Page 11 of His Christmas Gift

Melissa let out a soft sigh as the door closed behind the last guest. The night was officially over, successfully for both Jasper and Jenny it seemed. She’d handed out business cards to over three-fourths of their guests…Jasper’s guests, she corrected her thinking. They weren’t her guests no matter how much it may have seemed like it to them, and to her, with the way Jasper had acted, especially after Callum left the party.

“Ah, and they’re out,” Jasper said with a laugh as he turned to look at her. “You were amazing tonight Melissa, everything was incredible, and I cannot begin to thank you enough for all of it.”

“I suppose I’ll count it as two days off from my six-month punishment. I enjoyed myself, far more than dealing with spreadsheets and coffee runs.”

“Good and I hope you’ll agree to help with the investors’ dinner at the end of January.” His offer made her smile a bit more.

“Elaine mentioned something about it, wanting to know if I could take lead for her.” She saw relief hit his eyes as he gazed down at her. “I don’t mind at all arranging things for it. I just need a bit of instruction as to how it normally goes.”

“I’ll pass along my mother’s old notes on Monday. She’s usually busy with it on top of the…company Christmas party.” Jasper lifted a brow her way with hope shining in his beautiful grey eyes.

“Should I be adding a New Year’s or Thanksgiving event to the list as well?” she asked with a light laugh as he guided them towards the less formal sitting area. She sank down into the plush couch, glad to be off her feet for a few minutes.

“No, we just do the Christmas party for the company around the third weekend of the month.” Jasper took out his phone, thumbing through contracts to see if they had one at any of the hotels or event centers for it. He truly hoped to see what Melissa might arrange for it after tonight’s splendor.

“Ah phew, we have the Milton Hotel reserved for the Christmas party already. We always make sure to book the investors’ dinner at the Grand Lounge at Radio City, so there are no worries there,” he added putting a tiny spark of light into her eyes.

“Radio City?” Melissa hummed to herself in surprise thinking of the possibilities she could find there.

“The investors like knowing they get their money’s worth out of the event. I have no preset requests on what’s served, décor, or anything of the like. After seeing what you pulled off in a day, I’m giving you carte blanche on decisions for it. We can go over the budget for it next week. I personally pay for the Christmas party, so we can finagle over certain costs there if needed.”

“Sounds good to me.” She was not about to argue with any of it, the less she had to deal with actual business, the better.

“Speaking of Thanksgiving though, are you going home for the holiday? I know you’re not given vacation with the internship, but you can use a personal day if you want for the days before and after,” he stated hoping she said she wasn’t, so she’d be in town, possibly spending the day with him even.

“Dad has a business trip the week after and hates flying on the weekend after holidays. He arranged to leave on Thanksgiving for it. It worked out since as you said, I don’t get vacation days with the position.”

“Your mother’s not upset you won’t be home for the day on top of him leaving?” Jasper turned towards her further as he fought the desire to pull her into his hold and hang on, never let go.

“My mother died when I was twelve, since then it’s just been me and Dad.” She held up a hand at his beginning of an apology. “I’m long past the teary stage on it, the women in my family apparently don’t have that long of lifespans it seems.”

“What do you mean by that?” Jasper asked, the statement catching his heart by surprise, and he felt the way his chest tightened at the idea of losing her, not having her.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” Melissa looked away to stop herself from saying anything further about it.

“But you did say it, you obviously keep it in mind, so what did you mean by it?” Jasper asked reaching out to brush away the strands of hair that slipped down her face.

She looked past his shoulder as she said it knowing it was insane to admit it aloud to anyone. “My mother was forty-two, her mother was forty-six, and her mother was forty-three when they died. Three generations for certain, who knows about my great-great-grandmother. My father would flip if he knew I thought about it, wondered…”

“If you wouldn’t follow suit?” He lifted her chin until their gazes met. “You don’t want to waste your life pursuing business, wasting years that could be filled with so much more than meetings and spreadsheets.”

“And I can’t tell him that’s the real reason business bores me because he wouldn’t understand. It’s not as though I’m planning or just preparing myself to be done with life in twentyish years. If it would happen though, what would I leave behind if all I did was what my father wanted?” Her breathing was softer than it should be as his finger traced the line of her jaw.

“You don’t want to live with regrets, but you also don’t want to rush into something foolishly,” Jasper said seeing the tint of color hit her cheeks, felt the way her breathing slowed.

He bent forward unable to stop himself and let his lips brush softly against hers, the tiniest touch sent him through with need and he forced himself to sit still, to not rush anything with her. He’d never let her go, not even in twenty years, but if that were all they could potentially have together, he wanted every minute to count.

“Jasper,” she whispered softly as he pulled back, his lips hovering above hers until her eyes opened and met his gaze.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you. I could have killed my brother for the way he spoke to you.” He gently cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing against her bottom lip. “I’m hoping you’ve felt the same but if not, just tell me and I’ll ensure you can finish out your internship without any issues from me. If you do feel the same, if you want to spend time with just me, the man rather than the owner of the company, I don’t want you worrying that I’ll pressure you on anything. You can take the lead in what we do, how long it takes for us to move forward with any aspect of our relationship; because that’s what I’m hoping we can have Melissa, a real relationship.”

“No pressure, just two individuals getting to know one another, to see where it might lead?” she asked and he nodded, the look in his eyes making her smile fully. “And if it would become serious…and it turned out I did only have twenty years left?”

He didn’t let her gaze go as he spoke. “I’d make every day of it one to remember. You have grabbed me without even trying. I want every day with you to be special already, and I promise you’ll see that every day will be worth it. Twenty years from now, we’ll look back on tonight and smile. We’ll watch our children in whatever stage of life they’re in and promise to make the next twenty years just as incredible as the last twenty.”

Melissa breathed in deeply, the air releasing shakily as feelings overwhelmed her.

“Too fast?” he said with a smile that grew as she nodded. “I’ll slow down some, but I want you to know what I want. From the moment I saw you that was you as mine in every way. I could have put you in any other office to keep my brother away from you, but I wanted you closer to me than that,” he added when she couldn’t find the breath to speak. “To accomplish that, I decided to hold off on filling Elaine’s need for an assistant until after your internship ends. Although with both the Christmas and investors’ events to organize, I might need to go ahead and give Elaine some other help. That would leave you to help me with extra things here and there, giving us more time together.”

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