“Ah, Cici, you’re too good to me. What would I do without you?”
“Thank goodness you don’t have to figure that out. Although, I’m pretty sure you could google gift wrapping.” The inside of his SUV now looked as though Kris Kringle had paid a visit. That had been fun.
“Cici, I appreciate what you’re doing. You’ve been like a girlfriend for hire today. Best money I’ve ever spent.” This morning he was all tight-gripped and white-knuckled. Now, his hands hung loosely from the steering wheel while his thumbs tapped out the beat to the song playing on the radio: “Little Drummer Boy.” There may be hope for him yet.
“I’d be charging a lot more if I was your girlfriend for hire. Look at you. You’re high maintenance. I’ve got to do everything for you.”
“Ha ha, very funny.”
The click of the blinker surprised me. We didn’t need to turn into his driveway for another mile. When he pulled over the side of the road I began to look for emergency flashers, animals on the road, even a snowplow. Nothing.
“You’re a genius. Cici, you’ve just solved all of my problems. You can’t be home for the holidays, and I need a girlfriend. Will you be mine just until my parents leave? I’ll pay you whatever you want.”
He was serious. I couldn’t even blame it on alcohol. We drank our wine hours ago. “Are you insane?”
“Maybe. I’m insanely intent on making sure my family has a good holiday. This will be our first one together in a few years. Please say yes. I really need you. I don’t know how to do this Christmas thing.”
I remember going to the pound one time and looking into the eyes of the cutest puppy. I swear it was pleading with me to save it from its uncertain future. Of course, I adopted the little, naked mole rat, a Chihuahua named Lucky. The little bastard bit me every day for a week before I sent him to a no-kill shelter.
“I’m not a girlfriend for hire. Girlfriend implies a lot. There is a certain behavior expected when two people are in a relationship, even if it’s a fake one. Besides, why would you want to lie to your parents?”
Oh no, this is where I get into trouble. When the chin drops to the chest, the shoulders slump, and I can see the sparkle of hope dim in his eyes, I’m a goner. I’m not good at saying no. It’s what got me into trouble the last time.
“I’m not trying to lie to my parents. I’m trying to please them. Becca was going to be in town for Christmas. I don’t know how it came up. I was talking to my mom and she asked me about women. I said the woman I’m dating would be here when they arrived.”
Sitting in the car in thirty-something degree weather wasn’t the best place to talk about pretend relationships. If the police were to come, they’d probably think we were two teenagers making out with the amount of condensation on the windows.
“She’s not here, and they’re going to have to deal with it.” I yanked my shirtsleeve down so it covered my hand and wiped at the clouded glass. I was feeling like the world was closing in on me. Stuck in the SUV with Elias was fine. Stuck in the SUV with Elias asking me to be his fake girlfriend was too much.
He leaned forward and hitched up the defroster. In a matter of seconds, the windows were clear, and we were moving toward his house again.
“I’m sorry I asked. It was a thought. A selfish one.” He reached forward and turned the defroster down. It was hard to talk or hear over the whir of the fan. “We get along, and I thought it would be a great arrangement for both of us. You could have used the income, and I could have used the help. You did such a great job on my house. I imagined you could figure a way to finesse my parents. They would have loved you. You’re exactly who they would have chosen for me.”
You’re exactly who they would have chosen for me. I didn’t expect to hear that. What was he saying? Does he like me or does he simply think I’m good girlfriend material . . . someone his parents would approve of but not necessarily him? Elias Cole is one confusing man. Sweet, but confusing.
“That’s very sweet, but it’s not going to help your case.” It made me wonder whom he chose for himself. Was he like me and became blind and stupid when it came to the opposite sex?
My ex was handsome and attentive. He’d dressed nice, smelled nice, and drove a nice car. Love had to be more than nice. I wasn’t going to settle for nice again. My version of nice sent me off to work while he stayed at the office and banged the second assistant. There’s nothing worse than finding your man with another woman. Now that woman lived in my house in Brentwood. She can have him. Sadly, she might end up just as hurt as me.
Elias wasn’t offering me a real relationship. His offer was an acting assignment. I may have acted impulsively when I said no. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to consider his offer. I did need the money, and his motives came from a good place.
We rounded the corner and pulled into the garage. I’d never entered the house from here. It was like seeing it for the very first time. The garage led into a massive entertainment room. Huge TVs hung from the wall in various locations; a pool table was off to the side. The focal point of the room was definitely the bar. It was large enough to seat eight, looked like it was hand carved, and appeared to be fully stocked.
“I’ll get the bags. Open a bottle of whatever wine you want to share.” He headed back to the garage.
What an incredible stock of wine. A connoisseur? I pulled out the Duck Horn Cabernet and dusted it off. The corkscrew sat on the counter like it was waiting for me. After pulling the cork, I set the bottle aside to let the wine breathe.
While Elias brought in the bags, I organized the gifts by recipient. It was a good way to see what he had for each person, and it allowed us to ensure one person didn’t end up with all red paper.
After Elias poured us a glass of wine, we sat in the center of the floor surrounded by gifts and paper.
“What movie are we watching? It was part of the agreement.” He fell back on the carpet and lay prone. If I weren’t so polite, I would have tickled the part of his stomach that peeked out below his shirt. The part that showed his happy trail dipping below his pants. Focus, Cici.
“Let’s see what’s on the tube.” He sat up and, to my disappointment, pulled his shirt down. Too bad. He clicked through the stations with rapid-fire reflexes. The pictures passed so fast I couldn’t process anything.
“Slow down.” He stopped pressing buttons when The Grinch Who Stole Christmas came on. Perfect. “I love this show. I always dreamed of being a Who from Whoville. I made my mom call me Chloe Lou Who for an entire Christmas break.”
“All right, Chloe Lou Who, where do we start?” He gave me a smile that had the perfect mixture of mischief and sensuality. It was almost too hard to ignore. But I did.
“Mom’s first, then we’ll move down the line.” The rectangular box holding the scarf would be easy. We would move on to the tougher stuff later.
He caught on right away. I’m not sure he needed me to wrap the gifts. However, I got the distinct impression he didn’t want to be alone. His family was arriving tomorrow, and maybe he needed reassurance everything would be fine. It had, after all, been years since they’d celebrated together.
Chapter 5
“Nice, huh?” He held up the perfectly wrapped box for me to see.
“Yes, good job.” I tossed him the box that contained the lambskin gloves for his sister. I started on his father’s box of feather bugs. I never understood the thrill people got from fishing. They came with that slimy stuff all over their bodies for a reason. Fish were the greased pigs of the water.
“Tell me more about yourself. What do you do for fun?” He turned the paper around and pulled too tight. Rrrrip. The corner of the package tore while he attempted to get a wrinkle out. “Damn, I messed this one up. I told you I shouldn’t wrap.”
I handed him a new sheet from the pile and told him to begin again. He wasn’t getting out of wrapping presents.
He turned to me with his sad face again. Oh, even the man’s pout was sexy. Nice try, Elia
s. Nice try.
“I like to hike. Not mountain hike, but nature hike. I’m a good swimmer, having grown up by the beach, and I love books in a way that can’t be healthy.” I wasn’t that interesting. Maybe that’s why I was thirty and still single.
“Explain.” He placed a bow on the corner of his perfectly wrapped box. I was impressed when he crisscrossed two candy canes and taped them in place. His eyes kept glancing at the TV where the Whos were decorating the tree in Whoville.
“I’m trying to get through Time Magazine’s 100 all-time best novels. I’m on number eleven. I started last year. I figure I’ll read one a month from the list. Add that to my one or two a week from my Kindle collection, and you can see I’m addicted to words.”
“Reading is a worthwhile hobby.” He reached for the next present, the sweater for his father. “Do you prefer the Kindle?” He grabbed the green-foiled paper and went to work.
“Unless I’m collecting hardbacks like the top 100, then yes, I prefer my digital reader.” Currently, I was reading Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series. I’d never get enough of Reyes Farrow and his unholy hotness. “Anyway, an e-reader is convenient. I can carry thousands of books with me everywhere, and it weighs less than a pound.”
“I can see the benefit. So, is that what you’ll be doing the next few days? Reading?”
The sad answer was yes, but at least I didn’t have a houseful of cats. It was Jax and me. “I’m sure I’ll talk to my family. As you already know I love Christmas movies, and there’s sure to be a marathon of them. Then there’s Macy’s parade.” We were moving through the presents quickly. Partnerships always made things go more smoothly, and we made a good team.
“I wish you would reconsider my offer.” He reached for my glass to top off my wine. I liked the way he saw to my needs. That was a nice trait in a man. He would make some girl very happy.
“Elias—”
“Cici, hear me out. You’re alone for the holidays, and I have too much family to handle. It’s just three of them, but they can wear me out. We don’t have to introduce you as my girlfriend. In fact, I won’t use the G-word once while they’re here. If they assume you are . . .” His shoulders rose in a so what fashion. “You can stay in the room next to mine. I’ll put them on the opposite side of the house.”
“Why is this so important to you? Please don’t tell me your mother is terminal.” God, don’t let him tell me someone in his family is dying.
Once he stopped laughing, he continued. “No one is dying. Well, my mother is dying for me to meet someone, fall in love, and give her grandbabies, but other than that, they’re all healthy.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“What can I say to make you change your mind?” He tilted his head like the sad puppies in those SPCA ads that made me cry.
I was a sucker for sad eyes.
I didn’t want to spend Christmas alone. Jax was cute, but how entertaining could a goldfish be? “Please. You could say please.” It took him a minute to digest my answer. I’m not sure he was certain he’d heard correctly. He continued to tilt his head like a confused puppy.
“Did you actually say yes?”
“Yes.”
He flew from the floor, pulled me into his strong arms, and twirled me in circles. The scene was straight out of a movie, only the hero had just proposed, and the heroine had said yes.
When his arms dropped to his sides I felt the loss. If anything, being his fake girlfriend should guarantee me a few more hugs, but he wouldn’t be expecting more than that. Would he?
“That’s amazing. Now we have to go to dinner and negotiate your salary. We have so many things to learn about each other. You can’t be my girl—I mean with me—and not know certain things.”
There were three additional gifts to wrap, and the bath salts hadn’t surfaced yet. He must have left them in the car.
“Where are the bath salts?” I gave the room a once-over, wondering if they’d been set elsewhere.
“I’ll wrap them later, along with the rest of these. We have to go. We have so much to do.” He pulled me toward the door. I barely had time to reach out and grab my coat and bag. He had me in the car so fast we could have produced a safety video on how to exit your house in seconds.
“Why the rush? Your parents come in tomorrow.”
“Yes, but early tomorrow so we need to be up and ready by eight. That gives us very little time to move your clothes and stuff to my house.”
“Why can’t we say I live in Aspen, and then I can stay at my apartment? I don’t like lying. I’m not a dishonest person.”
“You don’t have to lie. My mom isn’t going to ask you where you live. She’ll assume you stay with me. She’s a forward thinker.”
“Okay, tell me the things I need to know.” He began to tell me his life story as we drove down the mountain into town. By the time he pulled in front of The Jazz Cafe, I felt like I’d watched a movie on the biography channel. He played football in school and was an honor student. He went to Denver University, which is how he ended up in Colorado. He has a gnarly scar on his ankle from a bicycle accident. He doesn’t like lentils. He hates eating fish of any kind, which is ironic given his love for the sport.
He also had great taste in restaurants. He managed to choose two of my favorite locations in the same day. We were seated right away and both ordered burgers. His was something called a black and blue which sounded painful. Mine was a protein-packed black bean burger.
“Tell me about you.” He sipped on his soda.
“What exactly do you want to know? You already know my hobbies. I have a passion for interior design. I have a pet fish.” At the mention of Jax his nose turned. “You know what I drive, and that I was born and raised in California.”
“What size do you wear?” What the? Inquisitive minds want to know the weirdest stuff.
“Why?”
“Because my mom will want to get you something while we’re out, and she’ll ask me. Any man worth his weight knows everything about his woman.” He sat back self-assured and smug.
“I’m not your woman.” The server delivered our meals. Elias dug into his. Throughout the day he had eaten enough to feed a small country. I suppose it took a lot of calories to support those muscles. And, let’s be honest, I wasn’t complaining.
“You are for the next several days. Speaking of which, I intend to pay your hourly rate twenty-four hours a day. I won’t argue with you.”
That was twelve hundred dollars a day. A lot of money to pay for what he was getting in the bargain. A whole lot of nothing. “What are your expectations? I’ll be able to prepare better if I know what I’m up against.”
“Just be yourself. Enjoy my family and the house you decorated. We’ll go skiing, eat out a lot, and enjoy each other.”
I wasn’t going to argue with him. I needed the money, and he needed me. It seemed like a fair trade. “Sounds reasonable.” I wondered if there would be any kissing. I could go for some kissing. “How am I supposed to act around you? Am I totally in love with you, or are we still establishing the groundwork for our relationship?” I chewed the end of my fry until it was a nub between my fingers.
“How does totally in love look?” He licked the grease that spilled over his lip. Everything in my body shuddered. How could this man make me quake with a simple glimpse of his tongue?
“I could hang on your every word. I could sit at your feet and gaze longingly into your eyes. I could constantly whisper naughty things in your ear. My hands could seek you all day,” I purred. “You know, stuff like that.” It was funny to watch his face turn pink as I cooed my answers to him.
“I could go for the naughty whispers and touching. I’m not sure about the rest. Why don’t we strive for something in between?” He wiped his mouth and tossed his napkin on his plate. “Handholding and a peck on the cheek could make it seem real. We would still be at the I-want-to-please stage of our relationship.” Was that hard for him to say, given his girlfriend
had just left him? Unlike me, she wasn’t a people pleaser.
“Shouldn’t people be at that stage throughout the entire relationship? Relationships fail because people get lazy or greedy.” I’d barely eaten anything. I was too consumed with my new job to focus on food. “I’m sorry, but I heard some of your conversation with Becca. I wasn’t eavesdropping; I thought you’d hurt yourself, and I was coming to help.”
A pained expression crossed his face. “So you heard me talking about him?”
Feeling ashamed I had stayed long enough to have heard that much, I lowered my head in embarrassment and nodded. “I heard a little.” I heard it all, but what purpose did it serve to repeat it?
“Becca is a chef. She cooks for a family. A wealthy widower and his children. She informed me she was cooking up something extra on the side, and it turns out it wasn’t happening in the kitchen.” As he spoke he didn’t seem upset, and I wondered where the pained expression had come from.
“I’m sorry, Elias. You deserve more.” My hand slid across the table and reached for his. He folded my hand in his and nodded.
“You know what hurts the most? It’s not that she left me. We’d only been together for several months, but we’d only seen each other a handful of times. If I’m honest, it hurt my ego. She left me for an older man with three kids.”
“Idiot. She was obviously an idiot.” I liked the way he opened up to me. Not many men would admit to having an ego, much less a bruised one.
“I’m not sure she knows what she wants. It’s probably not anywhere near what I want, so the breakup was for the better.”
“What do you want, Elias?” What did a man like him want? Marriage? Children? Maybe he wanted none of those things, and Becca couldn’t see a future with him.
“Now that I’m financially secure, I want to settle down.” He looked around the restaurant and his sight lingered on the families. “I want a partner in life and a family of my own.” I hadn’t realized we were still holding hands until he let go of mine.
Cole For Christmas Page 5