Oh, maybe…Maybe I misinterpreted his meaning when he asked if I was ready for him and called me baby. Maybe…he calls everyone little nicknames like baby and sweetheart. I had a teacher who called everyone honey, and she didn’t mean it as anything sexual. She was just old. Really, really old. A lot older than Luka.
“So, what do you want help with first. You can make me a list of people you have to shop for or…”
“Let’s decorate the house.”
“The house?” That is…a huge undertaking.
“Yeah, let’s start with the house, then we can move on to my offices.”
“Um, okay. Just tell me where all your Christmas stuff is and I’ll…”
“I don’t have any.”
“What?” Once again, he’s stunned me into silence. I sit back down on the overstuffed sofa and try to think where this puts us. Should I call…or maybe…? Well, shit!
“We should go out and get a tree.”
“We should.” I smile and then rethink what I just said. “We?”
He nods.
“But wouldn’t it defeat the purpose of me doing it for you if you went with me to do it?”
“No, you’ll still be doing all the decorating. I’ll just choose how big I want it.”
It makes sense on some level, but it’s also counterproductive. Why would he need me if he could do it? Am I really going to bitch about getting paid to spend time with this handsome-as-sin man doing fun Christmas-time things? How bad is my life that this is something for me to complain about?
Chapter Four
Luka
Iwatch her as she tries to make sense out of what I have just proposed. The last thing I want is for her to try to leave. Not just yet. Not until I can be sure I know how to find her. While I was away from my little Christmas angel, not only did I call my sister, who is pretty certain I lost my mind, but I also called the head of my security team.
“Do you have something else to wear?”
She looks down at the little elf outfit like she might have forgotten she was wearing it. “Um,” she fidgets with the little ties at the front of the corset, “I don’t think I can wear anything else. My boss says if I’m dressed like this, it might get us more attention, and more people will want an elf of their own.”
I can tell by her face what mine must look like. I immediately school my features. I don’t want her to think I’m mad at her because I’m not. I’m mad at this fucking leech of a boss she’s talking about. I’m livid at the thought someone else might think they can have my little elf. Mine!
“Perhaps a coat then?”
Her smile returns, and she nods, “I have one outside in my car.”
I help her stand and lead the way to the front door, and then help her over to her car. When she pulls the coat out, it takes everything inside of me not to frown again. This is not going to keep her warm, nor is it going to cover her ample charms from anybody who wants to look at them.
Instead of saying anything, I just bundle her into the car. There is a better way to handle this than just in-your-face bluntness. This needs to be handled with tact. I may prefer in-your-face, but I can do subtle, too. For a while, anyway.
I drive us into the city, and we debate the best place to pick out a tree. In the end, we go to a place that offers trees on the larger side. We get more than one and a promise that they will deliver the trees by the end of the day. I talk Lumi into getting a tree we can replant when we are done with it for the year. She loved the idea when the salesperson mentioned it, and even though the trees are on the smaller side, I loved the fact that there was going to be a part of her close by. She doesn’t realize it yet, but she is going to pick out the place we put it when we are ready to replant it. In fact, I might buy more land so she can do it every year until we have a forest of past Christmas trees near our house.
I plan to put that tree in the foyer so it’s the first thing you see as you come in. I also got a huge tree for the living room and an even bigger one for the office. They’ll deliver that one tomorrow. I got a smaller tree for my bedroom. If she hadn’t stopped me, I would have gotten a tree for every fucking room in my house so I would be able to feel her presence in every room.
Somewhere between looking for the perfect trees and walking to the place we finally chose, I talked her into wearing my trench coat. It completely swamps her and sends a visual reminder of how much smaller my little elf is to me. We go looking for ornaments afterwards, and the day slowly starts to slip away. By the time we’ve eaten and bought so many lights and baubles to hang on the tree that you'll be able to see them from the moon, I can tell my sweet girl is getting tired.
The fact that she falls asleep on the way back to my house drives the point home. I sit for long moments and take her in before I finally wake her.
“Sorry. I guess I wasn’t ready for all the shopping we did today.” She looks down at her phone, “Oh wow! It’s really late.”
It is getting dark, but I wouldn’t call it late.
