One Midnight Kiss: A Billionaire Fake Fiancée Holiday Romance
One Midnight Kiss: Chapter 29

I wasn’t in the habit of waking up before noon on a Saturday, but something dragged me out of the haze of sleep. A pounding on my door, insistent and relentless. I groaned, rolling over, and caught a glimpse of Natalia, her hair fanned out on the pillow, her bare legs curled up under the covers. She looked peaceful for once, not wearing her usual armor of poise and sharpness. I wanted to bury myself back under the covers, pull her close, and forget the world existed. I wanted to push inside her and feel that glorious wet heat once again. I couldn’t get enough of her body.

But despite trying to will away the intruder at my door, the pounding continued. When the pounding stopped, the shrill ring of my phone cut through the silence. I cursed softly, carefully sliding out of bed. Someone seemed intent on waking up Natalia, which pissed me off.

Thankfully, Natalia didn’t even stir. Poor girl was all tuckered out. I smiled as I picked up my sweats and pulled them on. The woman could sleep through a thunderstorm. I checked the caller ID.

Jerrod.

I knew without a doubt he was the one at the door. Jerrod had a way of inserting himself into my life at the most inconvenient times. I silenced my phone and walked to the door. I swung it open, and sure enough, there he was, looking disheveled and frantic.

“Keep it down,” I muttered, motioning back to the bedroom. “It’s fucking Saturday morning. Some of us were sleeping.”

Jerrod stepped inside, eyes narrowing as he looked me up and down. I put a hand over the marks on my chest that were evidence of Natalia’s passion. He smirked, already making assumptions. “Who is it this time?” he asked.

I ignored him, heading to the kitchen. “Coffee?”

I jerked open the drawer with the assortment of K-cups. I popped one into the machine and slid a mug under the spout.

“Fox, what the hell happened yesterday?” Jerrod asked, following me like a shadow. He didn’t wait for an answer. “I was calling you all day. You disappeared. What the hell is going on? You can’t just go radio silent.”

“Is this a ‘you’re obsessed with me’ thing?” I teased, going to the fridge and pulling out the vanilla-flavored cream. “Or did something actually happen? You know we don’t have to talk every day.”

Jerrod’s jaw clenched, his irritation obvious. That was when I knew it wasn’t a social visit. “Hanna went live yesterday. The final round of Beta. You were supposed to be there.”

Ah, shit.

I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly feeling the exhaustion of the past few weeks. “Tell me you’re here because it’s good news,” I said.

Jerrod gave me a dry look. “It could’ve gone better. We’re having installation issues. People are screwing up the setup. It’s a mess. We might need to send out a manual or recommend electricians handle it. If people fry the tech before they ever get to use it, it’s going to be bad.”

I opened my mouth to respond when the bedroom door creaked open. Natalia stepped out, wearing nothing but one of my old shirts, rubbing her eyes like she’d just woken up from a ten-hour nap. She looked up, freezing when she saw Jerrod. He froze too, his face a mix of shock and disbelief.

He looked at me, then back to Natalia like he wasn’t sure he was seeing what he thought he saw.

“Seriously?” Jerrod hissed at me, running a hand through his hair. “I thought this proposal was bullshit. Are you two actually together?”

“Do you want cream in your coffee, Natalia?” I asked casually, throwing Jerrod a look that said to zip it.

Natalia gave me a small, amused smile, ignoring Jerrod’s open-mouthed stare. She stepped past him like he wasn’t even there and took the cup from my hand, then sat on one of the barstools. Her legs crossed, bare feet swinging lightly. It was kind of amazing how unbothered she was by all this.

I started another cup of coffee.

“Good morning, Jerrod,” she said brightly, with a cheesy grin on her lips.

Jerrod let out a low, disbelieving laugh, shaking his head. “You two are too confusing for me.” He threw his hands up and made his way toward the door. “Just call me later, Fox. And don’t forget we’re in damage control mode right now. We didn’t get this thing this far to fumble at the one-yard line.”

“Will do,” I replied, giving him a mock salute as he left, the door clicking shut behind him.

As soon as he was gone, I turned back to Natalia, who was sipping her coffee with a bemused look on her face. “You could’ve reminded me about the Beta launch, you know,” I said.

She raised an eyebrow. “I’m not your employee. I don’t know anything about that. I would think you would know when your own tech is launching.”

“Fair point.” I leaned on the counter, shaking my head. We stared at each other for a few moments, the tension from before settling back into something more familiar. Something easy.

“I guess I was distracted,” I said.

The coffee machine sputtered and spit, telling me it was finished. I grabbed the cup and dumped in some creamer.

“Are you worried about it?” she asked. “You seemed pretty confident about it before.”

I shrugged. “When we test it, we’re doing it in our lab. We do the setup. We know the limitations. Beta is always risky. No matter how many times we test it and how many different ways we test it, a consumer is always going to find a way to break it.”

She gave me a long look, tapping her fingers on the rim of her coffee mug. “Seems like there are a lot of variables at play here, huh?”

“You could say that,” I replied, leaning back against the counter.

“So are you worried?”

“No. Not really. There will be hiccups. Always is. We’ll make adjustments.”

“Good,” she said with a nod.

It felt so easy, so natural to be standing there with her, drinking coffee and talking shop as if we had all the time in the world.

I was glad she wasn’t trying to bail on me. Last night, she tried to run out on me. I didn’t want her to ghost me for a couple weeks again. This thing, I didn’t know what it was, but I wanted to try and figure it out.

“I got you something.”

She frowned, looking genuinely puzzled. “Why would you get me something?”

“For Christmas,” I said, shrugging as I walked over to the corner where I had stashed the box.

“It’s the sixteenth,” she pointed out. “And why would you get me a gift?”

“Because I wanted to,” I said.

I carried the box to her and put it down in front of her. “For your horrible, disgusting sex books,” I said, gesturing proudly.

She laughed, a real, genuine laugh. “It’s a bookshelf,” she stated flatly.

“Exactly. For your collection of smut. It’s quirky. I’ve never seen a bookshelf like it before. I thought it would match your eclectic style.”

Natalia looked at the box, then back at me, her lips quirking up in a half-smile. “Are you going to put it together for me, or just leave it in the box? I do a lot of things, but building furniture is not one of them.”

“I will,” I said. “Got any plans for the day?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I need to go get my car.”

“I’ll take you.”

We finished our coffee and got dressed. I took her to pick up her car and followed her out to her place. I carried the box inside.

“I’m going to change,” she said.

“I’ll be here.

I opened the box and sat down on the floor. Natalia returned wearing a pair of black yoga pants, a T-shirt that hung off one shoulder, and her hair up in a messy bun. She was barefoot with her red-painted toenails looking just as perfect as the rest of her.

Damn, she is fucking gorgeous.

She looked at me and the mess spread out around me. I was surrounded by wooden planks and screws.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” she asked skeptically.

“How hard can it be?” I asked.

“I think that’s a dangerous question.”

I got busy, assembling piece by piece. I was tempted to hang it up sideways, just to see the look on her face.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Natalia said, kneeling next to me with a screw in her hand.

I looked up at her, feigning offense. “You’re questioning my skills?”

She gave me a look that could’ve melted ice. “You’re about to attach the side panel backward.”

“Maybe I’m doing it on purpose. Ever consider that?”

She rolled her eyes, snatching the instruction manual out of my hand. I leaned back on my heels, watching her for a moment before reaching for one of her books, the kind she kept hidden on the top shelf where no one would see. I flipped it open, reading a passage out loud.

“‘He pinned her against the wall, his breath hot against her neck⁠—’”

Natalia lunged for the book, yanking it out of my hand before I got to the good part. I laughed, pulling her back to me. She fell into my lap, her eyes wide, and I kissed her.

“Are you done?” she asked, breathless, when I finally pulled back.

“Not even close,” I murmured, pinning her to the floor, feeling the heat of her body through the thin fabric of the shirt she was wearing.

She pushed at my chest, but there was no real force behind it.

“What did you get me for Christmas?” I asked her.

“It’s a surprise,” she said, grinning.

I shook my head and chuckled. “Liar. You didn’t buy me anything.”

She laughed and nodded. “Surprise!”

“You know what I want,” I said with a goofy grin. “And it won’t cost you a dime.”

“I’m never giving you my number, Fox.”

“You will, one day.”

She rolled her eyes, but there was a softness there that hadn’t been before. A crack in the wall she kept around herself. I could feel it and suspected she did as well. There was a pull between us that we couldn’t ignore.

We stayed like that for a long moment with her in my arms. It was the quiet moments like this that got to me. The way she looked at me when she thought I wasn’t paying attention.

“You really think I’m going to give you my number?” she asked softly.

“Yeah,” I said, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I remain optimistic.”

“You’re impossible,” she whispered, but there was no bite in her words.

“I know.”

I kissed her again. She didn’t pull away. It wasn’t just a kiss. It was an agreement. The start of something neither of us could put a name to just yet.

But it was there, and it was real, and for once in my life, I wasn’t going to run from it.

She sat up. “Let’s get this thing done,” she said.

I nodded, eager to prove my competence both with the shelves and with her. After an hour of laughter, wrong turns with misplaced screws, and Natalia’s occasional guidance, we stood back to admire the fully assembled bookshelf.

“It’s not crooked,” I said, pride in my voice.

“It’s actually pretty perfect,” Natalia admitted, scrutinizing our handiwork from different angles.

“You doubted me?” I teased, bumping her shoulder lightly with mine.

“So much,” she said. “But you came through.”

“I feel like this work deserves some kind of a reward.”

She rolled her eyes. “You think so?”

I nodded and turned to face her with my hands dropping to her waist. “You know you want to.”