She told me to focus on all the ways it could work, not all the ways it wouldn’t. I owed her that much.
I returned to her room to find her lips bright red and big-ass Christmas tree earrings hanging from her ears.Christian’s face covered the trees, but her pillow lips looked incredible. What a weird thing to feel while staring at photos of Christian. “You look great.”
“Thank you.” She beamed. “Now, sit here. I have the plan.”
“You’re reminding me of that time youplanneda whole scavenger hunt when we were kids. Who ended up with a broken arm in the emergency room? Me. I did.”
She waved her hand in the air. “That was your own damn fault for climbing a tree! The riddle was clearly in our attic. Not the tree. Now, this is nothing like that. We’re going to use all the paper we can find in one of our hotel rooms to make snowflakes. Then we’re cutting them and stapling them to your shirt.”
“That is…” I shook my head. “Ridiculous.”
“Yes, but just think what you could do with that gift card. Twenty-five dollars to the resort store will be epic. It’ll feel so good to bring Gwen back a free gift.”
“She has enough—”
“Winning feels good, no cap. Now stop arguing with me and sit down.”
“Have I told you that I like your mouth?”
“Yes. But I refuse to let your charm distract me from this plan. It’s all formed in my head, and it’s gonna be great.”
She worked fast, cutting out weirdly shaped snowflakes. She stapled them to my sweater, totaling fifteen in all. Some were from the notepad on the desk. Some were from the free holiday magazine they gave us and, of course, two were from toilet paper. “All created from hotel room resources. The creativity! The execution! We nailed it.”
“You are my perfect competitive freak.” I pulled her toward me, our ugly sweaters clashing with pins and staples. “Thank you. I’m not sure I’ll win, but I look damn good.”
“Yes, you do.” She weaved her arms around my neck, and I rested mine just above her ass.
I’d always wanted to hold her like this, and a contented, almost-too-good-to-be-true sigh escaped. I kissed her. I’d never get over the fact that I could kiss her now. She nipped my bottom lip, sliding her tongue against it before she pulled back. I gripped her tighter, wanting to deepen the kiss, but she shook her head. “No, you made it clear: no tomfoolery. You can look, but you can’t touch.”
“But you’re sexy,” I grumbled. “I want to touch you.”
She licked her lips and walked toward the door. “Come on, Hop. We now have to behave for the next four hours and pretend not to like each other. Let the tormenting begin.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHARLOTTE
Garrett, take off your jacket now.” Penny bossed us around before the ugly sweater contest started.
“I love a forward woman.” He winked and undid his jacket.
She ignored his comment, but she eyed his very ugly, very inappropriate holiday sweater. “Is that… two humping reindeer?”
“Yes.” Garrett beamed. “I read the team requirements, and I am wearing red and green, this is homemade, and I’d consider it cozy. Wouldn’t you, Char? Want to cuddle me to prove it?”
I snorted. “Nah.”
Hayden caught my gaze and playfully rolled his eyes.
Penny snapped and moved her attention to Hayden. “You’re next, show me your sweater.”
Hayden’s gaze landed on me, his gray eyes warming with amusement before he unbuttoned his coat. “I followed the rules, Penny.”
“Good boy.” She nodded at his blue sweater with snowflakes. “It’ll do, but it’s not great.”
Penny turned to me. “Yours, Charlotte. Tell me you did something good.”
Everyone stared at me.
