Page 73 of Holiday Home 2
The following span of tedious waiting and wasting away lasted twice as long as the first. It’d already crept past ten, and still, his phone remained as dark as a block of coal from Santa Claus. He felt like a kid counting the seconds until he fell asleep on Christmas Eve. Only, falling asleep and waking up on Christmas morning was the furthest thing from what he wanted.
At the very least, he didn’t need to worry much about that. He was more likely to spontaneously combust than he was to let drowsiness drag his eyelids down. He wanted Avril to hurry up and send him that picture that he’d won from the fortune cookie. He needed Tess to let him know that he was good to come back over.
A dismal thought wormed its detestable way into his mind, and he wasn’t quick enough to salt it before it nestled in. What ifTesswas the tired one? A long day of prep, a long party, an hour or two alone catching up with a close friend? The more he thought about it, the more those all sounded like the ingredients of fatigue to him.
His trepidation led him to his front door. Braving the cold, he peered out through it into the darkness toward Tess’s driveway, which was still swathed in vibrant, colorful Christmas lights. Victoria’s car was still there, which meant Victoria was still there. How much longer would itstillbe there? Another hour? Until tomorrow morning?! If there was one time in his life when he didn’t like envisioning the idea of two gorgeous women having a sleepover together, it was tonight.
Shutting the door, he dragged himself back to the couch. Two minutes needed to go by before he realized he’d received a text while away. His phone’s backup text alert buzzed, and his eyes plummeted like a pair of skydivers launching themselves out of their planes in tandem.
Merry Christmas,it read.You can make this your phone’s screensaver if you want.
The accompanying image provided Liam with enough enthusiasm to briefly forget some of his worries. And just one more reminder of how lucky he was to be trading these kinds of messages with Avril. It was almost enough for him to forgive her for all the hoops she’d made him jump through today to get to this point.
Hair still wet after emerging from the shower, with a few beads of water dripping down her collarbone onto her alluringly full cleavage, she’d wholly fulfilled the promise that she’d placed on fortune number eighteen. Avril displayed her undeniably spectacular body provocatively, wearing a royal blue sports bra and a pair of bright orange runner’s shorts. The former fit so snugly that her breasts seemed ready to burst out of it, especially with her bending forward to intentionally fill the picture she’d taken with a plentiful amount of cleavage. The latter kissed her upper thighs, barely falling more than a handful of inches down the fair skin of her thighs. Her emerald eyes gleamed seductively, communicating a mistake he’d made tonight that was as booming as an air siren.
I should have found more ways to be alone with you tonight,he told her once he was done ogling the gorgeous sight that she’d sent him.
Yeah, you should have,Avril mercilessly replied.I’d have grinded all over you if you’d just pulled me off to the side. Didn’t even need to say a word. Just needed to grab my arm and pull me off somewhere cozy and private.
The blood in his veins surged with heat and fervor as he envisioned just such an opportunity. Frustration, too, knowing that he hadn’t done so tonight.
I’ll remember that for next time,he promised the sexy redhead.
See that you do. And don’t get content and stop there. You ought to be thinking about what other fun you could make happen. Don’t just leave it all for “next time.”
I won’t.It was a promise to himself as much as her.
And to Tess, who he’d see tonight or tomorrow—it no longer mattered which. Whichever it ended up being, he intended to roll out his proposal front and center. No hesitance, no trepidation, no next time. Even if she ended up shooting him down, even if his proposal resulted in nothing but abject failure, so long as he actually went through with it, then he’d chalk it up as a win.
It was time for him to start chasing what he wanted. And he knew tonight what he’d known for years.
He wanted Tess Williams.
His phone lit up. It wasn’t a follow-up message from Avril.
It was Tess. She wanted to let him know that Victoria had headed home and that he could come over anytime.
There was no time like the present.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Switzerland
The taillights at the end of his street, pumping red as they reached a stop sign, might very well have belonged to Victoria’s vehicle. If they were, that meant that Tess had barely waited any time at all after seeing her friend off before she’d contacted him. Whether or not that was true, her carwasgone from Tess’s driveway, meaning the coast was clear. Still, he decided that he liked that reality, so he elected to believe that it was Victoria’s car driving away. They just needed to hope she hadn’t left anything behind, only to realize it halfway through her drive home and reverse course.
He hadn’t taken anything off his person during his time home, not even his shoes. So, he wasted no time tromping through the snow, kicking it up like flak in a war zone as he raced to Tess’s porch. Hastily kicking the snow off his shoes, he knocked once, shivered in the frosty night air, and plunged himself into the warmth of Tess’s home.
“Welcome back,” the owner of an unfairly brilliant smile said, stepping into the hallway just as he shut the door behind him. “It’s just you and me now.”
“Am I a trade-up from Victoria?” he asked, returning her smile.
Folding her arms, she pretended to think over his question for a few moments before providing him with her findings. “I can see certain benefits to trading her out for you.”
The first of those benefits arrived as the two of them brought their lips together as soon as he reached her. Brief but marvelous, the tender longing burgeoning within them both did more to warm him up than an hour of sitting by her fireplace. Her eyes shone with light plucked from the stars as they broke the kiss.
“I had started to get a little impatient by the end of it,” the gorgeous brunette admitted. “I may have hurried her away a little sooner than she wanted.”
“You’re telling me,” Liam said, shivering with delight as he wrapped his arms around the woman of his dreams. “I was over there counting the minutes like they were landmines.”