Hating Christmas (Holiday Series) (17 page)

“Mother!” Did they leave some telltale evidence? Oh,
God, had her mother heard her crying out in pleasure?

“—and you’re a very nice-looking woman. Nothing
surprising about the two of you finding each other attractive.”

“I don’t know what you think you’re picking up—“

Her mom looked up at her steadily. “I’m not stupid,
sweetie. You’ve got the hots for him—“

“Mom!”

“—and he seems just as interested in you.” Audrey
went back to chopping.

Looking down at the pile of chopped potatoes in front
of her, she didn’t know what to say.

Her mom scooped her chopped vegetables into the pot.
“Before you plan a future with a man, you need to have some
specific conversations.”

“Levi and I don’t have a future, Mom.” Holly dried
her hands on a nearby kitchen towel. “I don’t know what you think
you’ve felt between us, but we’re not even dating. You even knew he
was leaving. He didn’t say anything to me.”

And they’d spent hours together, sledding down the
hill…before she’d confessed her love to him. And now he was
leaving. Well, that told her how he felt about her statement.

“You said he had some business.” Her stomach was in a
knot, but she tried to act normal.

“Yes. He told his dad that one of his actors was
offered a big movie deal or something.”

Mac. This was probably Mac.

Holly said, “Well…I’ll go up and tell him it was nice
meeting him.”

“Honey….” Her mother looked at her with concern.

“Don’t worry, Mom,” she said, the smile she sent her
mother feeling tight. “I’m okay.”

And she was, Holly reflected as she left the kitchen.
She and Levi had connected and had a wonderful Christmas here in
the middle of all this snow. It was the last thing she expected
when she flew here, and their first few run-ins had certainly not
been auspicious.

But she couldn’t regret meeting Levi—

That moment locked in his arms at the bottom of the
hill…. It all flashed through her head in a montage, like the end
of some sappy romantic movie. His laughter. The way he’d pulled her
to him in the hot tub that night, the way he’d had her calling out
for Jesus when they lay naked in her bed later that night.

His kisses, oh, his kisses.

Holly wiped a tear from her cheek as she started up
the stair.

He’d really given her a wonderful gift. He was okay
with her mother and his father and he’d made her feel more
beautiful than ever in her life.

She loved him and she needed him to know she was
okay.

* * * * * * * * *

Levi zipped his toiletry case closed, wondering again
how to break the news to Holly. She’d said she loved him, but he
didn’t think she’d still feel the same when she found out about
Mac. He had no idea how to resolve that situation. It must be hard,
making small documentaries. All the big names and big money in
Hollywood had probably passed her projects by a hundred times. No
wonder she’d dug in her heels when she got Mac on her line.

Damn the good-looking idiot for signing a contract
without Levi.
She
was the one who’d get hurt in this. This
wasn’t going to end well and he was pretty sure Holly would end up
with the fuzzy end of the lollipop, as Marilyn Monroe had said.

Damn this situation and damn that he had to be the
vulture she always called him. Going over to the old-fashioned
chest of drawers, Levi glanced through the empty drawers, checking
that he had everything.

Behind him, his bedroom door opened and he turned
quickly to see Holly close the door behind her. She leaned back on
it, a tremulous smile on her face. “I hear you’re leaving
tonight.”

Levi looked at her a moment before putting the
toiletry case in his bag, lying open on the bed. Struggling to find
anything functional to say, he cleared his throat. “Yes. I have a
situation I have to deal with immediately.”

He hated this.

“About a client?” She didn’t straighten from the
door.

“Yes.” Levi felt stiff, as if he’d been dipped in wet
concrete. He didn’t like lying to her and this felt like lying.

Holly stepped forward, her smile seeming to brighten.
“It’s okay, Levi.”

He glanced over quickly.

“It’s okay,” she said again. “I knew this was a fling
with us, even with what I said to you earlier. It’s really
okay.”

“I guess so….” Levi struggled to know what to say. A
fling? This had been a fling for her? He wanted to strip her naked
and show her just what a fling this was. He’d never felt anything
like this for any other woman.

But he had to put a knife into her back and that
reality kept him standing beside the bed.

Holly tilted her copper-colored head to the side.
“Yes. Levi, I’m glad to have met you, to have made love with you.
Everything.”

She wandered a little further into the room, stopping
to rest her hand on a small rocker before she looked up at him.

“You don’t—hate me for leaving? For not asking for
your number. Not making promises to stay in touch?” He couldn’t
help asking her.

She shook her head. “No, not really.”

Levi struggled suddenly with annoyance that he was of
so little importance to her. How many man had she told she loved
them?

“Okay.” Zipping his suitcase, he realized his
irritation didn’t make a lot of sense. He should have been
relieved.

Holly said, “Hey, you have a lot of irons in the
fire. You have a life and we didn’t make promises to each other.
You might even have a girlfriend with flexible views on monogamy.
We didn’t ask each other if we were dating other people.”

“I’m not.” The words were clipped as he lifted the
suitcase off the bed and set it on the floor with a snap. “Dating
anyone else.”

It was a stupid thing to say. She’d just let him off
the hook and he should have run with it. Looking at her standing
there, a bright curl against her cheek, and all Levi wanted to do
was kiss her silly and pull her down to make love on the bedspread
of her mother’s guest bedroom. He knew he couldn’t. She was being
cool and adult about this and he needed to be, too.

They were back to business and business meant he had
to sue her to get Mac released from her contract. The thought made
him sick to his stomach.

He knew he had more resources, knew he could crush
her. Knew that doing his job meant that he
would
crush her.
“Holly, I hate this--”

The words were out of his mouth before he realized
it. The sensation was new for Levi. He normally thought before he
spoke, keeping his cool in every situation.

But dammit, she’d said she loved him and he
thought—he knew—she meant more to him than a casual fling.

He looked up. “Are you? Dating someone?”

She shook her head, suddenly sniffling back tears he
hadn’t seen before. “No, but that doesn’t mean I feel like you owe
me anything. Levi, that’s why I came up here. I wanted to give you
my permission to leave, not that you need it or anything. I just
wanted to say it’s okay to move forward.”

“What?”

“To leave. I never asked for promises from you. I
never offered any. It’s all right.” Her smile seemed to brighten.
“Do what you have to do. You have a business to get back to and I
have to get on with my work.”

He felt his gaze narrow on her face. “Why are you
trying to make this so easy for me? After what you said this
morning. You called me a vulture. You know you and I are at
odds.”

“Well,” she swallowed hard before saying, “that was
before. Before I got to know you. Because of what I said this
morning, Levi, I need you to know…. You may not realize it, but
you’ve added a lot to my life, just in these few days.”

He stared at her.

Putting up her hand, she said, “Don’t worry. I know
that this thing between you and I has been, has been wonderful, but
it was just a holiday fling for you—for us both at first. That
night in the hot tub was…wonderful, and all the other times, too.
I’ve had a wonderful Christmas holiday.”

She laughed. “I would never have thought I’d say
that, but this has been wonderful with you. Not just the sex, but
we laughed together and schemed together and you didn’t act like my
feelings about this season were stupid.”

Levi swallowed. He’d loved all those things, too. The
bickering and their shared dislike of all the Christmas hoop-la. In
so many ways, Holly fit him….and here she was, not throwing a hissy
because he hadn’t asked for her number. Hadn’t made her
promises.

Even though she said she loved him.

With a sudden clarity, he realized he wanted all that
with her and more, but the whole Mac thing weighed too heavily.

And here he’d been planning to sneak away in the
night with barely a “see you” before running off.

“Don’t you know? You’ve been…amazing. Not just
sexually, although that’s mind-blowing.” She crinkled her nose at
him then. “I can’t get upset because you’re leaving. I just wanted
to say, well, you’ve added a lot to my life. You came here as
determined as me to end our parents’ marriage, but even though you
hated your last step-mother and she screwed your dad over, you—you
came to realize in these few days, that my mother is different.
She’s pretty terrific.”

“She is, but—“

“Given the whole bad step-mother thing you had
before, it’s amazing you’re giving her a chance.” Holly smiled
again. “You and I came here to split them up. That was what we both
needed. To end this whole reconciled teenagers thing they have
going, and then you realized my mom’s not so bad, just like I
realized your dad’s not so bad.”

“But Holly….”

“And they’ll neither one be happy if one of their
kids hate each other.” She looked up at him. “Actually—and I’ll
deny this if you tell anyone—but I haven’t hated this Christmas.
It’s been—it’s actually been pretty great.”

“I haven’t hated it, either.” His throat felt
clogged. Levi swallowed and stared at her. He needed to get a grip,
needed to get the hell out of here. She was beautiful, naked or
clothed, but he had to remember everything he’d been working so
hard for.

Holly took a few steps toward him, reaching up to
kiss him quickly on his mouth. “Have a great trip home, Levi.”

***

Dropping his carry-on into the plastic seats facing
the tarmac, Levi fished his phone out of his pocket. Slipping away
from his father’s and Audrey’s ought to have been a relief, but his
feelings for Holly had complicated everything.

Hell, he’d struggled not to grab her when she reached
up to kiss him. Grab her and press hot kisses on her lips. The
woman knew they were locked in a war, she and he, and she knew that
as far as resources, he was Goliath to her David.

Sitting there on the chilly plastic seat, he realized
that he couldn’t go through with it. No matter what it cost him, he
couldn’t trash Holly and her documentary with Mac. Damn, he didn’t
know how it happened, but he’d fallen for her, too.

Love. He loved her. He couldn’t do this, go on as if
it was business as usual.

His options flicked through his mind. Screwing Holly
over wasn’t a choice for him, but he had to do something with this
situation. He had some responsibility to Mac, having been the guy’s
agent for four years.

Staring out into the blackness on the other side of
the airport window, he knew what he had to do. He’d call Mac and
tell him the news, but after that he’d bow out. With this kind of
offer on the table—even with the complication of Mac’s signed
contract with Holly—he’d be able to find another agent easily.
Hell, if it came to it, Levi would make a few calls for him.

It was clear to him, though, that he was out. He
couldn’t live with himself if he counseled Mac to sue Holly.

Levi flicked through the Contacts list in his phone
and pressed the screen when Mac’s name rolled up.

Holly had sent him off without a hint of her initial
hostility. If he hadn’t had a realistic view of himself, he’d have
thought he screwed her into compliance. But Holly didn’t work that
way. He realized just then how much respect he had for the woman.
He had to give it to her, tell him of her love had been ballsy.

Dammit, he couldn’t help Mac sue her. She wasn’t just
another deal that had to be handled.

For a moment, Levi let himself remember how he’d felt
handling
Holly, kissing her and driving into her soft
body.

He drew in a deep breath and then blew it out,
pushing his finger against the number on his phone. After a few
rings, it picked up.

“Hey! Levi, man, how are you doing?”

Mac sounded upbeat and unconcerned. Levi wasn’t
unconcerned, but he felt a lot better knowing he wasn’t going to
take part in messing up Holly’s plans.

The concourse was empty of other travelers, clearly
no one wanting to travel on the day after Christmas. Levi shifted
in his plastic chair.

“Mac, I got a call about the Voyager project.” Levi
tried to stop himself from grinning. No matter how the mess with
Mac played out, he was going to get to kiss Holly again—at least he
hoped so. “Mac, you got the gig, man. They want you to be ready to
shoot in May of next year.”

“Wow! Really? The Voyager film? I didn’t even know
you were working that one. OMG! That’ll be the blockbuster of the
year—whenever it comes out. Have they said?”

Wincing at the sudden shouting in his ear, Levi got
up from the airport chair and walked absently to the window. He
pretty much had the place to himself. “No. It’s too soon to
schedule a release.”

Outside the window, a large jet was being
de-iced.

“Good grief,” Mac said, lapsing into his
Midwestern-speak. “I can’t believe it. Wait till I call my mom.
She’ll go nuts.”

“Congratulations,” Levi offered. “The director is
looking forward to working with you.”