Hating Christmas (Holiday Series) (14 page)

“You know,” he said after a moment,
responding to a sudden impulse to level with her. He didn’t want
any dark secrets. “We might have been wrong about your mother and
my dad having made a mistake.”

There. He’d said it.

Holly raised up on her elbow again and he
turned to meet her now-serious gaze.

Finally, she lie back down next to him. “Yes,
that has occurred to me, too.”

“My dad’s last marriage,” he didn’t know why
he felt the need to go into this, “wasn’t good.”

She turned her head to look at him.

“Her name was Rebecca.” He hadn’t spoken the
woman’s name in years. “My dad married her about two years after my
mother left.”

Turning over to face her, he placed his hand
on her flat stomach, his gaze brooding in the air above Holly. “I
liked Rebecca at first.”

“But not after a while?”

Bringing his gaze to meet her, Levi said,
“No. She ripped my dad off. Took him for all she could and broke
his heart. I came to hate her.”

“As much as you loved her after your mom
left?” Her eyes and her words held compassion.

“Yes.” He liked the feel of her smooth skin
and he ran his hand over her stomach and up to her ribs. “I loved
her at first, I guess. Before I realized who she was.”

“It’s understandable that you didn’t trust my
mom when they married so fast.”

Still smoothing the area between her breast
and her pelvis, he said, “I guess.”

He’d been a small, hurt kid and Rebecca had
seemed like Christmas and his birthday and all the holidays
together. She’d been fun and light. She’d laughed and he hadn’t
heard his dad laugh since he mother left.

“Levi?”

His wondering thoughts recalled, he looked
down at Holly.

“What?”

“If you don’t stop touching me like that, I’m
going to attack you, B12 or not.” She reached for his penis.

Levi laughed, feeling himself harden at the
touch of her hand…and then he heard the unmistakable sound of the
front door closing. “Damn.”

“Double damn,” she whispered, getting up on
her elbow again.

“I need to sneak out.” He got up from the
bed, reaching for his towel, steaming gently next to the radiator.
Going back to the bed, Levi placed a hard, quick kiss on her
delectable mouth.

“Later.” Opening the door quietly, he looked
back at her where she lay on the bed. She was beautiful—her russet
hair sprawled over the pillow and her bare breast above the sheet
that had covered them both. He stopped himself before the words
hovering on his tongue where out. He didn’t know where the urge to
tell her he loved her had come from. Normally, he left these kind
of encounters, feeling nothing but relief that he could sleep in
his own bed that night. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Holly waved, urging him to sneak out of the
half-opened door.

Levi crept back to his room, hearing his
father’s voice talking quietly to Audrey at the bottom of the
stair. He hated this part of the mess, but he sure as hell didn’t
want either his father or her mother knowing anything about his
growing interest in Holly.

***

Holly woke and stretched luxuriantly, the
tenderness between her legs reminding her of just how pleasantly
she’d spent the middle of last night. She’d never before been one
for missing any sleep to have sex, but when Levi had crept into her
room after midnight and kissed her awake, she’d had her first
really exciting Christmas Eve in years. Decades, really.

Yesterday had been filled with secret touches
between she and Levi, following their parents around as they made
Christmas preparations. By the time she’d gone to bed—alone in her
own room, darnit—she’d been fill with hunger for him. But even if
they’d had to be really restrained during the whole day, at least
the night had been incredibly satisfying.

Smiling to herself, she wriggled under the
covers.

God, he was good. Even if she’d had to spend
the day before Christmas running last minute errands with her
mother and she found she hadn’t minded the cheery waves and the
giggling kids. You’d have thought just the grocery store experience
would be enough to reinforce her dislike of the holiday, but—she
found herself smiling widely—this Christmas was turning out a lot
better than she’d thought. She didn’t even dread the opening of
presents like she used to.

Getting up, Holly slipped into her robe
naked, hoping Levi would follow her into the bathroom. Surely, they
could find a way to sneak in a quickie in the shower. At the very
least, she’d get to see him over breakfast. She didn’t know when
she’d been this excited to see a man before she had her coffee.

Descending the stairs an hour later, Holly
wandered into the kitchen where her mother and Michael sat.

“Good morning, Holly,” her step-dad said,
getting up to reach for the coffee pot. “Want a cup?”

“Sure.” She sat down next to her mother.

Audrey got up. “Sausages or just some
scrambled eggs?”

“Eggs and coffee. No sausage.” She smiled as
she accepted a full cup from Michael.

“Now don’t be too long with breakfast,” her
mother admonished. “I don’t know why both you and Levi slept so
late this morning.”

Holly willed herself not to blush or smile,
bringing her cup to her lips.

“He was in here and finished breakfast a few
minutes ago. The doorbell rang and he went to answer it since I’d
just sat down to eat.” Her mom picked up her plate, balancing her
coffee cup and fork on it. “Can you believe? It was a courier or
something. Who ever thought of having people make deliveries on a
holiday?”

The older woman shook her salt-and-pepper
head.

“It’s Christmas morning, for heaven’s sake.”
Her mother started to wipe the already-clean counters as Michael
put their dishes in the dish washer. “We should open presents
soon.”

Swallowing her mouthful of coffee, Holly
reflected that her mom had always enjoyed getting Christmas gifts
for others, but she wasn’t very good at it. For a very kind,
affectionate person, she struggled to think beyond her own
perspective when she gave gifts. She got for others what she’d like
to get herself. Somehow, she always thought she had bright ideas,
but she ended up with some off-the-wall purchases. A day planner
for her high school aged daughter? A print for the friends who’d
complained of crowded walls, having just downsized their family
home? She’d even gotten footie pajamas for Holly the first year of
college. Holly had felt too embarrassed to let anyone at the dorm
see them.

As he passed out of the now-cleaned kitchen,
Michael patted her on the back. “Come on, Holly. Santa left you
lots of presents under the tree.”

Stifling a groan, Holly dumped out the last
of her coffee and put the cup and plate in the dish washer. Hells
bells, she always hated this part of Christmas.

Curling up in the corner of the couch, she
didn’t say anything as her mom laid several packages beside her,
saying archly, “Now don’t peek.”

When Levi came into the room, carrying
several expensively-wrapped gifts, she just lifted her eyebrows at
him. A small smile quirked his mouth as he threaded his way around
the presents her mother was dispersing to everyone.

“Okay,” Michael rubbed his hands together in
glee. “Now we’ve talked about this. Everyone has a pile of presents
beside them and we think we should take turns opening one at a
time, so everyone gets to see what you got. You start, Holly.”

“Er, okay.” She picked up the package on top
of her pile, aware of Levi’s dark stare from a nearby chair. “Oh,
from Michael. How nice. Thank you.”

She said, unwrapping the large box.

“You can’t really thank someone,” he said,
“until you know what they gave you.”

With a smile that felt tight, she finished
opening the box and when the tissue fell back, she found a large
book. Lifting the atlas from the box, she looked up enquiringly at
Michael.

“It’s an atlas,” he said a little awkwardly.
“And if you’ll dig around in the box you’ll find a gift card that
will enable you to buy an atlas ap for your phone. There are
several that look good, but the one I’ve listed there looks pretty
comprehensive.”

She lifted the sheets of tissue till she
found the gift card with a sticky note attached. On the yellow
paper was the name of a travel app she could download.

“I know you travel around a lot, shooting
documentaries,” Michael explained. “I thought this would help you
get where you’re going.”

Looking up at him, Holly felt startled. Wow.
A thoughtful gift. She hardly knew this man and she hadn’t expected
anything this targeted for her. “Thank you, Michael. This is
great.”

“You’re welcome.” He beamed at her.

“I mean, this is really great,” she assured
him. She was so accustomed to her mother’s lame gifts, this came as
a surprise. “When we’re filming, we end up in some backwater
places.”

“Well,” Michael said heartily, “we wouldn’t
want you to get lost.”

“Thank you, Michael,” she said, smiling
tremulously. “I appreciate it.”

“Levi, you’re next. Open something, son,” his
dad urged.

“Okay.” Levi picked up a present with a big
gold bow, sliding a finger under the tape on one end.

Holly kept her smile pinned in place, but she
couldn’t help the quickening of her heart. She hoped he liked it
and would read her intent into the small gift. She’d thought about
giving Levi sledding lessons, but realized that she didn’t want him
hugging someone else while he squealed his way down a snowy hill.
Just her.

He glanced at the gift tag and over at her, a
small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “From Holly.”

Opening the box, he pushed the tissue paper
aside and took out a small glass globe. It had the continents left
frosted while the oceans were crystal clear.

“Beautiful.” He balanced the sphere in one
hand, looking it over.

“I thought about putting a red flag on it
that said “Holly is here” for you to move around in different
places,” she said in as teasing a tone as she could manage.

Casting her a quick look loaded with meaning,
he said, “Good idea, then I could position it wherever I wanted you
to be. LA for example.”

Holly swallowed quickly and hurried into
speech to cover the tension between herself and the sexy guy across
the room. “I thought it would be a great paper weight for your
desk.”

Levi held the globe cradled in his lean
fingers. Still looking down at it, he said, “I’ll keep it right
there.”

Looking over at her mom and Michael, she said
with artificial brightness, “Who’s next?”

“Everyone takes a turn each round. Levi, you
pick the next one.” Her mother smiled, clearly in hog heaven.

“Okay. Audrey, you go next.”

“Oooh, I’m going to open this one.” Audrey
picked the large, beautifully-wrapped gift from Levi. Ripping off
the paper as if she were nine, she looked down at the bulky dress
box. “What could this be?”

“Open it,” Levi recommended with a smile.

Holly’s mom whipped off the box lid and there
under the tissue was a beautiful evening coat in oyster satin with
small gold flowers embroidered across the fabric. Audrey looked up
at her step-son with moist eyes. “Oh, Levi, it’s beautiful. You
shouldn’t have. I’m sure it’s too expensive.”

He just laughed. “Try it on and make sure it
fits.”

“Really. You shouldn’t have spent so much,”
her mother protested, lifting the coat from its box to slip it over
her shoulders. “Perfect. You even guessed the size, unless your
father told you.”

“Nope.” Michael denied the inference, saying
in a kidding tone. “Boy’s just really great at guessing women’s
sizes, aren’t you?”

“Not really. I gave the saleswoman Audrey’s
general height.”

“Was this what came this morning?” her mom
looked up from smoothing her hand over her arm in the evening
coat.

“Partly,” Levi admitted. “I always do my
shopping at the last minute. Dad, you’re next.”

Michael picked up the envelope that sat on
top of his stack of gift boxes. Opening it, he said thickly, “Son,
you shouldn’t have. This is too much.”

“Nonsense.” He sent a glimmering smile toward
Holly. “I make all that money being a vulture. I should be able to
spend it on the people I love.”

“But cruise tickets? It’s too much!” He went
to hug his son. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Smiling at Audrey, Levi
said, “Besides, I haven’t given you two a wedding gift yet.”

Holly knew the gift was an indication of what
Levi had said to her several days earlier. He’d signaled his
acceptance of the union, given it his blessing, so to speak. She
was glad he accepted now that her mother was nothing like
Rebecca.

“Your turn,” her mother urged Holly. “Open
the bigger present now.”

With a resignation developed over years of
disappointing Christmas’, she unwrapped the box and found a pair of
glittery shorts. Holly looked up at her mother.

“There’s a matching blouse, too. It’s a pair
of hot pants! Isn’t that a scream? Those were all the rage when I
was your age. I knew when I saw them in that resale shop that you’d
look great in them.”

“Thanks, mom,” she responded brightly before
laying the box aside, muttering “All the rage in the
seventies.”

Levi leaned forward and said in a low voice
as Audrey was telling her husband what all else she’d found in the
resale shop, “Maybe I could get a private show later.”

“Shut up,” she hissed, irritated with her mom
once again giving a lousy gift and at the same time protective of
her mom against Levi’s teasing.

Of course, the idea of giving him a private
showing was…pretty exciting.

A moment later, Audrey turned back to them.
“Levi, you have an envelope, too. Right there. Open that next.”