Secret Santa

by Janelle Denison

  Cole shrugged. “I’m too busy these days to keep track.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Let me know when you figure it out.”

  Parker paused and assumed an expression of rueful sympathy that fooled no one. “Maybe this wife will be happier to have you around.”

  “We’ll see, won’t we?” Nothing, absolutely nothing about the cavalier smile on Cole’s face or the droll amusement in his eyes indicated that Parker Longrehn had scored a direct hit, but she felt Cole’s inner wince with some sixth sense she’d never known she possessed. Either that or maybe it was simply the wine on a near-empty stomach.

  She piped up in Cole’s defense. This Parker guy was grating on her last holiday nerve. “It’s definitely their loss. My parents adore him almost as much as I do.” She hoped her look approximated fawning adoration, something outside of her usual Cole Mitchell repertoire.

  Parker looked down his nose at her, as if that might intimidate her. “Do I know your parents?”

  “Not unless you’ve recently visited Yurgash, Indiana.” There you go. She’d just painted herself with the scarlet H to this Manhattanite—Hick.

  “I don’t think so. Listen, got to run. Say hi to Connie for me. Stay in touch.”

  “Later.”

  Parker left, trailing slime behind him. Good freaking riddance. What the hell had that just been all about? And who was Connie?

  “Yurgash, Indiana?” Cole raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Really. Heartland, USA.” And if he thought he was going to gloss over the weirdness of the last five minutes…She stared at him. Waiting. She reached across the table for a bite of his appetizer.

  He speared a piece of her calamari. “We were fraternity brothers.” He paused to eat.

  Fraternity brothers fit. And Parker was such an absolute…“ARU? And he was the president?”

  Cole sipped his wine. “ARU?”

  “Assholes R Us.”

  He laughed and adopted a hurt expression. “Anyone ever mentioned you’re fickle? A few minutes ago, you and your parents adored me, and now you’re signing me up for ARU.”

  Albeit unwillingly, she was amused and intrigued. “Okay, so it wasn’t ARU, but you just publicly claimed me as your girlfriend. Let’s hear what’s behind that, because there’s either a story here or some mental illness floating around. And you’re a lot of things—” annoying, sexy, nepotistic, to name a few right off the top of her head “—but you don’t strike me as mental. I’m putting my dollar on the story.”

  She bit into the crusty Italian bread topped with fresh tomatoes, garlic, herbs and slivers of Parmesan cheese. Delicious. The perfect ratio of basil to oregano.

  “Parker and I were fraternity brothers. He came home with me one weekend. My sister Connie is three years younger than me.” Ah, so that explained Connie. His sister. Not some former lover. “Parker seduced Connie’s best friend, Bethany. When Bethany turned up pregnant, Parker turned his back on her.” Anger darkened his eyes. “I know it happens, but it broke Bethany’s heart. Her parents had to take the bastard to court to prove, thanks to DNA testing, he was the father. So Bethany has a seven-year-old and Parker has his day-trader career. He’s trouble you don’t need.”

  There was something so…well, sweet and downright gallant about him trying to protect her from Parker that she found herself at a loss for words. And God knows that didn’t happen often. “Uh, well, I can take care of myself, but thanks anyway. He was easy to spot with that trail of slime he left behind him.”

  “I wasn’t taking any chances. I was responsible for what happened to Bethany because I brought him home with me.”

  It was a disconcerting glimpse into his character. Parker was a creep and Bethany’d made a mistake, but even Tatiana couldn’t fault Cole. And she never had any problem faulting Cole. “Did you encourage her to sleep with him? Did you throw a wild party and invite her? Did you ply her with alcohol?”

  He shook his head, but the look in his eyes didn’t change. “No. But he showed up with me. I was the reason he crossed her path. So now I don’t take any chances.”

  This just sucked. Why couldn’t it have been some maligned ex-girlfriend who’d recognized him and dropped by to vilify him? But no. Now not only did she know he wasn’t vacuous but she had to discover he possessed a damn conscience.

  “Why not just tell him to drop dead and get lost?”

  Cole offered his familiar grin. “Why give him the satisfaction of knowing he has any impact on my life?”

  Hmm. She’d never thought of it from that angle. Yet another insight into Cole Mitchell’s gray matter. “Well, thanks for protecting me from the big, bad…slug.”

  Cole laughed and it did funny things to her insides. “Parker wouldn’t mind being called a big, bad wolf. I think he likes to think of himself that way. But a big, bad slug? You know how to wound a man, Tempest.” Now why in the world would that make her feel all fluttery and flushed? “And thanks for jumping in there and backing me up.”

  Rather an odd position to find herself in, having his back as opposed to stabbing it. “Don’t get used to it.”

  “Certainly not,” he drawled. “It must have been almost painful for you to look at me as if you—” he adopted a horrified expression “—liked me.”

  “It was a stretch, but I managed.” She pretended to preen. “Rather well, if I do say so myself.”

  “You were brilliant, darling. You almost had me convinced you—what was it?—oh, yeah, adored me. I could get used to being adored.”

  “I wouldn’t if I were you. I’m sure it would be all too short-lived.” God help her, but she was enjoying herself. “Maybe if this job doesn’t work out for me I might consider a career in acting. That wasn’t a bad stab at improv considering I didn’t get what was going on. Especially at the end.”

  The waiter appeared and cleared their appetizers and refilled the water glasses. Mediocre calamari, excellent bruschetta and flawless service so far.

  She looked pointedly at Cole. “So what was that all about at the end?”

  “Let’s just say holidays were awkward when we were kids. The new steps weren’t thrilled to have the leftovers from the first marriage show up on the doorstep. Once we were old enough to make our own choices, Connie and I started doing our own holiday thing, just the two of us. Now she has a husband and a munchkin and I get together with them.”

  That knocked her notion of him as a pampered daddy’s boy for a loop. She might not be spending Christmas Day in the house she grew up in Yurgash, but it’d still be there whenever she was ready for a trip home. A hint of vulnerability lurked beneath Cole’s droll pronouncement, which he’d probably deny with his last breath.

  The waiter served their entrées. Pork medallions for Cole and roasted chicken for her.

  “What about you?” he asked. “Are you gearing up for a big holiday?”

  “It’ll be quiet.” She gave him the brief overview of her parents’ trip and Grandma Rumasky’s impending nuptials.

  “They sound like nice people.”

  “They are.” Dammit. Now she felt guilty because he’d obviously been shortchanged in the parental department while she’d grown up with great parents.

  “No brothers or sisters?”

  “Nope. I’m a lonely only,” she quipped.

  “It’s just as well. I don’t think the world could handle another you running around.” His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes.

  Without thinking, she stuck her tongue out at him. Like the dimming of theater lights signaling the beginning of the next act, the mood shifted, intensified. The look in his eyes sent a shiver through her. “So are you?”

  Breathing? Yes. A woman? Definitely. Capable of standing with him looking at her that way? Not so sure. This was different from his earlier flirtatiousness in her office. This was quiet and intense…and all the more powerful. “Am I what?”

  “Lonely?”

  She could easily blow him off, but considering he’d just had
one of his own vulnerabilities exposed by Parker the Slug, she answered him truthfully. “Sometimes I wish I’d had a sister. But then I see how many siblings despise one another and I think it’s just a crapshoot.”

  “I wasn’t talking about a brother or sister.”

  Oh. Her parents had given her a firm foundation. She knew the value of a dollar, hard work and herself. Even though sometimes she longed for something more, it wasn’t loneliness. “No. I’m not. I’m content with my own company.”

  Her mind shouted for her to leave it there, but her mouth didn’t seem inclined to cooperate. She plowed forward even though she really shouldn’t ask. She knew too much already. “What about you? Are you lonely?”

  “I’ve known a moment or two.” A quiet truth underscored his offhandedness.

  This was turning into a true disaster. Not only was she horribly aware of how devastatingly sexy Cole Mitchell was, but now she’d discovered he was a nice guy, as well.

  4

  “H OLA .” ELLE POPPED HER blond head around the door frame. “Ten minutes. Break room. Time to spread more holiday cheer.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be there,” Cole said.“And Melvin wanted me to check with you on how dinner went last night,” she said.

  Translation: when was he going to have his preliminary notes together on the first restaurant? “It went well. I’m working on it now.”

  “I won’t hold you up, then. See you in ten.”

  “Sure.”

  Elle wasn’t holding him up, he was holding himself up. He couldn’t seem to focus…well, at least not on what he was supposed to focus on.

  He looked from the blinking cursor on his computer screen to outside his window. The odd snowflake drifted past on the other side of the glass. He’d always thought that was the strangest thing. Where were all the other snowflakes when one lone flake journeyed down? Even though no two in the universe were alike, weren’t they supposed to stick together?

  He shook his head. Last night had totally messed with his head. Parker Longrehn could drop off the face of the Earth and Cole would consider it good riddance. No, what was screwing with his mind about Parker wasn’t so much encountering him, although he would’ve gladly skipped that happy experience. No, it was Cole’s reaction to the way Parker had looked at Tatiana. True, he would warn Parker off any decent human being, but when Parker had looked at Tatiana as if she was his for the picking, possessiveness had gripped Cole and squeezed. He, who never felt possessive about anyone, except maybe his sister, because possessiveness required some degree of attachment. And Cole didn’t do attachments.

  Nope, that had been one of those early childhood lessons learned the hard way that had stuck with him. You let people know something mattered and they held it against you. If you sought approval, it hurt like the devil when it was deliberately withheld. If you became attached to someone and the person wasn’t attached in return, that pretty much sucked, as well.

  He’d adopted a life policy of getting along with everyone and caring about nobody, not giving a crap what they thought of him one way or another. It had worked out well for the most part.

  His claim to Tatiana had been as responsive and instinctive as an involuntary muscle. Next thing, he’d be looking for a bush to pee on. But Parker had given her that look, and a single word had blazed through Cole’s brain: mine.

  There was no need to wig out about it. Tatiana was amusing, interesting. He enjoyed matching wits and trading barbs. And there was an undeniable attraction that simmered between the two of them. He wasn’t being egotistical or weird—a sexual energy pulsed between the two of them whether she was ready to admit it or not.

  Not that it was anything to worry about. His life policy was still strictly in place. Things were simply more interesting with Madame Snark on the scene.

  “ADMIT IT. THE SECRET Santa thing was fun today, wasn’t it?” Elle said from the adjacent treadmill in the workout room on the third floor of the Jackman Butler Building that housed Connoisseur on three of its fifty-six floors.

  Sweat dampened Tatiana’s T-shirt and trickled down her neck. “It was definitely more fun than this,” Tatiana said. Some people loved to exercise for the sake of exercising. Uh…she wasn’t one of them. She dutifully showed up at the workout center five days a week because otherwise she’d blimp up even more. Yep, it was the horror of her butt taking on the proportions of Staten Island rather than a love of the treadmill that brought her here.“Exercise is your friend.” So sayeth the sylph in size-two spandex running like the Energizer bunny stuck in “fast” mode.

  “I wouldn’t go that far. How about it keeps food from becoming my mortal enemy,” Tatiana said with a grin. “And, yes, I was a scrooge at first, but the gift-exchange thing is fun.” She’d been irritated to get Cole Mitchell, but now she was kind of getting into it. “I don’t know how things are at your house, there haven’t been many Christmas surprises at our place the last few years. We exchange a list and then pick something on that list. So this is kind of cool.”

  “Cole definitely had the best gift yesterday,” Elle said and Tatiana managed not to preen. “But you won the Best Present award today.” Elle laughed, which always came out as something of a snort. It was a little shocking, considering Elle appeared so elegant and her laugh was anything but an elegant noise. “You should’ve seen your face when you opened the strawberry-and-champagne massage oil.”

  Tatiana grabbed her water bottle from the holder and took a swig without breaking stride. Two miles on the treadmill and she was sweating like a pig. She’d never managed that glistening business. She sweated and it wasn’t pretty. She plonked the water bottle back in the space above the treadmill’s digital readout.

  “It certainly wasn’t what I was expecting.” And the massage oil had definitely captured her imagination. Along with the tongue-in-cheek typed note attached to the bottle. To ensure your good taste.

  “Hey, it’s the unexpected stuff that’s the best,” Elle said. “You’ll have to let me know when you’ve tried it. I might pick some up for me and Teddy.”

  Elle and her fiancé hadn’t already been there and done that? Surprising. Elle spilled all kinds of details about herself and Teddy, the wonder hottie in an accountant’s guise. “It won’t be anytime soon. Flavored oil strikes me as a two-party event, and right now there’s no one on my invitation list.”

  The frequent travel that came with her job had been the death of her last relationship. Hel-lo. What had Max expected? Connoisseur was a travel magazine that catered to food aficionados, travel being a definitive word. She’d marked Max off the list several months ago and she’d had neither the time nor the inclination to replace him.

  And just because Cole Broad-Shoulders Mitchell came to mind now didn’t mean she wanted to taste-test with him. Maybe she’d had the brief, passing thought of his square, very masculine hands—so shoot her that she’d noticed he had rather sexy hands—smoothing the fragranced oil over her shoulders, along her back and to various and sundry points of interest. Heat flashed through her that had nothing to do with her treadmill workout.

  She most definitely didn’t have a thing for him. It was just one of those situations where he was front and center, unfortunately, in her world, since she had to buy gifts for him and meet him for dinner and work on those stinking articles with him. And maybe he had a way of looking at her that made her think of…well, things best not thought of. Nope, it was simply a case of him being the most prominent male in her life right now that had her playing him into the love-me-lick-me scenario in her head. And how sad was that?

  “Want to trade gifts?” Elle offered.

  Tatiana’s treadmill slowed down and then stopped. Two and a half miles. “Your box of biscotti for my flavored massage oil?” She pretended to consider it. “Uh…no. The massage oil should keep for a while until I find someone willing to slather it on and nibble it off.”

  Elle laughed. She’d hardly broken a sweat. “That’s what I thought you’d say, but i
t was worth a try. Aren’t you dying to know who your Secret Santa is and what they have in mind next? Massage oil today…what about tomorrow?”

  Tatiana spritzed the treadmill with disinfectant and wiped it off for the next victim. She blotted sweat from her face and neck.

  “I don’t know. I’m curious, but it could be anyone. Except Melvin, of course. I don’t think—jiggy meds or not—he’d give me flavored massage oil. Maybe somebody meant it as a joke.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. What if it wasn’t? What if your Secret Santa is actually a secret admirer?” Elle possessed a dramatic streak.

  “I think my Secret Santa is someone with a sense of humor,” Tatiana said.

  “There were definitely more funny gifts today. Melvin’s was a riot, but I thought Cole’s was a little mean.”

  “I thought they were both funny and apropos.” She kept her voice and expression nonchalant. Elle was fishing. Someone had given Melvin a weekly pill organizer with three daily slots, like the one Grandma Rumasky used to organize her meds. Given that Melvin’s medications were public fodder, everyone, including Melvin, had found it hilarious.

  She’d found the silver-plated spoon at the second store she’d checked. Once again the group, Cole included, had laughed. She didn’t feel a bit guilty. Well, maybe just a hair. But it had been funny and it was a much-needed reminder to herself that no matter how charming and entertaining a dinner companion he was, he’d still slid into his job without paying his dues. If he wanted to play the family-influence card to get his job, then he’d have to play with the whole deck.

  5

  HALF A WEEK LATER, ON Wednesday evening, they had two meals down and two to go. Cole watched candlelight flicker across the porcelain planes of Tatiana’s face. Tonight it was a seafood restaurant that served the theater district. Last night had been a new barbecue eatery in Harlem, around the corner from Clinton’s One Hundred and Twenty-Fifth Street law offices.