Christmas in the City II

by Samantha Chase

  I went into the main room and found Phyllis who gave me a rundown on what had happened when I took my moment away. We were currently down to two paintings. I knew they would be gone before the night ended. The crowds were thinning out; I had taken a chance to look around the gallery when I noticed Sebastian was standing in the front. He was situated next to the Christmas tree, drink in hand staring at me while speaking to a man directly to his left. I hadn’t recognized the man he was standing near; he wasn’t a regular. I had wondered if he had come with Sebastian, he didn’t look like he was a fan of art. He actually looked bored and Sebastian looked like I felt, exhausted.

  Sebastian’s friend looked up to see he wasn’t paying attention to him, he turned slightly so he could see what he was looking at. When his eyes locked on me, he smiled a big toothy grin and waved. I gasped inwardly when Sebastian smacked his friend in the chest and he stopped waving like a buffoon. Sebastian’s face turned away and he looked like he was yelling at his friend. I took the opportunity to turn around and look anywhere except at them.

  I busied myself by checking on the food and how much alcohol was left at the bars. I double checked the sales numbers and made sure I had all the needed information for the buyers and the corresponding paintings. I was standing at the desk when the last paintings sale was completed. I looked up to see where Wynn was and he was standing in the middle of the room surrounded by a group of very influential art patrons. He looked at me for a moment and smiled and I mouthed back congratulations, I watched as his eyes soften and he spoke to the people around him before walking towards me.

  Wynn scooped me up in a big hug and swung me around as he thanked me profusely. We were interrupted in our happiness by a huge commotion and a crash, turning I saw as Sebastian was being held back by his friend his eyes locked on me the whole way until they disappeared out the door.

  “Wonder what that was about?” Wynn asked.

  I wanted to say something, anything. I wanted to impart my thoughts into what had transpired but I didn’t want to give any indication that it was most likely our celebratory hug that may have pissed him off so I said the only thing that made sense.

  “Who knows.”

  By the time the last person left, my feet were killing me. The cleanup went quicker than I had anticipated as they had begun to clean after Wynn had left and only kept the minimal open while the last few mingled around. I was surprised to hear from Phyllis that we’d sold a couple paintings that weren’t in the collection to the same people who wanted Wynns.

  When I said goodbye to Adam and Phyllis for the night, I knew it wouldn’t be until the new year when I saw them again. So I had given them their holiday bonus early, both were speechless when they opened their envelopes to see what was inside. They both went above and beyond for me time and time again and needed to be rewarded.

  Flicking off the gallery lights, I made my way to the back so I could grab my purse and phone from my office. As soon as I put the key in, I knew, I was anticipating him this time. I wasn’t going to be scared, not anymore. Pushing the door open fully, the moonlight that shone through the window silhouetted the figure perfectly.

  “And here I thought you’d left, breaking and entering again… nice,” I said sarcastically as I stepped inside the room and flicked the light.

  Sebastian didn’t say a word, he just turned and looked at me. I went about doing my closing routine, double checking that I had all of the sales receipts in hand before locking them up in the safe. If he didn’t have anything to say neither did I.

  “So,” He began. “What’s going on between you and Wynn St. John?”

  I looked up at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not blind, I saw it. Are you two seeing each other, are you romantically involved with him?”

  Laughing, I shook my head. “Are you trying to tell me that Mr. I’m always around doesn’t know if I’m seeing or romantically involved with someone?” I scoffed.

  When he didn’t say anything in response I continued. “The answer is no, I’m not seeing him, I’ve never been romantically involved with him. We’re friends, he’s grateful to me for giving him the opportunity to share his work because I believed in him when no one else did. Besides, his wife is an amazing woman who is due to give birth at any minute. Which is why he was solo and celebrated with me when he I told him he had sold out.”

  Sebastian looked at me, stared at me as if he was trying to figure out if I was lying to him. Satisfied with whatever he had seen in me, he looked away.

  “Is there anything else you’d like to question me about? If not I’d really like to lock up and leave, I’m tired and hungry and want to go to…” Before I could finish he had closed the expanse between us, placed both hands on my cheeks and kissed me.

  My arms seemed to move on their own as they wrapped tightly around his body holding him close to me. I kissed him back, his teeth grazed gently against my bottom lip and I moaned out like a wanton woman. Sebastian’s hand's had now moved from my face to one resting on my hip the other grasped my ass and pulling it up to keep me pressed against him. I then moved my arms until they were resting on his shoulders, my hands grasping at his hair. I was spun slightly until my back was pressed up against the wall, I couldn’t stop kissing him. I was addicted to the way his body melded to mine, the way he felt in my arms. When I moved to rub myself against the hardness that had grown stiff against my belly, he’d lifted me up so I could wrap my legs around his body ad so he could ground right against my center.

  “Emmeline,” He moaned out before breaking the kiss. He slowly pulled back to look at me. “You take my breath away, Emmeline.”

  “Kiss me Sebastian,” I manage to get out before he kissed me again.

  One quick thrust and twist of his hips, I was the one who broke the kiss, this time, to moan out Oh God, the words seemed to intensify his actions. One moment my back was flat against the wall, the next my ass was on the desk, while several of the items that laid on it went crashing to the floor. I didn’t care if anything was broken, I was more interested in what Sebastian had to offer.

  Sebastian was more gentle now, the light touches that he placed up and down my arms. The way his fingers softly moved over the swell of my breasts, his own brand of sweet caress set my soul on fire. He placed soft kisses in spots that made my heart race all while simultaneously keeping my body in a state of euphoria.

  This man was wicked sin and I was more than willing to see what he had to offer me.

  In some ways I felt like a slut, I wanted him to push my dress up and rip my panties and fuck me until I came all over my desk. Instead I laid back while he worshiped me in ways I could never imagine were possible.

  When his hand caressed my knee, I knew that I was ready to give myself to him. I probably would have let him do just about anything to me while I sat presented and open for him but when his hand moved, it ran up the outside of my dress.

  “Sebastian,” I moaned out as his mouth began to suck on my neck gently.

  “Yes, Emmeline?” He answered before his mouth continued on.

  “Will you… will you make love to me?” I asked nervously anticipating his answer.

  The kissing stopped, his head moved away from my neck as he laid his forehead on my shoulder before wrapping his arms around me.

  “Emmeline, there is nothing more in the world I want to do right now than to make love to you,” Pulling back, he reached up and caressed my cheek.

  “I’m so sorry I got carried away, I just couldn’t help myself. I was so jealous; I don’t know why I was so jealous when Wynn hugged you. I guess it’s because you’ve never hugged me like that.”

  “Okay,” I said, coming to the realization that he was trying to let me down easy.

  “No, it’s not okay. I wanted to talk to you, I needed to make sure you knew everything before we took anything further. This…” He motioned his hand between the two of us. “This right here shouldn�
��t have happened until you knew everything. With that being said I regret nothing, I want to take you out of here and back to my place and keep you there for the next three weeks. I, however, cannot do that while this is weighing heavily on my conscious.”

  “Then tell me, you’re scaring me.”

  “Beautiful one,” He said before cupping my face with his hands. “I would never scare you, I’d never hurt you. There are just some things that you need to know before you can take the next journey with me.”

  “Alright, I’m ready. Tell me what you have to say.”

  Then, his phone rang. His phone rang and the look on his face looked absolutely murderous. He pulled the offending object from his inside jacket pocket growled loudly before taking the call.

  “Yes?... Now?... Are you fucking kidding me?... Fine…two minutes.” He said before ending the call.

  He was about to speak but I held my hand up to him before he could. “Don’t say it, I already know. You’ve got to go.”

  “I’m…”

  “No, don’t say anything else, just go.”

  “Emmeline, I wouldn’t be leaving you if it weren’t important.”

  “You do know that whenever the conversation gets heavy between us, something coincidentally happens and you’ve got to go.”

  “I know,” He conceded.

  “You should go, you can’t hear cars honking all the way back here and I’m sure your two minutes are up by now.”

  “We’ll discuss it later.”

  I just shook my head, I knew we wouldn’t and I wasn’t stupid to think anything different. Without even looking up, I knew he was gone. The atmosphere in the room seemed to shift. Hopping off the desk, I tried my best to compose myself. I looked around at the mess that was made and realized that I didn’t even have it in me to clean it up now. It could wait.

  My heels were on opposite ends of the room and I didn’t feel bothered. I just slipped on a pair of flats that I had safely tucked away in my desk drawer before grabbing my purse and leaving my office, locking up both locks to ensure that no one saw the mess and asked questions about what happened.

  When I stepped outside it was much colder than I had anticipated, the temperatures had dropped significantly in the past few days like winter had finally caught up with December. I just wanted to get home and into my warm pajamas and sleep for a couple of days straight.

  The drive home was desolate, even for the early evening hour there were hardly any cars on the roads. I pulled into my garage and locked up the doors and walked into the house. When I passed the living room something caught my eye so I turned and stared. In the corner sat a Christmas tree, lit up with multi-colored lights and balls that looked reminiscent of the one I had as a child. I could barely tear my eyes from it when I saw something else from the corner of my eye this time it was Sebastian’s face. I turned slowly ready to scream at him but I noticed that Sebastian wasn’t standing there, it was Sebastian’s face staring at me from the TV. I walked over and realized there was a DVD player, remote and a note that said ‘play me’ on it.

  Nervously I picked up the control and hit the play button and the video began.

  “Hello, Emmeline.”

  The Beauty: Book 1 of The Beauty & The Thief Series coming early December.

  About Ashlee Taylor

  Ashlee Taylor has always loved to read. She was practically born with a book in hand. She even wrote short stories and vignettes for fun at age eleven.

  As she grew up reading was put to the side but the book Fifty Shades of Grey brought back the love of the written word. Swallowing every book, she could get her hands on while befriending authors. Eventually becoming a beta reader and helping authors work out critical scenes and plot progressions.

  Through this process, Ashlee decided to write the stories in her head.

  Where you can positively stalk me:

  authorashleetaylor@gmail.com

  https://www.facebook.com/AshleeTaylorAuthor/

  http://www.twitter.com/AuthorAshleeT

  https://www.instagram.com/authorashleetaylor/

  http://www.ashleetaylorauthor.com

  Ugly Sweaters

  Elizabeth Hayes

  Chapter One

  Lexy

  “No.”

  “Come on Lex. It will be fun. I promise!” Mandy squealed into my ear as I pulled the phone away so that she didn’t do any permanent damage to my eardrums.

  “I don’t even have an ugly sweater.”

  “Oh don’t even start with excuses Lex. Just let me handle it. I’m on my way, so get your sexy little butt in the shower and make sure to shave. See you in thirty.” The phone went silent in my ear. I looked down and sure enough she had hung up without giving me a chance to say no. If she wasn’t my best friend, I would have locked my doors and turned off all the lights and pretended I wasn’t home. But instead I jumped in the shower and shaved just as she had asked so nicely. I finished shaving and stepped out of the shower just in time to hear the doorbell ring. I wrapped a towel around myself and went to answer the door.

  “What is all this?” I opened the door and Mandy was standing there, her arms full of bags.

  “Ahhh, we have to make our sweaters.”

  “Mandy, you can’t be serious.”

  She dropped the bags in the middle of my living room and started to empty them out. My floor looked as though Christmas had thrown up. She had tinsel, ornaments, lights, stickers, puff balls, felt, glue, Santa hats, stockings, stuffed elves, and so much more stuff.

  “Ahhh Mandy. Did you buy the entire store?” I asked as I dropped down on the couch.

  “No, well okay. I may have gone a little bit overboard but I didn’t know what we needed.”

  “First we need sweaters.”

  “Got them.” She looked down at the mess in front of her and dug through it until she pulled out two red sweaters. “Here.” She tossed one to me. I held it up.

  “You did not buy us brand new sweater dresses to ruin, did you?”

  “Yes I did and it’s a dress. Besides they were on sale.”

  I held the sweater up to me. It was an off the shoulder dress that would maybe cover my ass. I was going to have to find a pair of leggings to wear or my ass would be on full display.

  “Don’t glue yourself to anything while I’m getting dressed.”

  “I can’t promise that.”

  Laughing, I made my way to my room and slipped into a pair of yoga pants and a tank before making my way back to the living room and hoping that Mandy hadn’t glued herself to anything yet.

  For the next hour we managed to decorate our sweaters in the most obnoxious Christmas decorations. Mine looked like a candy cane, where Mandy’s looked like an elf threw up all over hers. It was the most obnoxious thing I had ever seen. I slipped mine on and looked in front of the mirror. The dress was longer than I had expected which brought a small smile to my face even if I wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable in it. Mandy somehow managed to make her sweater look as good as one could make it look.

  “Here.” Mandy smiled as she tossed me a bag. I looked inside. It was a pair of knee high white socks with white fur trim at the top. I shook my head as I laughed and pulled them up my legs.

  I had never been so grateful for my large bathroom as I was today. The double vanity sink came in handy while Mandy and I curled our hair and applied makeup to our faces until we were satisfied with our appearances.

  “What shoes should I wear?” I asked Mandy who was pulling on a similar pair of socks up to her thighs.

  “You should totally wear your knee high black boots.” She paused and looked up at me. “Or you should wear your black Mary Janes. Totally up to you but I would go with the boots.”

  She pulled out her black thigh high patent leather boots and slid her feet into them before zipping up the sides.

  I found my black knee high boots and slid my feet into them and zipped them up.

>   “Ready?” I asked Mandy as I slid my ID, cash and phone in my black clutch.

  “Let’s go. The cab should be here any minute.”

  Mandy

  This party is just what I needed and Lex was going to have fun, even if it meant I had to drag her kicking and screaming. I knew she wouldn’t have gone if I wasn’t as persistent as I had been. She would have stayed home and curled up on her couch and cried into a glass of merlot, and I would have done the same thing. But today was going to be fun. We needed it. No more wallowing in self pity over the holidays as we celebrated being single. No, we were going to go out and let loose.

  I was tired of crying over our exes. Me not as bad as Lex, being as her fiancé dropped her like a bad habit weeks before they were to be married. For his secretary no less. I, on the other hand, was dropped for a lawyer. I would have been pissed had the women not been so close to perfect it made me want to puke. I mean who wouldn’t go for a tall blonde haired, blue eyed lawyer who spent her free time flying around the world doing charity work, building houses for the less fortunate and making sure they had clean water to drink? I had looked for a reason to hate her and the only one I could come up with is that she chose my boyfriend to sink her perfectly manicured claws into.

  Today, though, we were going to find ourselves some sexy hot men to make us forget those douche canoes. We were single and looked as sexy as was possible in our obnoxious sweaters. Granted, wherever I walked I left a sprinkle of glitter as if a fairy was following me around dousing me in pixy dust. But that was beside the point.

  If tonight went as planned, Lex would be saying Greg who and I would be saying Dan who. Even if I had to get Lex to step out of her comfort zone and enjoy a night of casual sex and free drinks.

  Chapter Two

  Lex

  The cab dropped us off at the party and Mandy grabbed my hand and squeezed before getting out of the car. I followed her and adjusted my dress as it tried to slide its way up my thighs threatening to expose my butt. I followed Mandy inside the hotel. Somehow even in six inch heels she managed to speed walk through the halls as I tried to keep up with her. I tried not to fall on my face or trip over my own feet. I knew I should have gone with my Mary Janes, at least the heel on them was only three inches whereas the boots I was trying my hardest to stay upright in were a good six inches. We finally made it to the hall where the party was being held.