The Homespun Holiday (6 page)

Millicent Robbins stared blankly
into her closet for the fourth time in fifteen minutes and wondered if the good
doctor would believe her if she called and canceled because she had nothing to
wear.  It wasn’t quite a lie.  Honestly, her wardrobe mostly consisted of
colorful scrubs for work and what she considered her ‘mom’ uniform, which was
mostly comprised of jeans, yoga pants and tee shirts.  She had a couple of
dresses that she wore to church on Sundays, but nothing fancy.  She didn’t own
a thing that screamed, ‘Take me!  I’m yours!’

Flipping through the hangers, she
chewed on her lower lip.  It would have helped if she’d asked where he was
taking her tonight.  Were they going to the local café ran by the McKinnon
family or were they going to venture out to a nicer restaurant?  Maybe he was
planning on cooking for her at his house.   The options were endless.   She
paused when she spotted a dress she’d bought last year when one of the stores
in the Knoxville mall had its after-Christmas sale.  It was a deep green, off
the shoulder velvet dress that hung just past her knees.  It was made to fit
tightly, highlighting her curves rather than trying to hide them.

The bottom line was the dress was
hot
. 
And she meant that in the figurative sense.  That dress would make her body
look
good
.  She’d worn it exactly one time to a family friend’s wedding
and she’d been asked out at least four times, compliments of her well-fitted
dress.  Did she want to tempt the Doc tonight, she asked herself nervously as
she pulled the velvet sheath from the closet and held it up in front of her.

There was really only one answer to
that.

Hell, yes!!

Giggling at her own silliness,
Millie quickly hung the dress on the door and traded the bra she was wearing
for one that didn’t have straps.  Opting on the silky black matching panty and
bra set she had stashed for a special occasion, Millie changed quickly.  She wasn’t
sure what it was about wearing matching panties and bra that made her feel so
naughty.  Perhaps it was because she was dressing with half her mind on
un
dressing
later…maybe with a certain someone watching…

Her body froze as she realized
where her mind had just gone, Millie swallowed hard.  What the hell was she
contemplating?  Sleeping with Doc?  She couldn’t do that?  Could she?  Did he
even see her that way?  Or was she getting excited for a night of nothing more
stimulating than planning his holiday with his family?

Crap, what the hell was wrong with
her?  This was crazy.  She was acting like a crazy woman.  Correction, she was
acting like a crazy,
horny
woman.  It’s like she was suddenly swimming
in and swamped with hormones, and she could think of nothing but jumping on
Mack and having her wicked way with him.   Or maybe it was just the realization
that she hadn’t had sex in… holy hell, she hadn’t had sex in
three years
! 
And that sex she’d had three years ago with her ex-husband had been mediocre at
best
.  Good sex was more like six years ago. 

Sighing heavily, she hung her
head.  Maybe she owed her body a good orgasm that wasn’t caused by the battery-operated
boyfriend she kept buried in her nightstand.  She could have sex without
strings, right?  She was young.  She was hip.  She could do the mattress dance
with a guy and not get attached to him, couldn’t she?

Whether she could or couldn’t,
however, was irrelevant.  She definitely
shouldn’t
be thinking about
having sex with Dr. Mackenzie Daniels.  He was her employer.  More than that,
he was a pretty great boss, allowing her to bring Paisley into the office when
she had no babysitter and allowing her to have a flexible schedule when things
got hairy at home.  Bosses like that did not grow on trees.  And as much as she
enjoyed watching his fantastic body with its toned ass and muscular legs move
around the office, that was as far as it could go between them.  He was the
most decadent of eye candy, but, unfortunately, she was on a permanent man
diet.  Now, if somebody would just explain that to her whiny vagina, things
would be swell.

Standing up beside the bed, she
reached for her dress, taking it off the hanger and slipping it over her head. 
She felt the soft material slide down her body and over her hips.  A quick walk
to the bathroom off her bedroom to look in the full length mirror hanging on
the back of the door confirmed just what she’d hoped.  The dress still looked
killer on her.  Turning from side to side, she looked at her outfit from every
angle, trying to find any flaws and thankfully found none.

“Okay,” she whispered, smoothing
the velvet material over her hips one last time before pulling up the zipper on
the side, “I can do this.  It’s just a meal with my boss.  My boss who says
he’s also my friend.  My friend who I’d like to see naked,” she murmured to
herself, wincing when she realized what she’d just said.  “Oh, God,” she
groaned.  “I want to fuck my boss.  I wanna fuck him hard in
bad
and
dirty, dirty ways
,” she whined plaintively to her reflection.

She’d already done her hair.  It
was nothing complicated, just a simple French twist held steady by a few bobby
pins.  It was actually a pretty standard hairdo for her.  With a five-year-old
kid that kept her hopping from dusk ‘til dawn, she sort of had to rely on a
simple yet classic style when it came to hair and makeup.  Reaching for her
favorite tube of lipstick, she quickly put it on and smushed her lips
together.  A dash of face powder and a quick swipe of the mascara wand later,
she was as ready as she was ever gonna be.

Grateful that her parents had said
they’d watch Paisley overnight, she wouldn’t have to rush for a change.  She
could actually take her time at dinner and enjoy Mack’s company without one eye
on the clock.  “Speaking of clocks,” she muttered out loud as she moved into
her living room, clicking off lights along the way.  A quick glance at the
glowing numbers on the cable box showed it was almost six and she briefly
wondered if Doc was going to stand her up.  The flash of headlights shining
through her living room’s bay window a few seconds later quickly put her mind
at ease, and for a couple of moments she was giddy with excitement, almost as
if the football captain was picking up the head cheerleader for a date.

“Get ahold of yourself, Mills,” she
chided herself sharply as she reached for the remote control on the coffee
table to turn off the Christmas carol cd she’d been playing on the stereo. 
“Mackenzie Daniels is
just
a man like any other man.  You’ve been on
dates before, woman; this is nothing special.”

Except even as she said the words,
she knew she was lying.  This was something special.   In fact, special wasn’t
a strong enough word.  This was extraordinary, and she knew it.  Because Mack
Daniels didn’t date, or, at least, nobody she knew had ever witnessed him on a
date. 

And that would make her the first.

“Oh, God!  I’ll be the first date
he’s gone on since moving to Paradise!  And everybody that sees us is gonna
know it,” she yelped out loud, her eyes darting toward the door as the doorbell
chimed.  “Oh, shit!  Shit, shit, shit!” she whimpered as she took an
involuntary step backward and bumped into the Christmas tree in the corner. 
“Damn,” she groaned as she stumbled over one of the wrapped presents underneath
the tree, “Get a grip, Millicent.”

“Millie?” she heard him call from
outside the door.  “You okay?  I heard you curse.”

Well, crap.  It appeared that the
man had not only a body made for sinnin’, but the hearing of a bat, too.  She
was gonna be in for a hell of a night, she could already tell.  “I’m fine, Doc”
she called back to him.  “Just stubbed my toe,” she lied nervously as she
hurried toward the door, pasting what she hoped was a believable smile on her
lips and opening the door for him.  “Hi,” she greeted him brightly, stepping
back and motioning him inside her home.

“Wow,” she heard him breathe as she
closed the front door behind him.  “You look gorgeous, Millie.”

Turning to face him, her forced
smile became a genuine one as his compliment warmed her.  “Thank you.  You look
pretty handsome yourself,” she replied honestly as her eyes roamed over him.  Standing
there, dressed in one of his navy suits with his blonde hair slightly mussed, he
looked mouthwateringly delicious.  And damn it, she wanted to take a big ole
bite of him.

“Millie?” Mack called to her. 
“Millie, did you hear me?”

Blinking rapidly as she recognized
the fact that Doc had been speaking to her, she shot him an apologetic smile. 
“Sorry, what did you say?”

“I asked about your foot,” he said,
nodding down at her bare feet.  “Is your toe okay?”

“Oh!  Yes.  It’s fine,” Millie
returned dismissively.  “Just a little stumble over one of the gifts over there,”
she added, gesturing at the brightly wrapped Christmas presents under the tree.

“Oh, God,” Mack groaned, staring at
the gifts under the tree.  “If my family is coming, that means I have to have
gifts for them, too, doesn’t it?” he asked, obviously put off by the idea of
shopping.

“Well, it is customary to give out
presents on Christmas morning,” Millie returned carefully, trying not to grin
when her employer made a face, sticking out his tongue and shuddering
dramatically.  “You’ve never given gifts before?” she asked slowly, watching
him closely.

“I gave them money.  Or sometimes,
gift cards if they told me what store they liked.  But actually going into a
store and buying some crap that I had to come home and wrap in stupid ass
paper?  No, I’ve never done that.”

“Well, if you’re going to try to
provide a traditional Christmas with you mom and sister, I’m afraid shopping
for gifts and wrapping them will be part of the process,” she informed him,
choking on her laughter.

“Well, fuck,” Mack muttered, his
shoulders sagging.  Turning his head, he offered Millie a pitiful look of
despair.  “I don’t suppose you’d consider…”

Holding up a hand, Millie began to
shake her head.  “I can NOT do your Christmas shopping
for
you, Boss.  I
don’t even know your momma or sister.  A gift should come from the heart of the
giver.  Only you know them well enough to know what they’d like.”

“They’re women.  I don’t shop for
women.  I didn’t even shop for women when I was
married
to one.”

Millie giggled and shook her head
incredulously.  “No wonder you’re divorced.”

“Very funny,” he grumbled. 
“Seriously though, I usually just gave my ex a gift card to whatever fancy ass
boutique she was favoring that year.  She seemed happy enough with it.”

“She must have been a very unique
woman then,” Millie returned, being careful to keep her voice bland and without
judgment.

“Tiffany was a bitch to the nth
degree, babe.  She was a money hungry slut that enjoyed my money, but hated
most everything else about me.  Sadly, I didn’t realize it before I put my gold
on her finger.”

“Ouch.” Millie grimaced, her mind
completely missing that he’d just used an endearment.  “That’s… harsh.”

Mack arched an eyebrow at that
remark.  “Believe me, I could say a lot worse about her, but I try not to use
those words in the presence of ladies.  You still have warm, fuzzy feelings for
your
ex, Mills?”

“Okay, that’s a fair point,” Millie
yielded quickly as her lips twisted in a bitter smile.  “The nicest thing I can
say about my ex-husband is that when he left town, he disappeared from our
lives.  I haven’t seen or heard from him in three years.”

“Damn,” Mack murmured.  “He doesn’t
stay in contact with Paisley?”

Millie laughed hollowly. 
“According to him, Paisley is the reason he left.”

“What the fuck?” Mack growled, his
golden brown eyes turning almost black. 

“Yeah, that was sorta my response,
too, at the time.  Parenthood was a little more responsibility than John could
handle.  He stuck around for almost the first two years of Paisley’s life
before he split.  He said he couldn’t handle the pressure of being a parent
24/7.   I don’t know exactly what he expected me to say to that,” Millie
confided with a sigh.  “It wasn’t like I could return Paisley to sender.  And
even if I could have, she was my baby.  I made it real clear very fast that in
a choice between him and my daughter, she’d win every time.  I think he stayed
with us for approximately thirty seconds after I made that statement.  Six
months later, I was divorced.  He hasn’t seen Miss P since he bolted nor has he
sent a single child support check.  Which, I’ve told myself is okay.  That way
if he ever comes back, he’ll have to pay the back child support before he’ll be
able to see her.  And since I know what a cheap bastard my ex-husband is, that
should never even be an issue.”

“Poor kid,” Mack rumbled under his
breath as he shook his head in disgust.

“It’s actually really okay. 
Paisley doesn’t even remember him.   And I’ve been told that you can’t miss
what you don’t have.  Besides, I’d rather her have no dad than one that treats
her as a burden he doesn’t want.”

“True,” Mack conceded, “But if I
ever meet your ex, I’m gonna break my foot off in his ass.”