Holiday Home: A Harem Fantasy (Book Two) by Jenna Albright

Author:Jenna Albright [Albright, Jenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Thawing

I f Liam had polled a hundred straight men on if a chance to see Victoria Moreno was worth the risk—the guarantee, even—of her icy glare, he would have fully expected to receive one hundred affirmative responses. The idea of finding an anomalous “no” mixed into the results seemed as far-fetched as a blind man earning a pilot’s license.

Yet, given the circumstances, Liam found himself in a very unusual situation where he might have needed a few moments to consider a few things before answering. Starting with his knowledge that Victoria staunchly opposed the scheme that Tess and Avril had put into motion to pair him and Anna up. Based on his judgment of the strikingly beautiful woman, which only pulled from two meetings, one of which had been infinitesimally short, Victoria was a principled and scrupulous person.

So, pretty much the opposite of Avril.

On the day that all five of them had gathered to play cards, he’d also learned that she and Avril’s older brother had been engaged years ago, though Victoria had broken things off after “wising up”—how Avril had put it—to her brother’s immaturity. Those were the broad strokes that he knew about, plus one more.

It was Victoria and Avril, whose tight-knit bond—also Avril’s words—had survived the romantic drama that had ensued from the above-mentioned event, who were why the group of four had become so close. Avril and Anna were best friends, and Tess and Victoria seemed to have a similar relationship, alongside being colleagues at Bellmore. Still, it was through Avril and Victoria’s persisting friendship that they’d all come to know one another.

Even if he still didn’t quite know how their friendship—the two women were as unalike as brimstone and clear skies—had gotten so strong. But he did know that Victoria and Tess were quite close, the former having helped in the aftermath of the latter’s divorce. They apparently had a weekly movie night, as well, which was when they’d met. And while she might not be as close to Anna, they seemed on good enough terms that Victoria had been made aware of Avril and Tess’s “Find Anna a Man” plan.

Comparatively, Liam was secretly in an intimate—if somewhat undefined—relationship with Avril. Liam was secretly in an intimate—and growing more defined by the day—relationship with Tess. And to top it all off, Liam was pretending to be interested in dating Anna.

In essence, he was uniquely qualified to earn Victoria’s enmity threefold. He had already collected it regarding his faux relationship with Anna. And deep down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold onto the rest of his secrets forever.

Briefly, he considered heading back to his house to avoid that risk until later, when Avril and Anna would also be here. Quickly enough, he scowled at that downright cowardly idea. He was Tess’s next-door neighbor, not her. Finding him here, helping some with Tess’s preparation for the ensuing party, shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Which was exactly how she found him once she arrived. With the early prep in the kitchen completed, he and Tess had shifted to some final decorations.

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