Page 52 of His Off-Limits Christmas Gift

“Yes. My parents. Yours. Brandon. It’s a huge event.”

“So when we show up together, and I’m your plus-one…” She cringed as she looked at me. “How do we play that?”

“Like this?” I held her hand, tugging her toward me until I could peck a kiss on the top of her head. “You’ll be my plus-one.”

“That’s it?”

I mentally tensed, wondering if she was putting me on the spot and asking if I wanted something more than this great day we were sharing so far. I wanted her. No red flags were raised. She could be the woman to break this spell of committing myself to loneliness.

Yet, I held back. Something about being so heartbroken at this specific time of the year kept me from jumping into anything solid with her. Casual sex felt like too cheap of a label for us, but I wasn’t one hundred percent on announcing her as my girlfriend yet.

“Just be there with me.”

She smiled, but it didn’t look sincere. “That’s all you need from me? My role is to just be there at the party with you and prove all the gossipers wrong about you? To ward off the whispers from those who want to comment about how you were treated at that party previously?”

I nodded.No.I wanted a lot more, but I wasn’t ready to state that.

I want you to just be there with me for good.

If only I could open up my heart to let her in like that.

19

RACHEL

Ispent all day and night with Nate. Saturday brunch and Christmas shopping turned into Saturday evening and dinner. Then into Sunday. We stayed at my place close up to when he felt like he needed to go home and get ready for the workday.

It went without saying that we wouldn’t be able to kiss each other or cop a feel for a quickie in the office. I hadn’t forgotten the embarrassment of Julie walking in on us almost kissing that one time. Nate told me about how she’d asked if we were together, and that question had me curious when I walked into the office the next morning.

Juan wasn’t at his post, and I ironically missed seeing him in his seasonal cheer while still sticking to his doorman’s uniform. If he could get HR to approve an elf hat, he’d pair it with the suit.

Are we together?I had no clear answer. Over the weekend, yes, Nate and I couldn’t get enough of each other. It was a newlywed sort of phase where we wanted to be in each other’s space as much as we could, like getting our fill then before we’d be forbidden to be with each other at the office.

The roles were getting twisted. He was the boss. I was the temporary assistant. Those facts hadn’t changed.

But what if he wants me to stay for more than a temporary gig?His comments lurked in the back of my mind, how he and Brandon suggested that I don’t begin that contract job in January.

Does that mean he wants me to stay as his employee… with benefits?

I sighed as I walked into the elevator car, so lost in my thoughts that Mariah Carey’s over-played “All I Want for Christmas” didn’t bother me like it usually did. It had to be a trick that the maintenance department kept that one song on loop in all the elevators.

The other roles that should’ve defined me and Nate weren’t so clear. Things were getting confusing.

He was supposed to be my mentor, but no mentoring had actually happened. When he acted like he was teaching me how to kiss, it felt more like an attempt for him to learn how to fit against my mouth. Then when he tried to give me pointers on how to react when a man expressed interest, we almost ended up kissing at the office. Later yet, his ‘advice’ about what to wear to a romantic dinner had fallen flat because we’d just fallen into each other, into bed.

The only education I was getting from Nate was how he could please me. He had embarked on a lesson in showing me all the ways he could make me come, how quickly he could drive me wild, and every manner in which he could make me lose my grumpiness about life.

If he’s not going to mentor me, wouldn’t that be a renege on our deal?

We’d arranged it so he would be my mentor in exchange for my being his plus-one. But that all seemed out the window now. I would go with him to this holiday party. That was a given. But as what?

“Oh, what do we have here?” Julie later asked when I set my things in my office and stepped back out into the hallway.

Nate was walking through the area, and despite the pitter patter of my increased heart rate at seeing him near, wishing I could kiss him hello, he stayed neutral like me and merely gave a polite smile to me, then Julie. “Huh?” he asked. “Morning, Ms. Brown.”

Oh, my God.He was really acting funny today. Formality? And last names? Like either of those tactics could convince anyone we wereonlycoworkers. Like we hadn’t been fucking all weekend.

I could play this game.

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