The Billionaire's First Christmas - Contemporary Romance (3 page)

The auctioneer took the bidding up to
two hundred dollars and then three before a couple of the men
dropped out. At four it was John, Gary and another man that I
thought may have worked with John in production. When it went up to
five, Gary and John were all that was left. I knew that was all
John had… I thought I was doomed to spend a day doing Gary’s
bidding until I suddenly saw a hand go up in the back and heard a
smooth, masculine voice say, “Six hundred.”

“Six fifty,” Gary said,
smugly.

“Eight hundred,” the man at the back
called out. Gary was so close to the stage that I could see his
face. I felt bad for him actually, he looked distressed. I hoped he
wasn’t going to bid so much that he wasn’t able to afford
it.

“Eight-fifty,” I heard Gary say. The
man in the back smoothly countered.

“One thousand dollars.” Gary’s face
did nothing to hide his emotions. He was sunk and he was not happy
about it. The auctioneer asked if he heard ten fifty before
wrapping up the bidding.

“Going once at a thousand, going
twice, sold for one thousand dollars.”

I was flabbergasted that
someone had paid that much money to spend the day with me. I could
see John’s face as I climbed down off the stage and it said,
“I told you so.”

I went over to see him first and he
said, “I told you there’d be a battle over you.”

Smiling I replied, “I was a little
nervous there for a minute. Gary came close.”

“Who was that who out-bid me?” John
asked.

“He was too far back and the lights
were in my eyes so I couldn’t see him. I was hoping you
knew.”

“Nope, I was too intent up here on
doing my job,” he said with a grin. “I didn’t recognize the voice
as anyone I know though.”

“Well, thank you for trying.” I gave
him a kiss on the cheek and he handed me back the five hundred
dollars I’d given him. I tucked it away to now be used for what I’d
originally intended, thanked him again and headed to the back to
see if I could catch my new employer-for-a-day.

I didn’t know who to look for or who
to ask, so I went to the table where they marked down who bought
who and for how much.

“Excuse me, can you tell me who it was
who won my auction? I’d like to thank him,” I said.

The lady at the table’s name was
Janice. I’d met her at a few meetings and knew she was Mr. Winters’
assistant. She smiled and said, “I’m sorry sweetie; he very
generously requested we keep it a secret for now. He’ll contact
you.”

“He paid you not to tell
me?”

“He didn’t pay me. He gave an extra
thousand for the charity though with that request.”

Wow, this man just laid
down two thousand dollars for me. Who in the world was
he?

~
CHAPTER THREE

~

ROBYN

I went home that night and had trouble
sleeping as my mind combed through every male employee I’d met
since beginning at Winters Inc. It was a huge corporation and our
offices alone had eighteen different divisions. We worked in a ten
story building in Manhattan and so far, I hadn’t had a need to go
above the sixth floor. That meant even if I had met everyone on the
first six floors which I strongly doubted, there were four more
floors of mystery. Well, actually only three. The top floor was
reserved for the offices of Mr. Winters himself, so I don’t think
that one counted. I doubted the man himself showed up for silly
things like that. Besides, he already employed us all, he didn’t
have to pay for one of us to work for him for a day.

I finally took a long, hot bubble bath
and drank some tea and by one or two a.m. I at last fell asleep. It
seemed like only minutes later I was awakened by an annoying
ringing sound. I couldn’t open my eyes at first; I just lay there
and wished it would stop. When I realized it was the phone, my
thoughts jumped to discovering the identity of my mystery man. I
was suddenly awake and alert. I picked up the phone and said hello.
I wasn’t disappointed.

“Hello, is this Robin?” It was the
same silky, masculine voice that I’d heard bidding for me last
night.

“Yes it is. Who is this?”

“I’m the one who bought you for the
day.”

“Don’t I get to know your
name?”

“Not just yet,” he said. I wondered
what all the mystery was about. “I have my chauffeur on his way to
your apartment. He’ll be dropping off a costume for you
soon.”

Oh great, a kinky
one
, I thought. But then he went on to say,
‘He will also have a car full of presents which you will drop off,
in costume at the local orphanages and elder care homes. The driver
will know where to take you and the presents are wrapped, but
marked with the appropriate place to drop them off.”

“That sounds like fun!” I said, “I
love Christmas!”

He didn’t respond to that. Instead, he
said, “When you finish that task, you’ll be contacted again with
further instructions.”

“Sounds like a plan!” I told him,
excitedly. I was looking forward to the day, and hopefully to
finally meeting him later on. He must be a really generous man to
hand out presents all over town, and I just couldn’t get that voice
out of my head. As I was pondering it all, my doorbell rang. I
opened the door to an older man in a chauffer’s uniform, holding a
box.

“Miss Hurst?”

“Yes,” I told him. “But please call me
Robyn.”

He smiled slightly and said, “I’m
Jeffrey. This box has the costume for you to wear and I’ll be
downstairs waiting with the car when you’re ready.”

“Okay… hey Jeffrey, who sent the
costume?”

This time he smiled outright and said,
“That’s not for me to say, Miss.” He tipped his hat at me and
turned and left. I shook my head and carried the box inside. I sat
it down on the couch and pulled off the ribbon that held it
together. When I slipped off the lid I was surprised to find a
green and red elf costume inside. It was a green, sparkly dress
that came to about mid-thigh with red fur trim around the neckline
and sleeves. There were slippers with pointed toes and silver bells
attached to them and even a hat to match the dress with pointed
ears sewn on. I was ecstatic! I loved stuff like this. This was
what Christmas was about.

I got ready as quickly as I could;
knowing Jeffrey was waiting for me. When I finished dressing I
looked in the mirror to see the perfect reflection of an elf. I was
tickled and looking forward to this a lot. I grabbed my bag and
keys and headed down to meet Jeffrey. He was standing next to the
car and when he saw me, an amused expression lit up his face. He
opened the back door of the giant limousine for me and as I slid in
on the supple leather seat he said, “You look fabulous,
Miss.”

“Why thank you, Jeffrey. I feel
fabulous.”

He closed the door and went around to
his side. There was a partition between us that I assumed was for
privacy, but I didn’t need any and the car was so big, I felt
lonely in the back all alone. I tapped on the window and Jeffrey
lowered it a few inches.

“Did you need something,
Miss?”

“It’s just lonely back here, Jeffrey.
Can we leave the partition down?” He smiled and lowered it the rest
of the way. That felt better to me, I could breathe, and Jeffrey
and I could talk.

The first place we stopped was a home
ran by social services where kids who came into the system were
sent while they awaited a spot at a foster home, or court with mom
and dad, or adoption. It was a large, three story Victorian home
that had been converted. Jeffrey told me they knew we were coming
and should be ready for us. I knocked and was let in by a plump
middle aged woman whose red dress and dark red cheeks reminded me
of Mrs. Claus. She introduced herself as the “headmistress” of the
house, Mrs. Grover. She led me and Jeffrey who was carrying a large
sack and an armload of packages behind me into a big open room with
a Christmas tree in the center and about twenty small children
gathered around it in a circle.

“Hi! I’m Robbie the elf!” I had made
up the “Robbie” at the last minute. I thought it sounded more
elf-like than Robyn.

“Hi Robbie!” came the resounding reply
from twenty small voices.

“Santa Claus is extra busy this year.
He asked that I come by and deliver some gifts to you because
you’ve all been so good.” One of the little girls in the front row
raised her hand. She was about four years old. Her hair was blonde
and had two pigtails. The dress she wore was worn, but her face was
scrubbed clean and she looked healthy. “Yes?” I said, looking at
her.

“Brady hasn’t been good. He pulls my
hair.”

I tried to keep a straight face as I
said, “Well, Santa Claus must have seen him doing something nice to
make up for it, because he was on the nice list.”

“He did give me his extra pancake at
breakfast,” she said.

I smiled then and said, “That must
have been it.”

Jeffrey helped me and we handed out
presents marked “Male” to the boys and “Female” to the girls. When
all the gifts had been handed out, we also gave them little bags of
Christmas cookies that looked homemade. When we left, they all had
smiles on their faces and my heart felt full and happy. We traveled
the city for the next few hours spreading the same kind of joy.
After the first couple of stops, the formerly stoic chauffeur was
smiling from ear to ear and laughing at all my jokes.

Carrying the packages in and
passing them out was no small task and I began to wonder if my
mystery boss was afflicted somehow and that’s why he’d hired me to
do this. He was definitely a wealthy, generous man. The kids were
getting toys and clothing that kids in two-parent homes may not
have been able to get because of the expense and the elderly were
receiving robes and slippers and for some of the men, boxes of
cigars that I know didn’t come cheap. I’d tried to prod information
out of Jeffrey along the way, but he wasn’t forthcoming with
any.

On the way to one of our stops, I
said, “I know you can’t tell me who this man is, but can you answer
just a question or two about him?”

“Hmm, that would depend on the
question, I believe,” he said with a grin.

“Is he always so generous, or only at
Christmas time?”

“He’s a very generous employer
throughout the year,” Jeffrey said. “He does always give quite a
bit to the community during the holidays.”

“Why doesn’t he take the presents out
himself?” I asked. Jeffrey looked sad.

“Christmas is a time of year that our
boss doesn’t care for. He avoids Christmas and everything he can
that goes along with it. He wants to give back to the community
however and this is a way he can do that. He usually just hires
people to deliver them. I like this idea better.”

I had a hard time imagining anyone who
didn’t like Christmas. Christmas was literally my favorite time. I
enjoyed it when I was a child even more than my
birthday.

“Why doesn’t he like Christmas?” I
asked him.

Jeffrey chuckled and said, “You’ll
have to ask him that yourself when you meet him.”

“What should I call him when we
meet?”

He laughed outright again and said,
“Tricky Miss Robyn, but I’m not falling for it.”

We took care of our last stop, a
residential care facility for the elderly. More than one of the old
ladies and even one old man got tears in their eyes when they
received their gifts. I was touched to see that my secret employer
had also thought about the elderly who weren’t able to intake sugar
because of a medical condition. He’d sent sugarless snacks that
looked as appetizing as the sugared ones.

I realized after we left the care home
how tired I was. I also realized that it was after one o’clock and
neither Jeffrey nor I had lunch yet. I was about to ask him about
it when the car phone rang. Jeffrey put it on speaker and I heard
my mystery man’s beautiful voice float out.

“Hello Robyn, how is the day
going?”

“It’s been so much fun,” I told him,
sincerely.

“Good,” he said, sounding amused. “And
how did you like the costume?”

“Loved it!” I said.