Reese Ryan - Never Christmas Without You

Grandma Lucy just shook her head. “Nonsense. When you love your man, don’t you worry about who’s watching you. Love with your whole heart, honey. Now, you two get upstairs, freshen up and come to the kitchen.”

Justin groaned. “Grandma, I thought the whole point was you were supposed to be relaxing.”

“Oh good Lord, boy, you talk too much, and you worry even more. I have help in the kitchen. I’m just there to supervise, and eat chocolate-chip cookies.”

Justin’s stomach rumbled. Alex shook her head. The man could literally be controlled by his food. “Chocolate-chip cookies?”

Grandma Lucy grinned as she went down the hall. “You two just get settled, then come on down. You can have as many as you can eat.”

Justin took Alex’s hand and squeezed gently. “I’m sorry. My family can be—”

“It’s not your fault. But you know what? I like your grandma. She’s fun.”

“Yeah, but you have a lot of other things to handle. My crazy relatives are not what you should be dealing with right now.”

“It’s fine. So what are we doing with our shared-room situation?”

“Don’t worry about it. From what I remember, that room’s a decent size since it was originally designed as a suite. We’ve got plenty of space and I’ll sleep on the pullout couch.” They reached their room door and found their bags neatly stacked outside. Perfect.

She turned the knob and pushed to open the door, then froze in the doorway. Behind her, Justin groaned. “Alex, what are you doing?”

“Justin, you need to see this.”

Justin leaned around her and peered into the room. There was an enormous king-size bed against the far wall, and a sitting area for reading. The bright, bold colors spoke to her. She loved everything in it. Except for the one little problem. That couch that Justin had been talking about, it was gone. And the floors were not carpeted; they were hardwood. It looked like she and Justin would probably be sharing a bed tonight.

Chapter 6

Justin stewed all the way through dinner. As his grandmother chatted excitedly with Alex, and the rest of his family asked her about her paintings, her career and her upcoming gallery show, he was too busy trying to think of a way out of this predicament.

Martin leaned over. “What’s got your panties in a twist?”

“For once in your life, Martin, shut the hell up,” Justin muttered.

Grandma Lucy looked up. “Justin, honey, are you okay? You barely touched your roast.”

Alex was quick on the defense. They’d been covering each other’s asses for so long, she knew exactly when he needed her. “Um, Grandma Lucy, we did have a really big lunch. And you know Justin when he sees something he wants—he has to have more than one helping.”

Justin bit back a groan. For once, Alex was not helping the situation.

Martin chuckled next to him. “I’m the same way,” he said to Alex with a smirk. Then when no one was listening, he leaned over to Justin. “I think now that I’ve gotten to know Alex, I can see the temptation to go back for seconds on that.”

Justin knew Martin was deliberately attempting to get under his skin. He would not bite. He would not bite. He could not bite. But damned if he didn’t want to hit that smug expression off his cousin’s face.

Across the table, Martin’s parents chatted amicably with Alex. And interestingly enough, not one of them commented on the fact that she wasn’t the usual socialite blonde that they would’ve expected. Thank God for small favors. Although, his aunt and uncle did occasionally toss out some privileged comment about who would dare send their child to public school, and boarding school was really best for children. Alex just ignored their pretentiousness.

His cousins Jason and Mack wouldn’t be in town until tomorrow, so at least tonight’s dinner was a small group. He didn’t have to pretend for too many people.

He was so good at putting on a show. Depending on the situation. In particular with his family. He deliberately wore that air of being unfazed. He was really good at that one. He’d been practicing it for years. And he was exactly who they needed him to be. The loser underdog. He knew some of the relatives disregarded his father’s marriage, and in turn he felt their attitude toward him was dismissive. Which was fine by him because his boutique hotel was already in the black. He was proving them wrong. Just by existing. Just by having tried and not crumbling under the pressure.

After the plates were clear of the dinner, Scotch was passed around, along with the bread pudding. Alex yawned next to him, which caught his grandmother’s attention. “Alex, honey, you look exhausted. Given that you and Justin were traveling from San Diego, then had to contend with the traffic and the ferry, why don’t you two get up to bed? I’m headed in that direction myself. Doctor’s orders and all that. Can you imagine she told me I need to be in bed by nine every night?” Grandma Lucy shook her head.

Alex laughed. “Yeah, just with this gallery opening, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. I need to do some hard-core relaxing.”

Martin was there with a comeback. “I can help you relax.” And just when Justin was about to stand and knock him flat on his ass, he added, “A lot of sightseeing to do on the island, all very chill. I can make sure you have the best tour of the city.” He flashed Justin a grin. The jerk was doing it on purpose.

With good-nights said, Justin had no option but to follow Alex up the stairs. The staircase wound from the south around to the east in a gentle curve until they reached the top. With every step Alex took, her heels clacked against the granite. It was funny, he’d never imagined himself coming home, and never with Alex. But somehow they both looked like they belonged. Usually Alex was in something casual, but in her classic A-line dress and her stilettos, she looked the part. More than you do. He shoved that errant thought to the back of his head. He didn’t have time for that right now. Right now, he needed to figure out how he was going to sleep in the same room as Alex for several days and keep his hands to himself.

This all should have been easy. But instead, they were facing the dilemma of “hey, where can we sleep?” If he didn’t know better, he would’ve sworn his grandmother did this on purpose.

When they reached the threshold, Alex put her hand on his arm. “Look, before you start saying crazy things and offering to sleep sitting up on the chair or on the hard floor, we’ll just share the bed, okay?”

His dick twitched as if to say Hell yes, I’m so down with that plan. Justin cleared his throat. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea.”

Alex’s brows furrowed. “Why not? We’ve passed out on the couch together a hundred times. This is no different. It’s totally fine. Unless of course you sleep naked?”

Yes, that was one problem. He usually did sleep naked. But he could toss on pajama bottoms. Although, what if he couldn’t resist giving in to that crackle between them? “Why? Do you want me to sleep naked?”

Even under the soft brown of her skin, he saw her cheeks flush. “I—I—You can sleep how you like. I’m sure me sleeping naked would only make you uncomfortable. So I ask you not to do the same.”

She was right. The idea of her sleeping naked made him all kinds of uncomfortable—in his jeans. “Relax, I’m teasing. You’re right. We’ve done this dozens of times. This is no big deal. Get ready for bed, hit the sack. I swear, I am capable of being a perfect gentleman.”

There was something in her eyes that told him she wanted to ask him something, or tell him something, maybe? But as quickly as it appeared it was gone again. As she was headed to the bathroom to brush her teeth, his stomach fisted then loosened and then fisted again. And Heaven help him, his hands twitched a little.