14. Plugging Holes

Plugging Holes

Grant

I watched Nova’s face as she put the pieces together. Hurt bloomed across her face and conveyed in one tiny word.

“Oh.”

At that moment, I would have happily strangled her ex with my bare hands for causing her pain.

“We should fire his fucking ass,” Ben growled. I could tell she had planted herself under his skin as well. I would be suspicious of her intentions if it weren’t obvious how oblivious she was about the depth of my brothers’ feelings for her.

“N-no, please, not because of me,” Nova said. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”

I hated the wounded look on her face. I absolutely hated it. I also hated that she was still championing Paul after what he did to her. It was more than evident that he never deserved her. I had planned on keeping it platonic between us since my brothers were already a lost cause. I understood why that was the case. I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t also intrigued and surprised by my reaction to her pain. I knew I was starting to sound like a broken record, reminding them that we had a contract and that our time with her was temporary. One of us needed to keep our head on straight.

“She’s right. We can’t fire Paul without reason,” I said begrudgingly.

“Don’t worry, Sugar,” Lincoln assured her, “we’ll make sure he gets what he deserves.”

I rolled my eyes and glared at him until he met my eyes over Nova’s head. As much as I wanted to avenge her honor, it wasn’t our business and definitely wasn’t good business practice.

Ben changed the subject to the festival before I could get into it with Lincoln. I gave him a look to say that this wasn’t over. We will be discussing it further. After dinner, we watched another Christmas movie. This time, Nova chose “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and I tried not to draw similarities between my current mood and the old guy in the wheelchair. When the movie ended, Lincoln and Grant walked her to her car while I went back into the kitchen and started flipping through Paul’s file.

“You two need to fucking chill,” I said when they returned. “Nova isn’t ours to keep or protect.”

“Uh huh,” Linc replied. “If you feel that way, why are you reading that douchebag’s file?”

“I was curious. I wanted to know what kind of man throws away a girl like Nova.”

“He went to see her this morning after he saw the picture of her and Linc,” Ben said. “Caused a scene and called her a cow.”

My fists clenched at that information. Paul definitely never deserved her. “I’m sure we can find something to give us grounds for termination,” I growled.

“That’s what I thought,” Linc said. “You aren’t immune to her charms either. You just hide it better.”

29 Days Until New Year’s Eve

I tried to concentrate on my work, but my mind constantly wandered to Nova. She didn’t contact any of us yesterday, and I was annoyed that I didn’t like it. I was brainstorming an excuse to see her when Joel buzzed.

“Sir, Nova Lane is here to see you.”

My heart leaped in my chest and began to race. “Send her in,” I replied calmly. I sat back in my chair to wait for her arrival and then scrambled to move to one of the seats facing my desk. Finally, I stood to greet her at the door. Fuck, why was I so fucking nervous? I was acting like a teenager about to get his dick touched for the first time. Where the hell did that thought come from? She isn’t here to touch my dick. Jesus, I was a mess.

I opened the door as Nova lifted her hand to knock, startling her. She opened her mouth to speak, but I cut her off. I didn’t want my brothers to hear her and come running for reasons I wasn’t willing to analyze.

“Hi, won’t you come in!” Tone it the fuck down, Grant, I chastised myself. She was positively glowing as she brushed past me and entered my office. I closed the door behind her, silently locking it, as I turned to watch her. Her skirt bounced teasingly with each step she took, and I had to bite back a groan as I kept getting flashes of her creamy upper thighs. If the skirt was a little shorter, I might have been able to see more. “I was beginning to get worried when we didn’t hear from you yesterday,” I said, clearing my throat and trying to get my mind off what was under her skirt. Why the hell did I tell her that?

Her eyebrow raised, and her lips turned up into a teasing smile. “I didn’t realize I was supposed to check in daily.”

“You don’t,” I hurried to say as I gestured for her to sit. Once seated, I sat beside her and tried to keep my eyes off her legs.

She still looked amused but was gracious enough to change the subject. “I came by to let you know that I met with the other business owners, and they are on board with the Christmas Festival. I’m still hashing out all the financial details, but I thought you would like to know that.”

“That’s great news! As I told you, we’ll be happy to help however you need,” I replied. I made a mental note to have Joel arrange transportation for the orphans.

“And I appreciate it. While all the businesses are dedicated to seeing this come to fruition, their funds are limited. Triple Tech may have to plug a lot of holes to get this done, so I wanted to ask if you wanted to have one of the events or attractions officially sponsored by Triple Tech?”

My eyes were on her mouth, and my mind was on plugging holes, so I took a minute to respond. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well, there’s Santa’s Village, the ice skating rink, the Christmas tree,” she replied, ticking each option off with her fingers.

“The Christmas tree,” I said. “Triple Tech would love to sponsor the tree and the lighting ceremony. If you’d let me, I’d like to handle the logistics with the lighting and such if you can handle sourcing the tree. I know a guy who works with lighting whose company could use the boost a job like this could provide.”

“Absolutely! It’s important to support small businesses when you can,” Nova replied.

Being this close to Nova was trying my restraint. Maybe I should have told the guys she was here so I wasn’t alone with her. My hands were gripping the arms of my chair to keep them off of Nova, and part of me was amused by how oblivious she was to my struggle. It wasn’t until she smiled at me with pride in her eyes because I wanted to give a buddy a job that I broke.

I stood and yanked her to her feet. My hands instantly tangled in her locks as I held her head in place. “This is a mistake, but I need to taste you. My brother’s got to, so it’s only fair,” I said desperately. It wasn’t until I held her in my arms and her tongue slid against mine that I realized I’d fucked up.