Playboy On Her Christmas List

by Carol Marinelli

  Holly smiled but it was a regretful one because she simply didn’t know how to run wild. How to go over there and be all sparkling and witty and flirt...

  Except, as it turned out, she didn’t have to go over there to flirt. Holly quickly realised that standing in the middle of the room and blatantly staring at the object of your desire seemed to work rather well too!

  Yikes.

  She hadn’t meant that!

  Holly watched as he said something to Anna and Holly realised he was excusing himself and about to make his way over.

  It was time for a quick getaway.

  ‘You’re not going already?’ Trevor, one of the male nurses, asked.

  ‘I am.’ Holly kept up that smile. ‘I’m hitting the shops tomorrow and then...’ She didn’t finish. An absolute novice in the field of sexual adventure, she found her coat and headed outside.

  ‘Leaving?’

  She turned and there was Daniel.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Do you want a lift?’

  ‘I’ve just called for a taxi,’ Holly lied.

  ‘It’s no problem.’

  ‘I live miles away.’

  ‘I’ll save you the fare, then.’

  ‘No, thanks.’

  Why? Holly asked herself. Why was she saying no? Because she couldn’t say no to him.

  ‘Come on.’

  He jangled his keys and Holly nodded. Really, it was just a colleague giving her a lift home and it would be bliss not to have to make small talk with a taxi driver or sit in the back as he chatted on his phone.

  Liar, liar.

  They got in his car, and this time she was in the front.

  That’s better, both thought but didn’t say.

  ‘Address?’ he asked, and she gave it to him.

  Daniel typed it into his phone and that took care of that, and then he started the engine.

  ‘Head north,’ his phone said.

  ‘I hate that,’ Daniel admitted. ‘I have no idea which way north is. I need a compass in the middle of my steering wheel.’

  ‘She means turn left,’ Holly said.

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Are you all packed?’ Holly made a feeble attempt at small talk and he nodded.

  ‘Sort of. I’m trying to rent out my flat. Apparently December isn’t an ideal time to find tenants.’

  ‘So it that why your plans keep changing?’

  ‘In part.’

  ‘Well, you might just as well stick around for Christmas...’

  ‘I doubt it. I might even fly out then, it’s just another day.’

  ‘You don’t mean that.’

  ‘I do,’ Daniel said, and he gave her a smile. ‘We’re polar opposites.’ And then he stared ahead at the road and it did not need stating—that opposites attracted.

  Both already knew.

  CHAPTER THREE

  SHE SHOULD HAVE said goodbye to him back at the pub.

  Then there might have been a hope that, should they meet up in the future, all they would be were ex-colleagues who had flirted a little on occasion.

  Back at the pub she could have wished him well for his trip and, yes, of course she could do the same when he pulled up at her flat.

  Holly didn’t want to, though.

  How did it even work? Holly thought. She was way too far out of her comfort zone. Did she offer him a drink, or did she leave it to him to suggest coming in?

  And what about the morning?

  Holly wished that she didn’t overthink things, she wished she could be more like Anna and just worry about the day, or rather the night, at hand.

  She wanted the traffic lights to turn red, for a pause, to turn and tell him that the flirty version of Holly he had met at times wasn’t the real one. That the woman who had laughed at the suggestive tone in his voice when he’d told her she’d be in discreet hands, did not, prior to his arrival on her part of the planet, exist.

  Yet the lights all stayed green and afforded swift passage.

  And anyway, Daniel knew all that.

  While he was driving he was trying to convince himself that this wasn’t any different from what he was used to and that Holly could more than handle a hook-up. And he was also trying to convince himself that he didn’t care in the way he actually did.

  He couldn’t afford to care. It wasn’t an emotion he sought, and he was leaving after all.

  His phone told him that the destination was on his left and he slid the car into a parking space outside her flat and his conscience won—Daniel didn’t want to risk hurting her.

  ‘You’d better go in,’ Daniel said.

  And so this was it.

  ‘Thanks for the lift.’

  ‘No problem.’

  ‘It’s been nice working with you,’ Holly said. ‘I’m going to miss your sulking face.’

  ‘I’ll miss your smiling one.’

  And this really was it.

  There was a charge in the air that should signal thunder but instead Daniel turned and looked ahead.

  Holly reached to open the door and he did nothing to halt her so she got out.

  They were both congratulating themselves on how adult and sensible they had been.

  Now she could breathe, except, despite the cool and the drizzle, the night felt as humid as if it was summer.

  Holly looked at the path to her door and she was six, maybe seven steps away from saving herself from a rather big mistake, except she wanted so badly to turn around and to follow desire rather than walk away.

  Just once.

  It was her choice as to what happened next, Holly knew.

  Could she keep it light, without revealing how deeply she felt?

  Daniel was just about to hit ‘Home’ as his destination when she tapped on the window.

  ‘What?’ he asked as it slid down. His voice was surly. He didn’t want to do this a second time, especially as now that she was bending down there was the pearly white of her breasts at eye level.

  And she looked at him and, no, she would not be so cheesy as to ask him in for a drink and then somehow, whoops, they’d up in bed.

  She wanted a kiss, Daniel knew, but he was also rather certain she wanted a whole lot more than that. Not just sex, but the part of himself he refused to give.

  ‘What?’ he said again, and then his face broke into a smile, as, very unexpectedly, Holly, sweet Holly, showed another side of her.

  ‘Are you going to make me invite you in?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You’re not even going to try and persuade me with a kiss?’ Holly checked.

  ‘You want me or you don’t.’ Daniel shrugged. ‘There’s no question that I want you. But, Holly, do you get that—?’

  She knew what was coming and she didn’t need the warning—he had made his position perfectly clear—so she interrupted him. ‘I don’t need the speech.’

  She just needed this.

  Holly had thought his hand was moving to open the door but instead it came out of the window and to her head and pulled her face down to his.

  He kissed her hard, even though she was the one standing. The stubble of his unshaven jaw was rough on her face and his tongue was straight in.

  He pulled her in tight so that her upper abdomen hurt from the pressure of the open window and it was a warning, she knew, of the passion to come.

  Even now she could pull back and straighten, say goodnight and walk off, but Holly was through with being cautious.

  In a second she would be falling through the open window for all the neighbours to see and sucked into the dark vacuum of his car.

  Holly simply didn’t care.

  Her bag dropped to the pavement and h
e then released her.

  Holly stared back at him, breathless, her lipstick smeared across her face, and all it made him want to do was to kiss her again.

  But this was a street.

  Holly bent and retrieved her bag and then walked off towards her flat. There was a roaring sound in her ears and her heart seemed to be leaping up near her throat.

  Daniel closed up the car and was soon following her to the flats.

  She turned the key in the main door to the flats and clipped up the concrete steps.

  She could hear his heavy footsteps coming up the steps behind her as she turned and Holly almost broke into a run.

  Daniel actually did!

  He had thought her cute, sweet and gorgeous these past months and had done all he could not to think of her outright as sexy.

  Except she was, and seriously so.

  Those heavy footsteps chasing her were thrilling and caught up with her just as she was getting her key into the door of her own flat. Holly was breathless with excitement and the rush and power of him grabbing for her almost toppled Holly as they burst in through the door.

  The hall was in darkness; he could just make out some Christmas-tree lights in a room down the hall but there was no time to get to the lounge.

  Daniel had no patience now.

  Holly had never known anything like it. Never, in her almost twenty-nine years, had she had that simply-have-to-have-you feeling.

  And Daniel had to have her.

  Every obstacle he dealt with.

  He hitched her lovely raven dress up.

  Stockings?

  No problem, he expertly removed them and then her knickers too.

  And when he wanted a better view of her breasts he lowered her zipper at the back, just enough to free them.

  Holly looked down at her exposed breasts, and then at her stockings and knickers lying on the hallway floor—she felt slutty and sexy. She liked it. So much so that she was pulling at his thin jumper just to reveal his stomach, and then running a hand up the heavy jeans-clad thighs, getting closer to the lovely bit in the middle. She dealt with the brass button deftly, though she broke a nail on the zipper, and then freed him. He was clearly as keen and eager as she, and Holly was so utterly ready for him she nearly forgot about condoms.

  To Holly’s mind there was nothing sexy about condoms, but he changed that in an instant, for he pulled out his wallet, found one, tossed the wallet to the floor and tore the foil with his teeth.

  ‘Put it on,’ Daniel told her, and he started to squeeze and play with her breasts as she did just that.

  She rolled it down slowly, which was quite a feat, given the way his fingers were exploring her, and she felt the jerk of impatience in her hand.

  Then he said the two little words that tonight she was desperate to hear.

  ‘Get on.’

  Gladly she did.

  He bent his knees just enough that he could thrust into her and Holly’s shoulders hit the wall. She arched back at the consuming pleasure as he stabbed inside her.

  Totally consumed and controlled by him, Holly was close to coming as Daniel lifted her legs even further; she wrapped them around his hips.

  ‘I’ve been wanting you all night.’ He told her as she wrapped her legs tighter, wiggling herself down further so he could push deeper. ‘I wanted you on sight.’

  They stared at each other as he banged her into wall, kissing her with raw passion and digging his fingers into her bottom, holding her firm. Heat flooded her centre and she moved her mouth away. ‘I’m going to come...’

  Her voice divulged her own surprise. Not just because she usually took for ever, more because of the intensity that hit.

  Daniel felt her gather and pull tight around him as he plunged one last time before letting go deep inside her.

  He lowered her down and she stood a moment on legs that felt she was getting over a bout of the flu they were so weak.

  They followed the Christmas-tree lights to what he assumed was the lounge.

  Maybe he’d get that Scotch after all, Daniel thought.

  Instead, they collapsed onto her bed.

  * * *

  ‘Holly?’

  The room had stopped spinning and they lay on their backs on the bed when Daniel started to take in his surroundings. ‘Why is there a Christmas tree in your bedroom?’

  ‘My neighbours are a bit noisy,’ Holly explained. ‘And so I tend to spend more time in here.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘And it seemed a shame to have a Christmas tree in a room that I don’t spend much time in.’

  They were half-undressed already so it took only a moment to throw off the rest of their clothes and to get into bed.

  They lay talking, about nothing much as well as a lot.

  And it turned out their paths had almost crossed.

  ‘I went for an interview at the Royal when I was looking at moving to London.’ She thought back to that time and her nervousness as she’d entered the huge Victorian building.

  It was funny to think now that he might have been inside.

  ‘How long ago?’

  ‘I was twenty-one,’ Holly said. ‘So eight, nearly nine years ago. Were you there then?’

  He nodded. ‘Did you get the job?’

  ‘Yes,’ Holly said. ‘But I got offered the job at The Primary in the same week and I chose to go there. I didn’t like how they rotated the staff at the Royal. Too many night shifts.’

  ‘Don’t you like nights?’

  ‘Not really,’ Holly said. ‘I don’t sleep very well during the day.’

  ‘I could have had you when you were twenty-one.’ Daniel mused, liking that idea.

  ‘No, you couldn’t have.’ Holly smiled at his arrogant assumption. ‘I was seeing someone then. I nearly got engaged.’

  And he lay there, not liking that idea.

  ‘We might have ended up having an affair,’ Daniel said, determined to have had her at twenty-one in his head.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘We wouldn’t have.’

  And he lay there wondering why the hell he was sulking over an event that had never even taken place some eight or nine years ago!

  ‘Why did you break up?’

  ‘He got offered a job in America,’ Holly said. ‘I didn’t want to go and he did. We were too young, I guess.’

  They were heading into territory that Daniel generally avoided so they started chatting about work.

  ‘I don’t do well with grieving relatives,’ Holly announced.

  ‘Yes, you do.’ He frowned because the few times he’d been with Holly while breaking bad news she’d always been fine.

  If a little quiet.

  ‘Oh, I’m better than I was,’ Holly agreed. ‘I have this nervous smile...’

  And Daniel found that he was smiling as she spoke.

  ‘I didn’t know that I had it, well, I sort of did but then Kay had to take me to one side...’

  ‘You smile at bad news?’ Daniel checked.

  ‘No, but I smile when I’m nervous. You should see me in my school photos and when I go for an interview and things...’

  And there it was again.

  This wanting to look at old photos.

  To hear more.

  To know more.

  It was everything he was trying to resist.

  * * *

  Freezing.

  Daniel woke to the cold air and warm bed and rolled into Holly.

  God, she felt good.

  Her soft bottom was against him and as his hand went over hers he kissed her bare shoulder and then his mouth moved up her neck.

  Last night had been amazing.

  Now he wanted more.

 
And so did Holly.

  His hand lifted her hair and his kiss was heavy on her neck as light fingers circled her stomach.

  But then he stopped.

  Daniel actually stopped in mid-kiss because fast sexy sex was one thing, but the way he wanted her now could only serve to confuse Holly.

  Arrogant assumption perhaps but he knew she liked him, seriously liked him, and he liked her enough not to want to give mixed messages.

  And so how did you end things nicely?

  Usually he didn’t give it too much thought, for he generally played to a far tougher crowd.

  Holly closed her eyes at the abrupt end to his kiss on her shoulder. They were both in that lovely turned-on morning feeling and she wanted to turn her face to his mouth, to kiss him slowly and make love.

  Yes, that.

  She wanted the hand that had been slowly stroking her stomach to resume its perusal and move lower yet it didn’t.

  Too intimate for you, Daniel? she wanted to say, though didn’t, but she did get her own back a little because she slowly stretched and yawned, just so he could feel what he was missing, and then rolled over to face him and smiled.

  Yes, she was nice but, oh, she could be wicked.

  ‘It’s so nice to have a weekend off.’ Holly smiled and chatted as if she hadn’t even noticed his erection.

  ‘I’ve got every weekend off now.’ Daniel smiled back as she gave him a small kick to let him know how unfair that was.

  She was back to looking into those amazing eyes but from her pillow this time. ‘Are you registering to practise overseas?’ Holly asked.

  ‘It’s an option, I guess.’ He couldn’t tell her his plans because the truth was he didn’t really have any. ‘I just want to take a year and work things out.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Holly said, but her slight frown told him that she didn’t really get it. They truly were opposites, not just that he had made so few plans but also that he could afford to take a year off. Shouldn’t he have worked this all out some time ago?

  ‘I’ll make coffee...’ Daniel offered.

  ‘I’ll go,’ Holly said. ‘The machine’s tricky.’

  ‘I’m sure I can work it out.’

  She lay there and wondered how this would end. Awkwardness was creeping in and she didn’t know how to put on a brave smile when he left.