Page 64 of Holiday Home 3

Liam grunted aloud but assented to her command. The two of them texted for a while longer before he made his way back downstairs. He was midway through sitting back on his couch when he noticed something. Rather, he noticed the absence of something.

It took him about twenty seconds to scan the darkness in front of his house. Neither sight nor sound of shouting children, boots crunching on the snow, or flashes of puffy fleece coats demanded that he remain in his home.

It took him twice as long to get his shoes back on and hurry out his front door. Only a minute later, he knocked the snow offhis shoes while a gorgeous set of eyes gleamed mirthfully as he shivered inside her home.

“You should have taken the time to grab a coat, at least,” Tess said, beckoning him into her arms so she could share some of her body warmth.

“Forgot about that,” he told her, nuzzling his icy cheek against her toastier one.

“Were you that excited to come over?” she asked, rubbing his back during their embrace.

“I wasn’t pacing this time, but I was close to it.”

Tess smiled coquettishly. “I might have done a little pacing myself.”

“Really?” Liam’s heart leaped into his throat.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Yeah, of course I do.”

“Good, because it’s very true,” Tess said, kissing his cheek. “Completely and totally true.”

Keeping their bodies close, letting their lips run amok for a little while, they hurried into her kitchen. A little later, they had dinner, and then they made plans to watch a movie together. However, he wasn’t the only one looking forward to such a thing. He and Tess had both forgotten what day it was.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Movie Night

While they ate, Tess set aside her smile long enough for him to recount the events that had taken place at Mercer’s. Bringing news of an unpleasant encounter with someone in Anna’s life was starting to become an unwelcome habit, and he hoped he could break the chain when he had lunch with Anna’s mother in two days.

“I’m certain you will,” Tess said when he revealed these worries to her. “I only know her in passing, but she seemsnothing at all like the man she’s married to. And Anna has always spoken well of her. It will go well.”

“That’s the hope,” he said. “Anna should have at leastoneof her parents in her corner of the ring. Her father was… a piece of work.”

“That’s putting it kindly.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “it is.”

After dinner, they drifted toward her living room for their movie plans. With the lights off, a blanket over their laps, and their shoulders touching, Tess searched for a movie they could both enjoy. Once they’d decided how to spend the next ninety minutes of their evening, Tess set the remote down and then slipped her hand under the blanket until it found his. She leaned her head on his shoulder and wore a contented smile asThe Princess Bridebegan to play.

Liam copied her smile, basking in the balmy situation he could end his day in. As they watched the movie, Liam reckoned that this was what paradise felt like. This was the “Happily Ever After” portion that the movies never showed. Swaddled by his contentment, Liam leaned his cheek against the crown of Tess’s head. Their hands remained intermingled well through the movie's first act, as Westley sought to save the woman of his dreams from her kidnappers.

Unlike the swashbuckling duelist, Liam already had his.

Shortly before Westley’s incarceration at the hands of Prince Humperdinck, Tess softly nudged him with her elbow. When she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper.

“I’ve been putting a little bit of thought into how things will be once you head back to school,” Tess whispered.

Liam forgot all about the movie, then. Briefly, his pessimism brought him to the brink of an unpleasantly high cliff, much like the one he’d seen scaled in the film not long ago.

“Yeah? Do you want to share?”

Tess removed her head from his shoulder and turned her attention away from the movie. With a smile, she disarmed some of his fretfulness.

“Don’t sound so worried,” Tess said, kissing his shoulder. “I was merely considering some of the… hurdles we will need to overcome during the coming months.”

“There are a few,” he was forced to admit.

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