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It’s the first time I’ve heard Lucian really laugh.
“And every year you dress up as Santa and buy apartments for complete strangers?” I ask, not meaning to sound ungrateful.
He shrugs. “And a whole lot more, Carol. There’s so much money, and I only need so much to live on, you’ve seen my place. It’s nice but it’s all paid for. Everything has about two hundred years of money behind it, even the store chain.”
He’s not boasting, I can tell. In a way, Lucian seems about as amazed as I am by the whole thing. It’s as though he’s never told anyone his life story.
“I’ve never told anyone, not really,” he admits, echoing the thought, checking that the privacy screen is up in the car.
“Is it a car, or do we call it a limo?” I ask, having two thoughts at once.
“I just say ‘car.’ Limo is so… I dunno…”
“Stupid?” I suggest, but he only shrugs again, squeezing me closer as he keeps talking.
“So when I was dressed up today, it was supposed to be yesterday as well but Old Bill filled in because I had a meeting...well I was supposed to have a meeting. Then I saw you and well, you know the rest,” he says, blowing out a breath of air with puffed cheeks and giving me an imploring look.
“Can I kiss you now?” he asks, and I crane my neck up to meet his lips with mine.
Something I thought I might not ever feel again.
“Are you still mad?” he asks after a while.
After some more kissing and a lot more cuddling.
“Furious,” I remind myself. “What’s with paying people five bucks an hour, holding back money as a ‘deposit’ on this monkey suit?” I exclaim. Trying to be funny but hearing the actual anger in my voice.
Lucian sighs, looking out the window. I hear his breath catch as he answers, and I know he had no idea.
“I’m fixing it,” is all he says, and I hold his hand, squeezing his huge fingers in my palm as I peck his cheek.
“I know you will, I just had no idea.”
“Neither did I,” he adds somberly as we drive in silence for the rest of the way.
Once we reach the familiar gates of the grounds, I notice huge wreaths hung on each side, which makes him groan quietly.
“I forgot. They always do this… every year. It’s an old house and some of the staff remember Grandpa Kellerman,” he explains.
Opening his mouth to say something else, a phone in the console rings and he snatches it up with a breath of impatience.
“…So? Well I won’t be attending, nobody ever knows I’m there anyway- What? Just do what you think is best… no I’m not ill. I just had an epiphany, one I’ll share at the next senior staff meeting. And I’m not to be disturbed for forty-eight hours, understand?” he clips, snapping the phone back into place.
“Some of them have had a very good run with my money. And this will be their last Christmas with it,” he says cryptically.
“I hope I didn’t-” I start to say, but he smiles.
“No. You’ve saved the day, Carol. You really have. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t turned up.”
The car pulls up to the front and he helps me up the steps.
Once inside, he leans back against the door and draws a heavy bolt across it.
“We’re alone now, promise,” he says, a low groan of satisfaction escaping him as his eyes run up and down my body.
I feel self-conscious, but looking at the padded suit he still has on, I figure we both look ridiculous.
“Shall we get out of these things?” he asks, cocking his brow as he moves closer to me.
I don’t need him to ask, once his hands touch my hips, my chest, and finally the inside of my legs, I know exactly what needs doing.
“It’s not quite Christmas,” I tell him, my breath and whole body shivering under his touch.
“So?” he asks gently, tracing his lips across my neck.
“So I have something to give you anyway,” I manage to say, noting his eyes fixed on mine.
“Now, Lucian… right now…” I stammer, swooning into his strong arms as he lifts me up, taking us both where I know we should have stayed all along.
Our bedroom.Chapter FourteenLucianI never thought I’d hear it from her own lips so soon. Especially how things went today.
Wanting everything to be just right? So far that’s blown up in my face and I think we both know what we both really want anyway.
I want Carol, and she’s giving herself to me, right on Christmas Eve too.
My own costume I tear off easily enough, glad to be free of it and half wondering if I should shower first.
But Carol’s eyes and her moans of anticipation as she writhes on the bed in front of me tell me differently.
