Page 7 of Seize the Night

“Spectacular,” she said.

“Continue, please.”

“Anyway,” she said and paused to sip Merrick’s vodka. She hated the stuff but needed a little liquid fortification. “I was there about an hour before I saw this gorgeous guy. He was standing on other side of the room talking to a big hotshot Kentucky basketball player. So I assumed he was a Kentucky student, probably a freshman. He looked about eighteen, and he was drinking a glass of white wine. And he looked handsome in his tuxedo. He had messy red hair. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.”

“Gross. Don’t touch people with your eyeballs.”

“Figuratively couldn’t take my eyes off him,” Remi continued. “The truth was he took my breath away. He was so beautiful that I had to chug a whole glass of wine just to work up the courage to go talk to him.”

“And you did, and he was smart and funny and nice and all that boring shit women love?”

“All that and more,” Remi said. “We walked through the house together. Gorgeous house. Every room decorated in a different Christmas theme. It was like something out of a fairy tale or a movie. I’d never seen anything like it, never felt anything like it. The night was perfect. Ever have a moment so perfect that you know you’ll remember it the rest of your life while you’re still living in the moment?”

Remi closed her eyes and found herself once more back in that house on that night. She and Julien stood by the fireplace mantel that was lined with a dozen yellow candles in antique brass candleholders. The room was filled with antique toys and a tree that soared all the way to the cathedral ceiling. The silver and gold stars on the tree reflected the dancing light from the fireplace. The moment was everything she’d ever wanted for Christmas but hadn’t known to ask for.

“This guy must have been special,” Merrick said.

“He was.” Remi knew she was the world’s worst liar. Might as well tell the truth. “I didn’t know how special he was because he only told me his first name—Julien. We talked about everything and nothing. I don’t even remember what we talked about. I just remember him telling me he thought I looked beautiful. Before I knew it, there we were, standing under the mistletoe.”

“Best kiss ever?” Merrick asked.

“Best kiss ever,” she agreed, remembering how Julien’s lips had shivered lightly at the first gentle contact. The gentleness quickly turned to passion and before she knew it, her arms were around his back and his mouth was on her neck, at her ear, at her throat. The kiss was like a gift she hadn’t even thought to ask for. Every Christmas since then she’d thought of Julien. The lights, the tree, the scent of pine and candles brought the memories back. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t imagine spending Christmas with Brian Roseland. Christmas was already claimed by Julien.

“I’m guessing the inevitable happened,” Merrick said.

“We found an empty guest room. I thought I remembered locking the door behind us.”

Merrick cringed. “I see where this is going…”

Remi nodded, her face flushing hot at the memory.

“We kissed for a long time. Julien seemed a little nervous, and I didn’t want to rush things. But then he unzipped the back of my dress and I unbuttoned his shirt…and his pants…and then.”

“And then?”

“And then while I was touching him, he said something weird and I stopped.”

“Weird? What? Did he deny the Holocaust or something?”

“He said…’This feels better than I ever dreamed it would.’”

Merrick cocked his head to the side.

“Everdreamedit would? You mean he’d never had a girl’s hand on his cock before?”

“Exactly,” she said. “So I immediately sobered up and asked him how old he was.”

“Oh fuck,” Merrick said.

“Merrick, I was half-naked on a bed with the barely seventeen-year-old son of one of the most powerful families in Thoroughbred racing.”

“Oops.”

“Two seconds after I told him we had to stop, the door opened. My dress was down, his jacket was off, his shirt was open, his pants were unzipped…and his mother saw it all.”

Merrick’s eyes went comically wide. Remi would have laughed but for the pain the memory still caused her.

“How bad was it?” Merrick asked. She appreciated that he seemed to understand the gravity of the situation instead of making Mrs. Robinson jokes.

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