The CEO's Christmas Wish (The Christmas Wish Series Book 2)

by Ostrow, Lexi

  Nick snorted, and Tasha looked up to see pure annoyance on his features. If there had been any peace or reconciliation between the trio, it had only been for Christmas. She needed to talk to him about it, holding onto grief and anger that long wasn’t good for anyone. The more she spent time with him, and became attracted to him, she didn’t want such negativity for him.

  “Oh, they just liked the idea that I would be so ironic.” Lying to Leena felt weird. Yes, she’d been lying for the past four days, but this was a completely different type of lie. It felt worse, her stomach squeezed with it, as if someone where wringing her insides out.

  Leena’s expression didn’t falter. She stood up from the bed and looked from Tasha to Nick. “Well, I don’t want to get in the way anymore than I have. Jake and I are heading out to teach me how to ski better, his words not mine. You guys have fun today! Don’t do anything with him I wouldn’t do,” she said with a playful wink and left the room.

  Nick stepped inside and closed the door behind him. “She looks right through me, doesn’t she?” he asked as he closed the door.

  Tasha smiled thoughtfully, trying to lessen the blow. “She really does, Nick. I watched her stare at you for eight years as if the world would end if you didn’t look back at her.”

  Nick dramatically dropped onto the bed, so much so that it shocked her. She’d seen a lot of sides of Nick this week, but helpless and defeated had not been one of them. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his eyes.

  “The worst part is I know she’s better with Jake. Fuck, I’ve thought it myself more than once this week.”

  Tasha wasn’t certain what to say. She pulled on her jeans and walked back to sit on the bed. “But you can’t get over her?”

  Nick popped open one mysterious dark blue eye. “No. Honestly, when she came in Christmas Eve, I didn’t feel the same draw to her.”

  “Could’ve fooled me with the way you flipped shit on her and Jake.”

  “That’s all it was though, flipping shit because I’m angry at them. Sure, a part of me still loves her, we had a life of sorts together, and we were engaged. But it was more anger at what they did to me. How they went behind my back, how she essentially used me to get back at Jake by accepting my proposal.” Nick sat up on the bed and took her hand. “You’ve been a wonderful friend to Leena during all of this, pretending to be with me to mitigate her discomfort.”

  Tasha gave his hand a little squeeze. “Honestly, you’re a better man and fake boyfriend than most of the costars I’ve been with…on set and off. I do wish I could help you get over this though. Regardless of how last year ended for you, you truly are a great guy, Nick. Sure, you’re a little stiff sometimes, but when you’re out of work, you have an ease about you that anyone would love to get to know.”

  He looked at her, and his lips were brushing hers a moment later. It was a soft glide, a kiss so gentle, she almost missed it happening. He pulled back, and she was staring at him, shocked that he’d been capable of something so tender. His eyes were dilated, and his mouth was parted slightly.

  They sat, facing one another on the bed, breathing in sync with each other as the moments passed. Their eyes never looked away, and Tasha could feel herself turning to goo, thinking about just how amazing Nick actually was. He was so much more than the fast paced, steely businessman that he presented to the world. He loved his family, and there was no denying that. Even with how angry he was, he’d never seemed it yesterday. He wasn’t afraid of a challenge, and the first night, he’d won Trivial Pursuit by a landslide. There was nothing wrong with Nick DeMarco, aside from the fact that he’d had his heart broken and was acting like a child.

  She didn’t think as she leaned forward and slanted her mouth over his. She needed to show him his worth, and the only way she could think of was this. Unlike his, her kiss was hot and hungry. She pushed her tongue inside his mouth and slid her body closer to his but didn’t allow them to touch. Nipping at his lower lip, she tugged on it as she dropped her hand into his lap, palming his generous cock. It hardened under her touch, and she stroked through his jeans in time with the way her tongue tangled with his.

  As she kissed him, she forgot about the circumstances of the kiss and simply let herself fall into it. There were no labels — no real, no fake. They were just two people exploring each other. Every caress of his tongue, every roll of his hips into her hand, was mesmerizing. She’d sought out to show him he was desirable, she hadn’t realized, until that very second, she’d wanted to let him know he was desirable to her.

  It was Nick who pulled back from the kiss with a sensual growl. His eyes were gazing intensely at her. “I don’t know what Leena has or hasn’t told you —”

  She squeezed him through his pants and smirked. “Oh, I know what you like in bed, Nick. But here’s the thing. Relationships and sex are give and take. When you’re ready to be over Leena, you’ll realize that, sometimes, playing the other way has it perks too.”

  It took everything she had in her to stop rubbing his full erection. She was turned on, and she’d merely done it to let Nick know how desirable he was. The problem with that is, you’re starting to forget this is fake.

  The thought caused her to bolt off the bed. Nick wasn’t totally over Leena, and besides, actually falling for him was out of the question. They were helping each other get through the holidays. They weren’t even going to see each other out of the office after this was all done, except maybe at the wedding.

  “If you don’t go now, I won’t be able to get out of this ratty Bronco’s jersey and let you spoil me with some expensive present.” She tried to grin cheekily at him, but she was too turned on to pull it off properly. Even as an actress, there were just some limits.

  Nick looked at her, bewildered for a split second, before laughing. “Tasha Morningstar, you know how to keep a guy on his toes. After a kiss like that, well, getting kicked out certainly wasn’t what I was expecting.”

  She winked playfully as she stood up and took his hand, tugging him off the bed. “Well, you can’t be in control all the time, Mr. CEO.”

  Nick stared at her slack-jawed before shaking his head and walking out. When she closed the door behind him, she leaned up against it and sighed.

  “Come on, Tasha. It’s a role. You can’t get attracted to someone simply by pretending to be with him, you’d be in love with half of Hollywood.” She smirked at her own comment and pushed off the door to finish getting dressed.

  “It’s so…different,” Tasha said as she closed the car door behind her. It closed with a thunderous boom that echoed thanks to the mountains around her.

  “Careful, you’ll start an avalanche,” Nick teased and walked from his side of the car to stand next to her. “So, how do you want to play this?”

  Tasha shrugged, knowing exactly to what he was referring. “You know, we’re in the news right?”

  Nick nodded, “Yea, Mom found the story Christmas morning, but I didn’t think you’d want that kind of pressure on you.”

  She almost told him that it had sealed a deal for her, but that meant she’d used him twice, and she felt oddly uncomfortable about that. “I don’t mind. I think that you wanted this to be a nice relaxing day where we could just be ourselves. However, I think because of that article, and god knows how many other places it’s been posted now, that’s impossible.”

  He looked thoughtfully at her and kissed her cheek. “I swear, I’ll be well behaved in public.” Intertwining their hands together, he pulled her in the direction of the extremely small main street.

  “It’s beautiful, all the snow and the quaintness up here, it reminds me of before we left the reservation.” Her tone was whimsical.

  “Do you miss it?”

  She shook her head sharply. “Oh no. It is a wonderful way to spend some time, but I am far too accustomed to the city now. I don’t remember moving too much. I met Leena, and it was a pretty instant friendship. I do love going back, in between movies, and just camping out under the
stars in a way you can’t find without having people around you that are connected to nature.”

  Nick pulled her down a small hill, away from the town. “I can see how that could be nice. However, I was thinking of something we can do that involves nature. I was thinking that you already got a fucking twenty-thousand dollar purse. Rather than spoil you that way, I’m going to treat you today. A day of blissful couple activities we can do as friends and take lots of fake pictures of to make everyone else happy.” He let her hand go as he scooped a giant handful of snow up and held it up.

  Tasha backed away, not even responding to his idea, even though she found it rather sweet. “Not on your life. Actress’s cannot get their hair wet.” She grinned at him, reciting a line her first idiotic agent had said to her when she’d gone to meet Nick to represent her, soaking from a rainstorm.

  He chuckled. “I wasn’t going to throw it. I was going to see if you’d make a snowman with me.”

  She arched a perfect eyebrow at him. “That sounds very Christmasy for you.”

  He was already squatting, rolling snow around under his deep tan colored gloves. “Christmas and playing in the snow are two very different things. Besides, I like Christmas, I just don’t understand the need for a million traditions.” He didn’t bother to look up, just focused on the ball of snow slowly forming between his hands.

  Squatting down beside him, she started scooping snow toward his pile. “Like hot cocoa on Christmas morning?”

  He lifted his head and laughed, his dark eyes sparkling. “Touché, don’t tell Leena though. One day, I’ll stop being a brooding asshole and forgive them both. When that happens, she doesn’t need to know I think that’s as stupid as waiting until Christmas Eve to decorate a tree, simply because we’re too busy to get together before then.”

  “Your secret is safe with me.” She noticed the ball of snow they’d been working on was quite large, and very not round. “I think we need a little help with this? It looks more like a football than a snowman butt.”

  Nick laughed as he scooped a final pile of snow into the oddly shaped ball and began to mold at it with his hands. “That’s because everyone knows you have to shave some of it off.”

  “Well, aren’t you just the authority on snowman building.”

  He smirked at her and continued to round the ball out. “Everyone’s got to be good at something. I’m just lucky, I have two things — work and snow play.”

  The day was brisk, but not cold, and she didn’t even feel her fingers turning numb until they were placing the final ball on the very top. She shivered and rubbed her hands together. “I think my hands say we are done.”

  “Not just yet, ask them to hang on one more moment, and I will warm them up.” He reached into his jacket pocket as he was talking, produced a Ziplock bag and shook it around. “A carrot for his nose and some buttons. He can have my scarf, of course.”

  She watched endearingly as he shoved the carrot so hard into the head it almost rolled completely off. She took the bag from him and dumped the buttons into her left hand.

  “I think this might require a gentler touch.”

  Carefully, she pushed all eight black buttons into the two balls of snow. Nick leaned past her and wrapped his charcoal grey scarf around its neck and grinned. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket he gestured for her to stand in front of it.

  “If the media knows, let’s give them something to know.”

  She laughed, and he reached out and grabbed her hand, tugging her next to him and the snowman. She smiled wide as the camera ticked down from three and was grateful she’d thought to do some makeup before they’d left, should they be recognized. Jamie would have killed her otherwise, and honestly, the representative at DeMarco Communications probably would have as well.

  She watched as his fingers poked helplessly at the keys. He grumbled and ripped the suede glove off with his teeth. For a second, Tasha had a flash of Nick ripping her thong off that way and took a slight step to the side, trying to distance herself before she did something foolish.

  “Now, are you ready to be wined and dined and fully romanced so hard I’ll ruin all other men for life?” He took her hand in his and gently tugged off the gloves.

  It stunned her, how much softer he was with her than he’d been with himself. Holding her hands in one of his, he brought them up to his mouth and blew into them. Warmth splashed over her hands, and she wasn’t certain which sensation she liked more, getting warm or the intimacy of such a small gesture. When he was done blowing onto them, he cupped them in both of his hands and rubbed furiously until he must have felt them warming up.

  “There, now you’re all warm, I’m all warm and our snowman is ready to greet some kids while we go explore.”

  She smiled, a bright, wide smile that held all the emotions she was feeling inside. Nick was surprising her, every single second. She wanted to tell him about the movie deal, to see what he thought, but she wasn’t ready to ruin the almost fairy tale moment they were swept up in. It had been forever since she’d been with a man not interested in her money or fame — and Nick certainly wasn’t.

  When he wrapped his fingers with hers, after putting his gloves on, she closed her hand over his. Just keep remembering, none of this is real, for either of you. No matter how perfect he might seem, it’s all an act. A perfect act.

  “That’s her! That’s Tasha Morningstar!”

  Nick heard the words just before a gaggle of teenage girls and two boys, descended on the table they were sitting at in the bakery. All the teens were giggling, squealing and talking all at once. The noise was enough to grate his nerves, but when he looked up, Tasha was smiling pleasantly and taking selfies with them all.

  “It was great to meet you all. I hope you don’t mind though,” Tasha’s gaze shifted flirtatiously to Nick, “I’m trying to enjoy a romantic day out.”

  The kids giggled some more, looked at Nick, thanked Tasha and ran out of the bakery. Meanwhile, he hadn’t taken his eyes off her the entire time.

  “You do realize, that you handled that so well, you don’t even need my firm?” he joked.

  She took a sip of the hot coffee and smiled at him. “Well, having a love of people helps. I don’t need to tell you that every public figure is different. I just don’t understand how people can get into this line of work without realizing the off screen dedication that it will take.”

  Silently, he marveled at her. She was so much more in tune with things than he would have guessed from the times he’d met with her. “Do you realize how different you are now than when we meet for business?”

  “Well, this isn’t business. I’m not a client paying thousands of dollars a month. I’m your fake girlfriend enjoying the beauty of this small little snow resort town.”

  “Then you are enjoying today?” He wasn’t sure why, but he really did want her to feel like she was special. Tasha was an amazing woman from everything he’d gathered and using her as a way to get over someone else and to shut that other someone else up, seemed unfair. Even if she had agreed and was using him to get Leena to stop hooking her up with guys too.

  “Absolutely. I know bringing me here, after telling me you told your mom you wanted to marry Leena just outside, couldn’t have been easy.” She took another long sip. “But you know, doing things like this, creating new memories where bad ones are left, it will help.”

  He let her words wash over him. Was it a bad memory? No. He wasn’t going to write the last chapter of his life off, realizing he wanted to marry a woman that hadn’t wanted it back was a lesson. Like anything in life, setbacks helped a person grow stronger. He tackled the business world with the same mindset as his father had before him.

  “Am I stronger, for having been through that little stunt?” he asked aloud without thinking.

  “I would think you’d have to be. I suspect the studly and cool-headed Nick DeMarco hadn’t ever had his heart broken before. And if you’ve never had it broken, you’d never be able to te
ll when you meet the perfect person. The one that was meant to mend it. Loving someone and getting hurt is a part of life. Most people don’t find love only once, and what happened taught you what it’s like to love. Now you’ll know when you have found the woman that loves you back in perfect harmony with how you love her.”

  Nick couldn’t stop his smile or reaching across the plastic table and taking her hand. “You are far too wise for someone who hasn’t even hit thirty.”

  She lowered her eyelashes and looked down, clearly embarrassed by the compliment. “Well, there is something you gain from growing up with a deep respect for nature and all it has to offer. I’ve always thought my time on the reservation taught me to see things in ways many people cannot.”

  He was about to respond when she lifted the hand he wasn’t holding and pointed out the window. He turned in the chair and frowned. Jake and Leena were walking up the snow-covered sidewalk, hand-in-hand. He realized, he wasn’t frowning because they were together, but because they were about to impede upon time with Tasha. Something he shouldn’t care about, but did. Not because he’d promised her a romantic date to enjoy the situation they’d gotten themselves in either.

  “Damnit,” he grumbled. “And before you say anything, I’m annoyed because I was enjoying our time together. I truly do not care that they have found each other. I can even say I mean that. Coming up here this Christmas was possible torture. Having you and realizing there simply is nothing left between Leena and I made it easier.”

  “Well then, in the spirit of not angering you if they bring up something insensitive, how about you step your game up to a ten in the best date ever level?” She stood as she was speaking and put her designer gloves back on. “Coming?” Tasha asked as she extended her hand to him.

  Taking it, he stood up and pushed his chair in. “You know it ruins things if you plan half your own special day.”