by Roxie Ray
I checked my watch and sighed. Nearly lunchtime. They’d told me they didn’t like their lawyers to work when they were on break, but I was so behind. I’d pack up my cases and take them with me. That way I’d be set to start fresh in the new year.
None of my cases were urgent, but not working for a week after just starting my job made the workaholic in me angsty.
Damon, one of the other lawyers in my department, stuck his head in. “Come on, newbie, lunch is here.”
I waved at him. “Be right there.”
I’d go grab a plate in a minute, but I didn’t know these people very well yet. My time was better spent working as long as I could here in the office.
Parties weren’t really my style anyway. Celebrating Christmas wasn’t high on my list of good times, not this year, anyway. It was my first Christmas since my mother had died. This time last year, we were at her house, baking and cooking goodies that would last us until the new year. It was the only time of year she’d cook much of anything. We’d exchange gifts on Christmas Eve night, then the next morning there would miraculously be gifts for each of us under the tree from Santa Claus.
When I was around ten years old, I’d stopped believing. But my mother hadn’t been ready for me to stop, so every Christmas morning, I’d woken up to Santa gifts under the tree until the time came that I bought Santa gifts for her as well. And then we’d never stopped.
Why stop believing? That was no fun.
I’d kept believing until this year. Tomorrow morning, there would be no Santa gifts under the tree.
So, no, I wasn’t in a partying mood. More like a drown my sorrows until I had to sober up for Christmas dinner with my brother and put on a happy face for Bri and Hayden.
My old clan called to check on me, and by the time I got off the phone, lunch was almost over. I grabbed a quick plate, then threw myself back into my work, avoiding all thoughts of my mother and what wasn’t happening right now. What should’ve been happening.
About the only time I’d taken a break all week was for a visit to Doc, who had told me I was perfectly healthy and maybe it was stress keeping me from getting it up. He told me to take it easy.
Yeah, right.
I picked up the next file and rubbed my eyes before opening it. As I touched the corner, someone knocked on the door. When I opened my mouth to tell them to come in, my heart pounded harder. I knew who was on the other side of that door.
“Come in,” I called. She wasn’t my mate. Why was I drawn to her? Why was I able to sense her on the other side of the door when she wasn’t clan, or a dragon, or anything supernatural as far as I could tell?
What the hell was going on?
The door opened and sure enough, Kaylee peeked her head in. I burst out laughing as soon as I saw her. She had on a ridiculous and tall pair of reindeer antlers that reached nearly to the top of the doorway. The kicker was that they flashed with multicolored lights.
No way I would admit she looked completely adorable, so instead, I laughed. She stepped inside the door and curtsied. “I’m glad you like them.”
“What are you doing here?” I stood and walked around my desk, leaning on it, and staring at Kaylee, who looked beautiful even with the crazy antlers.
Not that I had any intention of admitting that.
“I’ve been here for a while and didn’t see you.” She held out the plate. “Brought you some lunch.”
I gestured toward the half-empty plate on my desk. “That’s nice of you, but I did come out and grab some food. I didn’t see you.”
Moving into the office, she looked around and reached past me to set the plate on my desk. I breathed deep when her bare neck came within inches of touching my shoulder. Kaylee’s long blonde hair smelled like baking: vanilla or nutmeg or something.
Something delicious.
She stepped back. “I grabbed a little bit of everything. I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”
I had to resist the urge to pull her toward me again so I could inhale her alluring scent. “Thank you,” I said in a much quieter voice than I’d meant to.
“Oh, almost forgot.” Kaylee reached behind her and pulled a canned drink out of nowhere. “And a soda.”
I burst out laughing. “Where’d you have that hidden?”
Twisting in place, she patted her butt. “Back pocket.”
Her back pocket of her jean skirt wasn’t at all what I was looking at. More what I knew was hiding just behind the blue material.
“Why do you care if I eat?” I asked. I sounded harsh, but though my voice was thick was something, it was not anger.
“Same reason you stayed and helped me. So, now I’ve fed you, though my job was a lot easier than yours.” She rocked on her heels. “Thanks again for that, by the way.”
“Compassion or guilt?” I met her gaze squarely and held it.
She twisted her lips in a wry smile. “Why not both? Look, I wanted to thank you again and figured you seemed like just the sort of person to work through a party without eating.”
I chuckled. “I guess you’re right about that.”
“Eat it or toss it, I was trying to be nice.” She rolled her eyes and walked toward my bookshelves. “All moved in?”
“Yeah.” I glanced back at the plate and had to chuckle again. Her description of little and mine were very different. It looked like she’d grabbed some of everything, but it wasn’t a bit of each. The plate was overflowing and dripped some sort of sauce onto my desk.
I smiled and grabbed a napkin to wipe it up. Normally, the mess would’ve bothered me, but her gesture was sweet and thoughtful.
“Kaylee,” I called out.
She’d been just about to reach for the door handle. “Yeah?”
“Thank you. But…” Turning, I gestured at the plate. “It’s too much for just me.”
She shook her head, her wrinkled brows telling me she was confused about where I was going with this. “Okay?”
Stepping away from the desk, I turned both of the client chairs around, so they faced each other. “Would you join me? Help me eat it. I hate to see food go to waste.”
11
Kaylee
Porter sounded sincere in his invitation to eat lunch with him, so I relented. He had come over and helped me out when I was sick, after all. He didn’t know anyone here in Bluewater, besides his brother, so he probably felt weird just going out and hanging in the office with the other lawyers.
Besides. He intrigued me. I’d indulge myself in figuring out why he’d helped me when I’d been nothing but abrasive toward him. Sure, he’d stolen my house from me, but I could’ve been a little nicer about it all.
I sat in one of the chairs he’d turned and crossed my legs, then shifted because that felt too intimate. Why was I so worried about how my legs were? What was it about Porter that made me want him to think I was more than my job? Classy and tasteful, and all the things that it was entirely possible to be while still being an adult entertainer, but most people didn’t realize it.
I wanted him to realize it, but fuck all if I knew why. He was attractive, sure. But it wasn’t like he was going to be my next love interest or something. Not even slightly.
But even with telling myself not to worry about it, I demurely crossed my ankles under the chair and sat with my knees together like the damn queen of damn England and cursed myself for doing it.
He took a big bite of some sort of macaroni salad, then shifted the plate so it was in the middle of the desk beside us and in my reach. I’d already eaten, so I grabbed a finger sandwich to nibble.
And there we sat in silence. Awkward, uncomfortable silence.
Until he opened his mouth to talk. “Why did you withdraw your bid?”
I sighed and set the sandwich down. Might as well be honest with him at this point. “Because banks are enormous dicks. Or, if my banker is to be believed, federal regulations are dicks. But someone, somewhere, is a big ol’ dickface. They won’t count my income increase from this yea
r.” I studied him for a moment and decided to continue being honest. “And pardon my bluntness, but it’s something you and the bank have in common. Thinking my job isn’t a real job.”
He choked on his mouthful of macaroni salad, making a gargling, strangled sound. I handed him a napkin and waited while he got his composure. “On that note, I do owe you an apology.”
Fuck, yeah, he did. I tried to keep the shock off my face. I knew he’d judged me, but I hadn’t thought he knew it.
But I owed him one, too.
I’d let him go first.
“You’re right. I passed judgment too quickly on you and your profession.” He sucked in a deep breath and looked me in the eye. “It isn’t up to me to judge or have any opinion about what you do.”
It was nice to hear, but why now? “What caused this change of heart?” I asked with the corners of my eyes narrowed to show him I suspected his motives.
He held my gaze, and the intensity of his stare burned me down to my soul. Hot damn, boy. I shifted in my seat and waited for him to answer, but he never did. He just looked at me, hot and personal.
My apology died in my throat as I stood on shaky legs. “I’ve got to run,” I whispered. All I knew was that I had to get away from the weight of the emotions in his gaze. “My grandfather is expecting me, and I’ve got some work to do.”
Backing away, I waved and nodded my head at him as I beat my retreat. I wasn’t lying. I had plans to meet with Bianca to help her edit a holiday makeup tutorial that we planned to upload this afternoon.
Porter stood and followed me halfway to the door of the surprisingly large office. Why was it taking so long for me to get to the door? Had the office grown while I was here?
“Thank you for bringing me lunch and eating with me.” He kept coming so I opened the door and stepped into the hall before he snared me again with his crazy eye-power. “I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.”
I stuck my mouth close to the crack in the door as I shut it. “You too!”
Holy shit. I had to get out of here. I spotted my grandfather down the hall laughing at something one of his lawyers had said. He truly enjoyed these parties with his employees and considered them his extended family. Against my better judgment, I turned back, opened the door again and stuck my head in. Porter froze with a bite halfway to his mouth.
“You shouldn’t be sitting behind a computer all day. You’ve got a family that loves you and an office full of people who would love to be your friends.”
Porter’s mouth was already open, prepared to take a bite, but it widened as his eyebrows went up.
“It’s something you shouldn’t take for granted.”
With that, I shut the door and didn’t stick around to find out if he had anything to add. My grandfather was my only family. I left my parents and their addictions behind long ago. The family that knew what I’d gone through in my life hadn’t ever lifted a finger to help me or even see if I needed help.
Why should I bother myself with them?
I’d been here a while by the time I’d made my way into Porter’s office, so I was able to quickly say goodbye to my grandfather and promise I’d be over tomorrow for Christmas dinner.
On the drive home, I thought about what my parents might’ve been doing for Christmas. We hadn’t spent a holiday together in so many years that I’d lost count. I hoped they were warm and safe. I wanted them to eat and be happy… just not at my table.
Bee was in the parking lot waiting for me when I pulled in. “We’ve got a lot of work to do!” I said, totally excited to be doing this with her.
She looked like she was ready to jump up and down. Laughing, I slung my arm over her shoulder. “Come on, Bee. Let’s do this.”
We got right to work, and as soon as we started, I knew that this was what I wanted.
The part of my job where I took my clothes off and taught guys how to pleasure a woman, that made me the big bucks. But editing was my passion. I loved doing it. Unfortunately, my videos tended to be live, which required no editing.
There were a few parts of Bee’s videos we had to reshoot, stuff she wasn’t happy with. She’d worn the same clothes and had done her makeup the same way. I carefully studied the screen and then her face, pointing out anywhere I saw inaccuracies.
“This is why it’s important to always use the same lighting, backdrops, and so on until you get your videos edited. You never know when you need to reshoot.”
We positioned her behind the camera, and I checked to make sure it looked as close as possible. “Ideally, you’d shoot in the morning and edit in the afternoon, and that way you could do any reshoots the same day.”
She nodded and listened, soaking up any bits of information I handed out. I’d learned a thing or two over the past two years. It was nice to have someone to pass it down to so she wouldn’t have to go through all this the hard way, by trial and error, as I did.
Editing was always my dream, but it’d never happened for me, so I just edited my own videos and now I got to help Bee. Maybe I’d be able to help others in the future, too. That would be cool.
When the video was finished, we uploaded it and worked on her logo and website design. She was comfortable with this part of it, as most people her age were.
She’d saved up some money for ads, and I showed her how to set up the ad account and get into the video hosting website’s algorithms.
“I’ll post your stuff in the ad space on my website, too. I have a small following of women, so you never know. You might get a hit.”
Bee threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. “You’re the best. If I can ever repay the favor, please tell me how. I don’t know how I would’ve done this without you.”
I hugged her back, genuinely happy at how our day had gone. “It was my pleasure.”
Looking at my phone, I gasped. “You gotta go!” She was due at her parents’ house for Christmas dinner with Hayden, Bri, and her parents. Bri would kill me if Bee missed it.
“I’ll be there a little later,” I said as she hugged and thanked me again. “Don’t sweat it.”
Bri had invited me to hang with them tonight, but I wasn’t going to intrude on family time. I’d go a little later and have dinner with them. I didn’t want to be rude after she’d so graciously invited me.
I changed clothes and fiddled with my makeup, trying a couple of the techniques Bee had put on her video.
When I pulled into Bri’s parents’ driveway, I noticed a car I didn’t recognize but didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t up to me who they invited. Skye’s SUV was there too.
I pressed the doorbell with a big smile on my face, holding a bundle of wrapped presents. I couldn’t come empty-handed, and I only had my grandfather to buy for. I’d bought gifts for Skye and her family as well. Good thing I’d had them in the car since I wasn’t sure if they’d be here today of if I was the only non-family member invited.
The door opened to a lot of noise. Hayden raced by chasing the twins, who had progressed from walking to full-on running, and voices carried out of the dining room into the hallway where Bri held the door open.
She reached out and took one of the baskets of presents from me. “You’re late!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt family time,” I said. “Thank you for inviting me.”
I took off my coat and hung it on their hall tree and turned just in time to see Porter walk by the dining room entryway.
He noticed me and paused, and there was that intense stare again.
Within seconds, I was pulled into a bunch of hugs, starting with Skye. “Congratulations,” I said warmly. This was the first I’d seen her since I found out she was pregnant again. “I’m so happy for you. You were made for motherhood, I swear.”
“Thank you.” She grinned proudly, like only a mother could. “It’s going to be absolutely crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She was right. It would be crazy. What would that be like?
After I greeted my other friends, I scooped up one of Skye’s twins and gave her lots of kisses and hugs, then attacked Hayden for the same. “You’re not too old for your Auntie Kaylee to kiss.”
She mock protested, but she hugged me back just as hard.
The dining room was set up for buffet style. Bri’s dad held up his glass and everyone but the twins quieted down. “Thank you all for coming. Now that our Kaylee has joined us, let’s eat!” They’d waited for me. Didn’t start without me. I wasn’t sure how that made me feel, but it was a good emotion. To feel so wanted, so important.
Porter didn’t speak much to anyone. He likely felt like a fish out of water, or whatever the expression was. I could relate. I’d been the new kid on the block at one point.
I sat beside him on the sofa while he ate. “Here we are again, eating together.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, at least this time I’m not stuck behind a desk, right?”
“Exactly,” I said brightly. “Isn’t this better?”
He nodded and smiled, but his eyes looked so sad, I had to ask. “What’s got you looking like your best friend died?”
Porter cleared his throat and set his plate on the coffee table. “My mother. This is my first Christmas without her.”
My heart splintered for him. I’d never been close enough to my parents to feel the kind of grief that came with a parent’s sudden death, but I was empathetic enough to hurt for him. “I’m so sorry.” I placed my hand on his knee and squeezed, but that felt extremely personal, so I jerked it back as quickly as I could. “I don’t have a lot of family to spend the holiday with either,” I continued. “It’s not easy, even harder for you with your grief, but look around. You’re not alone. Extended family is a hell of a lot better than no family.” I grunted. “Or bad family. And you’re wanted here.”
He turned that intense stare on me again, making me squirm in place, except this time I couldn’t escape. “Stop it,” I exclaimed. “You’re freaking me out.”
Porter grinned, a genuine, unguarded smile for the first time since I’d met him. For a moment, it felt like two magnets drawn to each other and my breath caught in my throat.