Page 47 of Her Secret Santa

I should take longer than a second to think. It’s hard to reconcile the Elite from Eternity, who I’ve become so attached to, with the rumors I’ve heard about Zade, and with the grouch I know as my Santa. When I open my mouth, though, only one word comes out.

“Okay.” It’s quiet, a breath of a word, tinged with incredulous laughter. It feels like the most honest thing I’ve ever said. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Okay?” Zade asks, his hands tightening on my arms as his face lights up with pure glee. “That’s a yes?”

I laugh, helpless to do anything else.

“That’s a yes.”

He pulls me into a tender, gentle kiss, his mouth soft on mine, and I wrap my arms around his shoulders, drinking in the soft sigh of relief that falls from his lips. I want to put my faith in this, inhim, but I can’t help thinking that this could easily be a very quick road to heartbreak.

I guess all I can do now is see where the road takes me.

Chapter Twenty

CLARA

Dancing the night away in Zade’s arms felt like a dream. I had never felt more alive, knowing exactly who the man behind the man was, knowing that he wants me just like I want him. So much has happened since we met, and I didn’t want the night to end, desperate to keep the fairy tale alive. I almost argued when it was time to leave, but let him herd me into the car and kiss me senseless before his driver dropped me off back at home with a promise from Zade that he’d be back in the morning.

I wake up in my own bed, immediately wondering if last night was an insane dream of some sort.

My closet door is open when I glance over, and the dress I wore is hanging there, sparkling gems nestled in between secondhand sweaters and worn out old jeans. I blink against the early morning light, trying to parse through everything.

Zade. Santa. My Elite.

One in the same.

A Christmas ball out of my dreams. A magical night full of magical promises.

It can’t be real, can it?

I have to call Allie. I have no idea how to handle any of this, and she always figures things out way before I do. She’ll know what to do.

She picks up just before the call goes to voicemail, groggy and exhausted, but she listens attentively as I blurt out everything that happened last night. I tell her about Zade, how he got me the job at Hawthorne Enterprises, how he’s been trying to take care of me from the sidelines this whole time, how his patience ran out and he decided he wanted more. I tell her about him asking for a chance with me, like that makes any sense at all.

“Ok, take a breath,” Allie urges. “That’s… insane.”

I laugh in breathless agreement. Insane is putting it lightly.

“So he’s trying to clean up his image with the whole mall Santa thing, and he recognized you as the elf that first night at Eternity?” Her voice drips heavily with judgment when she continues, “and he didn’t tell you that night? He waitedthis longto tell you at all?”

I get where she’s coming from—I had the same worries last night when he told me.

“He didn’t want to break the NDAs at first,” I explain. “And he was worried his reputation would ruin things. He’s been trying to clean up his act, and he was nervous that he’d lose me if he told me.”

She hums in hesitant understanding.

“You think he’s being serious?” she asks slowly, trying to be gentle with the suggestion.

I spent the night pondering that same question.

“I do.” It’s kind of hard to say it out loud, but I couldn’t help but trust the look in those dark eyes when he told me he wanted more with me. “I don’t think he really knows how to show thatwithout tossing money around, but I think he wants to try. I don’t know if it’llwork. I mean, he’s the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the city, and I’m barely making ends meet in a one-bedroom in the Bronx. It’s a big leap of faith, but I want to give it a shot.”

I know she’ll understand, even if I can’t put it all into words. She knows me better than I know myself.

“If you want to try, I think you should,” Allie says, although I can still hear a note of uncertainty in her voice. “It’s probably not going to be easy, but if anyone can change someone like him, it’s you.”

I can’t even comprehend that, but Allie’s advice has never steered me wrong before. I take a deep breath to calm myself down, endlessly grateful to have a friend like her.

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