Holiday Treasure (Billionaire Bachelors - Book 10)

by Melody Anne

  One minute he was asleep in bed with no idea that his father was coming home, and the next he’d been awakened to see his grandmother’s sad face, and to hear her telling him he was going to come live with her now.

  The two of them had a lot of healing to do, and now Billy blamed himself for his grandmother getting hurt. She was awake, but it would have almost been better if she hadn’t come out of the coma.

  When the doctors had gone in to fix the hip, they’d found bone cancer. It was too far gone for them — or anyone — to do anything about it. So Billy was not only not going to not get his Christmas wish of having his parents come home again, but he was going to lose his only other living relative.

  Tanner was trying desperately not to dwell on it, but as he looked out at the line of kids still waiting to sit on his lap, have a picture taken and tell him how many toys they wanted, all he could think about was one small boy. But he did his best to shake Billy’s image from his mind. The boy wasn’t his responsibility. Kyla wasn’t either. He was almost done with this place, and once his stint was over, he was done forever, so how could these two people occupy so much of his time?

  Shaking his head, he practically pushed away the little boy who was actually on his lap. Still, he wasn’t wholly in Scrooge mode. A semblance of a smile touched his lips as a little blond girl with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks took the boy’s place on Tanner’s lap.

  “What can Santa bring you for Christmas?” he asked.

  She flashed him a precious little grin. “I want a purple pony,” she giggled.

  “A purple pony?” Did they even make things like that?

  “Yes, Santa, with sparkles.”

  “Santa will have to talk to his elves and see if we can get you one of those,” he told her. At least she wasn’t reading off a list from a yard-long scroll. The twinkle in her eyes was just plain adorable.

  “Thanks, Santa. I love you,” the little girl said.

  “Santa loves you too,” he told her, and accepted her hug. All right, this wasn’t so bad. He was just feeling grumpy about humanity earlier.

  Then she leaned back and the color washed from her face. “Uh oh.” That was his only warning before her mouth opened and a stream of nastiness came shooting out right at him.

  Tanner froze as the smell of vomit invaded his nostrils and chunks of food got stuck in his fake beard. His so-called helpers all took a few steps back; the best they could do for him, it seemed, was give him wide-eyed looks of horror.

  “Sorry, Santa,” the little girl said before she quickly climbed off his lap and ran to her mother, tears now pouring from her eyes.

  “It’s okay, sweetie. You didn’t mean to throw up on Santa,” her mother told her.

  “Now he won’t bring me my pony,” she sobbed.

  “Of course that’s why she’s crying,” Tanner muttered. “Greedy like every damn one of them. I’m done for the day! Now!”

  With that, he stood up and stomped from the ridiculously festive “North Pole” area, walking through the mall with people skirting around him, his stink following wherever he went. He’d been peed on, spit on, punched, snotted on, and now thrown up on. How in the hell did they get anyone to actually take this job? There was no amount of money in the universe that would make being Santa worth it.

  All children were simply germ machines out to wreck the lives of unsuspecting adults. Who in their right mind would actually want to have some of the repulsive little brats for their own? And Billy? He was probably a little schemer, too, playing his bereavement for all it was worth.

  Tanner entered the break room, and he found Kyla sitting on the bench and rubbing her feet.

  “Why in the hell weren’t you out there?”

  Her shocked look made him realize that, in his anger, he might be behaving slightly over the top. But he was covered in vomit. Didn’t that give him a little bit of leeway to act out?

  “I’m on break,” she said before her nose twitched and then she backed away from him. “What on earth happened?”

  “What do you think happened? Anything and everything disgusting a child can do to me has now been done. Thank heavens I only have one more day left of this Santa bullshit!”

  “It’s not so bad. They’re just children, and they adore you,” she reminded him.

  “Just children? How can you even say that? You’ve seen their behavior. They are all monsters in disguise. Don’t let their small size fool you,” he ranted as he stripped down.

  When his eyes connected with hers again and he saw the look of appreciation that his naked torso inspired in her face, his temper cooled. No, they hadn’t made love again in the last two days, and yes, she’d managed to avoid him like he had the plague, but she still wanted him. That much was obvious.

  There were only two nights left in his sentence, and he planned on making the most of the time. “How about we sneak out of here? I no longer have a usable Santa suit, so they’re going to have to bring in the other guy. We can go cuddle up and watch another Christmas movie.”

  The last thing he wanted to do was watch a movie, but if that got her to snuggle into him, then he would watch a dozen of the things. Their first movie night hadn’t been half bad — well, it hadn’t until she’d fallen asleep. And he did have to sit through Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.

  “I can’t just leave work, Tanner,” she said, looking down.

  “Why are you avoiding me? Do you regret what happened between us?” There. She couldn’t get out of answering that.

  “No. I decided not to regret it, but it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again,” she said, looking back up with a glint of determination in her eyes.

  “Why not? We’re good together. Why fight it?” Logic was always the answer, wasn’t it?

  “Just because we’re obviously compatible in bed doesn’t mean we should continue to jump into it.”

  “In my book, that’s exactly what it means.” Women! Were they all incapable of reason?

  “Look, it’s obvious you’re not sticking around long, Tanner, and I’m not usually a one-night-stand sort of girl, so let’s not have regrets, but let’s not pretend there’s something there between us.”

  He latched on to the one part of her explanation he could. “It won’t be a one-night stand if we do it again.”

  “Are you for real?” she asked, a hint of a smile on her face.

  “Oh, baby, I’m all real,” he assured her as he stepped closer.

  Her nose wrinkled for the second time, and she stood up and backed away. “Why don’t you go and shower? Your looks might be appealing, but your smell is killing the mood.”

  With that lethal shot, she walked out of the room. He almost followed before he realized he was standing there in his boxers and ridiculously thick socks. With a sigh, he grabbed his clothes and made his way to the mall shower.

  The sad thing about the shower was that it was better than the one in his apartment. But that was hardly an issue anymore.

  Kyla was the issue. She might think she was avoiding him successfully, and she might think she was witty, but she didn’t know quite how determined he could be.

  She was soon to find out.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Only a day to go in his previously rodent-infested, leaky-piped, ball-freezing building. OK, the temperature was still miserable in here, but everything else was so wretched, the temperature might as well follow suit.

  Tanner had to smile when he found himself humming Christmas carols. He was done for the day — the mall closed early on Christmas Eve so the employees could celebrate with their families — and he’d donned a Santa suit for the last time. With something approaching glee, he tossed the stupid suit into the costume return, giving it an extra little shove just to say good riddance, and he walked away from the mall with a smile.

  Kyla hadn’t been working there that day. Lucky girl. She was at her other job, which had to be better than dealing with snot-nosed kids, whatever it was. But he wasn’t
so lucky, because her absence had made the time drag by for him. The uncertainty and anticipation didn’t help. It was his last night with her and he wanted to make it count. She hadn’t said what her plans for the evening were, but since she didn’t have any family left, he was hoping they could spend it together. He’d ordered a nice catered dinner, which would arrive in a couple of hours.

  The two of them could eat an exquisite meal and then cuddle up on the couch. The night before, she’d rejected his offer of watching another cheesy Christmas flick, but she couldn’t do that now, could she? Not on Christmas Eve. And this time she wouldn’t fall asleep, because he’d be treating her to all of his best moves. And he already knew how much she liked them.

  It was time they got reacquainted. Since they’d made love nearly a week ago, the sexual tension had been building to the boiling point — at least for him — and he was more than ready to refuel the magic the two of them made together. It was tonight or never, because once he left this building, he wouldn’t be back.

  As usual, that thought sent an odd pang through him, but he chose to ignore it. Sure, he’d been getting a bit sappy about this particular woman, but people in extreme circumstances tended to act against their character. He’d heard about that in the movie Speed.

  This wasn’t his life. He was happy with who he was outside of this alternate reality, living in his penthouse apartment, working day and night, and sporting a tuxedo when he consumed champagne and caviar instead of beer and hot wings.

  This existence was beneath him. He didn’t consider himself a snob; he was just a man who had worked hard and liked the finer things in life. There was nothing wrong with that. Okay, he conceded, he did have a wealthy family, and he did seem to have the Midas touch.

  When he reached the apartment building, Tanner’s imagination was running along so vividly that he could practically taste Kyla’s skin on his lips. And as he turned the corner to their end of the hallway, he wasn’t paying attention and ran smack dab into her, nearly making her fall back on her tush.

  She was in an awful hurry.

  “Oh, sorry,” she gasped before looking up and discovering who it was. “Hey, Tanner. Sorry, I don’t have time to chat. I’m running late,” she said as she attempted to get past him.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, resolutely blocking her path.

  “I have plans tonight.”

  Vague, to say the least, and he wasn’t about to let her get away with it. “What plans?” he asked suspiciously. This was supposed to be their night together. She couldn’t possibly be seeing another man. He would know. Wouldn’t he? Maybe not. She’d been able to avoid him way too often for his liking.

  “I just have plans.” She looked down, refusing to meet his gaze.

  Instant jealousy slammed into his gut. Maybe she was seeing another man.

  “I thought we’d have dinner together tonight. I ordered it in.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “You ordered Christmas dinner? Doesn’t a holiday meal mean that you’re supposed to slave over a hot stove all day?”

  “I don’t cook elaborate meals, just breakfast, and preferably after a night of working up a good appetite,” he said as he tried to turn her around.

  “Yeah, my dad ‘helped’ my mom once or twice in the kitchen for elaborate dinners,” Kyla said, “but it was an utter disaster. Whenever he tried to again, she would end up chasing him away, telling him he would mess everything up.” A melancholy smile rose up on her lips.

  “Besides, isn’t it better to have a nice meal without being exhausted from cooking all day and night?” he asked, trying to tempt her into changing her mind.

  “No, Tanner. Part of the appeal of a great Christmas dinner is in knowing that it was prepared with love.” Even the little smile she’d had not so long before disappeared when she said those words.

  This wasn’t good. He wanted her happy and carefree tonight, not sinking back into a happy past that she could never have again.

  “I’ll have to remember that,” he said, but he wouldn’t — at least if he avoided family at big holidays as often as he did. Would he remember her? After tonight, they wouldn’t see each other again.

  “I really do have to go. I’m very late.” She tried to get around him for the second time.

  “Seriously, where?”

  If she wasn’t going to stay in with him, then he damn well wanted to know where she was in such a rush to go.

  She hesitated, then sighed. “I’m serving dinner tonight at a homeless shelter nearby.”

  Whew. It wasn’t a date with someone else, after all. A date on Christmas Eve probably meant the relationship had to be going somewhere — like church.

  “Why?” he asked before he was able to stop himself.

  “Because I don’t have a family to celebrate with anymore, and I figure I can give something back. I know it’s what my mom would do if she were still here and all alone.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Oh, no. What had he just said? The last thing Tanner wanted to do was hang out in some crappy kitchen and serve food to people who lived on the streets. Why were they homeless, anyway? It didn’t make sense to him why anyone would choose that kind of life. They were clearly too lazy to work.

  “Um…you don’t need to do that,” she said, looking at him coolly.

  Was his disdain so obvious?

  “I want to.” He told himself it was just because he wanted to get her alone later. Surely, if he were to come with her to serve food to these homeless people, she would thaw enough that he’d finally get her into Santa’s sack again.

  “I don’t know, Tanner. I don’t think it’s really your kind of place.”

  Her lack of faith in him rankled. Granted, he was thinking the same thing, but to have those words come from her mouth didn’t make him happy at all.

  “Let me just go and make a phone call. Promise not to leave without me,” he said, giving her his sternest look.

  “I guess,” she replied, and she leaned against the wall. She didn’t look at all convinced that he’d come back from his apartment.

  Tanner rushed inside and pulled out the card for the police station monitoring his ridiculous ankle device. Damn! He hated that he had to ask for permission to go anywhere. One more day, he told himself. He only had one more day. Actually, less than that!

  His call was picked up on the third ring, and though the officer, who just happened to be the one who’d dropped him off on that first day, gave him permission to serve a meal at the homeless shelter, the guy actually had the audacity to laugh and tell Tanner, “Good luck!”

  Still, Tanner probably needed all the luck he could get.

  His second call was to his assistant. Het told Randy to have the meal set up and ready for when they returned. They might be starting later than Tanner wanted, but he was still going to follow through on his plans of seducing his little Christmas elf. That one night wasn’t anywhere near enough.

  When he walked back out into the hallway, he was relieved to see her still there. She was looking at her watch with a frown on her face, but she’d waited for him.

  “All set,” he said, with the best smile he knew how to fake. He took her arm, placing it through his. “How far away is this place?”

  “It’s only about a mile, but we’re running really late, so we’d better get a cab,” she told him.

  It took only a couple of minutes before a taxi drove by, and Tanner flagged it down with no problem. The cab driver talked nonstop, and Tanner had to fight his irritation when Kyla leaned over the seat and started to converse with the guy. She even sounded excited. Of course, Tanner had nothing to be jealous about, so why did it bother him to share her attention? Ridiculous.

  When they got to the shelter, it took everything in him not to wrinkle his nose at the crowd before him. There was a group of men outside, some in threadbare clothing; had those guys bathed in a month? The pungent smell of urine and body odor wafted in his direction. How was he going to get through the nig
ht?

  “This way,” Kyla told him and led him down a small alley and inside through a side door. It took all his willpower not to turn and make sure someone wasn’t coming up behind him to pick his pocket or rob them outright.

  “Kyla! I’m so glad you made it,” a harried woman said. “I was beginning to worry. The twins both got food poisoning and we’re a couple of people short.” She tossed an apron at Kyla before noticing Tanner. It was almost comical the way the woman’s eyes widened.

  “Hi, Maggie,” Kyla said. “This is Tanner, my neighbor. He wanted to help tonight. Maybe since he’s the size of the twins put together, he can make up for their absence.” With a laugh, she went over to the sink and began scrubbing up.

  “Well, I won’t complain about an extra set of hands.” Maggie walked to a small desk, grabbed another apron, and tossed it to Tanner.

  He took off his coat, slipped the apron on, and washed his hands at the sink Kyla had just finished using.

  Maggie got into work mode, directing the two of them to where she wanted them, and the next couple of hours passed by in a blur as Tanner stood at a long table in between Kyla and a girl who couldn’t have been more than sixteen, and they proceeded to dish up dinner to a seemingly never-ending line of people.

  “Bless you.”

  Tanner woke up from his daze to find in front of him a petite, dark-haired woman with a small child clinging to her leg. What in the world was a woman like her doing homeless — and with such a young boy? He wanted to ask, but he held his tongue.

  “Merry Christmas,” he replied instead, surprised by the number of people he’d served who didn’t seem at all the type he would classify as homeless.

  “Not everything is as it appears,” the woman said, as if reading his mind.

  “I’m not judging,” he said quickly, feeling like an ass, knowing full well that’s what he’d been doing.

  “You are, but that’s all right. I used to be exactly the same way while I worked for a prestigious law firm. My husband died and then my boss decided that since I was single, I must be a merry widow and I’d make a great plaything. When I didn’t give him what he wanted, he fired me. I tried filing a sexual-harassment suit, but they didn’t become the top lawyers in the area because they were stupid. I soon found that not only was I out of a job, but I also couldn’t get another one anywhere else — my former boss had been smearing my name. Nice guy. Anyway, just because people find themselves running out of options doesn’t mean they chose that life for themself.”