Red Hot Christmas

by Carmen Falcone

  As he left, the kiss still stung on Nicolas’s lips. It had taken every ounce of will power he had to pull away from Gabrielle. And why had he kissed her at all? Maybe she does still have something on you. Maybe. But he was stronger than that. Stronger by far than Gabrielle Philips. The pleasure would fade soon enough, he reassured himself. It didn’t matter anyway, he’d been the one to pull back and he’d certainly unsettled his ex-lover.

  His smile went a long way to balance out the unexpected tingling from the kiss. Tonight would be good. Gabrielle Philips didn’t get to dent his carefully constructed self-control and get away with it. No one did.

  Chapter Four

  Gabby looked at her watch, almost time to meet him. She sat, then stood again, her emotions on high alert, her nerve endings tingling and her blood racing as if she was about to have a coronary. Think about Fraser. Yes. Fraser. The way his eyes glinted when he was excited, the way he liked to curl a strand of her hair around his finger when she was reading to him. Her heart calmed.

  When Nicolas Morganti had stormed into her office with his accusations and half-truths, Gabby’s heart had almost fallen to her knees. He knew about Fraser. Reason kicked in. Maybe it was for the best. Fraser should meet his father sometime and with her new repayment schedule it wasn’t unlikely she’d lose everything. Perhaps she should do the decent thing and hand her son over to his father. It would ensure Fraser would want for nothing.

  Nothing. Except love.

  Biting back the confession, Gabby had played for more time and couldn’t help the nervous laughter that had burst forth when Nicolas’s true suspicions came out. He thought I was with Fraser Kilpatrick! “Thank goodness I didn’t say anything about Fraser.”

  Not yet anyway. After what had happened with her father, Gabby knew better than anyone that keeping secrets only led to people getting hurt. But she was not handing over any information about Fraser until she was more sorted. Till she looked like the sort of mother a family court judge would award custody to. Because Gabby had no doubt that when he found out about Fraser, Nicolas Morganti would try and take him away from her. “And any judge would take one look at his millions compared to my debt and hand Fraser over to Nicolas without giving me a second glance.”

  Then of course there was the other thing. Gabby put her fingers to her lips. Pumping Fraser Kilpatrick for information about her Gabby could understand. Her father had stolen money from Nicolas after all. But the kiss? To start with she’d figured it was stopping Nicolas asking any more questions about Fraser so she’d kissed him back. When her thighs started thrumming and she realized she was getting in too deep she thought about trying to beat him off, but she was five foot nothing, what chance did she have. And when his tongue sought hers, that little part of her brain that told her to stop him was overpowered anyway.

  Overpowered, outvoted and thrown under the mattress, because kissing Nicolas Morganti had never been the problem. Hungry and hard, Nicolas’s mouth had swept away any thought of protest and Gabby let herself dissolve into the kiss. Had it really always been like this with Nicolas? It had. And that’s why she’d thought it would be different for her. That she wouldn’t go the way of all of Nicolas’ previous women and receive the gift wrapped Tiffany’s break up box he was famous for. They’d dated for ten months and she’d filled their time with talk that he’d seemed to lap up. Laughing at everything she shared, tweaking her nose when she called him out, materializing like a gallant shadow at her elbow whenever he took her to cocktail functions, they’d had fun. Lots of it. And in bed…

  Now she was left alone again, waiting to show him round the Santa grotto. “Pull it together.” Telling herself she was over Nicolas Morganti and being over him weren’t necessarily the same thing. She forced herself to think about Fraser again and remember why she was doing this, why she had to pull out her A-game and keep this job.

  Standing, Gabby checked herself in the reflection of her window. She’d had a thorough sort of her closet last night. It needed doing anyway. Nothing to do with Nicolas? So what if it was? It was important to look professional in front of him. More important than ever now. If he didn’t believe she’d got this job on her own merits, turning up looking like either a hillbilly or a tramp was not going to help matters. Smoothing down her skirt she turned and checked her profile. The navy pencil was neat enough and the crisp white blouse had seen better days but was clean, well ironed and would have worked in any New York boardroom. “You look fine Ms. Philips. Stop preening.”

  It was all very well to make sure she looked professional, but that was as far as she was going to go. Nicolas was probably going to fire her anyway. Twisting her hair into a loose bun she set her shoulders in determination. Nicolas liked her hair down but she always felt more in control with her hair off her face. If he fired her, fine, but it wouldn’t be because she wasn’t good at her job. Turning back to her desk, Gabby flicked through her planner and worked out what she needed to make sure the grotto would be looking at its almost finished best for Nicolas tonight.

  Her finger traced down the page. “Oh crap on toast.” Penciled in red, encased in a circle, was ‘Meet the teacher night 7:15pm.’ Gabby did a quick calculation in her head. If she left work at 6:45pm she should just make it in time, the subway didn’t run that close to Fraser’s school, she always walked him the last part. She checked her bag, yep, her sneakers were inside, she could jog. Taking a cab was out of the question now her repayments had had to go up and at that time of night she’d probably sit in traffic anyway. It just meant everything needed to run on time. “Nicolas better not be late.” She picked up the phone to make some rearrangements and spent the next few hours placating and entreating suppliers and colleagues in turn.

  Hanging up the phone for the final time, Gabby thanked the universe for Mrs. Patel. Her own life might be a mess but moving to her shabby studio did bring with it the best neighbor in the universe. Thank goodness Indira Patel was such an accommodating and cheerful babysitter and could cover the extra hours she wouldn’t be home tonight thanks to Nicolas.

  Rushing to the bathroom Gabby tucked her shirt more tightly into her skirt and dabbed at her lipstick. Stop it. Wiping the holiday red shade away with tissue she looked herself sternly in the eye. Nicolas Morganti didn’t need any encouraging.

  Standing at the grotto entrance however, its doorway festooned with silver glass balls, Gabby couldn’t help checking out her reflection in one of them and without really thinking about it, let her hair down.

  “Good, no need to play the secretary type with me,” Nicolas’ voice growled from behind her.

  Damn. She shrugged, “Are you ready for your tour?”

  He eyeballed her, no doubt wondering at her frosty tone.

  “Sorry, I’m not much of a Christmas elf. It’s been a long day.”

  “That’s a shame. You’d probably look good in green tights.”

  Was that real mirth in his eyes? Gabby sighed. There was no point being frosty with him, he was going to fire her no matter what she did. But her hard work was for real. So you better like it buddy. The grotto was looking amazing, and when it launched it probably was going to be the best display in all of New York City. Bolstered by her self-pep talk Gabby unhooked the red velvet rope at the grotto’s entrance and swept her arm to indicate Nicolas should lead the way.

  As soon as they ducked under the spangled entrance, Gabby no longer needed to put on a show. Christmas in her family had been a meager affair, her mother died when she was young and her father never had the time or money to indulge in decorations or many presents. It was only when she started working that she began to realize what money could buy, and she’d loved it. And now here she was again, struggling to make Fraser’s Christmases less meager than her own had been.

  Getting Fraser involved in the grotto had been part of that. She’d enlisted the help of the children at his school, asking them what they thought it looked like where Santa lived. The result sang; lights, glittering snowflakes and
secret cubby holes filled with toys making sure even the hallway they now walked down leapt and danced with light and fantasy.

  Without fanfare, the hall opened out and Gabby gave herself a little hug as she gazed around at the grotto’s main room. In here she’d let her inner child run riot. The whole place was white, a thousand shades of white. The floor was covered with drifts of sparkling snow, the ceiling high above them hung with the tiniest white fairy lights available and the walls glowed as if the last sun of the South Pole was trapped inside. This was the ice room, the walls and ceiling made of a mix of sculpted polystyrene, fabric and projections so that it really did feel as if you were inside a giant iceberg. Only an iceberg that had room for plenty of presents and a ruby and silver throne fit for the real Mr. Claus. Gabby watched Nicolas’s back as he stood in the center of the space and looked up. Even his tall frame was dwarfed by the scale of the icicles.

  Finally he turned and the hard grey glitter that had been in his eyes when he first arrived was replaced by a softness she’d forgotten he was capable of. “It’s great.”

  Gabby gulped back the retort she’d had ready in case he was dismissive of her work and simply nodded.

  “I mean it, you’ve done a great job.”

  “Not just me. I have a wonderful team.” She pulled her eyes away from his. “Shall we check out the rest?”

  “There’s more?”

  “It’s the best Christmas display in all of New York City remember.” Walking to the edge of the grotto Gabby pulled open a partially hidden door and ducked under its diminutive height. “This is the elves’ room. Where they make the presents.” The space was made for children and the pint sized wooden workbench looked as if elves really had just scurried away from it. Gabby had been looking forward to bringing Fraser to see it, but at the moment she just wanted to get out. With Nicolas squeezed into the room with her it made her more conscious than ever of his size and vigor.

  He was in no hurry to leave though and picked up a wooden hammer, tiny in his large hands. “So how did you end up here? Last time we saw each other you were someone’s secretary if I remember correctly.”

  Gabby stiffened. He was going to play it like this. “I guess you would call it that. I was executive assistant at PQR events. It taught me a lot.”

  “Executive assistant? You made out like you hardly had a job.”

  “Maybe that’s just what you wanted to believe.”

  Nicolas seemed genuinely confused. “I can’t believe that. And even so, to be running a whole team now?”

  “I’m a fast learner. Anyway, it wasn’t as if that was my first promotions job, just the first one in New York City.”

  “Why didn’t we talk about all this?”

  “We did. Okay. Not that much. I didn’t want you to think I needed help. I was building my career my way.”

  “Still?”

  “Still nothing.” She leapt on with her tour, the faster they got this over with the faster she’d be away from him. “The room through there is a candy grotto but you’d probably have to crawl to get in so maybe we’ll give it a miss. If you could just back out of here we’ll go through to the reindeer pen.” Trying to be officious to disguise the beating of her heart Gabby put her hands up to shoo Nicolas back the way they’d come but he cocked his head and didn’t move.

  “Your resume lists four PR firms in New Jersey. Why were you just an Exec assistant when we met if you already had that much experience?”

  “Snobbery. I you haven’t worked PR in the City, it doesn’t count. Are we really going to fact check my resume now? You could just call them, ask. It’s all true.”

  “Huh. Maybe I will.”

  Gabby bristled, but Nicolas’s tone wasn’t nasty. In fact if she hadn’t known better it would have sounded like he was genuinely interested. “I’m here now. In your store. Shall we move on?”

  He shrugged. “I think I should see the candy room.”

  “You’re the boss. You’ll need to crawl through there.” Gabby pointed to the even smaller door set into the fake wooden wall of the elves workshop.

  “After you.”

  Gabby looked down at her tight pencil skirt. “I don’t think it’s really necessary. It’ll be very squashed with both of us in there and it’s just like this really, except red and white.”

  “All the same. After you.”

  Dear Lord, he was going to make her crawl in this skirt. Sighing, Gabby tugged her skirt down as much as she could and then shuffled through the door. Turning she watched his face for a sign that getting her to go in front was just a ruse to watch her departing butt. Her heart hiccupped and she rolled her eyes at herself. For goodness sake. He’s about to fire you remember.

  At least she was small enough to get through relatively quickly and could stand on the other side. Nicolas had no such luck, having to turn his shoulders to fit them through the door, literally crawl on hands and knees and then stay there as the ceiling was way too low for his six foot three frame.

  The tiny space made it hard for her to maintain a professional distance and having him on hands and knees made her sorely aware of his face close to her waist. If you can’t beat them… Gabby sat on the floor, tucking her legs beneath her and looked about, trying to remember what it was like to be a child. “We wanted to make a sort of circuit for the kids. Our panel said they wanted to feel like they were in a Christmas world, so you progress from one workshop to the other and pop out in the reindeer enclosure through that door.” Gabby pointed past the hanging satin bows tied around candy floss colored fairy lights.

  “You really thought this through didn’t you? Who was on your panel?” His voice was a low grumble, close enough to her ear so she could almost feel his breath. Mixed with the scent of candy the scent of him filled her nostrils, pine, citrus and soap. Delicious. Her mouth started to salivate. It’s just the sugar. Your sweet tooth is legendary.

  Nicolas moved, probably just trying to get comfortable, but it put him closer again to Gabby and with a stand of gingerbread men behind her she had nowhere to retreat to.

  His dark eyes smoldered and Gabby’s heart butterflies stretched their wings a little. The Panel? Kids. Fraser. Commonsense kicked back in. “The panel was full of kids. My team brought all their children in for the day and we grilled them and a class at a local school for their wish list.”

  “A focus group. Good idea.” Nicolas looked around him for a long while, apparently taking in the stands of shiny candy canes, the trees of lollypops and the elfin faces of puppets who popped out of the corners in time to soft music. “They came up with all this?”

  “Not really. It was just that eating candy was a common theme. Something they all wanted to do at Christmas.”

  “And you turned their wishes into a wonderland.” Nicolas looked her dead in the eye.

  Gabby flushed. Who was this man? Certainly not the heartless boss who’d threatened her in her office only hours ago. This was more like the Nicolas she used to know. The one she’d given a key to her apartment. The one who fathered Fraser. “We turned it into the candy room. It’s taken months to get from the concept to this stage. I just hope it’s as big a hit as we hope it will be. There’s hardly even any real candy. They get one peppermint cane per child on the way out. Just one. My budget wasn’t bottomless and we didn’t want to be adding to the Christmas sugar overload this country is famous for.” Gabby tried for humor, wanting to get things on more professional, friendly terms.

  Nicolas pushed back into a sitting position. The word budget seemed to have shut something down in him. His look was more calculating now, or perhaps it was just the lighting. Turning away from her gaze a lock of hair fell across his forehead. Her hand moved before she could stop it, but she managed to divert it to pick up a small striped peppermint stick behind him at the last minute. “They’re just tiny, barely cost anything, but the team thought it was important that every child leave with something. In case…you know.” She unwrapped the cane and sucked on it, hop
ing the blast of sugar would make her focus. “I’m pretty sure we get a few kids without parents. They come in here knowing they might not get anything for Christmas but want a little bit of magic any way they can get it.”

  His face softened but the cold edge didn’t disappear from his eyes. “I guess it’s been a rough few Christmases for you hasn’t it? Without your father, I mean.”

  Gabby stiffened then exhaled her shoulders down. Maybe he was sincere. It had been hard these past years, especially at Christmas, but not for the reason he thought. Her father had always been a big part of her life but he’d never been someone to relish family traditions like Christmas. Never been the type to make the best of what they had and breathe life and magic into her world. He’d always been focused on what others had, was always promising that he’d have money for her soon and that would make things easier, better. For a while they’d both had money, but she’d been the only one to actually earn it.

  It had been tough knowing Fraser was missing out on so much by her having to pay off debt instead of spending her earnings on him. But she’d been determined to make the most of it, provide what she’d never had growing up. “Shall we move on?” She didn’t wait for an answer, instead standing and moving through the doorway into the final part of the grotto.

  “At least I can stand again.” Nicolas said and rolled his shoulders. “It’s a bit of a letdown after the first few rooms though.”

  Gabby looked back at him in dismay then looked around her. Of course. “Wait. Here.” She pulled up a picture on her cell. “This is the reindeer enclosure but the animals won’t be here till we open. We’ve built a pen out in the warehouse for them overnight and they get brought in each morning. This one’s Prancer, and that’s Rudolf of course. We even have a baby, he’s Dancer, always pointing his feet delicately.” She pointed each animal out on the small screen of her phone.

  Nicolas leaned in to look, his face almost touching hers as he peered into the tiny display.