She spun around and deposited a small square packet on the nightstand. Her wicked grin made all sorts of carnal promises. “Back in the day I was a Girl Scout. I believe in being prepared.”
He hoped she’d brought more than one rubber. “I should rip those panties off you.” The ferocity in his voice startled him.
“Go right ahead. I bought a couple more pairs for this trip. I had a feeling you’d get under my skin.”
He let out a growl, yanked off her panties, and tossed them into the corner.
She giggled until he captured her lips again.
All of their differences would be revealed in the light of day. If they only had one night, he’d make it count.
Chapter 5
Zara could hardly believe the man in her bed was the Aaron she knew and despised. Every trace of the all-work-no-play finance guy was gone.
He’d removed her bikini briefs quickly and took his time taking off her top. He devoured her naked body with his gaze before his hands and mouth joined the party.
She imagined the gears turning in that artist brain of his. Breaking down the pencil strokes and the shading needed to capture her image. Never in her life had she felt so feminine, beautiful, and desired.
His thumbs teased her nipples, and he kissed a trail from her collarbone to her breasts. At the office he’d always been clean shaven, but his cheeks and chin were rough with the slightest scratch of scruff, adding a delicious roughness.
His hands moved lower, and he explored what the Cubs panties had hidden.
“Strip,” she demanded. While she loved the feel of his fingers, she wanted him deep inside her. “I need to make sure you’re not hiding any White Sox swag.”
“Yes, ma’am.” The slightest hint of a Southern drawl tinged his words. He shrugged out of his soft gray cotton boxers and t-shirt. His lanky frame made her feel petite even though she was on the tall side for a woman.
She gaped at his toned torso and the happy trail that led to his erection.
The guy was a work of art in his own right. If only she possessed the talent to sketch his likeness. The best she could do was brainstorm a million scenarios in which he was a video game hero.
She stroked his silky hardness, and he let out a moan.
Usually, she let the man take the lead in bed, but he’d have his turn another time. All of her forbidden fantasies of cracking the hard shell he kept around his heart demanded she be the aggressor.
Marveling at how different he seemed with his guard down, she straddled him. She caressed his jaw line and over the worry crinkles on his forehead before tracing his lips.
He reached for her breasts, and tenderness shifted to raw lust.
She leaned down to kiss him and ran her hands over every inch of him within reach.
Panting, she ripped open the packet, slid the condom over his length, and eased his cock inside her.
Never breaking eye contract, she moved her hips to draw him in and out, and he thrust to meet her.
She moved off him and onto her back. Taking the cue, he moved on top. The new position allowed him to drive deeper and brought her to a soul shaking orgasm.
Unable to stop touching him, she caressed his back, his chest, and his fine ass. Goosebumps broke out across his skin and his hips bucked. His release brought her another orgasm.
“You must really love Yolanda to get a tattoo of her on your hip.” He chuckled as he gathered her to him, becoming the big spoon to her little one.
“She’s definitely my spirit animal. Don’t tell Cheryl.”
“It will be our secret,” he said.
In Aaron’s embrace, she drifted off to sleep.
She awoke alone, shivering. All the warmth Aaron had brought was gone. Coldness seemed to crawl inside her until she noticed the drawing propped on the nightstand. The sketch of Licorice made the warm, fuzzy feeling from the previous night return.
She clutched the picture to her chest and rewound the mental tape of their love making. One night with Aaron meant more to her than countless hookups with Warren. They were sworn enemies at work, but she’d developed deep feelings for the guy he was outside of the office. The kind of feelings that could turn into love.
Together, she and Aaron had the potential to be an unstoppable team.
She dressed and headed downstairs. Cheryl and Aaron were sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee. If her boss wasn’t there, she’d be tempted to drag Aaron under the cheesy plastic mistletoe and kiss the breath out of him. She walked over to him and touched his shoulder.
He stiffened.
She stepped away to pour herself a cup of coffee and searched for some sign of the tenderness from the night before, but she found none. He didn’t have to declare his undying love, but she needed an acknowledgement that she hadn’t imagined the sex.
She hoped he hadn’t taken a sleeping pill, sleepwalked to her loft, and didn’t remember having his wicked way with her. Sleepwalking she could buy, even sleep-shopping and sleep-eating, but not sleep-screwing. He had to remember what happened.
Unable to initiate the conversation in front of Cheryl, she decided to take a shower. She emerged to find Aaron gone.
“He’s up at the main lodge, working out the bill.” Cheryl tapped the folder. “I think it best for us to cut the trip short.”
“But what about my pitch?”
“I looked though the project summaries you prepared.” Cheryl nodded at Zara’s folder. “We’ve agreed to move forward with six of the twelve projects. Wondrous Worlds is on hold pending an investigation to determine how much you leaked about the game to the media.”
Zara’s heart pounded. “What do you mean?”
Cheryl tapped her computer and brought up images of Zara wearing her Yolanda cosplay costume at Comicon.
Zara’s vision went red.
Aaron must have ratted her out to Cheryl. The thought of him hooking up with her to sample the goods before she got fired made the coffee she drank swirl around in her stomach. She scoured her memories trying to piece together a picture to get a sense of Aaron’s feelings for her. Each of his actions seemed to contradict the last. She couldn’t decipher his mixed messages. With his strange behavior, she had no choice but to assume the worst.
“Yolanda the Warrior Mage is property of Windy City Gaming,” Cheryl said. “Creating merchandise and leaking information about the character at a public event violates company policy.”
“I didn’t leak anything, and I didn’t sell any merchandise. Last year, the whole marketing team dressed up as cyborgs for Comicon in honor of the Future Folly game, which was part of the end of the year launch.”
“That was different. They were generic cyborgs, not specific characters. You dressed as Yolanda. She’s one of the key characters.”
“Only a couple of people asked who I was supposed to be and I never said anything about the video game.” Zara’s voice broke. “The guys in the cyborg costumes wore hats with the game logo.”
“I authorized the hats.”
“I’m sorry. I’d never knowingly violate company policy.” Zara went cold thinking of how Cheryl would react if she knew about the Yolanda tattoo.
“That is no excuse. Get your things. There’s a car waiting outside to drive you home. You can stop by the office on the day after Christmas to pack your belongings and sign the severance paperwork.”
Zara climbed the ladder to her loft and switched out her underwear for one of the Cubs pairs. She shoved all of her belongings into her bag. After careful consideration, she added the drawing of Licorice. If nothing else, she wanted the picture as a consolation prize. A reminder of her mistakes and Aaron’s betrayal.
Outside, the freezing temperature made her exhalations visible. She loaded her luggage and climbed into the back seat of the warm car.
The driver asked for her address, but otherwise left her alone with her thoughts on the ride to Chicago. She wasn’t going to wait until the New Year to make resolutions. She’d give up be
traying bastards along with sweets.
Willy Wonka could keep his candy. Heck, he could shove it up his tight ass.
Chapter 6
When Aaron returned, the cabin had a different feel.
Cheryl sat on the couch with a pile of torn up paper on the cushion beside her and a glass of wine in her hand. “You never drew me once when we were a couple.”
Aaron recognized the sketch he’d done of Zara from one of the bigger paper pieces. “Where is she?”
“On her way home.”
Panic shot through him. “Why? What happened?” He hadn’t been a ball of joy in the morning, but he hadn’t done anything to warrant her leaving.
His mouth went dry. Maybe he wasn’t the one who caused her to flee.
“I fired her.” Cheryl scooped up the tiny pieces of paper and tossed them in the air. “Did you really think I was going to keep someone like her around?”
His legs went weak. With his head in his hands, he slumped on the couch and let the emptiness consume him.
Zara was a drug. She brought him bliss, and like a junkie, he craved another fix. Her quirkiness and spontaneity made him feel alive.
“Cut the broken-hearted boyfriend routine. I’m within my rights.” She flipped open her computer and brought up images of Zara dressed in tiny swatches of brown fur, boots, and a hooded cape.
“Are those the photos from Comicon?”
“You knew about her dressing as Yolanda?” Cheryl rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Employees aren’t allowed to parade around as characters in games under development. She’s lucky I didn’t sue her perky ass.”
“Come on, Cheryl. You’ve always encouraged employees to show their enthusiasm for the games.”
“Not when they look like her,” she said. “I don’t want any competition for your affection once we get back together.”
He scooted closer and took her hand. “We were a terrible couple. What’s really going on?”
“Only that the company is going down in flames. I wasted years and a boatload of money on this stupid business. If that weren’t bad enough, I look like a demented pumpkin.”
He hated talking about feelings, but he needed to be clear. “The company will survive, and so will you. Us? Not so much. Calling it quits was a mutual decision. Do you really want me? Or is it the idea of me you want?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
“Employees have released information about products in development plenty of times before, and they weren’t fired. Didn’t someone on the marketing team go rogue and create social media accounts for all the Future Folly characters a year before the game was released? Zara is an excellent project manager. In order to succeed, we need her.”
“You need her.”
“If you keep her and Wondrous Worlds on board, I promise not to pursue a relationship with her. Or I’ll quit if that’s what you prefer.”
“I always hated your martyr complex. Getting back together isn’t on the table?”
“Do you honestly want to go back to the way it was when we dated?”
“I guess not, but it sucks to be single around the holidays and the dog has never been the same since you left. He sits in front of the door and whines all the damned time.”
He couldn’t believe that she wanted to get back together in order to pep up the poodle.
“Maybe his attitude would improve if you stopped dying him pink.”
“He’s not pink right now.”
Aaron raised his eyebrows.
“Okay, he’s sporting a violet tint, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m orange.”
He chuckled. “I think you should embrace your orangeness until the color fades.”
“I don’t know about that. Stop by sometime to see Tiny. That dog misses you more than I do. This orange shit better come off.” She rubbed at her arm.
“I’ve missed him too. I’ll bring him a Christmas stocking filled with toys and treats.”
“He’ll love that. With all the instability with the company, I guess I wanted someone to be my anchor in the storm. Oh for fuck’s sake, I’ve turned into a damned greeting card.” She sighed. “Okay. I won’t fire her. You can date her if you want, but you’d better set me up with some of your single friends.”
“We can’t just undo the firing and expect her to stay. This is one of those times when we need to go big.”
“What do you have in mind?”
Together they came up with a plan to win Zara back.
“That might entice her to stick with the company,” Aaron said, “but if she thinks I had anything to do with her getting fired, she’ll never trust me again.”
“She wouldn’t screw around with your pens and sticky notes if she didn’t have a thing for you. I only allowed her to join the retreat in order to see if you reciprocated her feelings.”
“You knew about her pranks?”
“Everyone knows. Marketing is taking bets on what she’ll do next. Odds are good that paperclips are coming up on her hit list.”
“If she gives me a second chance, she can have at it with all my office supplies.”
Cheryl rose, yanked down the plastic mistletoe, and handed it to him. “Let’s put this crazy plan of yours into motion.”
Chapter 7
Other than the receptionist, Zara was the only person to brave the slushy streets and make it into the office. As she packed her belongings, she couldn’t stop thinking about Aaron and trying to decipher his feelings from his actions. Since she’d returned from Wisconsin, some of her anger had faded, leaving a fog of confusion in its wake.
She took a bite of a chocolate chip scone. Maybe she could stomach pumpkin by next fall. Every damned thing reminded her of him.
Music from the Wondrous World’s soundtrack broke the quiet.
The song made her heart ache.
The clicking of Cheryl’s heels on the tile floor set her teeth on edge.
Zara braced herself for the owner to gloat or to order security to pat her down to make sure she didn’t abscond with any company property. After all, they considered her a criminal.
“I’m sorry for firing you.” Cheryl leaned against Zara’s desk. “Legal has done a thorough review of company policy and has determined that your actions are not grounds for termination. I hope you’ll stay with Windy City Gaming and continue to lead the Wondrous World’s project."
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Aaron suggested having the entire marketing team dress up as Oompa Loompas to serenade you. Just say the word and I’ll make it happen. I draw the line at dressing up myself. I’m the boss after all.” Cheryl put her hands on her hips. “Whether you decide to stay with the company or not, give Aaron another shot. He can be a pain in the ass, but he’s a good person.” She headed to her office and closed the door.
Aaron slouched into the room dressed in a chainmail vest, black pants, and leather boots.
Zara’s breath caught in her throat.
He held the wand of wishes, with its swirl of stars.
“Thaddeus the bold and brazen wizard,” she whispered. The primary hero of the Wondrous Worlds game in the flesh. The yang to Yolanda’s yin.
He fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable to be decked out in a costume.
The receptionist crept over, her eyes wide, to witness the spectacle.
He bopped Zara lightly on the head with the wand. “My wish is to escort you to the office New Year’s party.”
“Don’t you hate that party because of the pressure to kiss someone?”
He reached into a pocket and withdrew the fake mistletoe from the cabin. “You’re the only person I wish to kiss.”
“Stop with the freaking mixed messages already. One minute you’re into me, and the next you’re reporting me. I’m sure all that talk about getting a cat was a bunch of bullshit.”
“I didn’t tell Cheryl about your Comicon costume,” he said. “A dog is probably the best bet, but I’m open to getting a cat. Maybe we can go
together to pick out my pet. My New Year’s resolution is to be the best boyfriend for you I can be.”
“You don’t believe in resolutions. You said that they never last for more than a week. You’re making my head spin.” She sucked in a breath. “We’d be a disaster together. Virgos and Geminis aren’t compatible.”
“You and I might have to work harder than other couples, but it will be worth the extra effort. Will you start the new year as my girlfriend?”
Zara grabbed the mistletoe from him, held the fake plant above her head, and closed her eyes.
Aaron’s kiss was every bit as yummy as she remembered.
The office New Year’s Eve party was in full swing. Waiters passed out glasses of sparkling wine, and Cheryl commanded a crowd of marketing guys on the dance floor.
Zara plucked an orange hair off Aaron’s suit coat. “I can’t believe you chose a cat.”
“The moment I saw Pumpkin Spice, I knew she was purrrrfect.”
Every day since he’d dressed as her hero, Aaron had left a little sketch for her to find. The guy was trying to make things work by clearly communicating his feelings.
Vowing to keep better track of her keys, she’d retrieved the spare from Warren. She considered giving it to Aaron, but she didn’t want an excuse to slip back into bad habits. She’d even retired her Cubs undies.
The New Year’s count down started, and partygoers shouted along with the television.
Aaron wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
“I hope our kiss isn’t disappointing,” she said.
“All of your kisses are earth shattering.”
The countdown reached one. Auld Lang Syne played, but Zara barely noticed. She was consumed by his lips and his subtle cologne.
“That kiss shattered the whole damned galaxy,” he said. “Let’s get out of here. I want to start the year off right by making love to my stunning girlfriend. There’s something to be said for being perfectly mismatched. Our relationship will never be boring. We go together like Oompa Loompas and mistletoe.”
A Merrily Matched Christmas Page 22