Page 40 of Santa Baby

“Well, we both knew people would start talking.” I shrugged.

“I know you have some luncheons coming up that I’m not invited to⁠—”

“You’d be bored to death.”

She grabbed my arms, laughing. “Just listen to me. We don’t have any pictures together. What if you’re asked for a picture of me? What are you going to do? Say you don’t have a picture of us together? That might raise suspicions.”

She wasn’t entirely wrong. I reached into my pocket and handed her my phone. “Go crazy.”

“A picture together, Mason. With you smiling. Smiling like you’re happy to be taking a picture with me.” She settled beside me, leaning in with her head resting in the crook of my shoulder as she extended her arm.

Our faces lit up the screen, and I did my best to look relaxed. She huffed a breath and turned to glare at me. Our faces couldn’t be more than a few inches apart, and she was almost in my lap in an attempt to fit us both into the frame.

“You’re trying to look miserable on purpose!” she accused.

“I don’t look miserable!”

“You do! Just smile. Move your lips like this, see?” She cupped my cheek, her thumb sweeping over the corner of my mouth. “Just like that.”

“Fia.” I barely recognized my own voice. Her eyes lingered on my lips, her thumb brushing over my lower lip. Screw it.

I kissed her again.

I started to pull away but she pulled me back, dropping my phone between us as she clasped my face between her hands. This kiss wasn’t like our first. It was heated, desperate, and passionate in a way I hadn’t experienced before. She climbed onto my lap in nothing but those sweatpants that made my mouth water the second she opened her door in a tight white T-shirt. I could feel her heart beating out of rhythm as I slid a hand up her belly, my fingers sliding between the fabric of her shirt and her skin.

She let out a soft moan that had my synapses firing to the point I couldn’t think straight. I wanted to touch her. I wanted to throw her down on the couch and kiss down her neck to her breasts, making her make that sound over and over.

“Wait,” I breathed, my lips still pressed against her. “Fia, I don’t want to fuck this up.”

“I don’t either,” she panted, pulling away to look into my eyes. “We shouldn’t do this, should we?”

It was all I wanted to do. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she felt the same.

17

FIA

Three associates met me and Liv at the door of Vivaldi’s before we’d even stepped off the street and back onto the sidewalk. Charlotte cheerfully opened the door, peppering me with questions like we’d been friends since girlhood.

Liv, who I hadn’t seen in over two weeks, kept glancing at me, however, not buying the aloof, slightly bored expression I’d practiced in the mirror all morning after asking her to go with me to find a gown for Deck the Decks. She had known something was up the second she saw me when we met at a coffee shop first, but so far, she hadn’t said a word about it yet.

“Okay, so, I’m thinking—just hear me out—mermaid theme. Mermaid cut, colors.” Charlotte beamed and gestured wildly. “Glitter, sparkles, the nines.”

“I’m down for whatever.” I laughed into my gingerbread latte. “But, um, let’s do something blue again.”

“Blue, got it.” Charlotte and her minions fluttered away, while Liv and I sat down in the “viewing dock,” as I liked to call it.

“We have the whole store to ourselves,” I mused, crossing my legs.

“Yeah, we do.” Liv looked me up and down before smirking over the rim of her coffee cup. “So, how big is it?”

I almost choked. “What?”

“You’re obviously sleeping with Mr. Billionaire.”

“We are not sleeping together.”

“Then what? You’ve been blushing since I met up with you this morning. Have things taken an interesting turn, just like I warned you about?”