The Christmas Wish (28 page)

“Uh, right.” Mary took a step back. Noel closed her mouth. Her enthusiasm had been known to frighten the unsuspecting.

“So, we’re live in five minutes. I think I have all your background. I have a couple of questions to ask once we’re on air. Anything specific you’d like for me to cover?”

“Just that every Winter Pines residents is over seventy-five and that Winter Pines has been here for twenty-five years. The residents don’t want to move and especially not for a shopping mall. I mean, do we really need another shopping mall in Lake Grove?”

“Right,” Mary said. “Got it.” She eyed Noel from top to toe. Her cocked eyebrow made it obvious that while Mary might not be in need of another shopping mall, she definitely believed that Noel could use some apparel help, stat.

The cameraman pointed at Mary and she turned her back to Noel. Noel tossed her head and patted her wild curls. Better to look less like a crazy woman chained to the front door of an old-folks’ home and more like a rational community activist who was fighting for the poor and disenfranchised. A stretch, especially when she was, in fact, chained to the front door.

The cameraman pointed at Mary. “In five, four, three”—he went silent and mouthed two and one.

“This is Mary Crossman at White Pines Retirement Community in Lake Grove. With us today is Noel Klaus, community activist, and former member of the Peace Corps.”

“Hi, Mary.”

“Miss Klaus, it appears you’ve chained yourself to the door of White Pines. Could you tell us why you, a woman who obviously isn’t a resident of White Pines, has locked herself to the door the week before Christmas?”

“Well,” Noel said and brushed a red curl from her face. “When I arrived for the holidays to visit my grandmother, I discovered that some sociopathic billionaire had managed to purchase the mayor, the city council, and the zoning commissioner so that he could destroy a nursing home right before Christmas.” Noel looked from Mary toward the camera and lifted her shackled arms. “What else could I do?”

“Hmm,” Mary said. “Some strong accusations from a woman chained to a glass door. But a very good question.” Mary glanced past the camera and Noel followed her gaze. “Let’s ask the sociopath, shall we?”

Noel pulled her eyebrows tight and squinted. Was that a car? A giant black blob pulled to a stop beside the wrecking ball and what was now a globby group of men in orange hats. A very large man walked toward Noel and Mary. Without her glasses, Noel could see little more than the fact that he was tall. A tingle started at the base of Noel’s spine. Heat churned in her belly.

Desire? For this man? The very man who was dumping a slew of octogenarians onto the mean streets of Lake Grove barely a week before Christmas?

Well, hadn’t every woman in the world been conditioned to be attracted to power and money? This heat that pulled through her was merely a Pavlovian response. Hopefully he had bad eyebrows and very crooked teeth. Maybe a horrible overbite and a lisp? Her breath shortened and her nipples hardened, an indication that on some level, even without the benefit of twenty-twenty vision, Noel found this man shockingly attractive.

Noel wasn’t alone in her desires.

With the billionaire’s approach, Mary’s entire demeanor changed. She continued to talk about White Pines, but her gaze flicked from the camera toward the man who walked with purpose toward them both. The transformation of Mary was nearly instantaneous. She went from semi-serious newswoman to a cat in heat. Mary twirled a strand of blond hair between her fingertips and nearly purred. She was most definitely ready to be stroked by the man who walked toward them.

A blast of cold air blew past and Mary’s hair, one giant shellacked blonde helmet, lifted high above her ears. Noel’s curls swirled and covered her face. She waved her hands, pulling and grabbing her thick mane of wild hair from her eyes and her mouth. She wanted to get a good look at this captain of industry, this titan of power, this asshole with a gargantuan checkbook.

Noel knew the type.

The marauder determined to destroy Nonna’s home stopped on just the other side of the front portico and Mary’s bodacious ta-tas blocked Noel’s sightline. Not that she could see, even if Mary’s boobs weren’t in the way. Noel’s glasses still lay on the bricks at her feet.

“Hello, Mr. North,” Mary purred.

Noel’s stomach churned. A gust of air froze in her lungs. Her heart stilled and then quickened.

North?

Noel squinted and pulled against her chains. Her heart hit a frantic pace. Cold sweat trickled down her spine.

No.

Not the same North.

It couldn’t be, it wouldn’t be, it—

“So, Noel Klaus, our community activist and former Peace Corps volunteer, has just referred to you as a sociopath willing to make homeless these octogenarians a week from the most blessed holiday of the year. How, Mr. North, would you like to respond?”

“Excuse me, Mary? Did you say
Noel Klaus
?”

Her sex quivered with the sound of her name on his lips. Heat tore through her belly and she closed her eyes. That voice, oh God no, it couldn’t be, but it was. She knew that voice. A tremble started in Noel’s toes and whispered up her legs. Every cell in her body aware of his presence, memories of his lips on her lips and his fingers, his hands—oh God, what that man could do with his hands. Noel forced her eyelids open and the memories from her mind. A long, deep breath of cold air entered her lungs and tamped down the heat that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Noel Klaus,” Mary Crossmore said and stepped out of the way. “Meet Nick North, sociopath and billionaire.”

Noel stared into Nick’s eyes. Slivers of gray around a sea of black. His gaze devoured her. She could do this. Hadn’t she walked away from Nick once before? She could most definitely do so again, although this time she needed a win before she departed.

“Noel.” His voice was a river of cold.

She shivered.

“Nick.” She raised both her eyebrows. Her attempt at practiced nonchalance. Cool, calm, and collected. Nick would have no power over her, not now. She’d managed to escape his grasp when she was younger and now,
now,
she knew even better who she was. She’d been right about him all those years before when she’d fled that Christmas Eve night.

“This isn’t much of a surprise,” Noel said. She hardened her heart. “In fact, this is exactly what I would have guessed your future to be.” She hooked the corner of her mouth up in an attempt at a self-satisfied and righteous smile. She jutted her chin. She had the power of the people on her side. “Ousting widows and old people from their homes and right before Christmas. I guess your father got what he wanted after all—a man just like him.”

Damn, the man was gorgeous, even if he didn’t have a heart. Full lips. Patrician nose. Black hair that tickled the collar of his crisp dress shirt. The only indication that her words landed a direct hit was the tiniest flinch of the muscle in the right side of his jaw. Her gaze scraped along his face. Then his eyes locked with hers. He knew that she’d witnessed his little tell. That tiny trait hadn’t changed since B-school. The only glitch in his impenetrable facade was that tiny little flinching muscle that happened when Nick was annoyed.

Oh yes, and she’d had the distinct ability to annoy him.

And love him.

And make him growl and moan and call her name.

Noel’s eyelids hovered at half-mast at the memory of Nick above her, his lips on her chin, his fingers pressed against her swollen nub, and his cock thrust into her, his touch, his masculinity, his raw power over her nearly sweeping her away. The heat from the memory made her sex wet and her breasts tingle with want.

For fuck’s sake, what was this desire? Like whiplash from unadulterated disdain to sex-throbbing want? Her eyes widened. If she weren’t chained to the door of Winter Pines, she might leap into Nick’s arms and press her lips to his.

Nick’s nostrils flared and he took a step back.

Did he feel this heat too? How could he not? How could anyone watching this interaction on channel 32 fail to see the desire she felt for Nick?

“Yes, so my profession is of no surprise, but what about you, Miss Klaus? It is
miss
, still, is it not?”

Noel tossed her curls and straightened her spine. She took a deep breath and attempted to banish the heat swirling about her as though it were a flurry of snow.

 “Yes, yes, it is still miss.” She said with an ice-cold bravado that she definitely didn’t feel. Damn him. Nick knew, he knew that she’d wanted a marriage, a family, a career and that now, here, for her, only having the career would feel like a defeat. She’d wanted to finish graduate school, to work for a nonprofit, to get married and have a family. What her heart had believed she’d found in her love with Nick.

She had been wrong.

“Wait?” Mary said, her eyes widening with shock and surprise. “You two
know
each other?

“Did,” Noel said.

“Knew,” Nick said at the same time.

Their gazes locked. The heat pulsed between them.

“We were in business school together, but I left and joined the Peace Corps, while Mr. North, it would seem, continued his course of study and became the capitalist that every B-school in America would desperately hope to create.”

“Ah, Miss Klaus.” He shook his head and a sly smile curled over his lips. “Still the heart that bleeds for everyone. Saving the world one welfare check at a time.”

Noel stiffened. His words were patronizing and dismissive. She’d known a man, once upon a time, who believed in philanthropy and helping people less fortunate than those who had the luck of being born into the diamond-encrusted world in which Nick had been bred and raised.

“Mr. North, not all of us come into the world with a multimillion-dollar trust fund waiting for us. Some of us do fall on hard times and when those hard times happen, yes, yes, I do believe in helping my fellow man and woman. I do believe that charity is a truth upon which this season rests, is it not? How charitable is it to make the residents of Winter Pines homeless?” Noel took a deep breath. A semicircle of the remaining residents had formed around her and Mary and Nick. His eyes flitted to each person and while his face remained hard and non-emotive, as though frozen by the winter cold, he shifted his weight slightly and Noel knew his discomfort grew. Around him stood the people whose home he would steal. Some form of the heart she’d loved had to still beat within Nick’s chest. He couldn’t be completely heartless, could he?

“Miss Klaus, as I am sure you’re aware, the majority of the White Pines residents have accepted North Industries buyout—”

“And surely you are aware, Mr. North, that many of these residents have lived at White Pines for twenty years. They’d prefer to stay together instead of being scattered.”

“Noel?”

Noel turned toward the soft voice. Nonna walked out from the side door. She wore a green sweater with Santa’s face embroidered on the front. She looked frail and cold.

“Mrs. Hyland, would you please help Nonna? Would you take her back inside?”

“Noel, I’m fine.” She shook off Evelyn Hyland’s hand from her shoulder. “What is Nick doing here?”

Noel’s jaw dropped. Nonna remembered Nick?

“Are you going to invite him in? It’s too cold out here. Nick, tell those workmen to go home, unchain Noel, and come into the house. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mrs. Klaus,” Nick said, with a hint of a smile on his lips. “I do understand.”

“Nonna, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Mr. North is the man who is trying to tear down Winter Pines—”

“I know that, Noel. But he’s not going to tear it down while we’re all still inside”—Nonna turned her sharp gaze to Nick—“are you, Nicholas?”

“No, ma’am.”

A tiny smile broke over Noel’s face. Nick wasn’t afraid of Nonna, but he’d always respected her.

“Go on,” Nonna said. “Let those men get home to their families, tell this Barbie doll with a camera to pack up. Also tell that man of yours—what’s his name? Frederick?—that he can come in too. I have pie and coffee.” Nonna looked around at the White Pines residents. “Come on now, people, it’s cold and it’s dark. I’ve had enough of this nonsense for today. I need to be in bed in an hour.”

Mary appeared stunned, as though she didn’t know how to end her live segment, so she turned back toward the camera and simply said, “This is Mary Crossman for channel 32 News.”

She walked close to Nick and nearly pressed her body against him. “Mr. North, here’s my card. Please do let me know if I can be of any help with this story. I’d love to do a more personal interview.”

“Thanks, Mary,” Nick said. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Noel rolled her eyes toward the stars that glowed from the night sky. Jeez. Some things hadn’t changed. She’d never grown used to all the women who threw themselves at her boyfriend when she dated Nick. Some women had no shame, absolutely none.

Mary and her cameraman walked toward their news truck.

Nick turned toward the man standing off to the side. “Frederick, send the men home. I’ll speak with Mrs. Klaus.”

“Very well, sir,” Frederick said. That impertinent smile was still on Frederick’s lips.

He leaned closer to Frederick, so that his question might go unheard by Noel. “Did you know who this was? The woman chained to the door of Winter Pines Retirement Home?”

“All I knew was that she was a former Peace Corps volunteer.”

Did he believe Frederick? He wasn’t sure. Was Frederick attempting some sort of matchmaking scheme? “Please have my office clear my schedule for the rest of today.”

“Of course, sir.”

Nick turned back toward Noel. His breath caught in his chest. This woman. This damned woman. She was more beautiful than the last day he’d seen her. His body responded to her as though he were a teenaged boy confronted with a centerfold.

Noel fought to turn over the padlocks on the chains that held her and insert a key into the lock. Nick stepped forward. He was close to her now. The scent of her filled his nostrils, pine and snow and outdoors and oranges. Fresh and clean. Noel had always smelled fresh and clean and like home.