A knock sounded at his inner office door.
“I think we’ve just said everything we needed to say for tonight.” Holly lifted her chin and summoned every ounce of poise she’d worked so hard to develop. “Merry Christmas, Mr. Knight.”
As an exit line she knew it was sadly lacking, but her mind was so scrambled she could barely think straight. She slid from his grasp and walked over to the door, swinging it open.
“Yes, Janet?” Holly dragged every scrap of composure she could garner. No mean feat when her heart still pounded like a marathon runner’s and her legs were the consistency of jelly.
“I, um, I came upstairs to get my things, and I thought I heard something in Mr. Knight’s office. I didn’t realise you were still here.” A flush of pink dusted the younger woman’s cheeks, emphasizing the unsettled look in her eyes as her voice petered out. Holly only hoped her own embarrassment wasn’t as visible.
Connor had drawn in behind her and stood like a shield at Holly’s back. She stiffened at the sudden sense of heat and latent strength that emanated from him. A tiny quiver of pleasure rippled through her at the physical memory of his hard body behind her, within her, driving her past her prim and proper exterior and onto an entirely new level of living. She fought to control the urge to lean back against him and relive their lovemaking all over again.
“Is that all then, Janet?” Connor asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then I think you should go, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Merry Christmas, Janet.”
“Merry Christmas to you too, sir, and you Holly.”
“Thank you, Janet. Have a good holiday.” Holly suppressed a hysterical bubble of laughter that rose in her throat. She couldn’t believe how normal their exchange sounded. Inside, her heart was hammering a crazy tattoo, while on the exterior she felt like ice. She allowed herself a small sigh of relief when her assistant gave them both a weak smile and left them.
Alone, again.
Holly remained frozen where she was until rationality kicked in and she made for the door. She couldn’t stop in case she threw herself at him again. Already she wanted more of him, more than she could ever ask for.
“Don’t go. It’s not over, Holly.”
“Yes, it is. It has to be.” With swift simple movements she gathered her garment bag and handbag and made it to the elevator before even taking another shaking breath. With each step she’d expected to hear Connor’s footfall on the carpet behind her, yet when she stepped inside the elevator and turned to push the ground-floor button he remained silhouetted in the door to his office, his face inscrutable.
Behind him, his office appeared normal, unchanged—the clock on the wall giving evidence to the passage of but half an hour. Only half an hour? It felt like a whole new lifetime. Holly knew she would never feel normal again. But whatever happened after tonight, she would always be able to lock the memory deep within her to take out and examine and cherish at will.
The elevator doors took forever to close but finally they began to draw together. She bit back a cry of alarm as a dark-suited arm wedged between the closing elevator doors sent them springing wide apart again.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice high pitched and foreign to her ears.
“It may have escaped your notice but we didn’t use protection. We need to talk. Besides which, that was your first time, Holly. For whatever reason, you chose me, and now I owe it to you to make tonight memorable and not just some denigrating experience.”
Denigrating? He thought that had been denigrating?
“You don’t need to—” Her protest was cut short by an implacable sweep of his hand.
“No, that’s where you’re completely wrong, Holly. I do need to. And, I will.”
Four
Holly watched as Connor swiped his key card through the internal controls that permitted access to the penthouse apartment on the top floor of the tower that he used during the week when late nights didn’t make it practical for him to fly back to his home on the island.
She knew she could stop him, if she really wanted to. He was nothing if not a gentleman. But she didn’t want to. Not at all.
Despite the climate-controlled temperature in the elevator, a shiver ran down to the base of her spine. She’d only wanted to belong to someone for a moment, to have a connection, albeit fleeting. She hadn’t dared dream for any more than that. From the time she’d been old enough to understand what had happened, that her mother was never coming back for her and there was no one else out there who cared enough to try and find her, Christmas Eve had always been the hardest day of the year.