Page 11 of Santa Baby

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Nic

Now that I have her here, I can focus on keeping her here. I’ve already overcome one of the biggest hurdles I foresaw as a problem by getting her to move in with me.

“This place is…beautiful.”

“Yeah?” I look around and try to see the place through her eyes. To me it’s home.

“I…am way too messy to be anywhere near all of this.” I laugh and usher her deeper into the living room.

“Nonsense. Trust me, everything here can be replaced, and I want you to feel at home. Change anything you want, however you want to.”

“I don’t…”

“I want you to make this place your home. Because it is now.”

She’s got a death grip on the baby and she’s paler than I’ve seen her before.

“I realize some of this furniture isn’t baby proof so…that’s probably one of the first things that need to be changed.”

“Actually…everything looks…round, so it’s already kind of baby-proofed.”

“Oh…good.” I give her a lop-sided smile, but she isn’t looking at me. She’s staring at the windows behind the couch.

“This is a great view.”

Outside the lights of the city are shiny and twinkling like a diamond necklace wrapped around a lady’s throat. I hate to admit it, but I’ve grown kind of used to the view…until Talia came and opened my eyes to it again.

“You have to be hungry. Let’s get you girls fed and figure out our next move.”

We have dinner and Noelle, worn out from the excitement of the day, goes right to sleep leaving me and Talia alone together.

“Thank you. For everything.”

I give her another smile and hold her gaze. “We should practice kissing.”

“Excuse me?”

“Practice. So, we seem more natural when we do it.”

“Now?”

“Well yeah, you have to notify them that we’ve moved in together and if they send someone out, we have to show them it’s not because we’ve just met and are lying about everything.” She gnaws at her bottom lip making me want to give her something else to do with her mouth. “You have to be comfortable with me and all of this. You can’t jump every time I go in for a kiss.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. We don’t know each other very well and you’re being asked to do something that doesn’t come naturally to you. But we have to make it look natural if we’re going to sell this. We should practice every chance we have. Don't you think?”

She allows me to pull her down next to me and I cup the back of her head to bring her close so I can kiss her. She sits as stiff as she can without actually breaking and gives me nothing in return. I pull away from her so I can reassess what is going on or a way to make her more comfortable with me.

“Let’s…hmm? Let’s do it this way.” I sit back and pull her over my legs, so she is straddling me. “Let’s work on just getting comfortable to begin with. Then we’ll move on from there.”

“Getting comfortable?”

“Yeah. Just…relax.” I start rubbing her back as I pull her in close to me and hold her in my arms.

“Yeah right, like that is going to happen.”

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