Christmas Treats Box Set: Books 1 - 4

by Holly Rayner

  “It’s not too late.” He looked over at her. “Say the word and we’ll swing through a drive-through, head home, and rent a movie to watch on the couch. I’m sure Taffy would appreciate it. She does think I’m the greatest human ever.”

  It pleased him that her laugh seemed one hundred percent genuine. “That does sound tempting…but we’re here.”

  “And we won’t let it go to waste,” he added.

  A blonde with big eyes and an even bigger smile responded to their ringing the doorbell. “Adison,” she squealed, pulling the other woman into a hug.

  “Hey, Diana.” Adison squeezed her friend in return. “It’s been too long.”

  “It really has. Come in. And who is this?” Diana asked, gesturing for their coats.

  “This is Ken Montoya.”

  “Her boyfriend,” Ken added, offering Diana his hand.

  “Oh.” Diana shook his hand, clearly more than a tad shocked. “Diana Dupré. Nice to meet you. I’m glad you could join us tonight, Ken.”

  “Thank you for having me.”

  “Everyone is in the living room. Help yourselves to the bar.”

  Diana hung their coats on a rack in the foyer, and Ken didn’t miss the What on earth look she shot Adison. She was probably wondering why Adison suddenly had a new boyfriend.

  A prickle of irritation danced across his neck. Even though their courtship was a fake one, he suddenly felt the need to defend it. As they walked into the living room, he swung an arm around Adison’s shoulders. She fit perfectly in the crook of his arm.

  Too perfectly.

  A dozen or so people milled around the living room, all of them in their twenties and thirties. They held cocktail and wine glasses and chatted on couches or by the window.

  “Hey.” Another blonde approached Adison. Yet again, Ken received a scrutinizing look.

  Adison’s friends were wary. Protective of her. Instead of being offended, he felt pleased. After the pain her ex had clearly put her through, it was good that she had friends who cared.

  “Corinne, this is Ken.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Corinne nodded at him. “I’ve heard about you.”

  “Oh, really?” He tilted his head, not sure what that meant. Had she heard about the circumstances of the fake relationship, or the circumstances of the real one?

  “Mm-hmm.” Corinne sipped her wine. “Adison said she’s planning your Christmas party.”

  “And she’s doing an excellent job of it.” It was a relief that she’d picked a neutral topic.

  “Get some drinks,” Corinne urged them. “I’ll catch up with you in a bit. Nice to meet you, Ken.”

  “You, too.” He waited until Corinne was out of earshot to speak again. “She seems really nice.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  Adison sounded distracted, and it didn’t take long to discover why. Her ex stood near the sound system, a sourpuss expression on.

  “Adison.” Ken ducked his head and stared at her until her eyes met his. “He’s nothing.”

  Her lips twitched in the direction of a smile. “I don’t get why it hurts me so much, though.”

  “Because you’re human. Even if he was the biggest loser on earth, he’d get to you at least a bit. The good news is that it won’t last forever.”

  She inhaled deep. “No pain lasts forever, right?”

  He winced—and hoped she didn’t notice. “Not this kind.”

  She gave him a puzzled look.

  Instantly, he regretted his words. Resting a hand on the small of her back, he steered her in the direction of the bar. “How about that drink?”

  They’d hardly finished helping themselves to glasses of red wine when Ken felt a prickle at the back of his neck, the kind that told him danger was near. Spinning on his heel, he found Adison’s ex approaching them.

  “Hey.” He jutted his chin at Adison and cut Ken a look but didn’t bother addressing him.

  “Danny.” Adison shifted both her weight and her wine glass from one hand to the other.

  Ken could feel the discomfort wafting off of her. Feeling protective, he scooted a little closer to her.

  “I didn’t think you’d be here.” Danny’s eyes glinted.

  “Diana is my friend.” Adison sipped her wine. “You remember Ken?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “So good to see you again,” Ken said, but in a voice that made it clear it was anything except that.

  He rested his hand on the back of Adison’s neck, surprised to find a sheen of sweat there. The dragon in him roared. He hated Danny for making Adison feel so much as one moment of pain. He would have never considered himself an alpha male, but right then he would have loved nothing more than the chance to duke it out with fists and show the lowly scum what became of jerks.

  “I don’t know if you saw,” Danny said to Adison. “I’m moving. This could be the last time we see each other.”

  Adison’s shoulders shuddered, and she lifted her chin. “I’m happy to hear that.”

  Danny laughed dryly. “Come on, Ad. You don’t mean that.” He cut Ken a look. “Hey, man. Give us a second, would you?”

  Ken looked to Adison. “Only if she wants me to.”

  “A second for what, exactly?” Adison said. “We have nothing to say to each other, Danny. I hope you and your new girlfriend leave town quickly and I never have to see you again.”

  Danny’s face turned red. “You don’t have to be such a—”

  Ken took a step toward the other man, half hiding Adison from his view. Danny moved back, his leg hitting a side table. A few people nearby paused their conversation to look over in interest.

  “Go ahead,” Ken growled. “Finish that sentence.”

  Danny’s eyes narrowed into little slits, his hands balling into fists at his sides. Ken waited, calm as a cucumber. He wasn’t about to start a fight, but he sure had no problem finishing one.

  A hand on his arm drew his attention elsewhere.

  “It’s okay,” Adison said, her breath kissing his ear. Her face hardened as it turned to Danny. “You can walk away now.”

  Danny snorted and shook his head, but apparently he’d run out of insults because he sulked across the room, grabbed his coat from the rack, and departed through the front door.

  “Hey. You okay?” Ken lifted his hand, hesitant to touch Adison when her ex wasn’t around for them to put a show on for.

  “Yes. Thank you.” She gave him a grateful smile. “I didn’t expect to say all of that.”

  “He deserved it…and more.”

  “I know.” Her eyes became unfocused, and she chuckled softly. “It’s funny. I really do hope I never see him again.”

  “Makes sense to me.”

  “His girlfriend wasn’t with him.” She searched the room to double-check that.

  “She probably dumped his ass.”

  Adison laughed weakly as she sipped her wine, rolling her eyes over the glass. “You’re really sweet, Ken. Uh, I mean…Mr.—”

  “I really prefer you call me Ken.”

  She tapped her fingers against her wine glass, uncertainty etched across her face. “You’re my boss, and I don’t want to cross any lines.”

  “You don’t think we’ve already done that?”

  “True.” Another eye roll. “Okay, Ken.”

  “There you go. Feels right, doesn’t it?”

  It sure sounded right. And he didn’t believe her claim about not wanting to cross the line. Plenty of people used their boss’s first name. There was something else going on that made her uncomfortable to do so.

  The soft rock that had been playing changed, courtesy of the hostess. A slow, lazy jazz song came on, and Diana went to dim the lights.

  “There we go.” She clapped once. “That’s more romantic.”

  Ken caught Adison’s eye, and she looked down.

  “It is romantic,” he agreed, though low enough that only Adison could hear him. “Would you like to dance?”

  H
e offered his hand, and she studied it, seeming to take forever to decide. Finally, she put her wine glass on the bar and slipped her palm into his.

  With Danny gone, there was no one to impress. No one to fool. Sure, at least some of the people left at the party thought they were a real couple, but keeping up a facade for them wasn’t the reason Ken pulled the lithe strawberry-blonde into the middle of the floor.

  No, he pressed one hand to her back and clasped her palm in his simply because he wanted to. He wanted to feel her soft curves brush dangerously close to his dress pants and button-up. He wanted to smell her perfume every time he inhaled. For a few minutes, he wanted to pretend that this thing between them was one hundred percent real.

  At any moment, he expected Adison to pull away. As the music reached its crescendo and the room around them blurred, though, she sank against his chest. Melted between his arms.

  They danced in slow circles, their hearts beating together and their breathing taking on the same pattern. Adison lifted her face, her eyes shining even in the low light.

  A lump formed in Ken’s throat. He swallowed against it, realizing with a start that he was nervous.

  Ken Montoya didn’t get nervous. He planned, and he executed. There was no need for nerves because he was always prepared.

  But one thing he hadn’t been prepared for was this.

  Adison’s soft cheek called to him. His hand trembled as he lifted it. Rough knuckles brushed against satin-smooth skin. Adison sighed the slightest bit, her full lips parting.

  A hunger consumed Ken.

  You shouldn’t be doing this. You can’t give her what she needs. You’ll hurt her.

  He knew all that very well, and yet the thoughts didn’t stop him from ducking his face and pressing his mouth to hers. Her lips opened further, moving in concert with his.

  The hand on her cheek slipped around her ear, and Ken buried it in her hair. She splayed her hands against his chest, her tongue darting between his teeth.

  And then, too soon, it was over. The music ended and Adison broke the kiss.

  Taking a step back, she bit into her swollen lip. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  He tried to talk, but his throat was too hoarse. He could only shake his head.

  He wasn’t sorry, but he knew he should be.

  Chapter 14

  Ken

  The rest of the evening—surprise, surprise—was awkward as hell. When they drove home about an hour later, Ken apologized for the kiss and Adison mumbled an “It’s okay, was my fault, too.”

  When he left her at her apartment door, it took all the strength he had to not ask for another kiss. He’d held back, though, reminding himself that Adison was too sweet to get involved with him.

  He would end up hurting her. Not like Danny had, but in his own way. He’d never been good at relationships, never been able to maintain something that required real intimacy. These were the simple facts, not him being sorry or hard on himself.

  So he’d walked away from that apartment, hating every step but knowing he was doing the right thing.

  It would be better from then on if they only spent time together while working, he decided on the drive home. Which shouldn’t be too hard. Her ex was moving away, and they could give up the boyfriend-girlfriend act.

  With that in mind, he’d settled in for a bad night’s sleep… which led to a bad sleep Saturday night and a bad sleep Sunday night.

  Giving up on rest around five on Monday morning, he rose a little early, hit his indoor salt pool for a swim, grabbed some of the quiche his housekeeper had made the day before, and drove to work, where he was the first one in the office.

  If he stayed busy enough, he could keep his desire for all the things he couldn’t have at bay. Maybe.

  The office started coming to life around eight. He heard his assistants first, pulling out the chairs at their desks and texting him to see if he needed anything. They’d left the double doors leading to the main working area open, and the chatter out there distracted him from having so much as one uninterrupted thought.

  Adison was out there, settling into her work. Was she thinking of him? Hating him for what happened Friday night?

  She’d liked the kiss as much as he had. The way she’d leaned into it, giving her body over to him, said as much.

  When he’d apologized in the car, she’d been hard to read. He’d taken her silence as a sign that he’d done the right thing by retracting his attention. They’d been tipsy on the moment, lost in the music and the victory over her ex.

  Ken’s cell phone rang, and he glanced at its screen. Thea Sorentis.

  He felt his lips press together. Thea was nice, and she was a client, but if she was calling about the Christmas party, he really wasn’t in the mood to talk. Discussing the party would mean thinking more about Adison.

  “Thea,” he answered. “Good morning. Are you calling to tell me my supplies are on their way?”

  He pressed the phone to his ear and spun the chair toward the windows, hoping Thea had a sense of humor and the joke would land.

  Thankfully, she laughed. “How cute. You know the holidays are coming up, and I don’t do much business around them. I’m sure I told you that.”

  In the nick of time, he stopped himself from sighing. “Understandably.”

  Nope. Not really understandable at all. Not in his world, anyway.

  “I’m calling for another reason entirely,” Thea said with a mysterious tone to her voice. “What are you doing this weekend?”

  Ken hesitated. Was Thea asking him out?

  He’d have to turn her down—and not only because he wasn’t interested. She was someone he needed a donation from and getting personal would muddle that important business.

  “You and your girlfriend,” Thea added, taking him by surprise.

  “My…my girlfriend?”

  Had she confused him with someone else?

  “Is that not what she is? I’m sorry, I thought I noticed the chemistry there. Even over a video call, it was palpable.”

  “You mean Adison.” He laughed silently and closed his eyes.

  Wow.

  Nope, Thea hadn’t imagined the attraction. At least not the attraction he felt.

  “Yes. Adison. She seems sweet. I’m having a little get-together this weekend at my place in Jackson Hole. I would love it if you both could come.”

  It occurred to Ken that he hadn’t yet corrected Thea and told her Adison was not, in fact, his girlfriend. He really ought to do that.

  Except Thea was inviting the two of them to her place for the weekend…

  And Thea valued close relationships and getting to know clients…

  And one sure way of proving he was a nice, dependable man was by having a nice, charming girlfriend.

  So, much like the kiss the other night, Ken did something he knew he might regret. At one point. Eventually.

  “I’m sure Adison would love that,” he said.

  “Splendid. I know Wyoming is a distance, but I can get you two seats there. My treat.”

  “That’s nice of you, Thea. We can manage, though. You’ve been kind enough to invite us.”

  One of the perks of having billions was owning a private jet; Ken’s sat twelve, although it was usually just him taking it.

  “Excellent,” Thea said. “I’ll send you the details, and even though you won’t let me fly you, I’ll have someone pick you up from the airport. Do you like skiing?”

  “Love it.”

  He’d been a few times. It was okay.

  “I have to run,” Thea said, “but I’m really looking forward to this.”

  “Me, too. Talk soon. And thank you.”

  “Oh!” she said, stopping him just before he hung up. “I almost forgot. I received your party invitation. It’s gorgeous.”

  “Thank you. So happy you can celebrate with us.” He hadn’t even known Adison sent out the Christmas party invitations.

  They said goodbye, and he went to the ma
ilbox tacked to the wall just outside his office door. Reaching in, he grabbed several envelopes and took them back to his desk.

  He recognized the invite right away. The envelope was red, with a snowman stamp in the corner, and his name was written in calligraphy.

  Ken felt his lips curve upward. He wondered if Adison had done the calligraphy herself. She seemed exactly like the kind of person who would have a full calligraphy set, with every size pen ever made, at home.

  Opening the envelope, he pulled out a card made of thick white paper. On the outside, glittery snowflakes had been affixed to the card. Inside was more calligraphy with the date, location, time, and RSVP info of the party. It was simple yet classy.

  If the card was a sign of things to come, the Christmas party would exceed his expectations. Not that he was surprised. Adison knew exactly what she was doing.

  Leaving the card on his desk, he walked down the hall and to her cubicle. However, it was empty.

  His heart sinking a little, he looked around the area. Almost everyone nodded at him, and a few of them said their good mornings. None of them was the person he most wanted to see.

  “Jazzie.” He reached out to her as she walked by. “Have you seen Adison?”

  “She was here for a bit.” Jazzie shifted a heavy-looking stack of folders to her other arm. “She said she went to do something for the party.”

  “I see. Thank you.”

  As she walked off, he pulled out his phone and called Adison.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  There was so much in her tone. He was surprised, really, that he could pick it all up with one word. She was pleasant, but cautious. Prompt, but perhaps a little nervous.

  “I’d like to ask you for something.” He walked for the elevators, already planning on meeting her wherever she was. This would be quite the favor, and it needed to be brought up in person.

  “Really? What?”

  He punched the buttons, glad he would have a bit to think through his presentation. “May I come to you?”

  She noticeably hesitated. “Sure. I’ll text you the place.”