      ‘See where this goes,’ Dory interpreted.

      ‘Yeah. Exactly.’

      She smiled. ‘I’d like that.’

      She was still close enough to feel his chest sink as he let out a breath of relief. ‘Good. That’s… good.’

      It took a huge effort, but Dory made herself step back, and Lucas’s arms fell away in acceptance. He gave her a lopsided smile and scrubbed a hand over his short-cropped hair.

      ‘So, for now I guess we just… decorate the tree.’ Dory looked back at the oversized fir, naked but for a few strings of fairy lights and one small, glass teardrop. How long had they been doing this, anyway? What if someone came to check on them?

      ‘Yeah,’ Lucas agreed. ‘And I find out exactly who that woman in the photo

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