by E A Price
He tried to focus on more pleasing topics. Namely, that his nephew had managed to find a mate. The herd was saved… and Branch was also now unavailable to any females. Clay didn’t really believe Maris was interested in his nephew – her flashy shows of obsessive affection weren’t real. But, well, it made him feel a little better just knowing there was no way Maris could mate him. Not that Clay had any intention to mate Maris – no way, she was far too young for him, but well, he preferred her not to mate his nephew.
Clay cleared his throat and looked at Branch. “So, the mating is set for Christmas Eve?”
Branch nodded, and his intended mate, Mira let out a giggle.
“In less than two weeks, you’ll be mated and living together,” continued Clay.
Branch shrugged.
“You are sure about this, Alpha?” asked Clay, wanting to hammer the point home.
It was selfish of him to want to make sure Maris couldn’t mate Branch but… but it wasn’t like Branch was interested in her anyway.
“Of course, I’m sure,” snapped Branch, irritated by the continued questioning.
“Yep,” squeaked Mira in agreement.
Clay still had his doubts, but he wasn’t sure why his alpha and nephew would lie to him. He watched as Mira slipped an arm around Branch’s waist, and saw the happiness flicker across Branch’s expression. Okay, he believed they were going to mate. Good. He was pleased his nephew was happy, plus… you know, his own selfish reasons.
Martha bustled into the room. “Oh! That tree is absolutely beautiful! Well done Mira and Ariel!”
“Mostly Mira,” admitted his niece, Ariel with a blush. She had been daydreaming since she arrived. He suspected a male was involved but didn’t really want to dip any toes down that rabbit hole.
“Hey, what about me?” groused Branch.
Martha raised an eyebrow and Branch huffed.
“Fine, mostly Mira.”
Martha walked around the tree admiring it. Clay decided it was time for another drink. He escaped to the kitchen and was just trying to drink his way through a pint of eggnog when he stiffened.
Maris.
His damn reindeer could sense her even before he smelled her. He needed help. He needed to stop being an old perv. She was twenty-freaking-five years old. She was only four years older than his niece.
He needed to wean himself off this obsession he had with her, and he could start by not going out to see her, by staying in the kitchen. But even as he thought those thoughts, his legs were moving, propelling him towards her.
She was dressed in a figure-hugging red sweater dress. He knew he was pathetic when he started feeling jealous of a jumper dress.
Maris smiled when she saw him, and he quickly looked away. Yep, he was a big, strong reindeer who was absolutely terrified of a willowy redhead in a short dress.
“Alpha,” breathed Maris, though he could feel her eyes on him.
“Maris,” said Branch curtly. “I don’t think you’ve met Mira – my mate.”
“Your mate?” repeated Maris in confusion – obviously, she hadn’t heard the good news. “I…”
“Come and get some eggnog,” said Ariel very loudly.
She took Maris’ elbow and firmly led her into the kitchen. Clay couldn’t help the glare on his face as he followed.
“Is it true?” asked Maris to Ariel.
The young reindeer cow nodded. “Yep, we have eggnog in the kitchen.”
“I don’t really like eggnog, but I mean about Branch, is he really…”
“Yes,” said Clay shortly.
Maris looked back to Clay. Their eyes clashed, and something passed between them. She averted her gaze and blushed slightly.
“Well, congratulations to them,” murmured Maris. “I’m sure they’ll be very happy.”
Ariel gave her a funny look and was about to say something when her mother called her. She gave Maris one last look and flitted away.
“This is good news for Branch,” said Maris.
“Yes,” he agreed.
“Good news for all of us.”
“Yes.”
Maris rolled her eyes. “You don’t always have to be so tense around me,” she snapped. “Don’t worry I’m not going to jump on you and try to ravage you!”
He couldn’t deny a little disappointment at that. Maris drifted back towards the living room, watching without much interest as Mira decorated the tree.
Clay followed, feeling frustrated and helpless.
“I wasn’t worried,” he whispered to her, “I just feel… whatever may be between us isn’t appropriate. I’m far too old for you, and I… I already had a mate.”
Though he wouldn’t begrudge Branch from mating again. Branch too had lost a mate, and Clay thought nothing wrong with him taking Mira as a mate. But Clay had made a promise to Crystal on her death bed. Death bed promises could not be taken lightly.
“Clay, it’s fine,” she sighed, “I…”
Maris flinched as the giant tree toppled to the ground. Instinctively, he pulled Maris close, wrapping a protective arm around her.
When he realized what he was doing, he jumped away from her as if burned. The look of hurt on her face almost crushed him. Yep, he was both a perv and a dick.
Seven
Maris dazedly fumbled through her purse for her door key. Clay said there was something between them… sort of. He then went on to say it was inappropriate, but he wasn’t trying to deny it was there. Bah - she was too pleased to get bogged down in semantics like that. He finally half admitted there was something there, and she was thrilled. Okay, it hadn’t felt great when he pushed her away, but, this was probably the most progress she made with him in years.
She found her key and wandered into her house, walking into a chair, dropping her purse onto her annoyed cat and pushing the button for her answering machine.
There was one from her agent asking if she was sure she didn’t want to do the Vegas job. Ugh. She didn’t. It involved modeling underwear – not for photos, actually live in person for a group of horny businessmen. No, she didn’t want to start doing that.
Maris fumbled through her refrigerator until she found some peach ice tea. She froze in the act of removing the lid as a familiar voice sounded over her machine.
“Maris, it’s Jason. We met at the party…”
Like she was going to forget.
“One of your herd mates gave me your number…”
She wondered who would do that. Some dick.
“I was wondering if you wanted to go to dinner. I’ll call back soon. Stay beautiful, babe.”
Ugh. No, he was the dick.
She quickly pressed to delete the message. She may have to change her number. She’d met men like Jason before – for some reason they thought that outright disgust was just a girl playing hard to get. Humph!
Her phone started ringing, and Maris paused, considering that she really didn’t want to talk to Jason, but the sooner he got it through his thick skull that she wasn’t interested, the better.
She grabbed the receiver and let out a shrill, “Hello!”
“Darling, is everything alright?” asked her mother, immediately concerned.
Maris laughed in relief. “Fine, Mom, I’m just… glad it’s you.”
“I’m always pleased to talk to you too. I’m sorry I missed you at the tree trimming party.”
“Oh, I ah, didn’t stay long.”
Her mother made some sounds of sympathy. “I know it’s hard to see him with his mate.”
“Hmm, who?” Maris wasn’t paying attention; she was too busy thinking about Clay. Thinking about the look of anguish on his handsome face. Thinking that his shoulders certainly looked good wrapped in a green sweater…
“Well, Branch of course.”
“Oh!” Right, of course, she was supposed to be determined to be his mate. Yep, it was all coming back to her.
“I met Mira earlier,” said her mother, unaware of Maris’ flustering. “She
seems rather nice.”
At least her mother was sweet in defeat. Maris doubted the rest of the herd would be so kind.
“Yes, I agree.”
“At least Harlan is still single…”
Maris winced. Oh lord. “Mom, I really don’t…”
“Marla! Marla! What on earth are you doing?” called an irate voice in the background.
“Sorry, darling, that’s George. He wants to go to bed. We’ll speak tomorrow.”
“Umm, okay.” Though hopefully not about Harlan.
“I love you, my special girl.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
Her mother blew her a kiss and hung up.
She considered Harlan – possibly the most irritating of the two brothers. He was known for dating younger women and then tossing them aside. She really didn’t want to be one of his discarded females. Oh, being a dutiful daughter was hard work.
Her thoughts of Harlan soon shifted to Clay, and she couldn’t help the smile. He said there was something between them, and that was... that was... that was something.
She leaned down and tried to stroke her cat, but Fifi would have none of her, she was still smarting over the purse incident. A cat scorned was a terrible thing. Given that Maris had been carrying a six-pack of diet peach soda in her bag, perhaps Fifi’s reaction wasn’t quite so unwarranted.
Maris found a can of tuna in her kitchen and decided to treat Fifi. Hell, she was actually having a good day, make it salmon!
Eight
Clay was daydreaming. He was in the middle of a meeting. He should have been paying attention, but he wasn’t. He was daydreaming pure and simple. Two guesses as to who he was thinking about. A certain someone in a sweater dress…
Normally, his thoughts turned to her – his lecherous, dirty thoughts – but now he was worried he had hurt her feelings.
He should find a way to apologize to her. A way that said, he wasn’t interested in her romantically, but he wanted them to be friends. So a way that he could maintain a big fat lie and ensure that she was happy.
Or maybe he should forget about her, pretend nothing happened – he’d been doing that since their first kiss, so maybe it would work. He just needed to get through the day without any reminders of Maris. Should be easy at work.
“I thought Maris.”
‘What?!” His niece’s voice cut through his thoughts, and he almost fell off his chair in surprise.
“I thought we could ask Maris to pose for some promotional shots of the Caribbean resort,” repeated Ariel, smiling at him.
Ariel had recently graduated from college and was starting work at the company within the advertising division. The head of the division was Chelsea – Bella’s acidic friend. Apparently, she wasn’t exactly pleased with Ariel’s fresh new ideas, but given that Branch was the alpha and Ariel’s brother, she wasn’t about to say anything against her. However, her idea to use Maris probably might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back – or the idea that pushes the reindeer over the edge.
“What do you think?” asked Ariel, beaming around at everyone in the meeting.
“Ah, I suppose…” he muttered.
He glanced over at Chelsea. She looked like she wanted to explode. She was turning a very worrying shade of red but was somehow managing to control herself.
“Is that the image we want?” she asked carefully.
Ariel’s brow creased. “What, that beautiful people stay at our resorts? I’m sure Maris would be amenable to it.”
“Yes, but…” spluttered Chelsea.
“Can our budget stretch that far?” asked Martha, who retained creative control over the whole company.
“Ah, yes, I’m sure it can,” said Clay, whose thoughts were now filled with Maris in a bikini. Well, usually in his thoughts she was in her underwear, so there wasn’t much difference.
“Well, that’s settled then,” said Martha, twinkling at her daughter, and completely ignoring Chelsea. “Now, unless we have anything else to discuss, I really must be getting along. Ariel, sweetie, can you make the arrangements?”
Clay decided to leave before he had to listen to any of Chelsea’s complaints. His sister could deal with a dozen Chelseas and not break a sweat. He needed to get back to his office so he could think about Maris in a bikini in peace.
He was nearly back at his office when he ran into Bella. Right, he was going to have to get used to her being in the building again.
“Clay, how lovely to see you again!”
Like they didn’t see each other nearly every other day either at work or at one of the herd events.
“Yes, you too,” he said briskly, while trying to step around her to his office.
She dodged in front of him. “I heard there’s a wonderful new sushi restaurant opened up just around the corner. Maybe we should go.”
“I’m not a fan of sushi.”
Again he tried to step around and again she blocked him.
“Well, how about Italian? Or Mexican? Or perhaps we could just get a sandwich?” She gave him a hopeful look.
Clay pushed down an inner sigh. “Maybe.”
Maybe as long as Martha was there with him and he could leave before Bella started bringing up the subject of him taking a mate.
Thankfully, his phone rang before she could pin him down for an exact date and time. He excused himself, stating it was important, and moved into his office to take the call – a reminder from his dentist about his next appointment.
He dropped into his chair and caught sight of the photo of Crystal – his late mate.
“I’m sorry, darling,” he murmured.
It was nearly twenty years since he lost her and still he felt a pang every time he thought about her. Though, he didn’t think of her half as often as he used to anymore. No, his thoughts were taken by Maris.
Nine
Maris smoothed out her new, silk dress. She probably didn’t need it – her wardrobe was already bulging, but when Ariel called and asked if she would be interested in doing some work for the herd, she decided to splurge. After all, since she would be working closely with the herd, with Clay, a new dress he hadn’t seen before may not hurt. It had been a little pricey, but the material was buttery soft.
She’d been to the herd offices before – most recently for the party – but she wasn’t entirely sure where the meeting room she needed to be at was located.
She knew where Clay’s office was. She almost made a beeline for it. Almost tried to walk into it and ask for his help casually. But that would probably just irritate him. No, if she wanted to get anywhere with Clay, she needed to be careful. She didn’t think he was the type to respond to tricks and games.
With a little trepidation, Maris spotted Chelsea and Bella, standing together sipping coffee. Ordinarily, she’d steer clear of both of them. Bella was always polite – Maris couldn’t fault her as much as she wanted to given her wavering interest in Clay – but Chelsea was invariably a total bitch. She was a consummate mean girl and would be until the day she died.
Still, Maris didn’t want to be late. She squared her shoulders and walked over to them, smiling in what she hoped was a winning way.
“Hello, ladies,” she said brightly.
Bella’s face remained neutral as she returned her hello. Chelsea merely scowled.
“Can you help me, I’m looking for the Dasher Meeting Room.”
Chelsea humphed.
“Of course,” said Bella, “it’s down that corridor and two doors on your left.”
“Thank you.”
“That’s a very pretty dress,” said Bella, looking up and down Maris’ tall frame with a small tinge of envy.
“Yes,” sneered Chelsea, “though it seems to be missing about a foot of fabric from the bottom.”
Maris maintained her smile. Her dress was a little less daring than some things in her wardrobe.
“Oh, well, I just like it,” she said lamely.
Chelsea pursed her lips. “Well, I
must get going, I don’t have all day to stand around gossiping.”
That seemed to be a dig at her, but Maris could point out that she had been doing just that when she approached.
Chelsea moved forward, stumbled a little and poured her coffee down the front of Maris’ dress.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” trilled Chelsea insincerely.
“Oh my,” murmured Bella, wincing at her friend’s obvious rudeness.
Maris and her inner reindeer chuffed in anger, but she managed to calm herself before she could spew a litany of insults at her. Chelsea was just being childish, and Maris would not sink to her level.
“Not to worry,” said Maris, even as she felt herself flush with embarrassment.
“Maybe you should wash that out,” suggested Bella, not unkindly. “Would you like some help?”
“I’m fine, thanks, see you later,” muttered Maris, walking away quickly before Chelsea decided to punch her in the face or something.
Her meeting was soon, and she needed to sort out her dress before it stained. She remembered that Branch’s office had a private bathroom and since it was closest and a quick sniff showed he wasn’t in it, she ducked inside. She stripped out of her dress and started trying to wash the coffee out of it.
Her eyes prickled a little with tears as she realized it wasn’t coming out. She scrunched her face, trying to stop herself from crying. They weren’t worth her tears. Her mother had always said that. She’d always told her there were always a lot of mean people in the world who were determined to keep you down and keep you miserable, but they weren’t worth tears or anger. They weren’t… Uh oh.
Maris froze as she scented Branch, and sure enough, seconds later the man himself came into his bathroom and found her there in her underwear.
Maris smiled at him, but he didn’t seem thrilled to see her. Honestly, usually, men were excited to see her in her underwear, but not this time.
Ten
Clay led Maris out of Branch’s office by her elbow. He wasn’t sure what had his inner beast most het up. The fact that Maris had been in his nephew’s office half-dressed, or the fact that he got to see her half dressed – making all his imaginings of her in her underwear pale in comparison to the real thing.
