Page 21 of Forever His This Christmas

“Who’s it from?” her father asked.

“No one—it’s just a stupid gag gift from the girls from school,” Lisa lied, getting up to head back up to the room.

“Well, we need to get over to the lodge. We’ll see you all later tonight for dinner,” her mom said kissing her cheek letting her leave.

Corey followed her up and closed the door behind her noticing that the majority of the present she’d gotten were still downstairs unlike the gag gift. “What’s really in that box?”

“Just a dumb joke,” she answered moving to put it into the closet.

“Yeah? Show me then.”

“Corey, it’s none of your business.”

“It is when it makes you pull back from everything. You were enjoying yourself, happy until you opened that box, baby. So come on, what’s really going on here? I know if it was really some gag gift, you’d have shown us. Especially if it was a sex toy from them. You’d have tossed it to your mom in order to get a reaction out of her,” he added, hoping to get her back into a lighthearted mood.

“It’s nothing,” she said again before taking it back down. She might not know him nearly as well as he seemed to know her, but she did know he’d look in the box if she left it there and that wasn’t about to happen. The last thing she wanted was someone seeing it, it’d bring up too many questions she didn’t have enough lies to cover. She moved over to the other closet and opened the safe to stash it there rather than risk any of it coming out.

“If it’s nothing then why hide it in a safe where there’s no chance of me seeing it?” Corey asked, staring at her when she turned back his way. She hated having to be a bitch about it, but it was the only way to keep him from continuing to ask the rest of their stay about it.

“Because you don’t need to know everything about me, not yet, and that’s not something I want to talk about.”

“So, it is something,” he said pulling a sigh from her. “Who’s it from, baby?”

“No one you know. Look let’s just make it clear that there are some things that I’m not going to share—not ready to share,okay? What’s in that box is one of them and honestly, it has nothing to do with you. I know where it came from, and I’ll deal with it how I see fit. I don’t need you to make it better for me. I need you to understand that my past is mine. It’s not yours, it’s not my parents or my brothers…it’s mine and what I do about it is up to me.”

“Fine…I’m sorry I just don’t like seeing you upset,” he stated knowing he had to tone it down. Maybe she’d tell him what it was about once they’d had more time together. He hoped so because he wanted her to trust him with everything, the good and the bad.

Lisa let him pull her into his hold and rested her head against his chest trying to block out everything running through her mind. She didn’t want to remember or talk about the past. She simply wanted to continue to move forward. She wouldn’t go back for anything or anyone, especially not to discuss that.

The next few days passed by them, her parents pleased with what they found in Corey, while she did her best to keep distance between them. She didn’t want anyone to question the stupid present or Corey to try to get answers from her. New Year’s Eve rolled around, and she dressed for the party, putting herself firmly back into the place she was comfortable in. The same place she’d stayed in for most of high school—the uncaring of anyone’s opinion brat.

Corey walked up behind her as she finished buckling her shoes and slid his hands down her hips. He wanted to go back to Christmas Day and for them not to have found that present. She’d put up another wall between them since then and he hated it. He wanted her back the way he’d had her since they’d gotten there, especially the way he’d had her on Christmas Eve. “The dress looks good on you.”

“Mhmm, I had the cleaners take it in a little so it wouldn’t hang off me and they shortened the hem just a tad,” she saidgiving him a grin as she forced herself to forget about the stuff from Christmas. She wanted another night spent with Corey where they were enjoying themselves entirely. Hell, she needed to have a good memory from here—deserved it at least. “I’d forgotten that it was a bit shapeless in high school until I’d tried it on.”

“Well, it certainly isn’t now,” he replied loving the way it flowed over her gentle curves. “Are you going to wear the cardigan for dinner?”

“I suppose I will. I’m sure it’ll be a little chilly in the dining room tonight.”

“And after that, how long are we expected to stick around?” he asked, kissing the side of her neck as his hands slipped up and down her arms.

“It’ll depend on how much of this you insist on doing,” she said with a smile relaxing her guard for now. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll do just enough that once the clock hits midnight there will be no question as to where our New Year’s kiss is taking us.”

He pulled her a little further up against his body letting her see how much he wanted to not go to dinner or the party already. Her grin forced him to step back and take her to dinner because he knew she would gladly stay in too. He wouldn’t take her up on it because to her, it wouldn’t be anything other than a tradeoff to spending time with her family.

They reached the dining room and headed over to sit with her brothers, the looks on their faces at her dress made him wonder what happened the last time she wore it. It didn’t take them long to get around to it and he lifted an eyebrow towards her at their questions.

“You know it’s a sad thing when your brothers remember a dress,” Lisa mused with a shrug.

“Not considering what happened,” Kirby countered. “We don’t need a repeat, right?”

“Why would we have one? Corey doesn’t care what I wear and he’s not about to act like an ass making me break up with him and flirt with everyone else because I’m entirely single again,” she replied before adding further explanation for Corey. “After Colin said I needed to go change and started acting like a complete and utter jerk I broke up with him, right there in the middle of the party, loudly so I didn’t have to repeat it a million times. Colin didn’t like that or that I could go from dating him to flirting with others in an expanse of five minutes. He started a fight with one of the others I was flirting with, and they ended up breaking the door to the pool house. Of course, our parents blamed me for it and started the pity-party where Colin’s concerned. I left the next week after graduation and have rarely been back since.”

“Ah…well you can wear whatever you like, especially when you look this amazing,” he stated giving her a lingering kiss her parents interrupted as they arrived at their table for dinner.

Lisa was relieved the night was going so well, as they finished dinner and headed to the club area. She took off the cardigan feeling the warmth from the extra bodies as well as the kick from her drink Corey ordered. She pulled him out onto the dance floor and pushed everything aside as she simply danced with him, enjoying the feel of his body against hers.

“Well, well, well if it isn’t the little slut herself,” she heard someone utter beside her and turned her face before rolling her eyes finding Colin there drunk. “Honestly Lisa, is there anyone here you haven’t screwed?”

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