12 Gifts for Christmas

by Various

  Ryder put an end to her thoughts as they stepped off the elevator and directly into his penthouse apartment, and once again, Chloe gave herself up to his embrace and the burning attraction between them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE party was in full swing when Chloe showed up with Ryder for the annual Davenport family gathering at her parents’ house in suburban Westchester. The sounds of noisy laughter and people speaking over one another could be heard reverberating throughout the first floor of the house as they stepped inside the front door.

  The Davenports’ postholiday tradition had started years before when Chloe’s parents had realized there was no way to gather together all, or even most, of their extended family and friends during the hectic December holiday season. It had taken on added significance when Chloe’s sister, Maxine, had gotten married and begun alternating her holidays between the Davenports and her in-laws. The January gathering had become an opportunity for Chloe’s parents to see the grandkids.

  “Chloe, you’re finally here!”

  Chloe nearly groaned as her sister moved toward her, holding eighteen-month-old Emma. Somehow, Maxine always managed to invest her comments with an element of reproach.

  Chloe sighed over the fact that she and Ryder had barely had a chance to shed their coats and already she was faced with what was bound to be one of the more challenging introductions of the afternoon.

  Maxine leaned forward and air-kissed her, and Chloe dutifully reciprocated. Chloe knew that, in her sister’s opinion, there was no use ruining a perfectly made-up face with greetings that were bound to be rouge-effacing.

  As Maxine moved back, she pulled Emma’s hand from the collar of Chloe’s wool sweater. “No-no-no!” she said in a singsong voice to her daughter even as her eyes wandered to Ryder, open curiosity evident on her face.

  With resignation, Chloe realized there was no putting off the inevitable any longer. She adored her niece and four-year-old nephew, Andrew, but she had trouble dealing with her perfectly polished sister and brother-in-law.

  “Maxine, you remember Ryder McPhee, don’t you?”

  “Ryder, of course!” Her sister extended her hand. “No wonder you looked so familiar! It’s wonderful to see you again. How long has it been?”

  Chloe watched as Ryder took the proffered hand. “Since high school, I’d say. You haven’t changed a bit, Maxine.”

  Was it just her imagination, Chloe wondered, or was there a double edge to Ryder’s words? She was distracted from considering the answer to that question by the appearance of her brother-in-law, Gavin.

  Spotting her husband, Maxine held out the baby in her arms and said, “Darling, could you take her, please?”

  After Gavin had taken Emma in his arms, Chloe introduced Ryder to him and some casual chitchat ensued. Eventually, however, Chloe caught Maxine eyeing her and Ryder speculatively.

  “So,” Maxine asked, “did you two arrive together?”

  Chloe felt Ryder slide an arm over her shoulders. “Yes. Let me know if anyone needs me to move my car—it’s the black Jag at the end of the driveway.”

  Chloe could almost see her sister’s mind churning as she seemed to take in Ryder’s attire, from his custom-made jacket to his Tod’s shoes. If anything, Maxine was more adept than she was at spotting the telltale signs of discreet wealth, though her sister wasn’t the one who worked for a fashion magazine.

  Chloe supposed, however, that being a full-time housewife in an upscale suburb was credential enough.

  Maxine glanced from her to Ryder, a cute little frown marring her otherwise smooth brow. “It’s so rare Chloe brings a date to these events. I hope it’s not because she’s embarrassed by her family!”

  Gavin chuckled. “Honey, I’m sure that’s not the case.”

  Before Chloe could reply, Maxine leaned toward her and said in a stage whisper, “It’s so cute you brought one of our old high school classmates. I’d never have thought of going that route. Good thinking!”

  Gavin spoke up. “So what are you doing these days, Ryder?”

  Chloe thought it was the type of question her brother-in-law might ask a newcomer while playing a round of golf at his exclusive country club.

  Ryder’s hand tightened on her shoulder as he directed a level look at the shorter man. “You could say I’ve been an investment manager since I sold some of my stock in Gizmo during the internet boom.”

  Chloe watched as her brother-in-law’s eyebrows moved up, and even Maxine looked impressed. Heck, she herself was impressed. Gizmo was one of the more successful internet companies to date. Even Chloe had heard of it. When stock had been sold to the public a few years ago, the company’s founders and executives had become instant multimillionaires.

  She glanced up at Ryder. He’d remained so vague about his career. Why hadn’t he told her about Gizmo? The company was only one of the most successful information retrieval portals around! If Ryder had sold his stock in the company after it had gone public, then his net worth was certainly in the tens of millions of dollars!

  No wonder he called himself an investment manager—investing all his money must be a full-time job!

  When Maxine and Gavin had moved off—ostensibly in Maxine’s case to deal with a fussy Emma—Chloe confronted Ryder. “Why didn’t you tell me you were involved with Gizmo? Were you one of the founders?”

  Ryder shrugged. “A cofounder. I went in with a buddy from business school.” He nodded in the general direction in which her sister and brother-in-law had just departed. “Why didn’t you tell me about Mr. and Mrs. Perfect?”

  This time it was her turn to shrug. “What’s to tell? They’re family.” She held his gaze. “That’s not the same thing as forgetting to mention you’re a dot-com gazillionaire!”

  “Honey, I’m so glad you’re here!”

  Chloe turned in time to see her mother bearing down on them. At sixty-six, her mother was an older version of Maxine, though in personality she tended to have a more distracted air.

  For her mother’s benefit, Chloe nodded at the man next to her—did she really know him? “Mom, you remember Ryder McPhee? I think you still keep in touch with his mother occasionally.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Davenport,” Ryder said.

  Her mother’s face reflected surprise and then delight. “Oh, yes, of course! Ryder! It’s wonderful to see you again. I’m so glad you could join us.”

  Chloe watched as her mother glanced at her, then back at Ryder. “I’m just surprised—surprised and pleased. That is, I told Helen … What I mean is, I didn’t realize Helen had told you …”

  Next to her, Chloe noted that Ryder seemed to stiffen.

  “Mrs. McPhee told Ryder what, Mom?”

  Her mother looked back at her, a smile touching her lips. “That Helen and I wanted to fix the two of you up! I didn’t realize Helen had said anything to Ryder about our conversation the last time we ran into each other in town, but, well, here the two of you are!”

  Here they were, all right, Chloe thought, feeling her blood pressure rise. Putting two and two together, she realized it hadn’t been a coincidence that Ryder had run into her at the Elliotts’ New Year’s Eve party. He’d planned it!

  She’d thought she was finally showing up at a Davenport family gathering with a date she was proud of—one that, yes, she’d fallen for, and one that, yes, she’d found on her own. Instead, the joke was on her because she’d shown up with her mother’s setup date. She couldn’t think of anything more humiliating.

  Her eyes connected with those of Maxine, who stood a few feet away and had obviously taken in the whole scene.

  On second thought, Chloe reflected, perhaps there was something more humiliating.

  Maxine clapped her hands together. “I love it! Mom to the rescue!”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  RYDER took in Chloe’s turbulent expression and realized he was a man going down for the count. He had to act fast.

  Damn it. He hadn’t expected Chloe’s mother to blurt
out that she and his own mother had tried to arrange a date between their offspring. He’d deliberately exhibited a lack of interest when his mother had brought up the idea, but admittedly that’s how his own plan to approach Chloe had started to form.

  Obviously, his mother had thought it better to let Mrs. Davenport believe she’d never brought up the subject with him than to confess Ryder had shown zero interest in dating Chloe. Equally obvious, however, was that Mrs. Davenport thought his mother must have eventually persuaded him to ask Chloe out, after all, how else to explain his presence at the party today?

  He should have anticipated this, but then again, how could he have guessed Chloe’s mother would draw the wrong conclusion? And what’s more, judging from the smirk on Maxine’s face, that her conclusion would be drawn in front of everyone.

  Taking Chloe’s arm, he said, “Excuse us.”

  As they walked away, she remained stiff under the pressure of his hand.

  “Look,” he muttered, “I know you’re mad at me—”

  “Really?” she interrupted sarcastically. “How can you tell?”

  “—but right now I need you to tell me where we can find a private place to talk.”

  He started to think she wouldn’t answer, but finally she said, “Upstairs. My old bedroom.”

  When they got upstairs, he shut the door to her bedroom behind them and took a look around. The furniture was white wicker, the color scheme purple and pink.

  Ten years ago, he mused, he’d have given his right arm for a glimpse of Fab Dav’s bedroom. Turning back to Chloe, he lifted an eyebrow. “Looks as if things haven’t changed much since high school.”

  She looked at him coolly. “In more ways than one, apparently. My mother hasn’t redecorated, and you’re as obnoxious as ever.”

  He smiled, though he knew it would incense her. Given her current mood, he doubted finding her adorable when angry would be welcome news.

  “I’m glad you find this funny,” she said acerbically.

  Deliberately, he moved toward her. “The other thing that’s remained the same is that I’m living out a fantasy by being in your bedroom.” His arms snaked around her before she could protest, and he kissed her. Deeply, thoroughly, satisfyingly.

  When he finally loosened his hold, she braced her hands on his chest and said, “That’s it? That’s your response? To try to resolve this with sex? You intentionally didn’t tell me about our mothers’ plotting—”

  “And you didn’t tell me your motive for showing up with me today was to have a date to show off to Maxine and Gavin. So I guess we’re even.”

  He waited, and it became obvious she didn’t have a quick comeback.

  Chloe didn’t have a quick comeback. Except for the truth. Sure, she’d been worried about finding a date to bring to the party today, but things had changed over the past two weeks.

  Gradually, it had become less important she bring a date today and more important she bring Ryder. Because she wanted him. Because she’d fallen for him.

  Ryder bent and trailed warm, feathery kisses across her brow, along the side of her face and to the corners of her lips, soothing her, lulling her.

  After a couple of minutes, her eyes fluttered shut seemingly of their own accord. He was seducing her, the sneak, and she couldn’t seem to summon the willpower to do anything about it.

  “Chloe.”

  “Hmm?”

  “I didn’t show up at the Elliotts’ New Year’s Eve party because of our mothers’ attempt at matchmaking.”

  She blinked slowly. “What? Of course you did.”

  He nibbled at her lips some more before pulling back and shaking his head. “I admit, Mom told me she’d run into your mother recently and they thought it would be a great idea if I got in touch with you—”

  “So, you admit it.”

  “—but I told my mother, no. I arranged to run into you at the Elliotts’ bash because I wanted to, not to please my mother.”

  “What?” she asked, now more alert.

  He gazed down at her, his face thoughtful. “I also knew you’d never go for a date arranged by our mothers acting as the go-betweens. For one thing, you probably wouldn’t appreciate the meddling, particularly from your mother. For another, your last memories of me were from high school, when I was deliberately obnoxious in order to get your attention.”

  Her heart began to lift at his confession. He truly understood her, and why wasn’t she surprised?

  “But my mother’s attempt at matchmaking got me thinking,” he continued. “I knew you were single and available and working at Charisma, so I finagled an invitation to the Elliotts’ New Year’s Eve party from Cullen.”

  “You went to a lot of trouble,” she said carefully.

  He gave her the lopsided grin she’d come to know and love so well. “I knew Cullen through some business associates, so getting an invitation wasn’t too hard. The hard part is never getting over a high school crush.”

  A giddy joy filled her at his admission. “I never understood how I got the name Fab Dav. I certainly didn’t feel fabulous in high school.”

  “Remind me to fill you in one day,” he joked, then sobered and searched her face. “I’ve gotten used to being close-mouthed about my career, but I figured that through your mother, you knew something about what I’d been doing these past few years.”

  She shook her head. “Mom is clueless about the internet. She’s older than my friends’ parents—Maxine and I didn’t come along until her mid-thirties. If you said ‘Google’ to her, she’d think it was a noise that babies make.”

  She now remembered her mother mentioning once or twice over the years that Mrs. McPhee had said Ryder had become successful in his business career, but she’d dismissed the comments as nothing more than the boasting of a proud parent. The word successful had conjured thoughts of Ryder as a middle manager with a nice paycheck, not of a member of the multimillionaires’ club.

  She watched now as Ryder grinned. “It’s good to know you were attracted to my body and not my stock portfolio.”

  “Actually, when you showed up on New Year’s Eve, I thought I was destined to kiss another, ah, frog at midnight.”

  He gave a half laugh. “No wonder you seemed to dwell on the fact I was wearing green.”

  “Remember that, do you?” she teased. Then she added more seriously, “By the way, two weeks ago I may have been looking for a date for this party, but I asked you to come today because of you. Not because of Maxine or Gavin.”

  She couldn’t care less about her sister and brother-in-law’s reactions. She’d wanted Ryder to come today because she’d fallen for him.

  “Chloe, I know it’s been only two weeks—”

  “Yes.”

  “But that crush I mentioned earlier?”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s only gotten worse since high school.”

  She pressed two fingers to his lips. “I know. I feel the same way.” Her heart filled with happiness as she realized she’d guessed wrong that night in his hotel room: it was his obnoxious behavior, not his crush on her, that he’d thought he’d been cured of since high school.

  He smiled against her fingers. “I’m thinking it’s love at this point.”

  “You’d better,” she said with pretend severity, trying to hold back the well of emotion, “because I’m crazy in love with you.”

  “Ah, Chloe.”

  And then there was no talking for a very long time, until Chloe reluctantly broke away and said, “We should get back to the party.”

  As they went back downstairs together, Ryder teased, “Think you can live with knowing your mother had a role in your encountering your future husband?”

  She linked her arm through his, thinking of the little McPhees in their future. “Remind me to thank her.”

  All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even d
istantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

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  12 GIFTS FOR CHRISTMAS

  © Harlequin Enterprises Books S.A. 2011

  The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:

  His Christmas Captive © Harlequin Books S.A. 2011

  A Christmas Refuge © Harlequin Books S.A. 2011

  Naughty is Nice © Harlequin Books S.A. 2010

  The Bodyguard’s Bride © Harlequin Books S.A. 2010

  Seduced by the Season © Harlequin Books S.A. 2008

  Christmas Evie © Harlequin Books S.A. 2007

  Cherokee Christmas © Harlequin Books S.A. 2000

  The GP’s Christmas Miracle © Harlequin Books S.A. 2011