December 24th
“I can see you,” sighed Mira.
Mal appeared out of the shadows with a look of chagrin on his face.
“You’re like six foot six – you’re hardly stealthy,” chastised Mira. “I know you’ve been following me and I know you’re not a stalker – what’s going on?”
Mal grunted in much the same way Branch did, though it wasn’t nearly as sexy. No man was as sexy.
“Boss was worried about your safety – you live in a crappy neighborhood.”
Mira rolled her eyes. “I bet that no matter what I say, you won’t leave, right?”
Mal gave her a half-smile.
Branch probably felt guilty about what happened. He’d make Mal follow her around for a few days, but then he’d get over it, so why bother arguing? She was at the youth center with her sister’s car was filled to the brim with cookies for their Christmas party. For the short time Mal was there, he could make himself useful.
“Well, since you’re here, you can help unload the cookies.”
Yep, a couple of hours with screaming, sugar-hyped kids would probably have him running back to Branch, begging his alpha to give up his guilt trip. A few more hours and she probably wouldn’t have to see anyone in the herd again. She had already asked the owners of the sandwich shop that someone else take over Deer Co, and they readily agreed. Yep, just a few more hours and she could get on with forgetting this whole thing ever happened. Sigh.
*
Branch tapped his fingers on the table. The people sitting next to him shuffled away from him, sensing his unease. He scowled at no one in particular. He was in a foul mood and the person droning on and on about the benefits of stocking their resorts with monogrammed towels was not helping.
He wanted to be away from there, running free as his reindeer – the same way he always did when at work and bored out of his skull… Except, that wasn’t true today. Sure, his reindeer always loved the chance to be free, but today he wanted something else, or, to be more precise, someone else.
He had spent the previous night staring at the half-assembled Christmas tree. It was depressing, to say the least.
What was he doing? Why was he torturing himself? Losing Janelle was hard enough, he wasn’t sure he could survive losing Mira, too. Why was he staying away? Well, because… He tried to reach for all the reasons why and he came up short. Yesterday, in his guilty haze, they had seemed so real, but now he wasn’t sure.
He wanted nothing more than to call Mira, to run over to her apartment and beg her to be with him. Hell, he’d even sip egg nog and watch Home Alone fives times in a row if she wanted it.
Did he really think he would not love Mira as ardently as he had Janelle? It had been different with Janelle. She was wild and taunted him no end, and they butted heads over and over, and he loved every second of being with her. He knew he wanted her from the first moment he saw her. But with Mira, it was different. He wanted to take her, curl around her and protect her from the world, and yeah, the truth is he wanted her the moment he saw her too.
While Janelle had been as pigheaded and brash as him, Mira was sweeter and softened him. Was he less passionate with Mira? No, he didn’t think so. Did he love her any less? Nope, definitely not he thought vehemently. Did he honestly believe that a mating with Mira would not be true? That she would not form the other half of his heart? Not for a second – though he felt thoroughly soppy for thinking about anyone being the other half of his heart – but that wasn’t the point.
So if he thought all that, what the hell was he doing?
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as his assistant opened a drawer searching for a new marker pen or something.
His assistant let out a sound resembling, “Gah!” Then he fell back on his ass.
Everyone at the meeting watched, aghast, as a huge blow-up reindeer started inflating as it popped out of the drawer. A note fluttered to the ground and Branch scooped it up.
It said, ‘Since the last one wasn’t to your taste, try this one for size!’
Yep, he’d found his brother’s Secret Santa gift. His mind flickered back to his brother’s last present – the male sex doll.
Branch stared at the reindeer for a few moments and then threw back his head and roared with laughter.