Page 11 of Forever His This Christmas

“Having sex,” she said, ignoring the look that crossed his face at her statement. “Incredibly amazing sex yes, but it’s still just sex Corey.”

“Exclusive sex, so that makes us an ‘us’,” he countered stopping her when she began to argue again. “If you plan on sticking it to your ex then you’d better start thinking of us that way too. What we do is our business but everyone else needs to think we’re together completely to make this work, right? If I’m just the guy you’re screwing, me being a bartender won’t matter as much, won’t make them that crazy, will it?”

“Alright I see where you’re coming from, but it is just sex,” she said, mostly to remind herself that’s all it could possibly be.

“I know that and I’m certainly not complaining,” he said letting his hands stray up her sides. “What do you say we head to my place now? Get a jump start on the weekend bliss?”

“I like that idea,” she agreed and once they were there, she let everything else go and simply enjoyed being with him.

The next morning, she started out at Corey’s office before heading over to her own to let them know she was taking off. She knocked on Donald’s door and went inside a bit surprised to find Corey there already. So much for him having a late meeting through lunch, she mused.

“Lisa, we were just talking about you,” Donald stated as she moved into the room.

“Good things I hope.”

“Only the best,” Corey replied letting his eyes turn darker as his gaze lingered on her body. When he did it, it made her pulse quicken but when Donald did it, it made her mad. “I actuallywas telling Donald that you’d mentioned possibly taking off from Christmas to New Year’s.”

“You’ve only taken a couple days off the last two years, so I don’t see any issues with you taking it off this year,” Donald stated, and she knew Corey had done it to make sure she didn’t back out. “Corey wanted to let me know that it was fine with him as he’s going out of town for most of the next two weeks.”

“Sounds great,” she lied as she sat down, going over a few things with both of them before heading back to her office there slightly annoyed.

Corey walked into it just before five as the others were clearing out for the weekend and she ignored him while she finished the files she was going through. “Okay, what’d I do?”

“I don’t know Corey…what did you do that possibly annoyed me because you overstepped?” she returned finally looking up at him.

“This is about me talking to Donald about you taking off?” he said, his tone surprised which simply annoyed her more. “I didn’t say anything that would have him wondering about us. I simply wanted to make sure you didn’t have any issues with him, that he wouldn’t ask more questions that could lead to us being found out.”

She let out a full sigh, glaring at him harder. “I don’t need you to take care of things for me. I am more than capable of diverting personal questions.”

“Are you such a feminist that you find fault with everything a man does for you?” he questioned, his tone harder than normal.

“Only when it oversteps my personal boundaries,” she stated in frustrated return. “I am not going to complain if you open the door for me or order my favorite wine at dinner. I will complain if you make choices that I can make myself, do things that I am more than capable of doing myself such as requesting time off. You want to know why I can’t stand Colin? Because he didn’tlisten to a word I said, treated me as though I were nothing more than a pretty face that wasn’t capable of original thought. I am not a Barbie doll just waiting for some big man to play with me.”

“Got it and I promise, from now on I won’t do anything to try and make it easier for you,” Corey said as the first bit of understanding came to him. “I’m guessing this is why you were irritated with me yesterday and the phone call thing?”

“Yes, while I have conceded that you’re right, that us going will get my mother off my back, I don’t like being pushed into something. I like having a choice.”

“Then I’ll make sure that you’ll always have it,” he promised moving towards her even as she held up a hand to stop him.

“Which means that here the outside stays just that. The last thing we need is for the office grapevine to find out we’re sleeping together. I worked my ass off to get to where I am. I’ve had to bypass the dumb blonde stereotypes and female prejudices in order to be in charge of what I am. I don’t want people downplaying that with whispers that I only got it by sleeping with the boss—or implying that it’s been multiple bosses because it’s completely untrue.”

“So does that mean goodnight?” he asked, hoping the answer was no.

“It means pick me up at my place in about fifteen minutes,” she said shutting down her computer as she grabbed her things. “If we’re going to Colorado then I need to dig some stuff out of the closets and since you pushed then you can help with the heavy lifting.”

“Alright,” he said holding the door open for her to leave. He followed her out and kept an eye on her as she headed across the lobby towards the front doors before going to his car. He parked in the visitor’s lot at her building and waited until he saw her moving to the front door, before getting out to join her.

He quickly found out she wasn’t lying about the heavy lifting. She had an entire closet full of tubs, each clearly labeled, and the ones she needed were naturally on the bottom of the stacks. “You couldn’t take things from your current closet?”

“Nope, it’s not made for a Colorado winter trip. Don’t worry you’ll enjoy part of this,” she said with a smile as she pulled out a couple pieces.

“I think you’ll freeze your butt off in that,” he said staring at the miniskirt. He nearly swallowed his tongue imagining her in it.

“That’s why it’s not coming. Ah, here it is,” she stated taking out a dress. She shook it out and he stared at the zipper that ran down the front of it while she grabbed a cropped cardigan that would go over the top of it. She added several sweaters to the pile, and he wondered why they were in the tubs instead of things she regularly wore.

“Is there a reason behind taking these things?”

“Some of them…these are all things I like to wear while skiing, speaking of which do you?” Lisa asked, glancing up at him curiously.

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