The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance (13 page)

“Mr. Winters?”

Janice had just stuck her head in the
door. She’d been timid with me this week; I’m guessing that she
sensed my mood. Janice knew me well enough to know when to keep her
distance. My bite wasn’t so fierce, but sometimes my bark could get
out of control. She was great at diverting me when that happened,
but she often just tried to avoid it altogether.

“Yes, Janice?”

“I have your mail. Would you like me
to open and go through it?”

“No, I have time to do it, Janice,
thank you.” She brought in a bundle and laid it on my
desk.

“If there’s anything you need me to do
with it, I’ve finished the reports for the day and I have a free
afternoon.”

“You know what, Janice? I’m sure
there’s nothing here that can’t wait until Monday. Why don’t you go
home early? I’m sure you have some Christmas shopping or something
to do, right?” I wasn’t a complete ogre.

“Are you sure, sir?”

“I’m positive, Janice. Go home. Enjoy
your weekend.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome.” I watched her leave
and close the door. With a sigh I picked up the first piece of
mail. I could tell what it was without opening it, a Christmas
card. I slid the envelope open just to be sure. It was in fact a
card from one of my clients. I threw it in the wastebasket. I
shuffled through, picking out all of the ones that looked like
cards. I opened them one by one and threw them away. This was why
Janice offered to do my mail… the big reason, anyways. She knew
that I always threw my cards away and never sent any out. I
suspected that she kept them and sent cards out to those that had
sent me one. She’d tried to tell me once that it was rude to just
throw them away. That was one of the times she’d endured my bark.
Since then, I think she tried to intercept as many as she
could.

I finally slid open the last card in
front of me. This one didn’t have a return address, so it must have
been dropped off in the mail room, which I thought was odd. I
pulled it out and on the front it said, “Believe” and there was a
picture of an old fashioned Santa Claus sitting in a chair in front
of a hearth. I started to dump it with the rest of them, but
something about it reminded me of Robyn. I smiled when I thought
about her Santa Claus obsession and the sweet story she’d told me.
But she knew I didn’t do Christmas. I’d been clear on that. Surely
she hadn’t… I opened it and it said, “Keep Christmas in your heart
now and always.” At the bottom was Robyn’s signature. I tossed the
card down on the desk in frustration. Why can’t she get that I
don’t want anything to do with Christmas? Why can’t she understand
that I don’t want to get close to her for that reason? My head was
throbbing by the time I left to go home. I couldn’t have explained
it if someone had put a gun to my head, but for some reason I put
her card in my briefcase and took it with me. I thought it was best
if I didn’t see her until I got back from my trip, but what could
keeping the card really hurt?

ROBYN

I spent the week before the company
Christmas party altering the dress that Aaron bought me the day he
“bought” me. It wasn’t a Christmas color, but I thought I could
make it look Christmassy with the right touches. I took the floor
length and turned it into a maxi that ended just at my knees. I
used a dark silver silk scarf that I rarely wore to make a sash
around the waist, and I cut off the sleeves to make it sleeveless,
adding silver sequins to the shoulder straps. It was perfect! I
added a beautiful antique silver Santa Claus necklace Melissa
bought me for Christmas a few years ago and topped it off with a
pair of silver bell earrings. I wore my hair up in a loose bun and
wore the silver pumps I’d worn with the dress the first time
around. I thought it all came together beautifully.

I was excited about the party, mostly
because I assumed Aaron would be there. It had been weeks since I’d
laid eyes on him. The day at the park when he’d kissed me had been
the last time I saw or spoke to him. I sent him emails, left him
cookies, invited him to dinner and sent him a Christmas card. I
hadn’t heard a single word from him in return, and a smarter woman
would have given up by now, I told myself. I was plenty smart, but
I was also stubborn. I believed strongly that sometimes there are
things worth fighting for. I didn’t imagine our kiss, or the way
Aaron looked at me. He was interested in me, but for some reason he
was holding back. I wasn’t a desperate woman running after a man
who didn’t want her. I was a woman who knew what she wanted, and he
had sent me more than one signal that he wanted me too. I wasn’t
ready to give up just yet… at least not until he told me to
straight to my face.

I arrived at the party alone. It
seemed to me when I walked in that everyone had someone and I was
beginning to regret not taking a date. Even Gary brought a date.
That was like an arrow to my heart. I took a deep breath then and
walked in with my head and my spirits high. Whether or not I got to
see Aaron, and whether or not he talked to me, I was going to have
a great time tonight.

The room was decorated beautifully
with red linen tablecloths and white poinsettias on each table.
There was an eight foot Christmas tree decorated with lovely
hand-tied bows and delicate looking glass ornaments. There was a
dance floor with red and white striped posts around it and
beautiful wreaths hanging on them. It looked and smelled like
Christmas and the soft sounds of Christmas music piped out of the
speakers.

I looked around and spotted the
“marketing” table. Max and all the crew I worked with and
supervised every day were there. Max had told me they would save me
a seat. On my way over to it, I spotted Aaron. He was at the
executives table, way in the front. He looked so handsome in a
perfectly tailored black suit and red tie with a red swatch in the
pocket and stylishly mussed dark hair. I couldn’t help but look at
his lips and remember that kiss. The only problem with his look was
that as usual, he looked so serious. If he only knew how beautiful
his smile was, I think he’d use it more.

CHAPTER TWELVE

~

AARON

I was sitting at my table, talking
with Hal and Doug about boring work issues when I looked up and saw
an angel walk through the door. Robyn was wearing a dress that was
the same color as the one I’d bought her that first day, the one
she hadn’t worn to the restaurant. It was shorter and her legs were
gorgeous. I loved that color on her though, it was the exact same
blue as her eyes and the reason that I’d bought it for her in the
first place. I never told her that I’d picked it out myself. I had
the poor woman at the boutique show me ten or twelve dresses before
the color of one was just right. I wanted to go over and say hello,
but she hadn’t seen me yet. I could see her talking and laughing
with some of the people from her department. She looked so happy
and so festive; I didn’t want to interrupt. Happy and festive, I
was not.

She took a seat at the table with the
others from marketing. Part of me was happy to see that she hadn’t
brought a date. The other part of me told myself that I had a lot
of nerve. I’d basically shunned her at every turn. She’d reached
out to me so many times. I had no right to expect her to remain
single and mooning over me until this blasted holiday was over with
no matter how much I hoped that would be the case.

Dinner was served and while I ate and
tried to keep up with the conversation at my own table I couldn’t
keep from looking over at her. She was surrounded by an aura, I
think, that drew people to her. Every time I looked at her she
seemed to be making someone else laugh. People were gathered around
her and I understood why… I wanted to be there too. I knew if I was
I’d be self-conscious and I would find myself believing that people
were only being nice to me because they wanted something… everyone
except Robyn. I’d never met anyone else like her. I stayed where I
was; it was better this way, but my mood only got darker because of
it.

Dinner seemed excruciatingly long as I
forced myself to make pleasant conversation with those around me.
Everyone was raving about how delicious the salmon was and going on
about the cheesecake that was served for dessert. I ate along with
everyone else, but I barely tasted any of it. My mind was too
preoccupied to register something as insignificant as
taste.

When dinner was finally over, it was
time for me to give my annual speech. I took the stage, determined
not to look at Robyn while I was there so that I’d be able to
recall the words I’d written to address my employees and colleagues
tonight.

“Good evening everyone. Thank you all
for coming this evening. I’d like to start out by telling you all
how nice you look tonight. This is usually the only time of year I
get to see you all out in your formal wear. I have to say, you all
wear it well. It’s great to get together like this and see you all
with your significant others and having fun instead of working as
hard as you normally are when I see you. I’d like to raise a toast
to you all and that those smiles I see on your faces last through
the upcoming year.”

Everyone raised their glasses and said
their “Here here’s” and their “To you too boss’s!” I made the
mistake of glancing at Robyn then. She was holding up her glass,
smiling at me. I froze for several seconds. I couldn’t take my eyes
off of her. I suddenly realized that an uncomfortable silence had
fallen across the room. I snapped back to what I was doing and
attempted to cover for myself.

“Forgive me, I was trying to think of
the best way to say this next part. The Japanese say that business
is war. I think that most days, they’re right. Nothing about
establishing and building this business was easy. I do have to say
though that it’s a war I couldn’t have fought alone. Every one of
us in this room has fought one hell of a battle this past year. It
was a battle that we won. It shows in our numbers and our customer
satisfaction ratings. I’d love to thank you all individually, but
since I’m likely to forget someone I’ll say this: Each and every
one of us has done our part and it’s resulted in one of the best
years that Winters Incorporated has ever had, so pat yourselves on
the back, you deserve it.” Again, I looked at Robyn and she was
doing as one may have guessed, patting herself on the back. I tried
to keep a straight face, I’m not sure I was doing a very good job…
I had to struggle to remember where I’d left off.

“In the past year we have gained three lucrative partnerships. One
with Granite Projects in New Zealand, one with Kosovo Ltd. out of
Russia, and most recently, Xiong Enterprises in China. I signed the
papers and arranged the meetings, but the truth of the matter is
that if I didn’t have good people behind me doing the work, there
would have been no papers to sign. So again, thank you all.” I had
to look and see if Robyn was patting herself again. She wasn’t.
This time, she had stood up and taken a bow. This woman was killing
me.

I had to refocus again to go on and
tell everyone that their Christmas bonuses would be ready for them
to pick up either over the weekend or on Monday morning. That got a
rise out of them all and as the crowd cheered and applauded I saw
Robyn put up her fingers and rub them together. She was making a
money sign. I had to tear my eyes from her once again and get back
on track. I highlighted the upcoming year and all of the positive
things we had to look forward to. At last, I wrapped it up with,
“That’s all I want to say for now, other than to tell you that
there will be free champagne at the bar for the next hour to help
the party go with a swing!” Then I held up my glass and said,
“Cheers and happy holidays to you all.” They were clapping again
and my eyes cut back to Robyn. She had picked up about five empty
glasses and was pretending to jog over to the bar to fill them up.
She had her friends laughing and me wishing I were one of them. It
was strange that I had such good self-confidence, yet the thought
of acting silly in public made me shudder. I thought it was cute
when she did it though…

After I got off the stage, I headed
over to the bar for some of that champagne myself. This was the
part I hated the most about being the boss. As soon as I was
spotted, I practically got accosted by every ass-kisser in the
place. I understood working hard and being civil to get ahead in
your job. I didn’t understand completely cowing down to someone.
Rich or not, boss or not, I was only a man. I hated the way these
people treated me like I was more than that… mostly for what they
hoped would be their own personal gain. I heard things like,
“You’re the greatest boss ever!” and “You look great boss, have you
lost weight?” No one really saw me; they saw what I represented
instead, everyone that was, except for Robyn. I truly believed that
when she looked at me, she saw Aaron.

I glanced back over towards the table
where she sat. Like I said, she had this aura about her. She still
had people flocked around her, men and women alike. Her admirer
Gary had brought a date to the party, but it didn’t stop him from
being right there where she was, looking at her adoringly. She
wasn’t the kind of woman who didn’t have choices. I wondered if I
waited until I came back from my trip to make any kind of move, if
I would completely blow my only chance with her.