His First Christmas: The Lonely Billionaire - A Heart-Warming Romance Novel by Holly Rayner, Lara Hunter

chuckling. “Don’t worry about it. Alcohol makes people do strange things.”
     
    Anna’s face was flushed. I can’t believe I did that, she groaned internally. And I can’t even blame the booze, he’s just being nice. To make things worse, Anna already, secretly, wanted to do it again.
     
    Anna changed the subject, face still burning. “Here’s what I don’t get… You come up here to avoid thinking about what happened, but this is… where it happened. Wouldn’t it make more sense to go be secluded in a different location?” She bit her lip, wondering if her question had crossed a line.
     
    “You know…I never really thought about it like that. My reasoning for coming here is simply that I needed a place that’s in the middle of nowhere, where I can hide away and think “Screw the world,” for a fortnight.”
     
    Anna lay down flat on the floor and turned her face to the ceiling. “Maybe, subconsciously, you feel the need to confront your demons,” she suggested.
     
    Jason was quiet for a minute then laughed. “If that’s the case…it’s too bad it hasn’t worked,” he said ruefully. “How come you’re so knowledgeable about demons, anyway, do you have experience yourself?” he asked, turning towards her.
     
    Anna focused on staring at the implausibly high ceilings. “Actually, I do, yes. In fact, I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t,” she said. Jason looked at her, intrigued.
     
    “When I was eight years old, my house burned down—”
     
    “Wait, wait, wait, wait. What?” Jason said.
     
    Anna laughed. “ Yes, ” she said.
     
    “But you just said you had a standard childhood!”
     
    “Okay… Standard childhood, plus fire, I guess.”
     
    “Right,” Jason said. “And the wrestling of demons part of it?”
     
    “Well… the fire was, you know, traumatic for my whole family. I developed a huge fear of fire. Even candle flames freaked me out—”
     
    “Oh God, really? Are you sure this fire here is okay?” Jason said, making a motion towards dimming the flames.
     
    Anna turned on her side and put a hand on his arm to halt him. They caught each other’s eyes, illuminated by the orange glow.
     
    “No, really, I’m fine,” she insisted with a smile, lying back down to face the ceiling. “I wrestled with my demons, and now they’re not my demons anymore. My friends recommended that I go see somebody after I flipped out at a party that I didn’t know was a bonfire. I started seeing a therapist not long after, and it helped,” Anna said simply. “It was mostly learning to re-associate fire with things that weren’t horrible, life-changing events—hypnosis, talking things out. You know, the usual,” she explained.
     
    “Hypnosis, huh? I don’t think I could ever do that,” Jason said skeptically.
     
    Anna shrugged, her shoulders brushing up against the soft white carpet. “I mean… personally, I don’t think it matters what you do to work out your issues, as long as you do something. ”
     
    “Got you,” Jason said. “You have your hypnosis, and me, I have my whiskey,” he said wryly, raising his glass.
     
    “I’m not sure that’s the most constructive way of dealing with things,” Anna said lightly. “But saying that, pour me another glass, will you? You weren’t kidding when you said this is good whiskey,” she said, shifting her weight to her side.
     
    Jason obliged. “That’s one good thing about being rich,” he started, “good alcohol.” Passing over her refilled glass, he said, “I take it, then, that you’re not going to make the drive back today?”
     
    “No,” Anna sighed. “You’re right. There was never any chance I could drive back in this weather. I was just being optimistic because I was so keen to get back to my family.”
     
    There was a brief silence as they drank. Now lying facing each other, in the glow of the fire, Anna began to feel uncomfortable with the unacknowledged romantic subtext—especially