Page 3 of Mistletoe Madness

He set his mug off to the side and propped his elbow on the marble-topped island as he stared at me with an inscrutable look in his eyes. He could have been a statue for all his facial features gave away his thoughts. “There was no one in my room last night, Mikayla.”

“Are you sure?” I squeaked.

He nodded slowly, the right side of his mouth tipping up in a wry grin. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Oh, my mistake. I just thought I heard a woman’s voice in there with you.”

At that, his cheeks turned a dusky shade of pink, and he cleared his throat. “Um, yeah. No. That was, um …”

I held up my hand so he wouldn’t be forced to admit that he’d been watching porn. “That’s okay. We’re both adults with … ahem … needs. I get it. Say no more.”

He dropped his gaze down to the counter and scratched at a divot in the marble with the fingernail on his thumb. When I thought he wasn’t going to say anything more, I bit into my breakfast. As I was chewing, he looked back up. “It’s just that, you know … it’s been awhile.”

I shoved another bite of food into my mouth before I was even finished chewing the previous one and nodded, silently thanking the good lord for having given me the insight to grab this sandwich since it meant I didn’t have to actually acknowledge his statement verbally.

“Anyhow,” he said, when he realized I was committed to eating my breakfast sandwich like it was my last meal on earth, “I’ll try to keep the volume down next time.”

I nodded again, my head bobbing up and down frantically, and just so he was sure we were all good, I flashed him a thumbs-up sign with the hand that wasn’t gripping a breakfast sandwich for dear life.

He stared at me blankly for a few seconds, but then he turned and shuffled out of the kitchen, scratching the back of his neck as he went.

When I heard the treads of the stairs squeak as he moved up them, I scurried over to peg by the back exit that held our keys and practically flung myself out the door and toward my car. I didn’t even care that it was fifteen degrees outside and I wasn’t wearing a coat.

3

My colleague Aubrey wiped a tear from the corner of her eye as I finished explaining why I didn’t have a jacket with me, despite today being the coldest day of winter we’d had so far. Obviously, I hadn’t told her the whole sordid story because that was simply too embarrassing. Besides, there were some things you didn’t need your co-worker knowing about you. Like the fact that you were a disgusting peeping tom.

“You can’t be serious right now,” she guffawed from between bouts of laughter. “You didn’t!”

“Oh, but I did.” I spun my chair around and around in a circle until I was dizzy. It was nearing seven o’clock, and we were the last ones in the office. Until each of our clients approved their press releases, she and I were chained to our desks waiting to put in a call to the wire services to get them queued up for tomorrow. Normally I would have been pissed to still be at work this late, but it was better than going home and trying to behave normally around Nick. At least before he didn’t know that I’d overheard him masturbating.

Now … well, now I didn’t know how I’d ever face him again. If I wasn’t seriously in love with the house and its location, I might have already started looking at Craigslist ads.

“I told you when you moved in with him something like this would happen.”

“No. You told me it would be weird if one of us brought a fuck buddy home. You didn’t say anything about this.”

“Okay, but I did say he was going to be trouble. A man that hot is always trouble,” she said, checking her inbox for the tenth time in the last three minutes.

On my next rotation, I planted my feet firmly on the industrial carpet, bringing me to a quick, jerking stop. “He’s not though. I’m the one who’s trouble. He can’t even masturbate in his own home!”

She threw her hands up in victory. “Yes! I’m out of here.” She picked up her phone, made a quick call to approve the press release, and then shrugged her arms into her teal wool coat. “You good here?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” I mumbled, hitting refresh on my own screen. Still nothing. “If they don’t approve this thing by eight o’clock, I’m calling someone at home to interrupt bed time with junior.”

“Just don’t get yelled at again. Summer will be pissed.”

“Summer’s always pissed.”

Aubrey settled her knit beanie over her wavy pink hair and pulled on her gloves. “She probably needs to get laid.”

“Don’t we all,” I groaned. The last man I’d been with was my former fiancé, and we hadn’t had sex the last three months of our engagement. Was it any wonder I was getting off to the sounds of my roommate getting himself off?

“Not me!” Aubrey sing-songed as she practically skipped out of our office. “Trey stayed over last night.”

“Which one’s Trey again?” I called out as she circled the floor turning off all the lights the cleaning crew had left on. It was hard keeping track of who Aubrey was sleeping with at any one time. There was her regulars—Trey among them—but you never knew on Monday morning what new name you were going to hear. I knew what our co-workers said about Aubrey behind her back, but personally, I was in awe of her. The woman was shameless. She was also one of the kindest, most caring people I’d met since moving here a few years ago to be with Brayden.

“The drummer. And yes, his rhythm isverygood.” She cackled evilly as she breezed past our office on her way to the exit.

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