Mistletoe & Kisses (3 page)

“What the hell is Pinterest?” he raised an eyebrow.

“Guess you’ll have to find out.”

“Oh, must be something kinky.” He stepped closer. “So you like it kinky?”

“Yeah, you could do a search for kinky, but you might be disappointed.” I couldn’t hold back my snicker.

“Well, if I were looking for someone to decorate a room…”

“You need a decorator?” Billie popped up from behind Murphy. “I could so help you with decorating. I have a great … eye,” she winked at him.

“Ah, no…” he looked back at me with almost looked like a plea for help. “I was just…”

“Oh you just have to let me help you decorate,” she smiled up at him.

“I don’t even live here, so no need to decorate anything yet.” He looked back at me.

“Well, damn,” Billie went to wrap her arm around Murphy’s arm, but he sidestepped her.

“Olive was actually going to …”

“Olive?” she said almost through gritted teeth.

“He asked me to show him…”

“I guess I’ll see you around then.” She took one more look at Murphy with what looked like a painfully fake smile. “Olive.” She nodded her head, but didn’t meet my eye at all.

“Thanks for the save. She seems like she would latch on and ….”

“Nope. She only latches on for the time she is underneath whoever she is banging at the moment.” Did I really just say that out loud? Oh my God...from the look on his face I did. Palm to face. “I didn’t mean to say that. I’m sorry.”

“No worries. Every office has one.” He laughed and threw his arm around my shoulder. “Now let me buy you a drink, since your boss returned my money and didn’t allow me to earlier.”

“They weren’t supposed to return it until the end of the evening.” I could feel the blush spreading down my neck. “I hope you weren’t offended.”

He must have caught my blush when I turned to look for Monica. “No worries really. I totally understand. Brother of the new partner and all. Might look bad.” He shrugged a shoulder. We stepped up to the bar, he ordered a beer and I ordered another Cosmo. “We’ll take them outside so no one will know.” He winked at me, grabbed both drinks and headed toward the doors leading to the patio outside.

It was not freezing out, but it was certainly chilly. They had not set up the outside heaters for our event. We wanted to keep everyone inside and out of trouble. There were tables set up, but Murphy headed to a more secluded spot. I have to admit I was both excited and nervous. Murphy had singled me out to talk to, but did I really want to be alone with him? I didn’t know him from anyone.

“I promise to return you as safely as I received you.” He noticed that I had stopped walking with him. “I just meant that I wasn’t going to hurt you. I just needed to get out of all of that noise.”

I took another step toward him and shivered. I think it had less to do with the chill in the air and more to do with the man roving his eyes up and down my body as he stood waiting for me to stand next to him at the railing.

“This is a really nice place you picked for the party.”

“Thank you. My cousin got married here last year. We had a great time and it was beautiful. Of course that was in the summer when everything was green instead of covered in white.” It has snowed earlier in the week and the remnants still spread over the grounds of the club.

“Not a fan of the snow?”

“I’m a Jersey girl...we know snow. I love skiing and snow tubing in the winter and swimming and beaching in the summer.” I took a sip of my drink. I really needed to slow down the guzzling of this drink. This had to be my last drink and I needed to make sure I had water and something more to eat before I drove home.

“I’ve seen some Jersey winters, but they can’t top Chicago snow that is for sure.” He chugged his beer.

“No, no they can’t. I enjoy the snow, but don’t know that I want to be buried in it for weeks on end.” I shivered again, this time it was the chill in the air as a breeze came across the patio.

“Here. No reason for you to freeze to death over having a drink with me.” He shimmied out of his suit jacket and had it around my shoulders before I could protest. “Not that I minded watching the breeze’s chilling effect on your skin.” His eyes seem to light up mischievously as he met my eyes and I realized what he had been referring to. Holy shit, my nipples could have cut freaking glass right now and they were poking through my dress for the world to see...well at least for Murphy Scott to see. Oh my God, I needed a hole to curl up and die in immediately. “No need to fret about it. I wasn’t disappointed and I’ve seen them, well not yours, but I have seen nipp….”

“Please stop.” I covered my face with my hand and shook my head. If I could work up the courage to turn and run away I would, but my humiliation kept me planted in this spot before him.

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I really don’t have much of a filter and I believe in straightforward honesty.”

“Well, you did and … and … I don’t even know what to say.” I still couldn’t get the look in his eyes out of my head. He looked like a wolf and I was the lamb spread out on the table before him, ready for him to devour.

“Don’t say anything. Accept it as a compliment and move on.” He took another swig of his beer. “It was meant entirely as a compliment. You have a great body.” He moved closer to me. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you again when I come to town to see my brother.” He reached toward me to brush a loose hair back behind my ear.

“Are the two of you close?” Why did I sound so breathy? Seriously.

“Much closer than we were when we were kids. He used to beat the shit out of me. Then I got big enough to pay back the favor and we have been friends ever since. Much to the happiness of our parents, especially my mother. She didn’t like that we fought. My father said it would make us stronger and closer.”

“I guess he was right? I’m an only child so I had no siblings to fight with.”

“Yeah, he was right. We still go away on family vacations together.”

“That’s cool. We camped when I was a kid. I haven’t been in forever. Our vacations now seem to consist of ski lodges and beach days.” Damn, we really needed to branch out more again.

“I haven’t camped in years.” He was now standing so close to me that his chest brushed against his jacket that was now covering my now aroused and erect nipples. “I wouldn’t mind sharing a sleeping bag with you and seeing where things might go.” He leaned his head toward mine as if asking my permission. Before I could respond and before he could continue to lean forward, his phone rang from the right pocket of his jacket.

“Your phone is vibrating,” I smiled up at him.

“Yeah, I heard it.” He leaned in brushing his head against my chin as he reached for his phone. “Shit! I gotta return this call.” He looked at the screen of the phone stepped away.

“Okay.” I went to move away from him, but he grabbed my hand and started to walk me back toward the doors of the room where the holiday party was in full swing from the look through the window.

“I’ll try to catch up with you in a bit,” he reached for his jacket and slid it off of my shoulders. I was going to turn to look at him, but he already had the door open waiting for me to step inside.

”It was nice meeting you, Murphy,” I turned to smile at him just as the door shut and I watched him walk back to the railing with his phone to his ear. Well, I guessed when the wife called you must return the call immediately. Ugh… I wondered if he was really married or had a girlfriend. Not that it would matter, he lived in Chicago and I lived here.

Stupidly and hopefully not obviously, I tried to keep my eye on that door for Murphy’s return. I didn’t think I could have missed him come back into the room. I did check the head table more than a few times and I didn’t see him sitting next to Malone, or anyone else for that matter. He hadn’t taken his seat for dinner when it was served, nor as dessert and coffee were being served.

During the dessert and coffee service, we began handing out the grab bag gifts. These were gifts that were randomly handed out like a raffle. The office staff each received a ticket for a prize and everyone cheered and oohed and aahed at the prizes. Since Monica had been the ‘host’ of the evening, she and I were in charge of handing out the grab bag gifts to the office staff. Just as we were about to finish and people were making their way toward the exit, Malone Scott stepped up to whisper something to Monica. Monica nodded, said congratulations to everyone, wished them happy holiday and turned the microphone over to Malone.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I just wanted to take this moment to say thank you to everyone for making me already feel a part of Daniel, Short, Leisenheimer and Soneira.” Everyone seemed to have returned to their seats to hear what the new partner had to say. I’m sure it had nothing to do with him being a hottie. “This evening has been a great way to be introduced to many of you. Those I haven’t had a chance to speak to yet, I’m sure we will in the near future. I look forward to working with you. I was informed earlier this evening about the raffle gifts; however, I had not had a chance to purchase anything. Since everyone has received a ticketed gift, I have offered to raffle off one last prize.” The room began to chatter.

“What could he be raffling off?” I whispered to Monica.

“Could be almost anything. Concert tickets, show tickets,” she shrugged. “He is after all an entertainment attorney.” She winked at me.

“The best way to do this is...” he pulled a pen from his inside pocket and handed it to a server standing at his side. She jotted something down. “Elaine just wrote a number down, the person who guesses closest to this number gets the prize.” He laughed when everyone started shouting numbers. “Why don’t we try it this way? We’ll go table to table. The number is between ten and one hundred.” He made to move away from the podium. “Monica would you mind helping me go around and gather up the entries? Olive if you wouldn’t mind as well?” He met my eyes with not only the question he asked, but as if he were checking me out, but not in a sexual or attracted way.

Well, damn, if I help then I don’t get a chance at the prize.

“Just jot down the names and guesses.” Malone handed us each a piece of paper and a pen he had gotten from a server. “Olive, you can give me your guess so it’s fair.” He turned to the server who was presently drooling over him. “Just hold on to this and don’t let anyone know what you wrote, so it’s fair for all,” he pointed to the piece of paper in her hand, smiled a panty-melting smile at her and she sighed then nodded with a shy smile at him. “Calle, would you mind helping as well?” Malone called. “You can give me your guess, too.”

I had to admit that when he called Calle’s name and Billie’s face scrunched up in annoyance, I was totally thrilled.

I winked at Calle as she and I took turns telling Malone our guesses. The four of us then moved quickly around the room. Monica, thankfully and I think strategically, was the one who got to get Billie’s guess. Once we were all done we handed Malone the lists which he then turned over to the server.

“Thank you Elaine.” He said taking the piece of paper from the server. He held up the paper for the room to see the number, then he glanced over his shoulder at Elaine. “Do we have a winner?” Elaine smiled up at Malone and then handed him the lists back.

“Well, when I was told that the staff here was close, who knew you were so close that three of you would all pick the same number? All three from different tables as well. Susan, Jean and Carey you are our winners and can decide which tickets you would like to choose from. I’ll have list on Monday available for you to pick from. Congratulations and again everyone, thank you for the welcome and happy holidays.” Malone said and then headed back to the table with the partners.

I had agreed to help with the cleaning up of the decorations of the room. I had recruited two people from each department to help, so that with ten people it would only take about an hour. And it did. I thanked everyone for their help and was making my way back to my car when Suzanne, the event coordinator for the country club called after me.

“Excuse me, Olive?” she waved her hand at me. “We have an issue,” she said sounding a bit out of breath.

“An issue? Is something wrong with the room? We just finished the clean-up and I did go through and everything seemed fine.” My heart stopped. I knew I had checked that everything we had brought had been removed. No damage had been done that I was informed about. Oh, if something happened it was surely going to get back to the partners and once that happened everyone would know and I’d never be able to plan an event again and I had plans for the company picnic in August. Yeah, I knew it was next year, but I liked to plan ahead...so sue me.

“No, no there are no damages and the room is fine. We just have an issue with one of the guests.” She turned so I would follow her back into the building. No one had mentioned a problem with a guest and no one came to me with any complaints.

“I’m sure whatever it is…”

“Oh, it isn’t a what, it’s a who,” she smiled at me reassuringly.

“I’m sorry what?”
Oh God no! Please tell me someone wasn’t screwing around in one of the other rooms. Or worse, they got caught screwing around and now I have to take care of it.

“Well, we were making our final rounds of the rooms before the night cleaning people came in and we found him.” She pointed to one of their other ball rooms.