Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

HOLLY

“ S orry, there’s no en suite in the guestroom,” Dan tells Asher. Am I eavesdropping? I don’t want to think of myself as a sneak. Considering I’ve got my ear pressed against the door, I’m not sure how else to think of it. “You might want to leave your suit just outside the door. The extractor fan is on the fritz, and the windows don’t open. Can get pretty steamy in there.”

Asher laughs. I remember that noise from when I was a kid before he moved away. He was my brother’s best friend. Is , since they kept in touch. He had a tough home life, an addict as a mother, and an absentee father. He was always around our place with his piercing blue eyes and that mocking smirk that drove me nuts.

“How’s the little director doing?” he would tease me.

All in good fun, maybe, but the crush I was nursing made it hurt.

“You’d think a man richer than God could afford to get it fixed,” Asher jokes.

“If I was ever home long enough, I just might.”

“It’s all good. Thanks, Dan. I mean it. For everything. My apartment should be ready soon.”

“Better than you staying in a hotel. It’s good to see you again.”

My brother walks down the hallway. A thrill of danger grips me. It wasn’t like Asher bullied me; he just wasn’t nice. Did I expect him to know his buddy’s kid sister was crushing on him and be excited about it? Obviously not.

“Look at the little Spielberg,” he’d say as I aimed my camera around.

Now, he’s moved back home. Things are different. My brother owns a multimillion-dollar product design company, and I’m not just a kid with a camera anymore. I work in videography for the publicity department. I’m only living with my brother while I save money for my own place. Dan offered to front me the deposit, but I want to do it by myself.

I’m shaken from my thoughts when I hear the shower start. I open my door and peer down the hallway. Asher’s suit, shirt, and pants lay on a table in the hall by the bathroom door. Dan lives in a high-rise. A flurry of snow passes by the window at the end of the hallway, putting me in the holiday spirit even more. Is that why I let myself entertain this idea?

I’m like a naughty Christmas elf, here to wreak havoc.

Creeping down the hallway, remembering how often Asher poked fun at me, I grab his clothes and carry them into the library. I walk to the corner of the room and hang them from a lamp. Then I return to my room, finding it difficult to contain my laughter.

Immature? Maybe.

Fun? Hell freaking yes.

After applying a light layer of makeup for the day—and sure, I didn’t use any yesterday, but that was before Asher arrived—I hear the shower stop. The door creaks open.

“What the …”

I put my hand over my mouth as laughter bursts out of me.

“Dan?” he calls, but my brother’s probably listening to a podcast or has the coffee machine running. He doesn’t hear him. “Screw it …”

I choose this moment to emerge from my bedroom. Asher arrived late last night, so I haven’t seen him yet. I’ve got a plan to raise my eyebrow at him, all cocky, and then oh-so-innocently ask where his clothes are.

Instead, I stop. My mouth almost falls open. Almost . I stop it from happening because it would be embarrassing.

He’s wearing just a towel, steam rising from his body. His hair has turned slightly silver since I last saw him. His eyes haven’t aged at all, the same piercing blue. He was lean when he was in his late teens and early twenties. Now, he’s bulked up, muscles layering his body, his chest throbbing. He’s ripped . What sort of workout program is he on? Jeez.

He does a double take. “Holly?” he says in disbelief.

“Yeah,” I say quietly, suddenly finding it difficult to be as sassy as I’d planned.

“You’re …” He blinks. “Did you move my clothes?”

What was he about to say before he cut himself off? I’m what, Asher? If I didn’t know any better, I’d say I wasn’t the only one doing some checking out here.

“Move your clothes? What are you talking about?” I say innocently.

“I left my clothes here.” He nods to the table by the door. “The extractor fan is on the fritz. It gets steamy as hell in there.”

He’s not wrong. Steam is still rising from him like he’s burning up, like the sight of me is making him hot—probably not.

Do I want that? Should I? I decide not to answer either of those questions.

“I moved nothing,” I tell him.

“Hmm, guess it was a Christmas ghost, then.” He turns away, showing me his broad, muscled back. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve got more than one suit.”

He walks down the hall. Only when he reaches the end, turns, and faces me do I realize I’ve been standing here ogling him. I quickly dart down the stairs of the two-story high-rise. Dan is sitting at the kitchen island, playing one of his self-improvement podcasts.

“Are you okay, Holly?”

“What? Why would you ask that?” I squeak.

He looks at me strangely. “You look startled. I thought you’d have a big smile on your face. It’s our special Secret Santa announcement today. Two weeks to go before Christmas. This is usually when you put the spirit into overdrive.”

“I’m fine. Just need my morning coffee.”

“Okay,” he says, but I can tell he’s suspicious.

Nothing happened. I just played a funny trick—a prank. I was getting payback for all those comments when I was a kid. Sure, it didn’t go to plan, but it’s not like I’m sitting here, thinking of his muscular body and his eyes, the same blue as the northern lights in the Alaskan sky.

No way. That would be Christmas-cracker nutso.

Asher joins us, wearing the same suit I hid in the library. I guess he must have gone looking for it. He seems even more infuriatingly handsome when he’s clothed. Dashing, that’s the word.

“Sorry for taking so long,” he says, walking to the coffee machine. “A Christmas imp moved my suit into the library.”

Dan looks at me. “The library?”

“What are you looking at me for?” I mutter.

“Well, Holly, because I know I didn’t move his suit, and there’s nobody else here.”

Asher smirks at me as he sits next to my brother. The years melt away. He makes me feel like a kid again. Just like back then, the smile doesn’t reach his eyes. He’s never had much Christmas cheer.

“Don’t worry. I’m a big boy. I can take a few pranks,” Asher says, smirk firmly in place.

Dan rolls his eyes. “Sorry, Asher. You know what kids are like.” It’s an unsubtle dig.

“Yeah,” I say sarcastically. “Twenty-three-year-old kids who keep your video marketing alive.”

“I was only kidding, Holly,” Dan quips.

I smile. “So was I.”

I don’t want Asher to think of me as a kid. He’s thirty-three, the same age as Dan. Mom and Dad took their time between kids, hesitating about the issue until fate decided for them. I was seven when he was seventeen, eight when he was eighteen, nine when he was?—

Okay, there’s no need for the math lesson, but it’s good to remember that this can never work.

What’s this ? What am I even letting myself think?

“Time to get moving,” Dan says. “Lots to do today. Asher, are you coming with us or taking your car?”

“I don’t mind riding with you. Unless you do.”

Dan answers, “Nah, that’s cool.”

But Asher wasn’t looking at him. He was looking at me with that same tempting smirk on his lips.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” I say, looking out the window as snow swirls in the air, the bright lights of decorations shining from storefronts. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It’s all right,” Asher mutters.

Dan chuckles. “You will not get very far with the whole holiday thing with Asher, Holly. Unlike you, his parents didn’t somehow know that their kid would be Christmas-obsessed and didn’t give him a name to match. Unlike you, seeing children build snowmen doesn’t make his week.”

“It’s a time of year like any other.” Asher shrugs. “I’m here to work on making your next cell phone sleeker, more user-friendly, more appealing. Add all the buzzwords you can think of. I’m not here to ‘ho ho ho’ my name into the office.”

Wow, he genuinely is a Grinch. I decide not to let him get to me. He’s done enough of that this morning with the steam rising off his body. I wish I could get that image out of my head. It’s stuck.

I drink in the sights of Christmas, letting the spirit fill me up, ignoring the black hole of good cheer in the car.

Soon, we’re at the office. When we walk into the lobby, Dan looks at Asher and laughs. Asher is gaping at the decorations hanging from the ceiling and then sees the giant tree dominating the center. “You’ve got Holly to blame for all this, too.”

Asher looks at me. “You truly are obsessed.”

“It’s the one time of year where everybody collectively agrees to be happy. Sue me for enjoying it.”

“Somebody really should sue you. It’s grotesque. Have you ever thought about seeing a therapist?” Something about the way he says this makes me like the teasing. Sort of. It’s lighthearted. “Nah. It’s fine, just not for me. Thanks for the ride. I’m going to meet my new department.” Asher waves goodbye as he walks away.

“Have a good first day,” Dan says. He turns to me after Asher is gone. “Cut him some slack about the Christmas thing, Holly. You know he never had it like us when we were kids. Plus, between you and me, he had a girlfriend for a couple of years. I thought things were serious, but she broke it off around Christmas.”

Something about that seems so sick to me—dumping somebody at Christmas. I’ve never had a serious relationship, so it’s not like I can judge.

“They were serious?”

Dan nods. “He’s not one to talk about his romantic life, but they were together for years, so I think they must’ve been. It’s the reason he came home. That, and the job.”

His romantic life is none of my business. Annoyingly, I think of ways to turn his opinion on the holidays around.

“I’ll get prepped for the Secret Santa reveal,” I tell Dan. “I think people are going to love it.”

“I’ve got you to thank. It was a great idea.”

“I just want to record their faces when you give the speech. Don’t think about giving me any credit up there, by the way. I want their authentic reactions. I don’t want them turning to the camera and ruining the natural feel.”

“Fair enough. See you soon, sis.”

We bump knuckles. Dan and I have always been close. Maybe it’s the age thing. When I was born, he was old enough to see me as cute, to be another protector and caretaker, not to view me as the in-the-way kid. Maybe that’s why he let me hang around him and Asher so much. Maybe, then, the crush was his fault.

Or maybe I’m avoiding responsibility because Asher Mitchell is in my life, and I want to spend more time with him, but I know I can’t. I know even thinking of this is dangerous.