Page 78 of Holiday Home 3
After a wonderful morning and afternoon spent with Tess, she booted him out of her house almost immediately after dinner. She was nice about it, and Liam knew why, but he still played up his pout as Tess ushered him toward her front door. In response, he garnered a roll of the eye but also a bit more time with the older woman before she evicted him.
Time that he spent kissing her, feeling her body against his, and purchasing the resilience he needed to survive the next twoand a half hours of loneliness he was about to experience. Or… two hours, as he was about to find out.
“You have to go early,” Tess said as their lips parted. “Don’t let me see your car here when I come out to leave. I don’t want you to see me until I arrive at the clubhouse.”
That hurried one of his eyebrows higher than the other. “I can’t have a chance to be the first person to see you?”
Tess’s deep blue eyes skewered him with a knowing look. “We both know where things would go if I let you have that chance.”
“I can be good.”
“Why are you assuming it’syouwho would be the issue?” Tess replied with a smile.
A required shiver of anticipation coursed through him as he imagined how things might go if she let him stay with her. Swallowing, he grinned.
“You know, that’s fair. Sometimes, I do think you might be the more insatiable one between us.”
Color swept through her face, but the beautiful woman didn’t balk or deny his assessment. “We’ll see tonight, won’t we? It won’t be long before we have an opportunity to do all sorts of things for the first time in the new year.”
Excitedly, he nodded. “I can’t wait.” He swallowed again. “It’ll be the first of at least a hundred times that year.”
Tess smiled, and they shared one more kiss before she forced him out of her home. “At least,” she purred agreeably.
His excitement carried him hastily back to his home, where he spent the first thirty minutes practically counting the seconds toward midnight. He was undoubtedly excited about Avril’s party, but he couldn’t help but burble with excitement as he thought about the potential party. Fortunately for him, both were just a matter of hours away.
After those first thirty minutes, he started texting three of the four beautiful women he would encounter in a little while. With Avril, he checked with her if it was okay if he came a little early. After receiving the okay, they chatted intermittently, though it was clear she was still busy getting things ready for the party.
He turned to Anna and Tess, the latter of whom warned him that he’d receive no pictures beforehand if that were his aim. Mild chatter about the party and what they were all anticipating followed. Each of them had theories about what Avril would do to add extra “excitement” to their game, but they all agreed that there’d besomethingawaiting them other than a straightforward game of Texas Hold’em.
A little before eight, he put his phone down and headed outside. After starting his car so it’d be warm when he returned to it, he spent the next fifteen minutes getting ready. Midway through buttoning up his navy blue shirt, he again admired how well the clothes fit him. At the same time, he couldn’t help but receive an ugly reminder of his meeting with Arnold Royce.
Not tonight,he growled in his mirror as he checked himself over. Arnold Royce might have a mind to ruin things for him and Anna in the future, but he wouldn’t be thought of again tonight. Tonight, he would end his year with some of the best hours of his life.
A few minutes after he finished getting ready, it was time for him to start those hours.
I’m heading out,he texted Tess.See you in a little while.
He’d made it into his car when he got her response.
Yes, you will. Drive safely.
While he didn’t turn into a road-raging lunatic, he certainly made the journey to Ashgrove Apartments quicker than any time before it. Like an overflowing cup, his anticipation spilled out of him at every bump on the road. On Christmas Eve, he’dstill carried the burden of uneasiness. He’d been hesitant about his relationship with Tess, if she’d agree to his proposal after her party ended, and what their relationship would look like afterward.
He didn’t feel any such worry now. Only excitement. Only elation. Tonight would be spectacular. And it would start with him winning at cards, regardless of any schemes or twists Avril had in store for them—or potentially just him.
Before that, however, he intended to have some alone time with said dealer. Not as much as either of them might have liked, though.
He made his way off the main road onto the connecting snaking pathway that led toward Ashgrove’s many opulent apartments. This time, however, he didn’t go all the way down. Reaching where the clubhouse, pool, and tennis courts stood, he meandered his car toward the parking spaces in front of the first.
Unlike most of the city, someone had braved—suffered at the command of their boss, more like—the cold and the snow long enough to remove the Christmas lights and decorations on it. Liam didn’t envy whoever had received that laborious task, but he did thank them for having cleared the path to the doors. Climbing out of his car, he unknowingly inhaled the crisp outside air for the final time that year before heading inside.
The building was broader than it was deep, and it was only a single story. However, it was anything but timid and quaint. He reached and opened one of two glass doors, escaping the chilly weather. Immediately, he looked upon a large, showy foyer. The ceiling stood twenty feet over his head, and glittering chandeliers lit the way forward. His shoes clacked on a marble floor as he passed a pair of white couches on his way toward a four-way intersection in the next room. Along the way, he passed under an arch, above which sat a circular mirror big enough for a car to drive through.
Entering the room with the intersection, he stopped in front of a glossy black table standing directly in the middle of the space. Joining its presumed usual decorations—a vase and flowers—stood a folded note, though Liam briefly ignored it, even though he knew who had left it there.
If he’d walked around the small table directly ahead of him, he would have ended up in a dining area and kitchen. Beyond that, he viewed a second swimming pool—an indoor one, even—behind more glass doors and wondered if it was heated. To his left and right, long rugs rolled like tongues past several doors, most of which were closed.
Liam finally dropped his gaze and read what was scribbled on the folded note. In what he assumed was Avril’s scrawl, he read: This way!