Page 15 of All I Want for Christmas

‘Do I need to?’ He blinked slowly. ‘When you already know.’

She felt the heat come into her cheeks as confirmation was given. So it was him. She hadn’t been entirely sure. She looked back at him, recognizing that cocksure stare that had antagonized her on screen. She had sensed arrogance and it had riled her, and yet, in his presence, it came off differently. Confidence, self-assurance...‘Max the Lawyer?’

He smiled, bemused at the title.

At what point, she wondered, had he recognized her? Almost immediately – as for her? – or had it only come as her name had carried on the crowd? ‘But you said you work at Madsen Holdings.’

‘Yes. I’m a corporate lawyer there.’

‘Oh.’

‘Oh,’ he echoed, his gaze falling to her lips. Subtlety wasn’t his strong suit and she found she didn’t care. In fact, she liked his directness. It was everything Lars – evasive, non-committal, deceitful – hadn’t been.

‘Miss?’

The moment was broken by the attendant coming back with her coat and bag. ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, looking away from Max.

‘Want some help with that?’ he asked, as she looped her jacket – the turquoise puffa she wore for running – over her arm. His eyebrow arched fractionally at the sight of it. It was an incongruous pairing with her cocktail dress but little did he know how her day had unravelled. She had been on the fly since her lunch with Freja.

‘No, thanks...I ran in this morning,’ she said, by way of explanation of the coat.

He nodded. ‘Still, it’s cold outside and you’re not wearing very much.’ His gaze fell to the sweep of her bare shoulders before coming back to her again.

‘It’s fine, I’ll catch a cab,’ she said, heading for the doors but already waiting – hoping – for his next suggestion to share a car with him.

It came.

‘Or we could get that nightcap – now you’re no longer busy.’ He held her gaze and she remembered her abrupt response to his equally short message. Perhaps they were as bad as each other?

The door was opened by one of the porters. ‘Good night,’ the man said as they passed out onto the steps. Immediately the northern chill asserted itself and she shivered.

‘Here.’ He went to shrug off his jacket. Gentlemanly. Seductive.

‘Darcy!’

The voice rang out from somewhere in the darkness and she looked down to see a man standing beside a taxi, waving at her.

Oh, God. She had completely forgotten. She looked back at Max, but in that single moment, his jacket had already been shrugged back onto his shoulders.

‘But you’re still busy, I see.’ He held her gaze for a moment and she saw frustration, irritation even, in his eyes.

‘I...’ She couldn’t think of what to say. She wanted to tell him it was nothing, that she’d never even met that man before, that she didn’t want him – not over Max. She wanted to tell Erik to sling his hook, but Max was already stepping back and reaching for his phone, a distant smile on his lips.

‘It was a pleasure meeting you, Darcy. Have a nice night.’

She watched him turn and go down the steps, his phone against his ear.

It all happened so fast. One minute she was in his orbit, the next, flung out with dizzying speed.

‘Kristina?’ His voice was low, already distant, but she swore she heard him say the name as he headed towards a waiting black car, a driver opening the glossy passenger door as he neared. In the next instant he had disappeared inside, gone from her sight, and she felt again as she had when he had left the party earlier: deflated, as if the sun had been plucked from the sky.

‘Darcy!’ Erik called, waving frantically again as the car pulled away into the night. ‘Over here!’

‘Fuck,’ Darcy said under her breath, shrugging on the running jacket after all and heading down the steps towards her dreaded date.

Chapter Five

‘I can’t believe you actually had a date last night!’ Freja exclaimed, sitting on the side of the sink in her underwear as they brushed their teeth. ‘You wasted no time!’

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