Her Secret Santa: A Christmas Protector Romance (Perfect Kisses Book 3) Read online

  “Well, I do apologize,” I said. “The world of business is not always so cut and dry. I try to adhere to a schedule, and I hate when others are late, but at times there are things which demand attention that you can’t put off. Sometimes those things come at you out of thin air.”

  “Ok,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m off to a rough start today.” She smiled warmly at me. I loved that winning smile. I could watch it forever. It was enchanting.

  “So, are you ready for the Holidays?” I asked her with a grin as I pointed to the decorations that adorned my office. I hardly even noticed them anymore. Jill insisted on putting them up every year. If it were up to me then I wouldn’t even bother with them. Then again, I wouldn’t bother with a lot of things. That was why Jill was so vital to my success. She was the best secretary I’d ever had.

  Julie laughed. “I guess so. I haven’t really thought too much about it.”

  “Well, that is unfortunate,” I said. “I really enjoy this time of the year. Everywhere you turn, everything is so festive and fun. I wish I had more time to enjoy it.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  “Is your family from around here?” I asked.

  “They live in Modesto.”

  “Ah, have you ever been to the east coast? That is where they do Christmas right. It’s cold and chilly. The air is crisp at this time of year. Sometimes they have snow. We have all this fake stuff here and we are all walking around in t-shirts. It all looks so lame. But I think the spirit is still there, right?”

  “Sure,” she said. “I love Christmas. When I was a kid every building you walked into seemed to be filled with Christmas cheer and decorations. It seemed that way at the time when I was a kid at least.” She bounced on her toes nervously.

  I smiled and gave her an understanding nod.

  “Well, let me take a look at that resume of yours. I really enjoyed it when I looked at it during the selection for this year’s intern. It was a close competition as always, but something about your letter and the resume really stood out to me.”

  I walked back around to my desk and slid into my chair. I grabbed her resume off the top and began to read. “Top of your class at Princeton. That’s fantastic. Honor Society, Sorority, charity work, and even some athletics. Softball? Nice. Champions? Got to love that.”

  I was enjoying watching her smile get wider every time I read off another one of her great accomplishments. She had actually done quite a bit with her education. “We value people here who are self-starters. They don’t have to be told too much about what to do. They handle problems by their own whenever they arise. They don’t have to ask for help that much. And they love what they do. They have that drive in them that really thrives on accomplishment. That is the most important thing, as well as creativity. You seem to embody all of that, which is why we chose you.”

  I meant every single world. I hadn’t actually been the one who had weeded out all of the applications, but Benjamin Stevens had done a great job as he always did. As I read through Julie’s resume, I began to like her even more. The woman had me suspended with lust just sitting across from her.

  It had been a few months since I’d dated anyone that I really connected with. It didn’t work out though. And I was actually starting to lose some faith in the whole process of choosing someone. I didn’t really want to go through that whole thing of meeting someone, trying to force a connection, and then it not working out anyway. I was beginning to think I’d never find that perfect woman. I had already found her once and I lost her.

  There was only one time I was truly in love. I’d never been married, but I had been very close once. Amanda… she was my fiancée. She died in a tragic car accident when we were both twenty-two, during our last year of college. She was hit head on by a drunk driver. She died at the scene.

  I had thought of her every day since then. I wasn’t sure I’d ever love anyone like that again.

  And lately, I hadn’t even felt that pure, raw animal attraction that really makes you feel alive. That special spark, that chemistry, or whatever people want to call it.

  Until now I wasn’t sure what it was, but I had started to feel that special thing for Julie. I wanted to learn everything about her. I wanted to know what made her tick, what she wanted out of life, and if she felt any real attraction to me at all.

  “Thanks,” Julie said.

  “Absolutely,” I replied. “Well, let me show you to your desk and what you will be spending the majority of your time working on.”

  “Ok,” Julie said with a smile. I could tell she was excited and ready to tear things up. She wanted to get started. I could hardly blame her.

  I led her to the elevator and then down to the tenth floor, which was our marketing department. Julie’s degree was in marketing and that was what we hoped she’d be able to bring most to the table.

  We made our way to the main conference room and I briefly introduced Julie to everybody and what they were all working on. She seemed very interested and the group welcomed her right into their fold. I explained a bit. “We are launching several new products right now. It is the holiday season, so you will be working closely with this team. Right now, they are perfecting the newest software for our latest mobile game system. We stand to make a killing this holiday season if we can launch the software and have it available for download by Christmas Eve. So, you might be working some long days right at first. I hope you can handle that.”

  “Sure,” she said. “That sounds like fun to me.”

  “Great,” I said. “Let me show you your desk and make sure your log in works. You will use the dummy log in the first time and then it will prompt you for a more secure one.”

  “Ok,” she replied.

  We arrived at her cubicle and she sat down and tried the logins that I gave to her. She changed a few things to personalize them and then she was off and running. “Ok, now you will be notified of almost everything by email, so make sure you are checking that at least once an hour. It will highlight when something is sent, but it’s easy to miss if you aren’t here, or you are actually doing something else.”

  “Got it,” she said.

  I noticed how good her perfume smelled as I was leaning over her showing some of the basic spreadsheets that we used. It was intoxicating. And I also realized that from this angle I could easily peek down her shirt. Oh, the temptation. I was proud of my restraint.

  “So, do you think you got everything down pretty much? If you need any help, Marly is our marketing supervisor, so she is the one to ask. Her office is at the end of the hall. Very nice lady.”

  “Ok. I think I’ve got it.”

  “Fantastic,” I said. I started to turn away, but then I remembered something. “Hey, you should come to the Christmas party this Friday. It’s a blast. We do it every single year. It is always a great time.”

  She seemed unsure. “Really? I just started. I’m just an intern.”

  “You are going to be a valuable asset to this company. So, yes. You should definitely come.”

  She shrugged. “Ok. I’ll do that.”

  “Great,” I said. “We do this secret Santa thing every year that is a lot of fun as well. We’ll explain more at the party. Is there anything else you need from me right now?”

  “No, I think I’m all set.”

  “Great. Welcome aboard, Julie.”

  “Thanks.”

  I walked away and didn’t turn back until the elevator door was closing shut in front of me. Julie… wow… that woman had my soul on fire now. I wanted her. I needed her. But I didn’t want to show any interest yet. She’d just met me. I was the boss. She was an intern. She wanted to get her bearings first and meet her co-workers, find out what her job entailed, and then get comfortable with that.

  And besides, I really didn’t want to date someone who worked for me again. I’d done it a few times in the past and then when it didn’t work out and we broke up, the tension around the office was just weird. I hated that. I
didn’t want to experience that with Julie.

  For now, I was just going to play things a bit cool. But I knew that no matter how much I fought it, I was damn hard attracted to that woman. I lusted for her. I was still thinking about her when I got back to my office. I checked the time and decided it should have been late enough in the morning for a drink, but I decided to be sober and just consume crazy amounts of coffee instead. I filled up a large mug and then went to my office to relax a moment and prepare for my next meeting.

  I was fired up about that. If it went well, then I would be consuming one of my competitors and I would continue to grow my family’s fortune. At this point the money was more about keeping score than anything. It was all fun and games it would seem. The sport of my choice was business. It was a game that I happened to excel at. My father had taught me well.

  I found myself thinking about the Christmas party as I looked out the window of the twelfth floor and peered out. Even without the snow and the colder temps, the Los Angeles area still knew how to celebrate a great holiday. For the next several weeks it would look like one big party going on everywhere you turned.

  I loved this time of the year. I wished I could truly get out and celebrate it more, but this also happened to be the time of year when everyone was doing their best to make a buck and business was booming.

  As I stood there watching the city, I wished that Julie was right there with me to celebrate the season. I was already having a hard time getting her off my mind. And something told me that it was going to get even harder.

  4

  Julie

  I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth. I had actually demanded an apology from Tony Caplan for making me wait. What the fuck was I thinking? I wanted to crawl under the chair I was sitting in. I wasn’t sure what was going on in Tony’s mind. I could imagine him wondering how this new intern dare have the guts to say something like that to him. But he laughed it off and embraced me anyway.

  Tony was so nice. He was cocky and arrogant for sure, but I expected that mostly from his reputation and the fact he’d been raised so privileged. His father had started this huge global company before Tony was even born. That sort of thing was just in him for the long haul.

  The conversation between us picked up right after that. Tony was so easy going when he spoke to me. It was like we were old friends playing catch up or something. We seemed to have a lot in common, or I was just picking up on things because I was so nervous. I could hardly remember everything that was said, but I knew that I felt really comfortable with Tony.

  And it didn’t hurt that I found him irresistibly attractive. The man just oozed sex appeal. The moment I saw him sitting there as I walked into his office, my knees wanted to melt into the floor. I could hardly stand and walk. All of those nerves and fears I’d been feeling earlier came back right then and they were amplified now. I could hardly hold myself together when I was answering his questions.

  But little by little the meeting went better and better. And now I was sitting at my desk working on coming up with a marketing strategy for the new software launch. I was working on the beta version. The rest of the team was working on the alpha version. We were going to see which one turned out to be more profitable where people would spend more money and also find out the threshold where people would not spend any more for that value. It was a slippery slope, but I was supposed to be pretty good at this shit. Why was my mind drawing a blank?

  Could it be Tony…?

  Damn. It was. I knew it was. I was so attracted to him. Me and a million other women of course, but there was a particular thing that seemed to shine in him when he was speaking with me. I felt awakened suddenly. That didn’t make much sense to me. I was dealing in the realm of feelings and feelings rarely made much sense to me. That’s why I always dealt in the world of logic.

  Having gushy feelings for any guy was not what I needed right now. I had to focus on doing well in this job and making a name for myself right from the get-go. I had to work hard. I had to stand out. I wasn’t going to stand out as the intern who ended up in the boss’s bed.

  Was he even that attracted to me? It was tough to say. I could see Tony being that confident and borderline flirty with just about anyone. But what if he actually felt something different for me…?

  “What are you thinking about?”

  The voice of Barb Stanning interrupted my thoughts. She was sitting at the cubicle beside mine. Barb was a sweetheart. She’d been with the company for about six years and she seemed to love what she did. She was fun and outgoing, a regular life of the party type, even though she didn’t look to be the gregarious one. She looked more like a pretty librarian than a marketing executive. But she was flirty and teased everyone about everything. She was so bubbly and zany that it worked for her. I was glad that she seemed to like me and so far, she’d taken me under her wing and was happy to answer any question that I might have.

  She was about average height with large breasts that she was not afraid to show off in her low-cut sweaters, thick glasses, and her hair tied back in a ponytail. She had kind, but sexy eyes and the way she worked her mouth when she spoke almost looked like she was kissing an invisible frog to turn it into a prince or something.

  I was snapped out of my daydream by her voice. “No, I wasn’t thinking about anything except for this.”

  She laughed. “Bullshit. You were thinking about him.”

  I pretended to have no idea. “Him?”

  “Tony.”

  “The boss? The head honcho?” I asked. If Barb knew me at all, she would have known I was lying by my use of the word head honcho.

  “Yeah, that Tony. You want him, don’t you?”

  I stared at her in disbelief. How in the hell did she know this? Could she read my mind?

  “What are you talking about?” I asked.

  “It’s ok. Every single female intern gets the same look in their eyes when they first start. They have to get him out of their system. I hate to break the news to you, but he rarely dates his employees, and he is basically a confirmed bachelor.”

  “You mean he is a player or something?”

  She shook her head. “No, he isn’t anything that smarmy. He just doesn’t seem to be the marrying type. I don’t think he will ever settle down. I’ve seen him date three different women for long-term relationships. We are talking a year, two years… hell, he even dated Kimberly for three years, but then she left him because he wouldn’t commit. At least, that is what I heard, but you know the rumor mill and gossip machine of places like this. With social media that sort of stuff has become so much worse.”

  “What is his fear of commitment?”

  “I heard a rumor that he was in love once and either got dumped or the girl died, and he never really recovered from it. But again, I don’t know for sure. I’m just warning you not to get your hopes up about dating him and if he does ask you out, do not assume that things are ever going to be permanent with the two of you.”

  “Did you ever date him?” I asked.

  She laughed. “No, I’m not quite up to his standards,” she said.

  “You are very attractive,” I replied. “What do you mean?”

  “Yeah, physically he might be down, but I’m too much of a smart ass. At least that is what I tell myself. I might be completely full of shit.”

  I chuckled. Barb was funny.

  But I was taking her advice to heart. She seemed to know the ins and outs of the place better than anyone. I wondered what Tony’s fear of commitment was really all about. It was intriguing, and it actually made me want him that much more. Wow, I was hopeless, a real glutton for punishment it would seem.

  What was I even thinking about? Tony had not expressed any desire to date me or have anything romantic with me at all. I had concocted this all in my mind so far.

  I finished out the working day and I thought I was actually starting to find my rhythm and pacing. I left the floor and rode the elevator down to the
bottom. I was tired and so ready to go home and crack open a beer while relaxing with a good book. That sounded like a great plan to me. Tomorrow I would be right back at it bright and early.

  To my amazement, some of the others were actually listening to some of my ideas. I knew I was going to like it here.

  When I stepped off the elevator, I noticed how much more decorations there were hanging up in the lobby. That morning there had been one small tree in the corner and now there were two large ten foot tall Christmas trees with lights standing in the other two corners on opposite sides of the elevator.

  There were streams of tinsel everywhere, a plastic Santa standing in front of a sleigh with a few reindeer that lit up to look as if they were all waving at you as you walked by. And there was great holiday classic Christmas music playing from overhead. Most of this had not been there that morning when I arrived. I took a moment to thoroughly enjoy the moment.

  I then turned to walk out of the building towards my car. I was almost to the door when I saw Tony walking to the elevator from another point of the huge lobby. I watched him walking for a moment. He seemed so deep in thought. He was so handsome that he literally took my breath away. I wasn’t sure how I could be around him without wanting him. Thankfully, I wasn’t going to be working that directly with him.

  He caught my eye just then. Right before he stepped on the elevator. He pointed to the decorations and gave me a wink.

  I gave him a thumbs up for approval. The elevator doors closed just then, and he was gone.

  I stood there for a moment and then I remembered the off the hand comment I’d made about how much I loved Christmas decorations and seeing every building you walked into decorated this time of year. Had Tony taken that comment and ran with it? Did he get all of this done that fast? Just because of what I said.

  “I’ll be…” I muttered.

  Tony was some kind of man. I felt that he might be even more amazing than I knew.