Page 56 of Flirting with My Billionaire Enemy

“That looks good.”

“I’ll get you one,” Lidia says to her. “You have a seat and enjoy Mr. Kaison.”

“Thank you,” Ariana says, then looks at me. “I’m still not sure I’ll ever get used to having someone wait on me like that.”

“Didn’t your grandma do that for you?” I ask.

“I never let her. I always was the one taking care of her,” Ariana says.

Lidia comes into the room and sets the plate in front of her. “You just relax. It’s my job to feed you as long as you’re a guest at this house, and I love what I do.”

Ariana’s shoulders relax at Lidia’s words.

“You’ll get used to it,” I say.

“You think I’ll be back here again?”

I smile at her. “If I have anything to do with it, you will. I’d like you to stick around, spend time with me and my family for Christmas. That is, unless you already have plans,” I say.

She shakes her head. “Farah and her parents are going to Europe with her boyfriend.”

“So you’ll just be alone on Christmas?” I ask.

“I hadn’t really thought about it, but yeah.” She shrugs. “It wouldn’t be the first Christmas I’ve spent alone.”

“That’s just wrong,” I say. “You’re coming here then. We’ll throw you the perfect Keith family Christmas. Lidia makes cinnamon rolls that morning that are to die for. And there’s ham and turkey for Christmas dinner.”

“That sounds amazing. I probably would have had takeout that night.”

“Alone in your apartment. Wait, I’m assuming you have an apartment. We haven’t really talked about this.”

“It’s an apartment. I share it with my cousin Farah.”

All this time, I’d been so focused on my family that I hadn’t asked her a lot about hers or her living situation. “The truth is, I want to know everything. I want to know you, Ariana.”

“I’m pretty boring,” she says.

“Nothing about you is boring. Because you’re amazing to me.”

A blush comes over Ariana’s cheeks. “No one’s ever told me that before.”

“Well, get used to hearing it.”

Her shoulders stiffen. “What about my job? Can’t I get fired if I let you do something like that?”

“No one will fire you, Ariana. My family adores you.”

“You’ve got that right!” My mom calls from the living room. I’ve been so busy talking to Ariana that I haven’t even noticed her sitting there. But now that I see her there, it’s pretty clear that she’s been listening in for a while because she’s grinning ear to ear, probably planning out our wedding and what baby clothes she wants to buy for us. She tends to get a little carried away with the romantic stuff.

“Speaking of adoring you,” I say. “I really enjoyed your book. It was fantastic. I don’t read romance much, but your book read like a romcom movie, and I’ve seen plenty of those. I can see a lot of potential for your book to be pretty successful. It seems like you read a lot.”

“I do, and I have for years.”

“Ariana wrote a book?” Mom gets up and comes over to us.

“Sorry about that,” I say. “I hope it’s okay that I shared that just now.”

“It’s okay,” she says. “I’ve decided to try self-publishing, and now that the manuscript is almost finished, I’m excited to get the word out.”

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