Page 43 of The Christmas Mistake

I make a scrunched-up face at him and he silences me with a passionate deep kiss.

“The rest of you is pretty damn sexy, though,” he whispers.

Yeah, I could get used to this.

“So, you’re really not going to leave this time?” I ask him, pretending not to care as much as I do.

Nicholas chuckles one more time. “Why would I? I’m in a warm bed, it’s snowing outside, and I’m with a beautiful woman who wants to fuck me. This is heaven.”

“So, it’s a little different to last year, then?”

“Yeah, it’s a little bit different. Last year I didn’t know then I’d already discovered heaven.”

My heart melts at those words and I gently kiss his bare smooth muscular chest.

“You know exactly the right things to say, Nicholas. I didn’t know you had this side to you.”

“You’re the one who’s brought this out for me,” he whispers. “I can’t control myself when I’m around you. Chastity, you’ve changed things.”

“That’s all I want to hear,” I whisper back.

“How about we do things a little different this year,” he says.

I sit up. “What do you mean?”

“Well, maybe we should drop the whole, you know, the hate working with each other act we do at the office,” he replies.

I make a circle around his nipple with the tip of my finger, fidgeting. “And why should I drop that? I’ve been having lots of fun teasing you, dickface.”

Nicholas sits up as well and stares me deep in the eyes.

“I want us to drop it because I like you,” he says, breathless. “Because I really like you.”

Oh.

Damn.

I’m lost for words.

And then I kiss him. Again.

EPILOGUE

CHASTITY

I’m standing all alone next to Sharon’s alcoholic punch at the Christmas party when the man approaches me.

I’ve been observing the usual Christmas workplace party mating ritual happening before me in full swing. Seeing work colleagues attempt to awkwardly flirt with the people they’ve been crushing on for the last year really brings a smile to my face.

I. Love. It.

Aidan, in a way that has become sort of tradition by this point, has drunkenly taken off his shirt and is waving it above his head in his typical bizarre way to grab everyone’s attention. The karaoke is in full swing. Of course, it’s Come On Eileen. It’s our office’s staple.

Another year, another perfect inebriated Christmas party.

Most of it is thanks to Sharon and her surely-illegal alcoholic punch.

I take another sip of the drink. It makes my eyes water.