Santa Baby (7 page)

However, something was nagging her in the
back of her mind. It kept telling her it was almost like cheating
if she did not telling him. He was such a straightforward type of
guy.

With anxiety, the stroke of seven approached
and there stood Mr. Client himself. All gussied up and with him
came the smell of too much cologne. She made a point of telling him
firmly. “Now Sam I have to tell you I have a strict no dating the
client rule. This is just a work dinner meeting between us. In
fact, I insist on paying.”

Then the grin on his face crawled across her
skin. “I can change your mind about that.”

Oh god he was one of those. “Just work.” She
kept repeating as he followed her out of the office to the
elevators.

What could come next was just about the most
devastating experience in her life.

First, she let him help her with her coat in
the lobby. Then as she turned, he held mistletoe over her head and
laid a kiss on her lips. As her shocked eyes refocused she saw her
man, John, with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, in a suit standing
in the lobby, leaning against the wall. As if he had been standing
there for a while waiting on her since their last call. He looked
heart broken.

Before she could explain or shout out. His
flowers had dropped, and he was out the door and gone down the
street.

Sam’s hand touched the small of her back and
started to guide her out the door. He was oblivious to what she
just saw. She pushed his hand away and tried to catch up with John,
but he was gone. By the time Sam caught up with her outside, he
seemed agitated. As was she.

Then she excused herself from the date, and
Sam seemed beyond pissed. She tried to explain, but it seemed she
was only wasting her breath. She grabbed a taxi and told the cabbie
John’s hotel address while tears streamed down her face. She only
hoped she would catch him.

John was furious with himself for assuming
she would be different. To think that only one night with a
stranger, and he was in love. He thought there was something there.
Yeah he knew it was quick and fast, but he went with his gut.
Obviously, he was wrong. He thought surprising her with a night out
on the town in a limo to see the holiday lights and sounds of New
York would be just about the most romantic thing he had done in a
long time. Now he was having the driver head to a local nightspot
where some old girlfriends of his would surely be.

With only five days until Christmas, he
planned to stay with his brother until the New Year. Now he was
thinking of catching a flight sooner than later.

Only once before, had he let a woman get this
close, and it had been a long time since he let his guard down. He
knew he had put up a brick wall and began living the life of the
perpetual bachelor. However, the last time he had his heart broken
and then closely followed by the death of his mom, he was
devastated. How he let one woman grab a hold of his heart so
quickly he will never know.

How dare she do this to him? He thought long
and hard as he watched the lights of New York City out of the
window of the limo.
Never again
. He repeated to himself over
and over.
Never again
. Then he made a last-minute decision
and instructed the limo driver to the cemetery where his mother was
buried. A visit to her grave always made him feel better.

Chapter Eight

“Callie we hate to let you go, but you just
lost us our biggest account.” The mumbling of her silver hair,
over-weight boss, tumbled around in her head as he went on and on
about her being a great employee, but. He kept talking to her while
she was packing up her personal processions into a small brown
cardboard box with handles. Well, he could shove that 'but' where
the sun does not shine. Nobody gets fired on Christmas Eve. Not at
least without some type of warning. She knew her client was pissed,
but this went beyond what she expected. Two of her other top
clients joined forces with him, and her boss said they would not
come back to this company until she was gone. She was framed. She
was at a loss.

At that moment, her life sucked badly. Her
nights filled with tears, and her heart aching more for John then
about losing this job. She knew she could get another job but not
this prestigious of one. Her sublease apartment was paid in advance
for six months, so she could go a few months without a job.
However, she did not think she could go a lifetime without
explaining to John. He may not want her back, but she wanted to
explain and the phone messages she left were not being
returned.

With the snow falling in sheets of big white
flakes, she stood outside looking up into the falling flakes with
her cardboard box in hand and tears filling her eyes once more.
Nobody should get fired on Christmas Eve. Nobody.

She walked the couple of blocks to the subway
and went underground for a temporary recluse from the upper street
side hustle and bustle of everyone prepping for the last minute
holiday festivities. What was worst was she was going back to her
empty apartment.

Even her two close friends had left town the
next day after John had seen her kiss to Sam. They had offered to
cancel their trip to the Bahamas, but they went there every
Christmas, and she could not see burdening the guilt of cutting in
on their trip. She had appeared chipper the morning they left for
their flight and now here she stood, fired from a job she worked
hard for, on her way to her empty apartment.

The ride in the subway was packed, and the
walk into her apartment was tricky. She had to pass the bar on her
way, but she did not have the strength to peek in. She could take
the hint to his non-returned calls as a sign he was done with her.
And, she couldn’t blame him. Her steps in front of the bar left her
feet feeling like they were packed with cement.

The climb up the ten steps outside her
building left her exhausted.
For crying out loud, it was only
ten steps.
She told herself. However, deep down, she knew it
was not the steps they were catching her breath, but the onset of a
personal depression that kept compressing her chest, gripping her
heart.

By the time, the elevator made it to her
fourth floor; she could not stop the tears from flowing like a
river. She let her box drop to the floor with a resounding thunk
and then she stilled herself. She heard Christmas music coming from
her apartment and what sounded like movement of feet. She did not
think her neighbor’s trip was canceled, or that they flew back
early, but she would not put it past them.

She opened the door with her key and then
scooted her box to her inside hall with her foot. Shutting and
locking the door behind her, she called out to her neighbors
thinking it had to be them. Who else could it be?

Then the top of a Santa hat appeared around
the corner and the face to follow filled her heart with sunshine
and warmth on what felt like the coldest, bleakest day of the
year.

“Merry Christmas. Surprise.” His rich and
hearty voice sang out. She dropped her keys and tossed her coat to
the floor. She all but rammed right into him as he came at her with
open arms.

“I… you... I?” Then she felt his delicious
mouth cover hers in a deep sensual kiss that left her feeling as if
the room was spinning.

As they pulled apart, he looked down into her
eyes with serious concern. “You ok?” After her last call about
losing her job and the company being out to get her, he figured
that he had been the ass in assuming she had been cheating or up to
something. He hated himself for wasting the time he had in not
returning her calls.

He held her as she cried and shook from the
sobs of tears. He guided her over to her couch, trying to get some
sense out of her. He could tell she just needed to get it all out
in the open even though her words were hard to understand between
the tears. However, what he did understand was ‘I missed you so
bad, and I didn’t want to lose you.’ That was enough for him to
hear.

By the time she seemed to be in sniffle mode,
he heard the buzzer on her oven. He was here preparing her a
Christmas Eve feast to fill their bellies. He got all the trimmings
and a couple of good bottles of wine for her to choose from. He had
wanted to call her but surprising her like this seemed more his
style.

Besides she had no idea that when he dropped
her off that day, that this was one of his real estate buildings he
had recently acquired in a real estate transaction for preserving
old buildings in New York. So getting the building manager to open
the doors to him was easy.

He laid a soft kiss on her lips and excused
himself to her kitchen.

Callie sat there in awe. With a million and
one questions going through her brain but the top two was, how did
he get in here and where did he get that silly elf apron that he
was wearing? She got herself up and headed into the bathroom to
freshen up.

She looked bleak. Her waterproof mascara had
given her raccoon eyes, and her face was splotchy red and puffy.
She splashed cold water on her face and then proceeded to try to
make herself attractive to the only thing that mattered to her in
her life right now. By the time she changed into a tight
cream-colored low cut sweater with her favorite lace bra on
underneath. She slid on black leggings and John’s hotel slippers
that she had worn every day since leaving his hotel. She made her
way to her kitchen where she was once again awestruck by his
surprise.

Her table was set with candles lit, glasses
of wine filled and a beautiful display of home-cooked food. The
look on her face must have said it all as he guided her into a
chair and proceeded to take off the elf apron.

So the first question out of her mouth was an
odd one, he gave her that. “Where did you get that elf apron?”
Causing a seductive smile to cross his lips and a slight shrug with
his shoulders thinking how silly he might have appeared. However,
he did not care. He loved the holidays.

As he raised his glass of wine to her to make
a toast, he realized that through all that happened, he was not
going to let her go so easy next time. He was going to put up a
fight against any man. Her red curly hair caressed the v of her
sweater. Making her green eyes sparkle. It made him think he was
the one that got the best present of all.

“The apron, if you must know, was just
something I picked up at the grocery store. Did you know I had to
park three blocks away? I own this building, and I have to park
three blocks away.” He took a sip of wine at the same time she did,
then I think the last comment soaked in quickly.

“You own this building?” She looked at him
with a wonderment of just who the man really was. She had sensed he
was above and out of her league. However, she really did not have a
clue what he did or who he truly was. Oddly enough she didn’t
really care. She had a feeling; she was going to get the chance to
know him.

“I think I mentioned my business is
investments. Well, this happens to be a building that I just
acquired, but we can talk about all that later. You looked
exhausted when you walked through that door. I want us to eat, and
then we can catch up on each other's lives. Try the pork loin, its
tender.” He took another bite and smiled at the woman he wanted to
make his future wife. He had realized just like that, what she
meant to him, and it was not until he lost her that he realized he
had found the woman of his dreams.

Well, he did not have to ask her twice. She
had not had a decent meal in days, and the stress of the losing him
had left her sleepless. She dived into her meal with gusto as she
snuck in questions here and there for him to answer. Which, he did
with a surprisingly amount of truth. He did not gloss anything
over, and it almost scared her to find out she had fallen for a man
who was a millionaire. A man who started out in sales like herself
and found ways to make his money work for him. She envied him.

What surprised her most was he once had
wanted to marry and have kids of his own but got his heart broken.
Then he just did not go out looking for another. He even mentioned
how he was so quick to write her off until their first kiss. He
said he was had, so she had to tell him.

“If all I got that day was your kiss; you
would have made me the happiest woman alive that day. Instead, I
got seduced. I got my gifts I needed after all. Shipped and
delivered. I got my first fun, playing dress-up, night out in New
York. Yes, your brother’s bar was my first time out to have fun.
Then you seduced me and you got me, hooked that is. You have been
all I can think about since that first kiss.” She winked at him
over her last sip from her wine glass.

He felt taken aback. He just realized they
both were heading in the same direction, and it scared him some.
However, this time he would fight for her to keep her.

“I hope you saved room for desert?” He began
to stand and clear away their dishes. He already had coffee brewed,
and he started to make them each a cup of coffee.

“I’m stuffed. I ate more tonight than I think
I ate all week. Besides…” She stood to wrap her arms around him and
reached up to pull him in close for a kiss.

“You are dessert.” He finished her
sentence.

Like that first night of passionate love
making this night went just as well. Kisses in all the right places
and the first good night sleep in a long time for both.

Something awoke her early, and it was the
sound of that song. She rolled over and saw him strolling in with
his muscular naked chest with only a Santa hat on and a pair of red
silk boxers. The look on his face said he was up to something. And
up he was. He definitely was a morning person. He did have one hand
behind his back, and he pulled it forward just as he sat beside her
on the bed next to where she laid. As he pulled his hand around,
she started to sit up with the sheet tucked under her arms. She
looked at the black velvet box he presented, and she cocked her
head to one side in curiosity. “What’s this?”