All I Want For Christmas Is You Read online

  And I’d deserve to die.

  Slowly. Painfully.

  Suddenly the door to the conference room flew open and a red-faced boy in the store’s uniform stood panting in the doorway. I tried to remember his name and failed.

  “Mr. Shaw.” His were eyes round with panic. “We’ve had to call for an ambulance. Customer down in the men’s department.”

  Shit.

  I stood up, pushing my chair away with force. “George, Evan, with me,” I demanded, hurrying out of the room with my manager and Evan at my back.

  The whole time we stood in the elevator waiting for it to reach the men’s department floor, I wondered what the hell I was going to do. We’d had fainting spells in the store before, but never someone who required an ambulance.

  As it turned out, I didn’t need to do anything.

  Evan pushed past us, striding after the junior staff member who’d alerted us to the situation.

  By the time George and I caught up, Evan was kneeling beside a man in perhaps in his late fifties who was sitting on the ground, grey-faced and clammy. A woman of similar age stood to the side with Alan, the men’s department manager, looking ready to pass out with worry.

  Evan placed a reassuring hand on the man’s chest. “What’s your name, sir?” she asked softly.

  “Gerald,” he wheezed out.

  “Hi, Gerald, I’m Evan. Are you experiencing chest pain?”

  He nodded.

  “And breathlessness?”

  He nodded again, wincing.

  “Are you allergic to aspirin?”

  Gerald shook his head.

  “Good.” Evan turned toward George. “Run to the pharmacy as quickly as you can and grab a packet of aspirin and some water. And make sure the side entrance isn’t blocked for the ambulance.”

  My general manager didn’t even question her authoritative tone.

  “Are you a medic?” asked the worried woman I suspected was Gerald’s wife.

  “I’m a qualified first aider,” Evan replied.

  How did I not know that? Surely that was something I should know about her. Especially as her employer. My entire staff should know who the first aiders in the building were.

  The wife looked near tears. “Will my husband be okay?”

  “He’s doing fine,” Evan evaded, patting Gerald’s arm. “The ambulance will be here soon.”

  “Is he having a heart attack?” The wife began to cry.

  Gerald shot her a concerned, pained look.

  Evan rubbed her hand down Gerald’s arm to soothe him. “I don’t know for sure. But some aspirin should help until the paramedics get here.”

  For a few more minutes Evan spoke quietly and calmly to the man and he stared into her eyes, seeming to relax. Not long later George appeared, breathless and sweating with the goods in hand.

  I watched on from the side as Evan helped Gerald take the aspirin with some water. She did it with that same mature calm and a small, reassuring smile on her face she’d worn since we’d arrived on the scene.

  Minutes later, the paramedics made their way through the department to Gerald. I was completely focused on Evan, who quickly and efficiently relayed the man’s symptoms to the paramedics and told them she’d given him aspirin.

  “Are you a doctor?” one paramedic asked in a tone I didn’t like.

  I stepped forward. “She’s one of my first aiders.”

  The paramedic nodded. “Fine, fine, good. Can you make sure everyone’s out of the way, Sir?”

  Evan and I did just that, cutting a way through the store for the paramedics to get out with no fuss. Customers watched on as we passed through, the store brought to a standstill in some departments because of it. It barely registered with me.

  I was completely and fully aware of the small, incredibly capable woman at my side.

  Once the ambulance departed I turned to Evan, staring into her gorgeous dark eyes and said gruffly, “You were wonderful.”

  She beamed, her smile causing this ache in my chest I didn’t fully understand. “Thanks. Happy to help him. He should be okay.”

  “You were so calm and in control.”

  It was bloody impressive.

  George appeared, and then Alan and the young boy who’d come running to alert us to the situation. They surrounded Evan, marveling at her handling of the situation and congratulating her.

  The overwhelming urge to snatch her up from the lot of them came over me.

  “Haven’t you ever been infatuated with a woman?” Her question from weeks ago came back to me.

  My answer was ‘no’ then.

  But it had changed.

  Evan with her sunny disposition, her kindness, her surprising maturity, the ease with which I could talk to her, had become an obsession. I wanted to possess every inch of her, like a fucking territorial caveman, and I’d never felt that way about a woman.

  It had taken me fifteen years to finally find a woman who filled my thoughts and drove me to distraction.

  And it would have to be my best friend’s little sister.

  It wasn’t the forbidden thing that got me hot.

  She did.

  It was the forbidden thing that made it hurt.

  Because I couldn’t have her.

  Reid

  Early December

  It was very difficult to avoid a personal assistant.

  Something about their entire job revolving around personally assisting, I suppose.

  There was no getting away from Evan at work, as much as I tried.

  The woman was driving me to madness.

  Was this love? This insanity?

  Searching for the sound of her voice, the tinkle of her laughter, the smell of her perfume.

  This knot in my gut and absentmindedness that seemed more appropriate for a teenager than a full-grown bloody man.

  I’d taken to sending Evan home earlier than usual. It had been a bad habit of mine to let her work almost as late as I did, but I’d insisted she leave at the end of her working day. She’d tried to resist, but my snapped demand that she do as she was told halted any further arguing. In fact, she’d started to treat me with a cool distance that was driving me up the wall.

  I should be grateful for it.

  Yet every time she smiled at another staff member or laughed on the phone with someone, it made me miss the ease between us all the more.

  It was for the best, I kept telling myself.

  My eyes flicked to the wall clock and I wasn’t even surprised to discover it was just past eleven o’clock at night. I’d been working later once Evan left the office because it was the only time I seemed to be able to fully concentrate.

  Damn the woman.

  My phone buzzed on my desk, Patrick’s name on the screen.

  Guilt suffused me.

  I’d been avoiding Pat, too, ever since I realized how I felt about Evan.

  However, knowing he wouldn’t be calling at this late hour without a reason, I answered, hitting the speaker button.

  “Reid, can you do me a favor, mate?” Pat asked without preamble.

  “Of course.”

  “Evan is on a Christmas night out with the girls. Her friend Cass got blootered. Bad break up or something. The rest of the girls have buggered off and left Evan to deal with it alone. She phoned me just before her phone died. The taxi drivers won’t take Cass while she’s that smashed. I’m in Aberdeen for work so I can’t get to her. She’s on George IV Bridge near Frankenstein’s. Will you go get them, mate, and take them back to Evan’s?”

  Shit.

  “Of course,” I repeated as I stood up. “I’m still at the office so I won’t be long.”

  “Great, thanks. Also, get a fucking life and stop burning the midnight oil.” Pat hung up.

  Worry quickly propelled me out of Shaw’s. I hated the thought of Evan stranded on a busy thoroughfare of the city where drunk bastards might try to take advantage of her while she was looking after a friend. But there was a part of me
dreading seeing her again.

  I parked my car two streets back from the building on George Street. The icy December wind bit at my nose and cheeks as I hurried toward the vehicle past crowds of revelers enjoying Friday night bar hopping. Some, like Evan, might even be on their Christmas night out with friends or work colleagues. Every weekend running up to Christmas would see the city filled with women wearing short dresses and high heels, some carrying their coats because alcohol had made them feel impervious to the winter chill.

  Right now, Evan was one of those women out in the windy city, probably inappropriately dressed for the weather. It surprised me for more than one reason to get the call from Pat. Evan didn’t seem like much of a party animal. She preferred quiet nights out in cocktail bars or at the theatre or restaurants.

  My kind of woman.

  I’d never been the clubbing type.

  Mum said I was born eighty years old.

  Too old for Evan.

  But are you really? She’s mature for her age, that devil on my shoulder insisted.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, growing impatient as I sat in traffic lights on Princes Street. Princes Street Gardens were brightly lit, most of the trees covered in fairy lights, the Ferris Wheel colorful in the night sky.

  Finally, the traffic lights turned but there were more to contend with on my way to Evan and it seemed to take an eternity to get to George IV Bridge. Eventually, I drove upwards, eyes searching the pavement filled with men and women dressed to the nines.

  Then, there, not far from Frankenstein’s, I saw Evan crouching near a barely conscious blond propped up against the building behind them. I hit my indicator and swung the car beside them even though it was illegal to park there. I couldn’t give a fuck.

  Hurrying out of the car, I approached Evan, who wore a long wool coat and scarf.

  “Evan.”

  Her head whipped in my direction and I blinked rapidly at the vision before me.

  She usually wore her dark hair up in a no-nonsense ponytail at work. Now it fell in long, silky waves around her face and she had done something with her makeup that made her look older and more mysterious. Her eyes, which were naturally beautiful, were fucking stunning. Striking.

  “Reid?” her lips parted in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

  “Pat called. He’s in Aberdeen.”

  “I know. I thought he’d call Dad.”

  “I’m closer.” I lowered myself to my haunches beside her, attention moving to the blond woman. Her eyelids sat heavy and low over her eyes as she peered up at me, expression slack and pale. “How is she?”

  “Cass has thrown up twice. I’ve given her as much water as she’ll take.” Evan shook a half-filled bottle of water. Her expression strained with worry. “None of the damn taxi drivers would take her in this mess. They said I needed to phone an ambulance. But she’s just wasted.”

  I nodded and stood, only to bend down and haul her friend up into my arms. She was dressed in an oversized faux fur jacket that shifted with the movement, blinding me. Evan yanked the jacket down into place so I could see where I was going. Cass drunkenly looped her arms around my neck while I gazed down at Evan.

  “Get the back-passenger door of the car,” I directed.

  She threw me a look of pure hero worship before rushing across the pavement to the car.

  Lowering Cass into the back seat took a little more finesse than you’d think. We ignored drunken shouts from young men walking past and eventually slid Cass along the back bench.

  “What if she throws up in your car?” Evan asked, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth.

  “It’ll clean.”

  “It’s a Jaguar.”

  “It’ll clean,” I repeated. “Get in before you freeze.”

  “I’m wearing a coat,” she muttered, but hurried to jump into the passenger seat.

  It was only as we were driving away that I relaxed.

  “It was great of you to pick us up. I never let my phone die when I’m going anywhere, but some stupid app must have been running on it, eating up my battery.”

  I shot her quick look. “What happened tonight?”

  “Cass broke up with her boyfriend. They’ve been together three years. He took a job in London and Cass didn’t want to move there, so he ended things. Some girls we went to Uni with decided she needed a Christmas night out. They bought her shots and she kept flinging them back. Within an hour she was blootered.” Evan’s tone was angry. “Then the lot of them left me. Said they were going clubbing and I could either put Cass in a cab home and come with them or deal with her.”

  “Very nice.”

  “Aye, bloody charming.” Evan glanced over her shoulder at Cass. “She’ll be okay. Though it’ll be one helluva hangover in the morning.”

  “Why didn’t you just put her in a cab and go with them?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.

  “One: she’s my best friend and I’m worried about her. I want to stay with her to make sure she doesn’t choke on her own vomit. And two: the thought of being squished onto a crowded dance floor while strange men try to press up against me isn’t my idea of a good time, believe it or not. I’ve been told on more than one occasion that I’m, and I quote, ‘a boring old fart’.” Her tone was only slightly amused. There was a hint of hurt there.

  “Who said that?”

  “Friends. A guy I started dating not long after Luca. It didn’t last long. He just wanted to go out on the lash every weekend, preferably without me.”

  “You’re not boring just because getting pissed isn’t your idea of fun,” I replied dryly.

  Who were these fuckers she was friends with?

  “You’re just saying that because you’re thirty-five and past all that.”

  I frowned at the reminder of our age difference. “I was never really about that, even at your age. Pat, the lads and I, did our fair share of drinking when we were students, but clubbing was not my thing. We’d go to a pub or hang out at the dorms.”

  “How did you pick up girls then?” she asked cheekily.

  I threw her a cocky grin. “Before, sometimes during, and after classes. At the student union bar. The library—”

  “Okay, okay, okay.” She held up a hand to stop me. “You got laid a lot at uni. Very good.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to tease her and ask her if she was jealous. I quelled the instinct.

  There was a frown in Evan’s voice when she asked, “Why are we going the wrong way?”

  “My place is closer. We can take care of Cass. There’s room for you both to crash there.”

  “Won’t we be intruding?”

  “Why would you be intruding?”

  “Well, I’ve never been to your place before. I assumed it was because you’re so private.”

  I was a private man, but not so much I didn’t want Evan to see my space.

  Whatever thoughts I had about putting distance between us had flown out the window as soon as I had her in proximity. I wanted to talk with her. Be near her.

  It didn’t take too long to pull up to my apartment building in Newhaven. I lived in one of the penthouse apartments and had a fantastic view over the Firth of Forth estuary.

  Parked in my private spot, I got out and rounded the car to get Cass. She mumbled in my arms as Evan took my keys and led the way. The reception was closed at this time of night, so all was quiet as we made our way through the lobby and onto the elevator.

  “Thanks again for this,” Evan said as the lift climbed upward. She stared up at me with adoring big dark eyes. I wanted to ask her how she planned on repaying me, making it clear by my tone that I’d prefer sexual favors.

  I stifled that urge too.

  We got Cass into my flat. The main living space was large and open-plan, with a bank of windows that looked out over the water. Together we got Cass onto one end of the over-sized sectional in the middle of the sitting area.

  “I’ll get water.” I turned, shrugging out of my jacke
t and placing it over a bar stool at my island. I collected water for Evan and Cass from my fridge.

  When I returned to the ladies, Cass was out cold, face pressed to the back of the sectional. Evan had removed her own coat and scarf and stood up from sitting at Cass’s hip.

  My eyes lowered and I felt my hot blood travel south.

  I’d never seen Evan wear anything so daring.

  But then I guessed I didn’t know everything about her.

  The red velvet dress was perfect to celebrate Christmas. But it wasn’t the kind of dress she could wear at her family Christmas get together, that was for damn sure. The dress had long sleeves, but that was where any demureness ended. It had an exaggerated deep V-neck that Evan might have assumed wasn’t overtly sexy because she was so small breasted. She’d be wrong. The hemline hit her mid-thigh and the velvet clasped tightly to the curves of her hips. For such a small woman, she had great fucking legs. Strong thighs, slender legs, shapely calves, slim ankles.

  All lengthened by sexy, gold strappy heels.

  “You look amazing,” I blurted out without thought, dazedly handing her a bottle of water.

  Evan’s eyes widened a little at the compliment. “Uh, thanks.”

  I had to drag my fucking eyes off her hips. Trying to focus on Cass, I asked, “She seems okay.” I placed the bottle of water on the coffee table near her.

  “Aye, she’ll be fine,” Evan muttered. “Thanks again.” She looked around the room, her gaze stopping on the bank of windows. “Your place is fantastic.”

  I was pretty pleased with my flat. I was glad she liked it. “Thanks.”

  She turned to me and teased, “Pity you don’t spend more time here.”

  If I had you in my bed, I might.

  Thankfully, I didn’t say that out loud, but I might as well have for the thick sexual tension that sprung between us as we gazed into each other’s eyes.

  “Tea,” I blurted out.

  Evan blinked in confusion. “Huh?”

  “Do you want a cup of tea?”

  “Oh. Yeah, sure.”

  Grateful to have something to do, I busied myself in the kitchen.

  Unfortunately, when I returned, Evan was sitting on the opposite arm of the sectional to Cass, the coffee table between her and her unconscious friend whose soft snores now filled the room. That wasn’t the unfortunate part.