The Billionaire's Christmas Proposal (Billionaire For Christmas #2)

by Victoria James

  “My suit?”

  She bobbed her head up and down against the pillow. “But I think I really like Weekend Ethan best.”

  “Who?”

  “Weekend Ethan. That’s when you’re all scruffy.” She patted his face. “And so delectable I could just lick you.”

  He groaned; she couldn’t be that drunk. He leaned down, bracing his forearms beside her head. Her pupils dilated, and her hand stayed on his face. His gaze went from her eyes to her mouth, and he couldn’t believe he’d waited this long to finally kiss Allie. He lowered his mouth to hers, but she started speaking again.

  “But then today you got all Abominable on me—”

  He kissed her temple, trying to follow the conversation, but needing to make contact with her. “Abominable?” he murmured, placing a kiss beneath her earlobe, smiling as she sighed.

  “Yeah, as in the Abominable Snowman in Rudolph. The original Rankin/Bass Rudolph.”

  He kissed his way back to her mouth. “I acknowledge no other Rudolph, and I was not like the Abominable Snowman. My eyes aren’t googly, and I’m not that hairy.”

  She laughed and then placed her hands at the nape of his neck. He shifted on the bed and slid between her legs.

  “I’m sorry about today, Allie,” he whispered, looking in her eyes again, searching for the truth of what she saw in him. He didn’t want to see pity or compassion. He couldn’t handle it from Allie. He only wanted to see lust tonight.

  She placed her hand on the right side of his chest. “You have a good heart, I can feel it. You’re one of the good guys, and I’m so sorry for not trusting you or seeing that earlier. You took us in, and you’re trying to help me save the shelter.”

  He would have laughed when moving her hand to the left side of his chest, but instead guilt railroaded him. She was looking at him the way he’d always imagined, except she was seeing someone entirely different. She was seeing a sham.

  “And the reason I came in here tonight was because after I was done feeling sorry for myself—rum helps with that, by the way—I thought I’d seduce you.”

  He stopped breathing for a moment. This was what he’d always wanted. Allie. In his life. In his bed. He battled with his conscience for a moment. She trusted him. The shelter. He should get up and walk out of this room. But again, because he was pretty certain this woman had set out to torture him, she began speaking. “Ethan, I’ve wanted you since the night of Jackson and Hannah’s wedding. I’ve wanted you, and I was too afraid to ever take a chance with someone like you.”

  Hell. He was going to hell, but he’d worry about that later. There was no way he could walk away from this, from her. He was going to kiss her, except she started talking again.

  “Also. You should know I’m not upset about what happened in your office today.”

  “You should be. I was an ass,” he said, dipping his head and kissing her neck. He couldn’t keep his hands off her.

  “No, I get it. You have secrets. I have secrets, too,” she whispered. The tone of her voice made him raise his head. Her eyes were glistening with something he didn’t get. He placed his hands on either side of her face, suddenly wanting to know everything. He wished he were different. He wished he could let her in and be the man she deserved to have.

  “You know you can tell me anything.”

  She gave her head a slight shake. “It goes both ways.”

  He nodded, not satisfied with that solution, but knowing it was all they had right now.

  “But that doesn’t mean we can’t have this,” she said as she tugged him down. He leaned down and kissed Allie the way he’d wanted to since the moment he met her.

  Her hands tightened around his hair, and she moaned sweetly, music to his ears. He could feel her breasts, her curvy body under his, and she was better, hotter than he’d imagined. He tasted her, explored her mouth until neither of them could breathe. “I need to know how drunk you are, Allie,” he said against her lips. There was no way this could go any further if she wasn’t going to remember in the morning. She pulled back slightly but didn’t let go of him.

  “So not drunk.”

  He kissed her again and prayed she’d answer correctly. “What day of the week is it?”

  She frowned up at him. “Christmas?”

  He groaned. “Allie, please tell me you’re joking.” He rested his forehead against hers for a second. He felt her hands sliding off him. He lifted his head. She’d passed out.

  Allie’s phone started vibrating on the nightstand.

  Slowly disengaging himself from the hottest woman he’d ever known and trying not to weep, he spotted Dani’s face on the display of Allie’s phone. He picked it up, frowning. It was almost midnight, why was she calling? Wasn’t she home?

  He answered the phone as quietly as he could and got up from the bed.

  “Oh my God, Ethan, thank God it’s you,” she said. He frowned at the panic and tears he heard in her voice. He quickly covered Allie with part of the duvet and left the room.

  He shut the bedroom door and walked to the front entrance. “Where are you?”

  “Allie’s going to kill me, promise me you won’t tell.”

  “Tell me where you are, and I’ll come and get you.”

  There was a huge sigh and then a long pause. Then she named a suburb of the city. Not the nicest area by any stretch.

  His stomach tightened. “How the hell did you get there?”

  “With this guy. We were supposed to go this party, and he drove us out here, but it’s in the sticks and there’s no subway or transit. I have no way back to the city, and this party is creeping me out.”

  “Give me an address and I’ll come and get you.” He wasn’t going to berate her for her utter stupidity and recklessness until he had her safely in his car. He could subject her to a half hour lecture in the car ride home, after he knew she was safe. He scribbled down the address she gave while he put on his shoes. Teenagers. How did Allie deal with this? He walked out the door while instructing her to stay on the phone with him.

  “It’s not that bad.”

  “Do you know anyone there?”

  “No,” she said in a small voice.

  “Where’s the douchebag that brought you there?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice was losing its bravado, and she was sounding more and more vulnerable by the minute.

  “All right, well, babble about something while I get into the car. Just don’t hang up the phone, hon. I’m on my way.” He punched the address into his GPS and took the quickest way to the highway.

  He mentally rehearsed the lecture he was about to give, while Dani blabbed about how stupid her friends were. And then every few minutes she’d beg him not to tell Allie.

  “’Kay, Dani, I’m in your neighborhood. Go wait on the porch and don’t talk to anyone or wander off into some dark alley or something.”

  “As if I’d do that. I’m not a complete moron. Ethan, is that you driving down the street?”

  “I see you. I’m hanging up.” He was shocked by the ferocity of the relief that barreled into him as Dani waved frantically from the street curb. He pulled the car up to her and leaned over to open the door.

  She sank into the seat and threw her arms around him. “I’m so happy to see you. Thank you, Ethan.” She held on to him, and he felt the tremors that ran through her. She pulled away and buckled herself in. She looked young and scared as she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. He turned the heat on high, pulled away from the curb, and decided his lecture could wait a bit.

  He glanced over at her once they were on the highway. She hadn’t said a word, which was probably a record for her.

  “You’re not going to tell Allie, right?”

  He didn’t know how he was going to handle that. He didn’t feel right about not telling Allie about something that happened to Dani. She wasn’t his kid. He couldn’t keep something like that from her. “Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened tonight?”

&n
bsp; She groaned and shut her eyes. “That’s adult evasion, isn’t it? You’re going to tell her.”

  “If I were you, I’d stop worrying about that and just be happy you aren’t still at that rat-hole.”

  “Fine. You’re right. So this guy I have liked forever, and who never noticed me before, asked me out.”

  “So why did he notice you now?”

  “Because I look so much better with all the cool stuff I bought. He may have overheard me bragging about where we live now…and maybe about your Porsche.”

  “Sounds like a winner. Why would you even want to go out with a guy like that?”

  “You wouldn’t understand. You’re not a girl.”

  “Allie’s a girl. Why don’t we ask her?”

  “That’s not funny. Besides, she never makes mistakes, and she thinks I should be perfect like her.”

  “I don’t think so. I’ve never heard her say that. All I see is a woman in her twenties who doesn’t make a lot of money, took in her younger sister, puts up with all her smart-ass remarks, and pays for whatever she needs.”

  The sniffles he heard didn’t make him feel bad. He kept his eyes on the road, his thoughts on Allie, who was trying to do everything right.

  “You’re right.”

  He shot her a side-glance. She was sitting hunched over, arms crossed, pout on her face.

  “And it’s even worse, what I did.”

  His hands clenched the leather steering wheel and braced himself. “What else did you do?”

  She groaned and slouched farther into the seat. He wondered if she would slink right off the damn seat. “I got really mad at her at our mom’s place.”

  His stomach dipped. He didn’t know much about their mother except what he read between the lines. “You went to see your mother?”

  “She dragged me there. She had all these presents for her and said it was Christmas and we should at least try and forgive and make peace. Or whatever.”

  He turned on the wipers as the snow increased. “So what happened?”

  “Exactly what I knew would happen. Our mom didn’t even have a Christmas card for us—and she’s a hoarder. Like, what’s the point of being a hoarder if you don’t even have things when you need them? Oh, but she did give me some ratty, random bag of Christmas M&Ms, and there’s Allie giving her presents. And the worst part? Our mom asked her for five hundred bucks because Bill the Bumpkin spent all their cash at the casino.”

  Ethan swore under his breath. This was all completely new to him.

  “That was exactly what I thought.”

  “Did Allie give her the money?”

  “Yup! Of course! Because Allie feels sorry for her or something.”

  He let out a long breath.

  “So now Allie owes like half the town money. You. The bank.”

  He clenched his hand around the leather of the steering wheel feeling like such an ass, along with feeling horrible for her. “Allie doesn’t owe me money.”

  “Can I get that in writing, because she made some spreadsheet with a repayment plan.”

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He had to respect that, even though he wouldn’t accept a dime from her. “Sure. Listen, I’m sorry. That really sucks about your mom. I’m not that close to my parents so I get feeling…disappointed.”

  “It wasn’t that. That’s not what I’m so…sad about.”

  “Then what?”

  She put her hands on her face. He awkwardly patted her on the head for a second. “I’m not Hook, Ethan.”

  “Well, then speak.”

  “I yelled at her.”

  “Your mom?”

  “No,” she whispered in this little voice that caught. He braced himself for whatever she was going to say as well as the onslaught of tears. “I yelled at Allie in front of our mom. I called her weak and spineless and told her I had no respect for her.”

  Oh, man. He barely understood the female mind, but the teenage female mind was even more daunting. He cleared his throat and patted her on the head again until she swatted his hand away. “Did you apologize?”

  She shook her head.

  “So you yelled at your sister who took you in, and provides you with a home, food, and clothes. Then you refused to help her wrap gifts for a bunch of homeless kids and snuck out with a guy who she forbid you to see.”

  “It gets worse.”

  He resisted the urge to swear out loud. “How?”

  She slumped her head against the window and sniffled. “Allie never tells me stuff. She always tries to pretend that everything’s fine and under control, even when our apartment burned down. It’s like she doesn’t want me to worry. But then, after I yelled at her…she tried telling me stuff, like why she would give our mom money. It was bad. She started saying something like she owed our mom, because there was a time our mom rescued her.” She stopped speaking abruptly and groaned.

  He couldn’t deal with the dread. “Come on, what else?”

  “She started saying something about this guy coming into her room at night.”

  This time he did swear, immediately thinking about Allie lying in his bed, looking up at him, telling him that she had secrets, too. God, this better not be what it was sounding like.

  “I know, it’s so bad and I feel so bad for her, but I made it worse because I didn’t let her tell me. I acted like a baby and covered my ears and ran away. Allie never tells me things. She does everything on her own, solves every problem on her own, she solves other people’s problems, but no one ever helps her. The one time she trusts me and I totally bailed.”

  Ethan absently tried patting Dani’s head again, but she swatted him away. He was too busy trying to process what she’d told him. Allie was this woman who had everything together on the outside, but inside she was still dealing with baggage and pain from her past. She trusted him. He had failed her. Today in his office. Tonight with the presents. Not to mention the shelter. When the hell had everything become so damn complicated?

  “Well, aren’t you going to say anything?” Dani screeched. He tried to concentrate on Dani while still processing what she’d revealed about Allie.

  “It’s not your fault you couldn’t deal with what she said.”

  “Of course it is.”

  “I’m sure she doesn’t blame you. Just try not to be so selfish all the time.”

  “Are you trying to make me pitch myself from this rapidly moving vehicle?”

  “No, I’m trying to make sure you feel guilty enough so you get your head out of your ass and start showing Allie the respect she deserves. And yourself. It’s time you started appreciating the life you have and making it the best of what you get.”

  She didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then she leaned forward and tuned the radio to some Christmas carols. “You’re right, and I was thinking I should get a job. I know Allie keeps telling me I should concentrate on school so I can get a scholarship—and I do—I totally do and I have good grades, but I should do more.”

  He resisted the urge to grin. “Good. So when we get back you’re going to show me how to wrap presents.”

  “What?”

  “You and I have to wrap the gifts for the kids at the shelter.”

  “I thought Allie was going to do that.”

  The image of Allie passed out on his bed with eggnog and rum popped into his head. “We both promised her we’d helped, and we didn’t. We both bailed. So now we finish.”

  “She’s not done?”

  “She…fell asleep. With rum and eggnog.”

  “Allie doesn’t drink.”

  He glanced over at her. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, because our mom…drinks too much. I’ve seen Allie drink maybe a half glass of wine when friends are over, but never by herself.”

  Ah, hell. Now he felt even worse. He wasn’t there for her on a bad day. He had made it worse. That wasn’t what he wanted. That wasn’t the guy he wanted to be. He wanted Allie for real. He wanted to be there f
or her, every day.

  Allie woke to the sound of muffled cursing, then the crumpling of paper, followed by more cursing. She slowly opened her eyes and sought out the display on the alarm clock, but it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. She frowned, realizing she wasn’t in her bed, or her room. She opened her eyes abruptly and was gifted with the sight of Ethan. He must have been getting ready for work. His hair was wet, and he was pulling a red bow off the bottom of his sock and holding a coffee mug in the other hand. The cursing resumed when coffee sloshed over the rim and on to the carpet as he walked over and placed the cup on the nightstand beside her.

  Her drooling ceased immediately as she realized that she’d passed out in his room due to spiked eggnog intoxication and self-pity when he hadn’t shown up last night. She cursed herself for being naive and thinking he’d want to spend an evening with her wrapping presents. Of course he wouldn’t. This guy could be doing anything or anyone in the entire city. Why would he want to spend any night wrapping gifts and drinking eggnog? And what really sucked was that she now had to spend the entire morning wrapping presents. She tried to close her eyes and pretend she was still sleeping until he left for work. She couldn’t deal with him this morning.

  “Morning, Allie.”

  She kept her eyes shut.

  “I’m sorry about last night. I’m not sure how much you remember of our conversation, but the dinner meeting ran late and I couldn’t get out of it.”

  She opened one eye at the mention of a conversation. She racked her brain and she had some vague recollection of him lying down beside her…and she’d hit him. She tried not to groan out loud at her humiliation. He was leaning on the dresser, fully dressed, completely gorgeous. His hair was still damp, slightly disheveled, and she tried not to imagine what it would be like if she could walk up to him and kiss him. Maybe she’d straighten his blue silk tie, hold on to the lapels of his suit and laugh, tossing her hair back at some wonderful compliment he gave her. She’d be like a woman in the movies with the handsome, successful man. She caught sight of her legs. Reindeer flannel.