“Right.” Stavros shrugged. “Let another company deal with your three-hour martini lunches.”
“Quite.” Oliver’s grin widened, then he licked his lips. “I can hardly wait to explore Hong Kong’s delights.”
“Me, too,” Nicole said.
Oliver nearly jumped, as if he’d forgotten his bride beside him. “Naturally.” He suddenly looked at Holly. “Did Nicole convince you yet? Will you come and work as my secretary there?”
Feeling everyone’s eyes on her, her cheeks went red-hot. She stammered, “D-don’t be silly.”
“You mustn’t be selfish,” Oliver insisted. “I can’t cope without you. Who else can keep me organized in my new job?”
“And I might get pregnant soon,” Nicole said anxiously. “Who will take care of the baby if you’re not around?”
The ache in Holly’s throat sharpened to a razor blade. Watching her sister marry the man she loved and then leave for the other side of the world was hard enough. But the suggestion that Holly should live with them and raise their children was pure cruelty.
As of her birthday yesterday, she was a twenty-seven-year-old virgin. She was a secretary, a sister, and perhaps soon, an aunt. But would she ever be more? A wife? A mother?
Would she ever meet a man she could love, who would love her in return? Would she ever be the most important person in the world to anyone?
At twenty-seven, it was starting to seem unlikely. She’d spent nearly a decade raising her sister since their parents died. She’d spent the last three years taking care of Oliver at work. Maybe that was all she was meant to do. Take care of Nicole and Oliver, watch them love each other and raise their children. Maybe Holly was meant only to be support staff in life. Never the star. The thought caused a stab of pain through her heart.
She choked out, “You’ll be fine without me.”
“Fine!” Indignantly, Nicole shook her head. “It would be a disaster! You have to come with us to Hong Kong, Holly. Please!”
Her sister spoke with the same wheedling tone she’d used since she was a child to get her own way. The same one she’d used four weeks ago to convince Holly to arrange her sudden wedding—using the same Christmas details that Holly had once dreamed of for her own wedding someday.
Until she’d realized there was no point in saving all her own Christmas wedding dreams for a marriage that would never happen. If any man was ever going to be interested in her, it would have happened by now. And it hadn’t. Her sister was the one with the talent in that arena. Blonde, tiny and beautiful, Nicole had always had a strange power over men, and at twenty-two, she’d learned how to use it well.
But even Holly had never imagined, when she’d introduced her to Oliver last summer at a company picnic, that it would end like this.
Looking at her sister, Holly suddenly noticed Nicole’s bare neck. “Where’s Mom’s gold-star necklace, Nicole?”
Touching her bare collarbone above her neckline, her sister ducked her head. “It’s somewhere in all the boxes. I’m sure I’ll find it when I unpack in Hong Kong.”
“You lost Mom’s necklace?” Holly felt stricken. It was bad enough their parents hadn’t lived to see their youngest daughter get married, but if Nicole had lost the precious gold-star necklace their mother had always worn…
“I didn’t lose it,” Nicole said irritably. She shrugged. “It’s somewhere.”
“And don’t try to change the subject, Holly,” Oliver said sharply. “You’re being stubborn and selfish to stay in New York, when I need you so badly.”
Selfish. The accusation hit Holly like a blow. Was she being selfish to stay, when they needed her? Selfish to still hope she could find her own happiness, instead of putting their needs first forever?
“I…I’m not trying to be,” she whispered. As the limo drove north toward Midtown, Holly looked out the window, toward the bright Christmas lights and colorful window displays as the limo passed the department stores on Sixth Avenue. The sidewalks were filled with shoppers carrying festive bags and wrapped packages, rushing to buy gifts to put under the Christmas tree and fill stockings tomorrow morning. She saw happy children wearing Santa hats and beaming smiles.
A memory went through her of Nicole at that age, her smiling, happy face missing two front teeth as she’d hugged Holly tight and cried, “I wuv you, Howwy!”
A lump rose in Holly’s throat. Nicole was her only family. If her baby sister truly needed her, maybe she was being selfish, thinking of her own happiness. Maybe she should just—
“Let me get this straight.” Stavros Minos’s voice was acidic as he suddenly leaned forward. “You want Miss Marlowe to quit her job at Minos International and move to Hong Kong? To do your office work for you, Oliver, all day, then take care of your children all night?”
Oliver scowled. “It’s none of your business, Stavros.”
“Your concern does you credit, Mr. Minos,” Nicole interceded, giving him a charming smile, “but taking care of people is what Holly does best. She’s taken care of me since I was twelve. I can’t imagine her ever wanting to stop taking care of me.”
“Of us,” Oliver said.
Stavros lifted his sensual lips into a smile that showed the white glint of his teeth as he turned to Holly. “Is that true?”
He was looking at her so strangely. She stammered, “A-anyone would feel the same.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Of course you wouldn’t,” Oliver said with a snort, leaning back in the seat. “Minos men are selfish to the bone. We do what we like, and everyone else be damned.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” his wife said.
He winked. “It’s part of our charm, darling.”
But Nicole didn’t seem terribly charmed. With a flare of her nostrils, she turned to Holly. “I can’t just leave you in New York. You wouldn’t know what to do with yourself. You’d be so alone.”
She stiffened. “I have friends…”
“But not family,” she said impatiently. “And it’s not very likely you ever will, is it?”
“Will what?”
“Have a husband or children of your own. I mean, come on.” She gave a good-natured snort. “You’ve never even had a serious boyfriend. Do you really want to die alone?”
Holly stared at her sister in the back of the limo.
Nicole was right. And tomorrow, for the first time in her life, Holly would spend Christmas Day alone.
Christmas, and the rest of her life.
Her eyes met Stavros’s in the back of the limo. His handsome features looked as hard and cold as a marble statue, his black eyes icy as a midwinter’s night. Then his expression suddenly changed.
“I’m afraid Miss Marlowe can’t possibly go to Hong Kong,” he said. “Because I need another executive assistant. So I’m giving her a promotion.”
“What?” gasped Oliver.
“What?” gasped Nicole.
Holly looked at him sharply, blinking back tears. “What?”
His expression gentled. “Will you come work directly for me, Miss Marlowe? It will mean long hours, but a sizable raise. I’ll double your salary.”
“But—” Swallowing, Holly whispered, “Why me?”
“Because you’re the best.”