Page 4 of Warming Up Coco (Santa Daddy)

I knew my childhood factored into how I treated people and kept everyone at a distance. I didn’t do friendships or relationships other than the kind that were regarding my business. Even then, I knew some perceived me as cold. A jerk.

I didn’t get close.

I had never been tempted.

Until Coco.

Coco and her big brown eyes and smooth olive skin that tanned beautifully during the summer. The last year had been unbearable. A year of keeping my hands to myself. Driving myself insane with want. I needed her. I hated how she had driven me to do all sorts of whacked-out shit, including putting a camera in her apartment.

With the money I had, it would have been easy to hire someone to do it for me. I could have had it done with a snap of my fingers. But there was no way possible I would have let another man walk into her place. It was hell enough trying to keep assholes from the office to stop sniffing around her. Not that I blamed them.

I understood them all too well.

I felt the pull of those fathomless eyes. The way the scent of her sweet skin mixed with vanilla and caramel mingled and swirled together. The notes made you hungry to fill your lungs completely and your mouth water for a taste of her flesh on your tongue.

I rolled my head from side to side before while moving to pour myself a drink, then walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. The thing was tinted, so I could see out, but no one could look in. The city was dark, lit up by the surrounding buildings and cars making their way this way and that. I had only been home for five minutes, yet I missed her.

Jesus, I was fucked in the head.

I grabbed my phone and stared at her for a moment. Wrapped up in her blankets, wearing my hoodie, her leg kicked out from the cover. The woman who was tormenting me slept calmly, almost peacefully, while I knew sleep wouldn’t come until I stroked myself raw. There were nights I jerked off two, three times thinking about her and all the things I would do to her, and it still didn’t take the edge off.

I couldn’t keep living like this.

The way I’d treated her was wearing on her. Trying to keep her at arm’s lengths was starting to backfire. I needed to do something fast, before it was too late.

My eyes caught sight of the calendar I kept in my kitchen, and I frowned. It was already December. Christmas was right around the corner.

Christmas.

Just like that, I knew what I was going to do. I pressed a kiss to the tips of my fingers and touched her face on the screen before closing the app. I had work to get done if she was going to be mine by Christmas.

Chapter2

Coco

Ishifted in my seat as I forced myself to stare out the passenger side window.

If I didn’t, I’d give in to the temptation to glance at my boss, who was driving the huge, black SUV that rivaled a tank. He did it with so much confidence that no matter how annoying he could be, I found it devastatingly sexy.

He cleared his throat, and my head had a mind of its own as it turned to look at him.

I’d been shocked when I woke up to an email saying he needed me to accompany him on a quick trip yesterday morning. When I arrived at the office to try and talk him out of it, Lucas had been nowhere to be found for the first time since I started to work for him. Not only had he not been at work, but he ignored every email and text I’d sent throughout the day. I received a text just as I slipped into bed, letting me know he would be picking me up at six A.M. sharp.

The side of me that was more than halfway in love with him was dying to go with him. I still had no idea where we were going. I stared outside at the winter wonderland of the snowy mountains in north California, worried I hadn’t packed correctly.

“Are you doing okay?” he asked for the umpteenth time, and I frowned. That was another first. The genuine concern he showed was starting to chip away at my walls.

“I’m fine,” I clipped and winced. Being defensive around him had become a knee-jerk reaction.

And he didn’t deserve it.

He had shockingly been nice from the moment he picked me up and we headed to the private air field, from where a plane the size of my apartment had flown us to Tahoe. Maybe my nerves were still frayed from the turbulent flight and the way he had covered my hand with his and told me not to worry, that everything would be okay.

He’d been more than nice.

Never having seen that side of him had me feeling a little unsteady. Like I was still sleeping somehow and dreaming the whole thing up.

“Would you like something to drink or eat?” He pointed out the windshield, at a billboard for a diner that boasted the best chocolate chip cookies in three counties.Well, that’s tempting.

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