A Christmas Billionaire

by Maggie Marr

  “Noel? Where is Nicholas?”

  Noel turned her gaze toward Nonna. She was now awake and her bright blue eyes blinked as she came back from dreamland.

  “He had to take a phone call. He’ll be back in a minute.”

  “Oh good,” Nonna said. A content smile slipped onto her face.

  Noel followed Nonna’s gaze toward the vase of white roses that remained on the dresser across the room. “How are you feeling?”

  “I feel good. Do you think the doctor might let me go home today?”

  Noel frowned. “This morning she seemed pretty set on waiting until tomorrow. Did they do all the tests?”

  “Made me lie in that giant machine,” Nonna said. “And took more blood. Other than that, I’ve been dozing. You know I have so much to do before Christmas Eve. I haven’t even begun to shop for Christmas dinner.” Nonna shook her head and closed her eyes as though the pressure was simply too much.

  “Why don’t you put together a list?” She would never convince Nonna not to make Christmas dinner, but she could help. Nonna hadn’t let her help in the past, but maybe now. “You tell me what you need, and I’ll go to the store.”

  Noel pulled a pad of paper and a pen from her purse and held it toward Nonna. Resistance was in Nonna’s face, but finally the hard creases relaxed.

  “Oh, all right.” Nonna took the pad and the pen. She pressed the end of the pen to her lips, closed her eyes, nodded, and then began to write. Three things were written on her list when she turned to Noel. “You don’t suppose that Nicholas would join us for Christmas dinner, do you?”

  “Nonna, I’m sure he has somewhere—”

  “I’d love to join you.” Nick’s voice boomed from the door.

  Noel turned. He stood just inside the doorway, his black winter coat over his forearm. He held another vase of flowers, this time red roses with sprigs of holly.

  “Oh my,” Nonna said, a broad smile blossoming over her face. “More flowers! For me?”

  “Well, of course,” Nick said. He set the bouquet on the dresser beside the first vase of white roses.

  Noel fought the urge to roll her eyes toward the ceiling. He was an incessant flirt. Even though he was incredibly attractive, sometimes she couldn’t believe the effect Nick had on her grandmother. He walked toward Nonna, and his eyes glanced over to Noel for a moment, a grin on his face, as if to ask, why can’t you ooh and ah over me like Nonna does?

  “How are you feeling?” He clasped her hand into his.

  “Better,” Nonna said. She squeezed Nick’s hand. “So you will come for Christmas dinner then? You don’t already have plans?”

  “I didn’t have plans until your invitation, and yes, I will.”

  “Oh good!” Nonna said. “Then I’ll add potatoes to the list.” She tilted her head and looked up at Nick. “You still like mashed potatoes?”

  A boyish grin took over his face. “You remember.” He looked touched that Nonna still remembered what he liked.

  “And black-bottom pecan pie?”

  “Yes,” Nick said.

  Was that a blush? Was Nick North blushing because Nonna remembered two of his favorite things to eat?

  “Noel makes an excellent black-bottom pie.” Nonna’s eyes flickered from Nick to Noel. “Perhaps she’ll make it for both of us?”

  Noel twisted her lips. How was this happening? In a few short days, she’d gone from chaining herself to the doorway to save Nonna’s home to baking a black-bottom pecan pie for the man who wanted to demolish White Pines Retirement Community.

  “Would you, Noel?” Nick asked. He had a wicked grin on his face. “Would you bake a black-bottom pecan pie for me?”

  Noel squinted at Nick. She wanted to feign irritation, but her insides lit up with the idea of Nick coming to Nonna’s for Christmas. Shouldn’t she know better than to indulge her feelings for Nick? Heartache would result from spending time together. Pain. Tears. She licked her lips and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. She couldn’t help it. She wanted to be with him. Her whole body wanted to be with him.

  “Yes,” Noel said and smiled at Nick. “I will bake a black-bottom pecan pie for you and Nonna for Christmas.”

  Nick clutched his heart as though an arrow had been shot through his chest. “The way to a man’s heart—”

  “Is through his stomach.” Nonna finished Nick’s sentence.

  Noel couldn’t believe it. Were these two were working together? If she hadn’t seen the bulldozers and the men in hardhats and the news story, she wouldn’t believe that less than two days ago Nonna and Nick had been decidedly on opposite sides of an important issue.

  “So, Nonna,” Nick said, “I wanted to discuss something with you. Something that Noel and I discussed earlier.”

  “Okay.”

  Nonna and Nick both looked at Noel.

  “What?” Noel asked.

  “Noel, darling, we’ll need a moment. Nicholas and I have something to discuss.”

  Noel fought the urge to raise her voice at Nick and perhaps even scold Nonna for wanting to speak to Nicholas alone. Noel raised both her eyebrows. Wasn’t it she who had chained herself to the door of White Pines? Wasn’t it she who had convinced the residents of White Pines to fight for their homes? Wasn’t it she who wanted to be sure they all got what they wanted?

  Noel stopped at the hospital room door and turned back toward Nonna and Nick. “Do not sign anything.” She pointed her finger at Nonna.

  “I have no papers,” Nick said. He raised both hands, palms out.

  “She has a pad of paper and a pen, and I know you can draft a quick contract. We took a semester of business law together in B-school.”

  “Don’t worry, darling,” Nonna said, a soft smile on her lips. “I do remember a few things from working with your grandfather. Just give me a little time to hear what Nicholas has to say.”

  *

  “Noel, I can ask my chef to make the entire Christmas dinner.”

  Noel turned from her grocery cart. How strange the gorgeous and ominous Nick North looked in the freezer aisle. Truly, quite possibly, the only place she’d ever seen him not look like he fit in.

  “When was the last time you were in a grocery store?” Noel asked.

  He lifted one eyebrow and placed a hand on the edge of the cart. “Noel, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a grocery store.” His gaze traveled along the freezer section and toward the end of the aisle where a mother was trying to get a screaming toddler to stand up off the floor. “And I don’t believe I’ve missed much.”

  Noel fought a smile. When they’d dated, she’d often been shocked at how little Nick knew of the requirements of the real word. A world that included car payments, student loans, cleaning, cooking, and laundry. Of course Nick had never been in a grocery store. Why would he go? He had a housekeeper and a chef. Noel pulled open the freezer door. “Two bags of chopped spinach,” she said, pointing to them when Nick eyed her. “Right there.”

  He reached in and grabbed two bags.

  “Nonna likes spinach-artichoke dip. I’m making that for Christmas.” She let the freezer door close. “How did you find me?”

  “I’m having you tailed.”

  Noel paused. That was a definite possibility.

  “When I couldn’t find you in the hall, Nonna informed me where you’d gone.”

  “Took you long enough.”

  “Noel, when I’m not busy convincing you to let me build this outlet mall, I am running a multinational, billion-dollar conglomerate. Or have you forgotten?”

  “As though I could.” Noel wheeled her cart around the corner toward the next freezer aisle. As much as she wanted to get a frozen piecrust, she knew Nonna would taste the difference and be disappointed that Noel hadn’t made a fresh piecrust for Christmas.

  “Again, Noel, I offer up the use of my chef for Christmas dinner.”

  “Doesn’t he get the day off?”

  “It’s a she, and no, not usually.”

 
Noel stopped. She turned to Nick. “What do you mean, no, not usually?” Noel asked.

  The muscle in his jaw twitched.

  Noel squinted. “What are you not telling me?” She shook her head. His house. His penthouse. So completely bare. “Oh my God, you don’t celebrate Christmas anymore!”

  Nick crossed his arms over his chest.

  “It’s simply another day of the year and—”

  “You don’t even have a Christmas tree!” Noel’s eyes widened. “How do you not have a Christmas tree?” Noel narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to Nick. “Do you give Frederick the day off?”

  “He doesn’t wish to have the day off, and I don’t wish to celebrate. It’s a simple arrangement. I treat it as any other day of the year.”

  “Ha!” Noel said. “Not this year.” She tossed two containers of frozen corn into her cart. Lucky for them, she was nearly finished with grocery shopping. Because once they got all the groceries unloaded at Nonna’s, Noel knew exactly what she and Nick were going to do next.

  Chapter Ten

  Christmas was not for minimalists. Nick drew a long, deep breath into his lungs. His clean, slate-gray penthouse looked as though an elf had exploded. Red and green flashing lights trimmed the windows. A gargantuan white-flocked Christmas tree stood in the center of the penthouse with gold, red, blue, and green balls adorning each limb. Bright pink and purple lights flashed from the Christmas tree limbs. A blow-up Santa was now at home in the corner of the living room and twisted and turned, shouting out a “ho ho ho” every six seconds.

  “Are you finished?” Nick asked. He’d been completely bamboozled and he wasn’t certain how Noel had managed to create this Christmas horror show. They’d deposited the groceries at Nonna’s town house and then Noel had insisted they stop at a hellish store named the Christmas Emporium. He’d swung by the hospital with Noel for one final visit to Nonna and then returned home to this. This madness of green, red, gold, purple, and pink, tinsel and metallics and foils. The penthouse elevator doors had opened upon three women in green with white-and-red striped stockings.

  “Not quite.” Noel held up a hideous sweater with an appliqué of a reindeer on the chest. A red bulb was popping out where his nose should have been. “I think this will fit,” Noel said. “Consider it an early Christmas present from me.”

  Nick took the sweater from Noel and gazed at the atrocity. “You expect me to wear this?”

  “I don’t, but Nonna might,” Noel said. She held up her phone and took a quick picture. “Sending it to her now. She’ll love it.”

  “How is this happening?”

  “Listen, if I ruined Christmas for you by saying no to your proposal on Christmas Eve, then it is my duty to bring back the joy of Christmas for you.”

  “Says who?” Nick asked. “Besides, I think Christmas is overrated.” His gaze swept the room. “If this is what I had to look forward to every year, then you did indeed save us both.” He pressed his lips together to keep the smile from spreading over his face. But for the joy that vibrated from Noel over the decorations that adorned his place, the entire experience would be unbearable.

  “I have something for you too.” Nick walked toward the built-in cabinet and lifted a long box with a black velvet bow. “For tonight.”

  Noel’s eyes widened. She took the box and sank to the black leather couch. Her hands skimmed the paper and she tugged at the edges on the far end.

  Nick smiled. She was childlike when given a gift. Her excitement filled the room.

  “What is it?”

  She ripped the paper and a long slice tore from the center. A black box was now on her lap. She looked up at Nick, but he gave nothing away. When she lifted the lid and pulled the tissue paper away, her breath caught in her throat.

  “Oh my,” Noel gasped out.

  She stood and lush green velvet fell in waves as she held the dress up against her. The rich fabric was cut in a deep vee with off-the-shoulder straps. Nick had known the moment he spied the dress that it had been created for Noel.

  “It’s …” Her eyes met his. “It’s amazing.” She pressed the dress against her body and her palm stroked the rich velvet. Anticipation at seeing Noel in the dress thickened in his gut, and then the idea of stripping the dress from her body caused his cock to grow hard.

  “But … I don’t have anywhere to wear this.”

  “But you do,” Nick said. He stepped toward her and grasped her waist, pulling her closer to him. The flat of her belly pressed against his hard cock. “Tonight. I have just the place.”

  “We’re going to a party?” Noel shook her head. “Nick, I just don’t feel up to being around a giant group of people with Nonna in the hospital and—”

  He silenced her with a kiss. He pressed his lips to hers and felt the heat that constantly trembled between them burst into flame. His tongue brushed against the seam of her lips and they opened to him. Their tongues tangled and he pulled her tighter to him. A tiny moan came from her, and he fought his urge to rip her clothes from her now.

  “It’s just you and me, Noel. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I have to go to my mother’s house, and you’ll be with Nonna. I wanted us to have a night alone together, and tonight is the night.” Nick pulled a strand of her silken red hair between his forefinger and thumb. He pressed his lips to her nose. “Go get ready.”

  The hint of smile teased over Noel’s lips. It was very un-Noel to do as she was told, but in the past, when they were a couple, she’d done just that … on occasion.

  “No peeking,” Noel said.

  “No peeking.”

  She walked toward his bedroom. She’d soon find the red box with a silver bow that contained all the silken undergarments he’d chosen for her. His cock throbbed with the idea of all that lace and silk encompassing her curves. Tonight, when they returned here, he’d unwrap his present. The present that was Noel.

  Beside the box of silken undergarments, she’d also find a midnight-blue satin case and inside a ruby and-diamond-necklace for her to wear with the green silk dress. A gift, from him to her. Damn, his heart was softening. He found himself wanting to drape her in silk and pearls and diamonds. Nick walked toward the window. Far below was the inky black of Lake Michigan.

  He still loved Noel. A woman he’d thought had frozen his heart so solid that he would never love again was now thawing him in the middle of winter. These foolish hopes that danced through his mind. Hopes for more Christmases together, hopes for a future, for an existence where they worked together to build a life and a family. Nick shook his head—hadn’t he wanted those same things before? Was it different this time? The blinking purple lights on the obscene Christmas tree reflected in the window.

  He was different. She was different. They were different. He was older. He knew what he wanted and why. She too had changed. She more fully inhabited the person that she was. Surely she could see these changes and understand that he was a different man, much as she was a different woman. They had both changed in five years’ time. Hadn’t life provided each of them with their own experiences, their own identity so that neither of them needed to fear that they would sublimate who they were for the other? Were those changes enough?

  Maybe. Maybe not.

  He turned back toward the Christmas havoc that Noel had wrought on his minimalist apartment. If Noel could change where he lived without it bothering him, surely she could be a permanent part of his life and know that she would retain her own identity.

  *

  Frederick greeted Noel at the penthouse elevator. A hint of disappointment fluttered in her chest.

  “Mr. North will meet you there,” Frederick said. A bold smile decorated his face. “Might I say, Miss Klaus, you look quite stunning tonight.”

  Noel pulled the cashmere wrap, which she’d found hanging from the closet door, tighter around her body. Exquisite princess-cut diamond earrings dripped from her earlobes. Her hair and makeup had been attended to by a specialist from a local salon. She’d
even been given a massage after her bath. Nick had thought of everything. Overwhelming luxury to which she was completely unaccustomed, and yet she could get used to. So why did she feel hints of guilt? Why couldn’t she surrender to simply existing in this exquisite moment? She pressed her hand to the diamond-and-ruby necklace that adorned her throat. Because the gems under her fingertips could feed an entire African village for a year, maybe two. Noel stepped into the elevator with Frederick.

  “You know, Miss Klaus, that Mr. North is not nearly this extravagant all the time.”

  “I do, Frederick,” Noel said. “I’ve known him for a long while, and I remember him always being very generous.”

  “That is correct. Although, one might say over the past five years he’s become much more removed with regards to his generosity.”

  Noel’s tongue licked over her lips. That was most likely a direct result of her saying no to Nick’s proposal.

  “While he still gives rather large sums to charities, he’s not nearly as hands-on and involved as he once was.” Frederick turned his head and smiled at Noel. “I’ve often thought he’d be well served by starting a foundation of some sort. I know he shares your belief that when one succeeds in life they are obligated to reach back and help those around them.”

  A long breath entered Noel’s lungs. Yes, she realized the Nick that she’d fallen in love with had held those beliefs. They’d spent many late nights in bed when they were still in school, discussing all the remarkable things they planned to do with all the money Nick would make. They would try to end hunger in the world, cure cancer, make sure every child had clean water and a safe place to go to school. Noel pressed her palms tightly together. What had caused her to flee? To suddenly believe that those things would never be their future, to not trust those late-night talks after their lovemaking? Was Nick right? Had it been her own fear that had stopped her?