Christmas With a Billionaire: Billionaire Under the MistletoeSnowed in With Her BossA Diamond for Christmas

by Carole Mortimer

  “She was mine,” he said.

  “Obviously she wasn’t, Luc,” Amelia said. “And I’m sorry if that’s harsh, but it’s true. Clint wasn’t mine. Not really. Or he wouldn’t have wanted someone else. And I wouldn’t be so...not brokenhearted. And I’m not. So what he did was wrong, and the position he put me in was wrong, but I’m not going to be mad at him for the next eight years. It wouldn’t have been a good marriage, and if he wants something else, and I want something else, we shouldn’t be together, right?”

  “He hates me,” Luc said, his voice rough. “He always has. Because I stayed with our father. Because...I’m the oldest. I had to. I had a responsibility to the business. And I think Blaise always felt I betrayed them in some way. That I was part of their banishment back to Africa. But that was our mother’s choice. And it was Blaise’s choice to go with her. I know he thinks that my life was easy. That I had things I didn’t deserve. But he doesn’t know. Mansions don’t protect you from everything. And our father turned into a drunken, abusive bastard. So I resent the idea that somehow my life was so easy, I didn’t deserve what I had.”

  “I don’t know what to say.”

  “In the end, I think he was the lucky one,” Luc said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, for all of his flaws, and he has them, he knows how to love people. I don’t. That’s why Marie couldn’t be with me. It’s why my father and I found things difficult. But he managed to love my fiancée enough to excuse his behavior. Then she left him spectacularly, just as she did to me, and he went on to love his wife, Ella. I just...can’t.”

  “Why not, Luc?” she asked, pain lacing her voice. And he hated himself for that. For making her sad. That seemed to be his whole life. His reality was just not something people wanted to deal with. Not something they wanted to hear.

  “I think you have to see love early. I think you have to learn it. And I never had the chance. I was too busy protecting myself from my father’s fists. Sometimes unsuccessfully. But I closed everything down inside myself at a young age, and I don’t think I could open it up now if I wanted to.”

  She wiggled and turned so that she was facing him, her blue eyes glittering with emotion. “If it’s still in there, then there’s hope,” she said.

  “You’re such an optimist, Amelia. I think that’s why I find you so fascinating. You see things with a ring of brightness around them. I envy that. I never did before I met you.”

  “Nice to know I’ve made an impact.” She kissed him, closing her eyes tight. He kept his open for a moment, so that he could watch her. So that he could see just how much of herself she was putting into the kiss. It humbled him. Fascinated him. Made him envious. Made him conscious of every lock he’d put on his emotions all those years ago.

  She climbed onto his lap, pushing his back against the edge of the couch, reaching behind him and picking up a condom—one of the many they’d left handy—holding it up in front of her. “I want you,” she said. “Even though you are a grump who doesn’t think he can love people.”

  Something about her words felt hot. Painful. They settled deep and he could feel them. Was so very aware of the fact that they’d changed something in him just because he’d heard them.

  She dropped the blanket to her waist, baring her breasts, the damp center of her pressing against his hardened arousal. She rocked her hips against him and he put his hand on her lower back, holding her tight.

  “You’re going to be the death of me,” he said.

  “I hope not,” she said. “I’m not finished with you yet.” She smiled, she always smiled, even when she was playing the vixen, and tore the condom packet open, taking out the protection and reaching between them, rolling it over his length.

  “Aren’t you sore?” he asked, genuinely concerned, but hoping that she wasn’t.

  “In the best way,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders and flexing her hips so that the slick entrance to her body came into contact with the head of him.

  She lowered herself onto him slowly, biting her lip, her eyes never leaving his. So sincere, his Amelia. She felt everything and she held nothing back. It was painful to see. Painful and exquisite. And so much more than he deserved.

  She moved over him, taking him in deeper before retreating, then repeating the motion. She clasped her hands behind his neck, holding on to him as she took them both closer to the edge.

  He tightened his hold on her hips and pulled her downward, harder, farther. She closed her eyes, a raw, sexual sound escaping her lips as she let her head fall back. If anything was more beautiful than her smile, it was this. Amelia. Lost in pleasure. Lost in him.

  He could happily keep her like this forever.

  He sucked in a sharp breath, trying to shift the weight that had settled on his chest. Forever wasn’t an option. There would never be anything past today. But they had today. They had now.

  Fire crackled along his veins, need, desire, building in him until he couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Until he thought he might be reduced to ash. As though this moment might destroy him forever.

  He gritted his teeth, tried to hold his climax back, tried to wait for her. But he was too close. It was too much. His control slipped its leash, and the fire turned into a raging blaze, hotter, more furious than he could have ever imagined.

  He came on a roar, and she followed, leaning forward and biting his shoulder, the searing pain adding to the intensity, adding to the impossible surge of sensation that was filling his body.

  She melted against him, her skin damp with sweat, her breasts pressed into his chest, her head rested in the curve of his neck, her cheek directly over the place that still burned from her teeth sinking into him.

  “Oh, Luc,” she said, her breathing hard, fast. “I...I love you.”

  He stiffened and pushed her away gently so that he could see her face. “You what?”

  “I love you. I’m really sorry that I’m saying this now. And I’m sorry that I’m saying it at all. Because you warned me. You told me how things were and you just explained everything to me and I won’t even pretend that I understand what you went through. And I’m not going to tell you that it should be different for you. Because that’s not fair. I’m not you and I don’t understand what you’ve been through. But...it doesn’t change how I feel. And I would...break the damn locks off your feelings boxes if I could. Or hope that I had a key somewhere, which would be better than breaking things all willy-nilly inside you, but I’m just saying, if I didn’t have a key I would.”

  “Amelia...this is...” He lifted her from him and deposited her on the carpeted floor, her blanket beneath her. “I told you.”

  “I know. But this is the thing, Luc. I think it’s always been you for me.”

  “What?”

  “Clint obviously had his reasons for putting off making love with me, for putting off the wedding, but I obviously wasn’t rushing toward the altar, or the bed either. And then...two days with you has taken me from virgin to sexpert. It’s not random, Luc. I think when I met you, something in me knew, just knew, that there was never going to be anyone who made me feel quite like you.”

  “That’s now, Amelia. That’s not forever. It’s not ages with a man who is emotionally nonfunctional. I barely wish me on me, I would never wish me on you.”

  “But that’s sort of my decision, isn’t it? What if I don’t want love and marriage? What if I just want to be with someone who makes me feel wanted? Is that so bad? I mean...am I crazy?”

  “You’re not crazy, Amelia. But you don’t know what you want.”

  “Hold. On. You do not get to tell me whether or not I get to sing Christmas carols in my head and you absolutely do not get to tell me what I feel.” Her blue eyes were glistening with tears and he felt it, like a knife twisting in his chest. He was hurting her, bre
aking her, this beautiful, brilliant woman. And there was nothing he could do to stop himself.

  Because it was what he had to do.

  What he wanted was to tell her to stay. To tell her to never leave him, no matter that he couldn’t give her back what she needed. He wanted to say to hell with her needs. Her feelings. And hold her to him, so that he could have a little bit of light. Just a little bit.

  But he knew what happened to a flame that couldn’t breathe. That didn’t get what it needed. He would only extinguish her light. And then not only would he be in darkness, he’d be responsible for hers, as well.

  “You’re noble, Amelia. But you don’t always have to do this,” he said, his tone cold.

  “What?”

  “You don’t have to give to people who can’t, or won’t, give back to you.”

  “I don’t do that,” she said, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders, covering her body.

  “You do. You were considering marrying your fiancé out of a sense of obligation to him and your parents, even though you knew he wanted to be with someone else. And now you’re throwing yourself across the altar that is my life, just begging to be burned alive. My own personal virgin sacrifice.”

  “Luc, what are you doing?” she asked, a tear sliding down her cheek.

  He hated himself right now. But not more than he would if he let her do this.

  “I’m being honest with you. Clint might be able to ask you to be with him, even though he doesn’t really want you or love you, but I won’t.”

  “So you don’t love me, or want me,” she said, her voice breaking on the last word.

  “You already know I don’t love you, and as for the wanting, I think it’s clear that right now I do. But later...Amelia, I’m not the kind of man who looks for a long-term commitment. I tried it, and honestly, thank God I was liberated from it. I’m not mad at Blaise because he robbed me of marriage, our issues are a lot deeper than that. In the end, I’m happy to have avoided the institution.”

  “So you’re saying you would get tired of me?”

  “I’ve never had a long-term relationship,” he bit out, his body rebelling against the idea of ever being tired of her. Of wanting any woman other than her. “I’ve never wanted one. So even now, you’re offering something I’m just not interested in taking someone up on.”

  “Oh,” she said, blinking rapidly. “I see. I see. So...so what? No more sex even? I was offering you free milk, here, Chevalier. No cow-buying.”

  “Amelia,” he said, and he didn’t want to go on, because if she made him keep going, he would have to say something worse, or he would break and tell her he would take her for as long as he could keep her. “No.”

  “Great. Okay,” she said. “That’s good, actually, because I had not been sufficiently rejected this week. So it’s better that we just kind of added emphasis to the whole...my fiancé sleeping with a dude thing. Just to make sure I know my place. Gay men don’t want me, straight men don’t want me. Just fine.”

  “Amelia, it’s not you.”

  “Right,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain. “It’s you. You know what? It is you. And it’s Clint. And it’s even my parents, as well as they mean. Everyone wants something from me, and I bend over backward to give it. And well, okay, in the end that’s me. That’s my problem. I’m the one who gives even when I don’t want to. But the one thing I do want to give...you won’t let me, but you’re still trying to tell me what to do, and I hate it. I don’t want to do what everyone wants anymore.”

  “Then don’t,” he said, forcing the words out. “But I don’t want to be with you. And I’m not going to do anything I don’t want either.”

  The side of her mouth twitched, her eyelids fluttering. “Well, fine. Great. I can’t argue with that.” She stood up, wrapped in the blanket. “I’m going to go to bed. My bed. Hopefully we get a Christmas miracle and the weather clears up tomorrow.”

  “Maybe you’ll get one, Amelia,” he said, his voice rough.

  He certainly wouldn’t. He wasn’t the kind of person who got Christmas miracles. But she deserved them.

  He watched her walk out of the room and tried not to dwell on the fact that for her, a Christmas miracle would involve being relieved of his presence. He had no right to be upset about it, anyway.

  He was the one who had pushed her away.

  But it was for the best. He wouldn’t doubt his decision.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FORTUNATELY THE WEATHER had cleared up by morning. But that was the only thing that was fortunate. Everything else was horrible. Amelia felt horrible. Her head hurt, and her heart hurt, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do about either thing.

  On the one hand, she now knew for sure that she didn’t love Clint, and never really had in that way you should love the man you were going to marry. On the other hand, she was very certain that she did love Luc.

  And given his spectacular rejection of her that was majorly inconvenient.

  They didn’t speak in the elevator on their way down to the lobby. They didn’t speak when Luc went to check them out.

  “Mr. Chevalier!”

  They both looked up to see Don Fleischer walking toward them. She stiffened, and said a silent prayer that went unanswered as Luc reached over and took her hand.

  It was like being hit with a lightning bolt. One that was heavy with emotion and horribleness.

  A reminder of everything that was good between them, and everything that she wasn’t going to have because he didn’t want to be with her. And he was still touching her like he did.

  All for show. This was her nightmare.

  But if she pulled away now, it would seem weird. And if it affected the deal then the whole time here would be utterly pointless. Better to just have her virginity lost rather than the deal, too. Though, if she could go back...

  No. She wouldn’t change it. Because at least she knew now what she could have. At least she knew she wouldn’t settle for less ever again.

  Unfortunately, everything would seem like less after stupid Luc.

  He doesn’t love you. You deserve more than that.

  Hell, yes, she did.

  She gritted her teeth, fought against the tears that were burning her eyes. She wasn’t going to let this get to her. And she wasn’t going to pine. Not when he didn’t deserve it.

  Clint had wasted her time. He’d hurt her. But Luc had devastated her.

  “Mr. Fleischer,” Luc said, smiling. She had no idea how he did that. Maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe he had all his emotions locked up so tight no one could reach them. In which case, she wouldn’t ever be able to.

  If he could smile now, it meant he could feel nothing, and she really wasn’t ever going to be able to break those locks.

  “What are your thoughts now that you’ve stayed here?”

  “I think I’ll be making an offer,” Luc said. “It’s definitely the perfect place for a romantic getaway, and I think I have the ability to grow the resort.”

  “That’s wonderful news.”

  “I’ll submit my offer after Christmas,” Luc said. “For now, I need to get Amelia back to New York so she can spend time with her family.”

  After making what felt to Amelia like very awkward goodbyes, they walked out. Their car was waiting for them, and as soon as she thought it was safe Amelia wrenched her hand from his and opened the car door, sat down inside and buckled up, refusing to look at him.

  Luc rounded to the passenger side and got in, buckling up as the car pulled away from the hotel.

  They rode in silence until the airport, where they exchanged short, necessary words about where the plane was and where the luggage should go.

  Amelia managed to keep up the silence a couple of hours into the flight, her brain turning
over the past twenty-four hours. Their kiss in the spa, making love with him for the first time, the fifth time. Realizing she loved him. Telling him she loved him.

  It had changed her. She was utterly and completely changed and she was supposed to just go back to her life like it had been before.

  No. That wasn’t happening. She was breaking up with Clint. And she was going to have to take action with Luc, too.

  “I quit,” she said, the words leaving her mouth in a rush.

  “What?” His response was sharp, shocked and very loud after the prolonged silence.

  “I can’t work for you anymore.”

  “You said none of this would be a problem,” he bit out. “You said you knew what this was.”

  “Yes, and it changed. I didn’t mean to lie, but I guess I did. I don’t want to work for a man who was inside me, then looked at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of his shoe while he rejected my love.”

  He made a short, incredulous sound.

  “Neither do I want to be with a man who does those French...noises you do. It’s annoying. You’re annoying. I’m not making you coffee ever again. I’m going to eat every peppermint stir stick and scone on your plane and never make you coffee or fetch you a bagel again!”

  She was breathing hard, adrenaline pouring through her. She was mad, she was hurt, but at least she was sure of this decision. And she didn’t care how it affected him. She didn’t care if it was upsetting or disappointing for him, not when it was right for her.

  “You won’t have a job, and you won’t be able to pay your rent. And unless you are marrying Clint—” he said the other man’s name like it disgusted him “—then you’re going to have a bit of a rough awakening.”

  “Don’t care. I have savings,” she said, tugging the peppermint stick from her latte and crunching the end. “I will be fine. Just fine. You on the other hand will have to find another assistant who doesn’t care that you’re a gigantic pain. So good luck with that.” She took another bite of the peppermint and chewed loudly.