Red Hot Christmas (6 page)

Nicolas seemed genuinely confused. “I can’t believe that. And even so, to be running a whole team now?”

“I’m a fast learner. Anyway, it wasn’t as if that was my first promotions job, just the first one in New York City.”

“Why didn’t we talk about all this?”

“We did. Okay. Not that much. I didn’t want you to think I needed help. I was building my career my way.”

“Still?”

“Still nothing.” She leapt on with her tour, the faster they got this over with the faster she’d be away from him. “The room through there is a candy grotto but you’d probably have to crawl to get in so maybe we’ll give it a miss. If you could just back out of here we’ll go through to the reindeer pen.” Trying to be officious to disguise the beating of her heart Gabby put her hands up to shoo Nicolas back the way they’d come but he cocked his head and didn’t move.

“Your resume lists four PR firms in New Jersey. Why were you just an Exec assistant when we met if you already had that much experience?”
 

“Snobbery. I you haven’t worked PR in the
City
, it doesn’t count. Are we really going to fact check my resume now? You could just call them, ask. It’s all true.”

“Huh. Maybe I will.”

Gabby bristled, but Nicolas’s tone wasn’t nasty. In fact if she hadn’t known better it would have sounded like he was genuinely interested. “I’m here now. In your store. Shall we move on?”

He shrugged. “I think I should see the candy room.”

 
“You’re the boss. You’ll need to crawl through there.” Gabby pointed to the even smaller door set into the fake wooden wall of the elves workshop.

“After you.”

Gabby looked down at her tight pencil skirt. “I don’t think it’s really necessary. It’ll be very squashed with both of us in there and it’s just like this really, except red and white.”
 

“All the same. After you.”

Dear Lord, he was going to make her crawl in this skirt. Sighing, Gabby tugged her skirt down as much as she could and then shuffled through the door. Turning she watched his face for a sign that getting her to go in front was just a ruse to watch her departing butt. Her heart hiccupped and she rolled her eyes at herself.
For goodness sake. He’s about to fire you remember.

 
At least she was small enough to get through relatively quickly and could stand on the other side. Nicolas had no such luck, having to turn his shoulders to fit them through the door, literally crawl on hands and knees and then stay there as the ceiling was way too low for his six foot three frame.
 

The tiny space made it hard for her to maintain a professional distance and having him on hands and knees made her sorely aware of his face close to her waist.
If you can’t beat them…
Gabby sat on the floor, tucking her legs beneath her and looked about, trying to remember what it was like to be a child. “We wanted to make a sort of circuit for the kids. Our panel said they wanted to feel like they were in a Christmas world, so you progress from one workshop to the other and pop out in the reindeer enclosure through that door.” Gabby pointed past the hanging satin bows tied around candy floss colored fairy lights.
 

“You really thought this through didn’t you? Who was on your panel?” His voice was a low grumble, close enough to her ear so she could almost feel his breath. Mixed with the scent of candy the scent of him filled her nostrils, pine, citrus and soap. Delicious. Her mouth started to salivate.
It’s just the sugar. Your sweet tooth is legendary.

Nicolas moved, probably just trying to get comfortable, but it put him closer again to Gabby and with a stand of gingerbread men behind her she had nowhere to retreat to.
 

His dark eyes smoldered and Gabby’s heart butterflies stretched their wings a little.
The Panel? Kids. Fraser.
Commonsense kicked back in. “The panel was full of kids. My team brought all their children in for the day and we grilled them and a class at a local school for their wish list.”

“A focus group. Good idea.” Nicolas looked around him for a long while, apparently taking in the stands of shiny candy canes, the trees of lollypops and the elfin faces of puppets who popped out of the corners in time to soft music. “They came up with all this?”

“Not really. It was just that eating candy was a common theme. Something they all wanted to do at Christmas.”

“And you turned their wishes into a wonderland.” Nicolas looked her dead in the eye.

Gabby flushed. Who was this man? Certainly not the heartless boss who’d threatened her in her office only hours ago. This was more like the Nicolas she used to know. The one she’d given a key to her apartment.
The one who fathered Fraser.
“We
turned it into the candy room. It’s taken months to get from the concept to this stage. I just hope it’s as big a hit as we hope it will be. There’s hardly even any real candy. They get one peppermint cane per child on the way out. Just one. My budget wasn’t bottomless and we didn’t want to be adding to the Christmas sugar overload this country is famous for.” Gabby tried for humor, wanting to get things on more professional, friendly terms.
 

Nicolas pushed back into a sitting position. The word budget seemed to have shut something down in him. His look was more calculating now, or perhaps it was just the lighting. Turning away from her gaze a lock of hair fell across his forehead. Her hand moved before she could stop it, but she managed to divert it to pick up a small striped peppermint stick behind him at the last minute. “They’re just tiny, barely cost anything, but the team thought it was important that every child leave with something. In case…you know.” She unwrapped the cane and sucked on it, hoping the blast of sugar would make her focus. “I’m pretty sure we get a few kids without parents. They come in here knowing they might not get anything for Christmas but want a little bit of magic any way they can get it.”

His face softened but the cold edge didn’t disappear from his eyes. “I guess it’s been a rough few Christmases for you hasn’t it? Without your father, I mean.”

Gabby stiffened then exhaled her shoulders down. Maybe he was sincere. It
had
been hard these past years, especially at Christmas, but not for the reason he thought. Her father had always been a big part of her life but he’d never been someone to relish family traditions like Christmas. Never been the type to make the best of what they had and breathe life and magic into her world. He’d always been focused on what others had, was always promising that he’d have money for her soon and that would make things easier, better. For a while they’d both had money, but she’d been the only one to actually earn it.
 

It had been tough knowing Fraser was missing out on so much by her having to pay off debt instead of spending her earnings on him. But she’d been determined to make the most of it, provide what she’d never had growing up. “Shall we move on?” She didn’t wait for an answer, instead standing and moving through the doorway into the final part of the grotto.

“At least I can stand again.” Nicolas said and rolled his shoulders. “It’s a bit of a letdown after the first few rooms though.”
 

Gabby looked back at him in dismay then looked around her. Of course. “Wait. Here.” She pulled up a picture on her cell. “This is the reindeer enclosure but the animals won’t be here till we open. We’ve built a pen out in the warehouse for them overnight and they get brought in each morning. This one’s Prancer, and that’s Rudolf of course. We even have a baby, he’s Dancer, always pointing his feet delicately.” She pointed each animal out on the small screen of her phone.

Nicolas leaned in to look, his face almost touching hers as he peered into the tiny display.
 

“We wanted them to be close enough to touch, with handlers of course so nothing can happen that would reflect badly on the store. The children stand along here.” She moved to stand up along the railing of an enclosure filled with hay and artfully arranged holly and pine trees.
 

“Have you touched them?” Nicolas said.

“Touched?”

“The reindeer. Their coats are incredibly soft. And warm.” Suddenly he was beside her again, his words a whisper in her ear and her body shivering at the thought of him taking her hand and running it over the back of an animal. With no one around he could pick her up and lay her out on the clean straw. Instead of giving him a tour of his store she could guide him over her body, let him undo one button at a time, lie back under the sparkling lights, pretend they really were outside in a Christmas wonderland. Gabby shook her head.

“Oh no. I haven’t actually met the animals yet. Just talked to their owner. And seen the photos of course. That’s about it. We should probably get going.” Gabby hoped talking fast would distract him.

“What’s that over there?”
      Damn.

“Just another Christmas tree. Shall we go? I need to let security know when we’re done.”

Nicolas ignored her and walked over to the Christmas tree Gabby had set up especially for grown ups who were still in love with the whole spirit of Christmas.
 

“Come.”

Wanting to drag her feet, Gabby followed him over to the secluded corner. The tree was nothing to look at compared with the rest of the grotto. There was no glitter, no lights, no color. Instead its branches held tiny white candy hearts with words etched on one side and a picture of mistletoe on the other. Nicolas pulled one off its branch. “Renew.” He looked at her. “Crossword clues?”

Gabby couldn’t meet his gaze. “It’s a Christmas spirit tree. My team came up with as many words as we could that summed up the spirit of Christmas for us. This was one of mine. It’s a time of renewal for me. For remembering what’s important, what makes us whole.”

Nicolas said nothing.

Gabby let the silence drag out as long as she could then looked up and was nearly knocked over by the smolder in his eyes.

“Perhaps it’s more about rekindling something,” he said. “What’s that up there?” Not waiting for her answer he pulled her close. Sweeping her around the waist with one hand Nicolas tipped back her head with the other. “I think it’s mistletoe.” Gabby tried to say something but her words were swallowed by his kiss, his lips hot, his passion as fierce as the fire in his eyes had been.
 

Her heart pounded as his hands pulled her closer. Rekindled was right. In his arms she lost her hardened shell, the chemistry of their past brought to life in bright flames of lust. He deepened the kiss and her knees buckled a little, just enough for him to notice and swing her up into his arms in one easy movement.

As if he’d read her mind, Nicolas crossed into the reindeer enclosure and lay her out over the soft straw, pausing only to brush a stray tangle of holly from her hair.
 
“I think it’s been far too long since we did this.”

Oh, yes. Gabby couldn’t speak to agree with him, but under his touch she wanted the rest of the world to melt away. For them to be trapped in their own Christmas wonderland and never have to come out. Pushing her hands through his hair she drew his face up to hers and kissed him with a passion that she’d buried down deep these last years, pretending that she didn’t want a man. Pretending that she’d never wanted to end it with him. Pretending she didn’t need to feel like this. What lies she’d made herself believe.
 

He looked at her full in the face and she was struck once again by the depth of his gaze. More silver than grey in this light, his eyes were like liquid, pools of mercury with a storm coming. Those eyes again. Framed as they were by thick dark lashes and olive skin, his looks took her breath away. Every time.
 

He was at her throat, his lips teasing her flesh into goose bumps, his hands feverishly hot through her shirt.
 
Nicolas Morganti was simply everything a man should be. Strong, full of conviction, a powerhouse of seething sexuality. She felt his hands on her waist without warning, her shirt suddenly open and his touch hot against her skin. Unthinking, uncaring she wound her legs around him, her skirt riding up, pulling him down closer into the straw, the scent of pine needles all around, the world they had created complete.

“Tell me you want me.” The words were a growl, his lips close to her ear, his breath hot.

She said nothing, turned his head instead to kiss him again but he drew back. Heat spread through her body, pooling between her thighs and she wanted to feel him there. Know his rock hard length again. Filling her, spurring her on.

“Tell me.” His eyes burned with a brittle flame, not of passion or the romance of Christmas, but of something else. Something darker. He was pure desire.
 

Slow down lady. This isn’t back to the future. Things haven’t changed since five years ago.

Dragging herself up from the kiss she managed to push the words out. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Oh yes we should. We should have been doing this again a long time ago.” His hands moved over her torso, thumbing the hard pebbles of her nipples through the soft lace of her bra. She arched her back involuntarily, pushing herself deeper into his hands. She wanted—oh she wanted him. Maybe his brash employer tone of earlier was just for show, an act to make sure he couldn’t be said to give out favors.