A Very Alpha Christmas

by Anthology

  When they were just a block away from their building, Cole asked if she had any brothers or sisters and if they lived in the city, too.

  “Just my older brother, Declan. He’s still in San Francisco, selling our condo there, and he’ll be coming here in a few weeks.”

  “Is he going to live with you?” Cole asked.

  “Yes. At least initially, until we decide what we want to do with our parents’ place. I don’t think we’re going to do anything for at least a year. That’s what people have been advising, anyway.” Her eyes clouded again at the thought of her parents and having to eventually move house.

  “That’s probably good advice. Give it some time and then figure out what you want to do”

  Alexis smiled. “Yes, that’s the plan.”

  They entered the main lobby and walked toward the set of elevators that went to the highest floors. Elvin, the head security guard, raised his eyebrows when he saw them, but he recognized Alexis, so he didn’t stop them. Cole gave him a wave and a wink, and then Elvin realized who was in the Santa suit.

  “Hi, Cole. forgot it was already that time of year. Looking good!”

  “Thanks, Elvin,” Cole said as they stepped into the elevator. As soon as the doors closed behind them, Cole yanked off his hat, beard and mustache.

  Alexis chuckled and tried to cover up the initial shock she’d felt when she saw him without his Santa gear. “I bet that feels better?”

  “You have no idea.” Cole scratched his jaw, which was already a bit red from where the beard had been taped on. “I can’t wait to jump in the shower.”

  “I bet,” Alexis said and tried not to picture him in the shower. Even though she’d thought earlier that Cole Parker was definitely not her type, she had to admit that the man was attractive. Super attractive. Scorching hot, actually. His hair was thick and tousled from being under the fuzzy cap and his jaw, though a little red, was also slightly scruffy and unshaven with a bit of shadow—a look that she’d always found enormously appealing. She liked a rougher look, not the super-polished, not-a-hair-out-of-place way that she normally saw Cole. This was a much more attractive look on him. But not one he was likely to keep up.

  As they reached her floor, he took a step closer to her and she became a little dizzy from his nearness. Beyond the sweat, there was a scent that drew her in, like nothing else had. It was confusing. He smiled as the door opened.

  “Have a drink with me tonight?” he asked.

  “What?” He’d caught her off-guard.

  “Let me buy you a drink. We can go right around the corner to my favorite pub. It’s always a good idea to get to know your neighbors better, don’t you think?”

  “Oh, so this is just a neighborly drink, then?” she teased.

  “Sure. It can be whatever you want it to be. I just want to get to know you better. So what do you say?” He took another step towards her, still smiling, and she just stared at him in confusion. He took that as an acceptance and stepped aside to let her pass him and exit the elevator.

  “I’ll stop down for you a little before six?”

  “Fine,” she said as the elevator closed with a rush, and then she frowned as she remembered the main reason why she shouldn’t go anywhere with Cole Parker. She would meet him for that drink, but once he learned more about her, she knew he wouldn’t want things to go any further, either.

  3

  Alexis spent the rest of the afternoon puttering around the apartment, doing laundry and playing on the computer. While she was volunteering at the food pantry, an idea had to come to her for a possible solution to a problem she’d been wrestling with. That was often how it worked. When her mind was focused on something else, her subconscious would be ticking away in the background and would then pop in when a breakthrough was made. She’d been dying to get back to her keyboard ever since. Sure enough, the idea she’d come up made everything else fall into place and the new website design she’d been working on for the launch of her company’s newest software offering finally looked the way she’d envisioned it.

  Something soft and furry rubbed against her leg and as soon as she bent over to pet Sherman, her parents’ black and white tabby cat, the purring started. She scooped him up and placed him on her lap, and he purred even harder for a minute. Then, after he'd had enough, he jumped down and meowed loudly, his tail swishing back and forth.

  "I see how it is. You don't just love me, you want me to feed you." She got up and stretched, and the little cat ran for the door and then looked back at her and meowed again. She wasn't moving fast enough for his liking, evidently.

  "I'm coming!" Alexis padded down the hallway to the kitchen and dumped a can of food into Sherman's empty dish. Then she heard the chiming noise that her dryer made when it was done. Where had the afternoon gone? She gathered the dry, hot clothes out of the dryer and dumped them on her bed to fold and put away. While she was doing that, she thought about what to wear out for her drink with Cole and decided to stay in the same clothes she'd had on all day.

  She liked her red turtleneck sweater. It was made out of a fine cashmere that was thin and soft to the touch. And she didn't want to look like she was trying too hard by changing outfits. She was curious to go to the pub he'd mentioned as well. She had passed it by many times and it always looked busy and boisterous. It wasn't the kind of place she would ever feel comfortable going to alone, and the one downside of living here in Manhattan was that she didn't know many people. Hardly anyone at all, really, except for the older ladies at the food pantry and a good friend from college who was married and had recently had a baby, so she wasn't getting out much.

  She was starting to get to know her co-workers and one of them had actually asked her to join them last Thursday when they were all heading out after work, but it happened to be the one day that week that she already had plans to see Melissa. She stopped by her apartment after work and brought a pizza with her. Melissa's husband Billy was a lawyer and worked long hours, so she was often home alone with a newborn and was feeling stir-crazy. They caught up over pizza and a bottle of wine and it was a fun evening.

  Truth be told, Alexis had been feeling a little lonely lately. Even though it wasn't wise for her to start anything with Cole Parker, maybe it would be all right if they could be friends. Someone else to share a drink with? Although even that might meet with disapproval and Cole might not have any interest, either, once he found out more about her. She would just have to wait and see, she supposed.

  * * *

  At ten to six, there was a knock on the door. Alexis smiled. She liked that he was on time—early even. She took a deep breath, and opened the door. Cole stood there, smiling and leaning against the doorframe. His scent this time almost knocked her off her feet. Earlier in the day, his sweat had dampened down his natural scent. Now it was there in full force and it was intoxicating. Alexis had a keen sense of smell, and she inhaled appreciatively and then sighed. It was really all so unfair that he had to smell so damn good. Not to mention that he looked hotter than ever.

  She must have imagined that he was too polished-looking, because that certainly wasn't the case now. His hair was slightly mussed and looked like it had some gel in it and although he'd shaved, it also looked like he’d nicked himself as there was a tiny cut on his jaw with a bead of blood. She reached out and dabbed it away and he smiled.

  "Is it still bleeding? I thought I got it all?"

  "It's fine now," she said as she turned her attention to his outfit. He was wearing well-worn jeans that hung just right on him—not too tight or too loose, but just right, so that they showed off his toned body. He wore a navy blue button down shirt, tucked into the jeans which made his blue eyes pop and his dark hair look even darker, almost black.

  "I know I'm a little early, but are you ready to go?" he asked.

  "Yes, let me just grab my purse." Alexis took a few steps back and took her brown leather bag off a side table and slung it over her shoulder.

  "I'm ready." S
he followed Cole into the elevator and then out onto the street. The air had changed and the temperature had dropped considerably. She wished that she'd remembered to throw on a jacket. Cole saw her shiver and asked, "Are you cold?"

  "I'm fine. We're not going far." And they weren't. The bar was straight ahead, barely half a block from their building. Alexis followed Cole down a set of stairs and into the pub which was partly below the street level. It was dark inside and had a bit of a basement feel to it. There was polished mahogany everywhere, and cocktail tables and black leather chairs scattered throughout the small pub. They settled into two seats at the bar and the bartender, a cheery woman who looked to be in her early sixties, came over to greet them. Cole introduced her to Alexis.

  "This is Madge. She's my second mother," he teased. “Madge, meet Lexy.” Lexy? No one had ever called her that. But, when Cole said it, she kind of liked the sound if it.

  "And that's a sign that you're coming in here too much!" she fired back, but then reached across the bar to shake Alexis' hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Now, what would you both like to drink?"

  Cole ordered a draft beer and Alexis a glass of the house merlot. Madge returned right away with their drinks and Alexis looked around the bar, taking it all in. There were maybe twenty seats total in a horseshoe shape around the bar and only one empty seat, on the other side of Cole. The crowd was a mix of ages, some young twenty-somethings as well as plenty of older customers. A young waiter dropped two platters of food at the bar and Alexis' stomach grumbled looking at them. She'd been so busy all afternoon and caught up in her computer work that she'd forgotten to eat anything. The juicy burgers and fries looked really good.

  "Did you eat yet?" Cole asked as he glanced at the food.

  "No, not yet."

  "Well, it's nothing fancy here, basic pub food, but the burgers are outstanding if you're in the mood for something like that."

  "I love a good burger," she admitted.

  Cole grinned. "So do I." When Madge returned she asked if they wanted to see menus.

  "I don't think we need them. We'll take two cheeseburgers, medium." He looked at Alexis for confirmation.

  "Medium is perfect."

  Madge walked off to put in their order and Alexis lifted her glass of wine to take a sip.

  "Is it okay? Pubs aren't usually the best places for wine."

  Alexis chuckled. "That's true. I've had some awful ones in bars. But I've never really been a beer drinker. This is fine. Better than most."

  "Good. So now that we have our drinks and food on the way, I need to know everything about you. Tell me your deepest, darkest secrets," he teased.

  "Very funny. If I did that, you'd go running for the door." She smiled, but thought to herself that there was more truth to her comment than he realized.

  "So, what do you like to do for fun?" he asked after he took a sip of beer.

  "I like to play with painting. I'm taking a class, actually, that just started a week ago, and I've always loved to design things. Computer graphics and web pages mostly, but lately I've been dabbling with book covers."

  "Book covers? How did you get into that?"

  "Some of my friends are authors and I kind of fell into helping them with ideas for their ebook covers."

  "Do you work in that field, too?"

  "I do. I'm a web designer."

  "That seems like a perfect fit, then. It's great when you can get paid for what you like to do."

  "I agree. What about you? What do you do on your days off?"

  "I like to run. I did cross-country all through high school and college and still like to get out there as often as I can. I usually go through Central Park. It helps to clear my head." He smiled and then joked, "Not that there's much to clear up there."

  "I imagine your job is fairly high pressure, though?" Alexis knew that he was always in the news for various deals his company had invested in. He and his brothers had a knack for picking winners.

  "That's it, really. It helps get rid of any stress that builds."

  "So, what else are you passionate about?" She was curious to learn more about him. So far, he was so much more than she'd expected and she realized that she had pre-judged him, which really wasn't fair.

  "Well, as you may have noticed, I’m sort of into Christmas." He smiled then and his expression was almost childlike. It made her sad for a moment. She hadn't felt that way about the holiday since she was a child and even then, the memory was fleeting.

  "Why?" She couldn’t help asking.

  Her question seemed to catch him off guard.

  "Why what?"

  "Why do you get so excited about Christmas?"

  "It's everything about it." His voice took on a reverent tone as he spoke. "The obvious religious significance, of course, the birth of Christ and all that it means. But it's so much more than that. It's a time of hope and wonder and generosity and new beginnings. And there's really nothing like seeing it through the eyes of a child."

  "I envy you a little for that," Alexis admitted.

  A cloud crossed over Cole's eyes. "I take it you don't share my enthusiasm for this time of year?"

  She shook her head sadly. "I wish that I did, but I don't. I'm not sure that I ever have, to be honest. I don't really have any happy holiday memories."

  "Did something bad happen?" he asked softly.

  "No, not really. It's just that nothing ever happened. My parents weren't the sentimental sorts and Christmas was just another day to them. I didn't grow up with a Christmas tree. We never went to church or did anything to make it special. We never really celebrated any holidays. My father usually worked for most of the day and my mother would be into her third martini by the time he came out of his study."

  “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine that.” Cole reached over and pushed a stray piece of hair off her forehead. The tender gesture took her by surprise and the slight touch of his finger against her skin felt electric. She sat back and smiled.

  “I take it your holidays were very different?”

  “They were. I was lucky. My mother was really into the holidays and always made a big fuss about them. It was fun. Magical, even. I’m sorry that you didn’t get the chance to experience that.” He sounded so regretful that it made her soften towards him even more. Cole Parker was a nice guy.

  “It’s fine. I didn’t know what I was missing, so I never really missed it, if that makes sense.”

  “Maybe this year will be different. With your parents gone, you can start over, go totally overboard with holiday festivities. That’s what I’d recommend.”

  “I wouldn’t know where to start. Truthfully, I think it’s too soon to do anything different, anyway. It’s only been a few months. It still doesn’t seem real to me sometimes that they are gone.”

  “Will your brother be here by then?” Cole asked as he reached for his beer.

  “Yes. It will be nice to have him here.”

  “I’m glad you won’t be alone,” Cole said and then turned his attention to Madge as she set down their burgers and fries.

  The food was delicious and they both ordered another drink to go along with their meals.

  After they finished eating and their glasses were almost empty, Cole asked, “So what do you think? Should we go out again? I’d like to.” He looked mostly confident as he asked the question and held her gaze intently.

  Alexis sighed. She had thought it would be easy to brush Cole off, that he wasn’t her type. But she hadn’t expected to like him and be so attracted to him. It made what she had to say even more difficult.

  “I’d actually like to. This has been fun. But, I don’t think it’s a good idea and I’m sure you won’t, either.”

  His face fell. “Why not? What possible deep, dark secret could you have that could keep us apart?” he teased.

  “I’m a werewolf,” she began.

  His face lit up. “That’s a good thing!”

  “And a new member of the Bronx pack and I recently started d
oing product design at their software company.”

  “Oh.” He frowned and then downed the rest of his beer. She took the last sip of her wine.

  “Shit. That is problematic.” He motioned to Madge for the bill, and then threw his credit card down and waved Alexis off when she reached for her purse.

  “I’ve got this.”

  “Thank you.” The fun, even sexy mood of the night was gone, just like that.

  “Are you ready to go?” Cole asked after he signed the charge slip that Madge returned to him.

  “I’m ready.”

  They walked silently the short distance back to their building. It wasn’t until they were in the elevator that Cole finally spoke again.

  “So, why don’t you quit? Find another job, join another pack. Problem solved.” He grinned and leaned against the elevator wall, watching to see how she would respond.

  “I can’t do that. They were nice enough to take me in. I’m a legacy. My parents were in that pack. I was when I was younger, too, but both my brother Declan and I joined a different one in San Francisco.”

  “That makes sense. Well, at least think about it. Allegiances can change.”

  “Not without bloodshed,” she reminded him. She’d considered the idea, but changing packs was huge and very seldom done. The last thing she was looking for was to stir things up. She just wanted to hunker down and be left alone. They reached her floor and Cole walked off the elevator with her.

  “I’ll see you to your door.” His face was stormy and she found that attractive, too. He wasn’t someone she would want to cross. His intensity was a palpable thing. When they reached her door, he took hold of her hands and pulled her close.