Release!:A Walker Brothers Novel (The Walker Brothers Book 1)(31)

I’d compromise and hope most of the craziness had ended during the wee hours of the morning.

Nobody would ever miss me in the office since the entire company had the day off. I would have been the only one who was actually in the office tomorrow, and it probably would have been a productive day. But it suddenly didn’t matter.

“Okay,” she agreed hastily. “Can I use the computer? I can look at the sales online.”

“Of course. It’s your computer.” She was taking it whether she wanted it or not.

“I meant your desktop.”

“Use yours.” I wanted her to get used to having her own stuff.

“I don’t have one.”

I picked up the new laptop on the floor and handed it to her. “Let’s go find the sales.” Those words were foreign to me even as they rolled off my tongue. I’d never looked at sale items in my entire life.

“Trace, I can’t accept all this—”

“Of course you can,” I insisted, getting irritated because she wouldn’t take what I’d willingly given to her.

“I hurt your feelings,” she observed quietly. “Please understand how I feel. I’m not used to this.”

“Get used to it,” I told her in an ornery voice that I reserved for stubborn people, which fit Eva perfectly.

Making sure she had a good grip on the computer, I gave free reign to my caveman instincts and picked her up bodily and carried her out of the room before she could launch another protest.

I was going to win.

I always do.





Chapter Ten

Eva





The following few weeks that I spent alone with Trace were some of the best days of my life. The Christmas tree was beautiful. Once I’d convinced him to get a real tree, we’d had a wonderful evening decorating…after Trace had figured out how to put on the lights. That particular process had been filled with plenty of curses that made me laugh, watching him struggle with strings of lights. I was still amazed that he’d never decorated a tree himself, even as a child.

I got unlimited access to his kitchen, and his staff was more than willing to fetch anything I wanted from the grocery store. I’d borrowed his car a few times to go out myself, and he’d never blinked an eye at giving over the keys to one of his expensive vehicles. I just wished he’d had a Chevy or Ford in his collection, something that didn’t make me a nervous wreck to drive. Unfortunately, I’d been stuck driving a Ferrari. Trace had insisted that it was the least expensive of the lot, but I was too stressed to ask exactly what it was worth. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know.

A few days before Dane’s arrival with the bitchy Britney, I sat in the living room just staring at the enormous tree we’d put together. Trace was on the couch devouring the frosted Christmas sugar cookies I’d made earlier in the day, and judging by the ecstatic grunts he made between bites, he liked them.

I’d made us both a coffee to go with the cookies, well aware that the happiness I’d found in the last few weeks was about to come to an end. Once his brothers arrived, the acting part of this job was going to begin. Strangely, it wasn’t going to be hard to pretend I cared about Trace. Honestly, I was getting so addicted to him that it was pathetic. Because I was so attracted to him in some strange and mysterious ways, the sexual tension was always there, but I also just…liked him. I loved being with him. He made me feel important, like I was somehow special.

“Jesus, Eva. Don’t ever leave me. These are the best cookies I’ve ever had,” he said as he came up for air from his cookie orgy.

I smiled at him over the mug of coffee I was holding, from my position on the other end of the couch. “You said that about the fudge and the other cookies, too.” God, I loved that about him. I loved the way he didn’t think twice about complimenting me for something he enjoyed. Or how good I looked, no matter how sloppily I was dressed. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t get encouragement from Trace for one reason or another, and I wasn’t used to being praised. It warmed me like nothing else possibly could.

He nodded. “They were amazing, too.”

I rolled my eyes at him, but I secretly loved the flattery. “So tell me about Dane. He’ll be here Monday.” It was Friday night, and I still knew so little about his family. Sebastian would arrive next week as well, and I felt like I didn’t have the details a fiancée would have on Trace’s family.

Trace and I talked about little things, and he’d shared stories about him and his two brothers from his childhood. They’d sounded like happy times, but I was interested to know what had happened since then.