by Alina Jacobs
“Cookies?” Belle raised an eyebrow.
Jonathan nodded happily.
“No.”
He looked deflated.
“If you want free cookies, you can be in it next year,” Gunnar said.
“Or help Owen with the holiday party he's hosting,” Belle added.
“I thought that was tentative,” I complained.
“Jack did it last year. It's only fair to rotate,” she said.
“Guess you've been voluntold!” Jonathan joked.
As I walked back to my office later, a woman in an elf costume jumped out from a doorway, snapping pictures.
“Owen, I love you!” she yelled before scampering away.
I seriously could not wait for Christmas to be over. The holidays made people crazy. Though if Holly wanted to wear a sexy elf costume, maybe I wouldn't mind celebrating all twelve days of Christmas.
My phone buzzed, and I looked at it. Holly had sent me a picture of herself holding up two cupcakes as if they were boobs.
Holly: Want a sweet treat tonight?
Of course that meant I had trouble concentrating for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, Holly was not waiting for me wearing nothing but frosting when I went back to my condo after my last meeting of the day.
Instead, I took Rudolph out for a walk. It was snowing, and he was happy to be out in the cold. He wanted to sit out on the balcony when we returned. I took off my jacket, loosened my tie, and checked my phone. Where was Holly? I'd already grown so used to having her around that the condo felt empty without her.
Holly: How about a late-night sweet treat? It took a lot longer to finish cooking for the winter festival than I planned.
Owen: You don't even have to cover yourself in frosting.
Holly: I was planning on smothering you in frosting.
Owen: Can you come now?
Ten minutes later, she showed up at my door with frosting on her cheek.
“No cute costume?” I asked, slipping two fingers down the front of the bodice. She had a streak of frosting across her chest.
“I have fun panties on.”
“Are they crotchless?”
“I guess you better find out,” she said.
I crushed my mouth to hers, tasting sweet frosting and nutmeg. She was warm and soft in my arms. I ran my hands along her body as she moaned against me. The thin fabric of the dress ripped easily under my hands when I tore the bodice.
“Look at you, Mr. Big Strong Handsome Man, giving me the true bodice-ripper romance,” Holly purred. She unzipped my pants as I pulled the torn fabric back to expose her tits. Something plunked on the ground.
“Is that part of a Christmas cookie?”
“Oh!” Holly exclaimed. “I wondered where that went.”
“Please don't eat it,” I told her, kissing her tits so she wouldn't bend down and pick it up.
“I’m not,” she said breathlessly. As I rolled her nipple around in my mouth, sucking her full, soft breast, my hand snuck under her skirt. I could confirm that the panties were indeed crotchless. Holly whimpered as I stroked her pussy, already wet and aching for my cock.
“You gonna fuck me?” she moaned as I knelt in front of her. “Or are you going to eat that cookie?”
“I'm going to eat a cookie, but not the one on the floor,” I said, pushing up her skirt.
She moaned, her legs trembling, as I pressed my mouth to her pussy, lazily licking her. Her nails dug into my shoulders through my shirt as my tongue flicked her clit. Her breath came faster. She was close, but I wanted to draw it out.
“What the hell? Why'd you stop?”
“You said you wanted my cock,” I reminded her. I rolled on a condom and hiked her up against the wall, thrusting into her.
She moaned, her hips wriggling against me as I fucked her, her legs wrapped around me to coax me deeper. She had been so close when I put my thick cock inside her that I knew she would come just from my entry. I made sure she was angled so that my cock stroked her clit with every thrust. I kissed her as I fucked her, her nipples hard as they brushed against my chest.
Holly bit my jaw as she came. I continued to fuck her, gritting my teeth as her body spasmed around me. She panted and cursed as I continued to fuck her. She bucked against me, and I could see that she needed to come again. I felt her body tighten as the second orgasm crashed around me, sending me over the edge as well.
She leaned against me, and I carried her to the couch. Rudolph padded in from the balcony, sniffed, then sprinted to the cookie on the floor.
“Boys!” Holly said with a laugh. “Always want to put their mouths on cookies!”
57
Holly
The winter festival started bright and early the next morning. I'd been up for hours already. Morticia, Fiona, and I had cooked all of the previous day and into the night. Now we had a feast ready for Owen's company. I was downstairs doing last-minute checks and making sure everything was perfect.
Holly: I wish Sloane wasn't going to be there.
Morticia: Show your dominance. Pee on Owen in front of her like a polar bear.
Holly: Uh, I don't think that's how anything works.
Morticia: So sue me. I went to a public school in a dying rust-belt town.
Holly: Harrogate isn't dying! The Svenssons are investing a lot of money. You could land a billionaire.
Morticia: Gag. No thanks. I'm allergic to douchebags with too much money and huge egos.
The workers had been setting up the stages and chairs the night before. It all looked a little corporate, but this wasn't a boozy holiday party. Oh, we were going to have alcohol, but not garbage cans full of hard liquor. Just wine, punch, and beer, something to keep people talking and receptive but not falling-off-the-balcony drunk.
“Everything looks amazing,” Owen said, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me.
“I feel like I didn't do much,” I said with a laugh.
“You did a lot,” he said, turning me around and looking at me seriously. “Thank you.”
“Think it's enough to shoot you all to the top of the TechBiz list?”
“He's going to score high marks for sure,” Sloane said, sauntering over to us. “Because that's what I promised, didn't I?” She pressed herself against Owen, reaching up to kiss his cheek. Someone might have been able to make the case that it was professional, but I knew it was anything but. Owen's face remained a cold, professional mask.
“Why don’t you show me around?” Sloane said, taking Owen's arm.
I bit back a protest. It was business. The whole point of the winter festival was to schmooze overpaid magazine editors to land Owen's company at the top of a vanity list. I was a big girl. I could handle it.
“Don't forget to grab a snack! I have cupcakes I made myself!” I chirped. “They'll be out for lunch. For breakfast, we have cheesy breakfast burritos.”
Sloane turned up her nose. “I don’t eat breakfast.”
Well then.
“It's the most important meal of the day!” I quipped.
“I do intermittent fasting,” Sloane sneered. “You should try it.”
“Willingly fasting is not my style,” I replied.
“I can see that.”
“Are you seriously going to let that hussy walk off with your man?” Morticia said in my ear. I shrieked. She'd just appeared like the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“It's fine.”
“I don't trust either of them,” Morticia said with a sniff. She was drinking some sort of bitter-smelling brew. “Cleansing tea?”
“Ugh, no thanks. Though I might need another of those Korean sitz baths later. Owen has been very impressed with the quality of things in the South Pole. I want to keep him happy and everything tight as a clam.”
Morticia rolled her eyes.
“Thanks for your help, but I don't want to keep you from your actual job of working for the Vanity Rag.”
“We're basically done,” Morticia explained. “There are tw
o more contests. One of them is with the Weddings in the City girls. Penny's out doing specials with each of them to put on the Vanity Rag website.”
I took in a deep breath. “That means it's almost Christmas!” I made sparkly motions with my fingers.
“Spare me. I should go hibernate until it's over,” Morticia said as we walked around.
I grabbed a breakfast burrito, and we watched the kickoff presentation in the atrium up in the Quantum Cyber offices. Owen, Walker, and Beck were talking about the company. His employees hung off the balconies, watching.
We listened to Owen and his CFO and COO joke around. Then Morticia and I went to start setting up for lunch. To keep a clog from forming in the food lines, we had several tables set up around the office.
“We really went all out,” Fiona said happily as we set out the trays of food for the feast. There were racks of beef Wellington, along with roast turkey and gravy. There was puffy Yorkshire pudding and creamy cheddar-and-chive mashed potatoes. Best of all was the lobster mac and cheese. There was also a roasted-pear-and-goat-cheese salad, because I had figured we needed something green that wasn't the green bean casserole.
“So good,” I said, sneaking a plate of pasta. Morticia stole a bite.
Owen's employees seemed pleased with the food. In addition to Sloane, several other TechBiz magazine representatives were at the winter festival. Owen drifted through the groups of his employees, answering questions and being friendly and personable.
“I'm so proud!” I said dramatically, wiping a fake tear out of my eye when he passed me. “My baby's all grown up and being sociable!”
After the final sessions in the late afternoon, Morticia, Fiona, and I put out snacks and alcohol in the main lobby.
“Are we ready for the big surprise?” I asked Walker.
“It's all you,” he said, handing me a microphone.
“Thank you all for participating in the Quantum Cyber Winter Festival,” I said, stepping up onto the stage. “And thank you to the TechBiz committee for your time. I just came in to help decorate and bake and convince Owen to free-flow the booze!”
There were several cheers.
“I'll eat your cupcakes!” someone yelled.
I laughed. “In the restaurant business, we like to pride ourselves on having a close-knit culture, from the family meals before dinner service starts to helping out our fellow chefs in need. While working with you all at Quantum Cyber, I see the same type of relationships, the desire to innovate and be creative. And yes, you all do drink as much as any crazy restaurant workers!”
There was more cheering.
“Open a restaurant!” several guys in front of the stage chanted. I grinned at them.
“We have one more surprise. Since your CEO recently adopted a puppy, and I hear that dogs are very popular here, we have a little contest set up outside to raise money for the local animal shelter.”
I turned to look at him.
“Owen, I hope you brought your swimsuit!”
58
Owen
I followed Holly outside with the herd of employees. We went across the street to the park.
Near the fountain, a giant dunking tank had been set up with a chair affixed to a lever above the tank. A layer of ice coated the water.
“Are you okay with this?” Holly asked. “I guess we could always make Walker do it.”
“Uh, no. No way. I'm a summer person,” my COO said, backing away.
“Really? With all that blond hair?” Holly teased.
“I tan. I'm of Scandinavian descent!” Walker retorted.
“I'm good,” I assured Holly, stepping behind a curtain to take off my suit and pull on the swim trunks Holly handed me. They were decorated with multiple Santas lying on lawn chairs, shirtless, with beers in their hands.
“Owen, if you could please take a seat,” Holly said, her voice reverberating around the park through the sound system.
“Now, everyone, if I can direct your attention to the screen. As you can see, the counter is set at one million dollars. This is the amount the local animal shelter needs to expand its facility. The aim is to help keep more dogs off the cold streets. We have this event livestreaming, so all you viewers can donate as well. Once the counter hits the goal, Owen goes into the water.”
“What if no one donates?” I asked Holly out of the side of my mouth.
“They will,” she said confidently. “I've been pimping it out on social media. I told everyone it would involve you wet and shirtless. There are several mom groups that are very interested.”
“Yeah, but that's a lot of money.” I was about to offer to just give her the money, but when I looked at the screen, I noticed that the numbers were already creeping up.
“Besides,” Holly added with a smirk, “Jack said he really wants to see you fall into the water.”
I looked out into the crowd. All my brothers were pointing and laughing and taking pictures.
“So I'm not worried.”
The counter climbed up and up. The crowd chanted. “Two hundred thousand! Three hundred thousand!”
Rudolph barked.
“I think a few of the Svenssons are also donating big amounts,” Holly said innocently. I peered down.
Dana was standing near Holly and Walker.
“The Holbrooks are also donating,” Dana said with a toothy smile. “My cousins are very excited.”
“Of course they are.” I sighed.
Walker snickered. “Greg said he normally hates the dog-pound people, but he's giving money just to watch Owen fall!”
I looked down at the ice. I guessed we were going to test just how much cold I could withstand.
The counter ticked up another big jump.
“Eight hundred!” The crowd cheered.
“Do you think we should break the ice?” Holly asked in concern.
Walker looked up at me. “Owen’s a big guy. And he's high up. He'll just crash right through.”
“Thanks, Walker,” I said. It wasn't actually that bad outside. It was snowing, the flakes landing in my hair. There was another big jump, and the counter ticked to $930,000.
“Just a little more to go!” Holly said in excitement.
The counter crept up then made another big jump to $1.1 million.
The buzzer sounded, the chair collapsed, and I fell, cracking through the ice into the freezing water. It wasn’t that cold. It was actually pretty refreshing. I did a lap in the tank and waved to the camera.
“Geez, you're freezing!” Holly exclaimed when I climbed out of the pool and flashed a thumbs-up. The crowd roared.
“We have bourbon-spiked hot chocolate, very boozy eggnog, and mulled apple cider inside in the lobby if you all want to warm up,” Holly said into the microphone.
“Or you can take a refreshing swim,” I added, gesturing to the tank. “It will really get the circulation going.”
“Yeah, I don't think there are any takers,” Holly said as my brothers and sister pushed up to the front.
“He's a frostscicle,” Walker said. “Don't you want a blanket or a heater?”
“I feel fine,” I said. “Actually, really good. See?” I held out my hands. “My fingers aren’t even blue.”
“Maybe Mom was experimenting on you when you were a baby,” Jonathan joked.
I hugged Holly, and she shrieked when the droplets of freezing water landed on her neck.
“Your hair is coated in ice,” she said with a laugh, raking her hand through it.
“You can help warm me up,” I said, sticking my hands under her dress and making her scream.
59
Holly
It was the morning of the second-to-last episode of The Great Christmas Bake-Off.
Owen's money for the work on helping his company win the TechBiz contest had appeared in my bank account then immediately disappeared, filtering away into the ether of all my debt payments. I had been able to pay some of it to the storage facility, so they were going to hold
my grandmother's items until the twenty-third of December. I hated to admit it, but I was starting to panic.
“I have to win,” I chanted to myself, trying to stay in the zone. There were three of us left. I couldn't believe Amber was still in the competition.
“There's something about Christmas,” Anastasia said when Dana gave her the signal, “that really sparks the romantic in me. And that's today's theme: romance—or rather the wedding that comes after. Today, each contestant is going to bake an elaborate winter wedding cake. To judge, we have two of the girls from the Weddings in the City collaborative, Zoey and Gracie. They plan, cater, and decorate the weddings of everyone who’s anyone in New York City. Care to give our contestants some tips?”
“The trick to a wedding cake,” Gracie said, “is that it needs to be visible from everywhere in the entire wedding venue, and that means lots and lots of tiers. The biggest cake I ever baked had twenty layers. You have giant ovens, which is good, because you'll need them.”
“You have until midnight,” Anastasia said.
“You'll need every minute of it,” Gracie said with a laugh. “I'm typically working up to the eleventh hour decorating the cake, making sure it’s perfect for the bride's big day.”
I loved weddings. When I got married—if I got married—I wanted a Christmas wedding, with a huge white dress and a fur cape. I would take pictures in the snow. We'd have the whole venue decked out for Christmas. Hell, I might even have a live reindeer. But that was a big if. I couldn’t even manage to keep my baking company afloat for three months. Did I really think I could handle a serious relationship?
What about Owen?
What about Owen?
I couldn't shake what his mother and Sloane had said, that he was only with me for fun. Maybe he didn't actually care about me. Maybe I was just the fun, sexy girl he brought to his bed, not the one he married.
But he was smiling softly at me before he left the studio for the day.
“Ready for your dream wedding cake?” he asked me.