Page 38 of Wait a HO HO HO Second!

“Because we’re adults now and different people from who we were twelve years ago?” Kian asked, his brow raised. She heard hopefulness in his voice, which surprised her.

“Mostly that,” Joy said with a nod. “But while the words you said to me hurt, especially since you didn’t know my situation, I understand what you were dealing with better now, and I forgave you for it a long time ago. Maybe ‘forgave’ isn’t the right word. All those things you said to me in high school don’t take up space in my head or my heart anymore because I know they aren’t true.”

“What I was dealing with?” he asked, perplexed. “You mean being a spoiled little rich boy?”

“No, I mean being a spoiled little rich boy who was sad and lonely.”

“That’s the truth in a nutshell,” he agreed. “But that said, it didn’t give me the right to treat you the way I did, especially once I was old enough to know better. I had no need to sling insults at you throughout high school. Sure, we were academic competitors, but otherwise, our paths never crossed socially.”

“No, we weren’t,” Joy said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. If he thought they were competitors, he was misremembering.

“No, we weren’t what?” Kian asked, confused.

“Competitors? At least not in my opinion. I didn’t give two shits about the classes you were taking or the grades you got. Except when you decided to insult how I looked or the clothes I wore, I never thought about you. There were too many days when I wondered whether my dad would still be alive when I got home, or whether I’d get a call in the middle of the day to go to the hospital. If I wasn’t worrying about Dad, I was worrying about why my braces hurt this part or that part of my foot, how I was going to pay the rent that month, or what I was going to make for Dad for dinner when all I had was two cans of kidney beans in the cupboard. Our lives were very different, Kian. You lived yours with zero cares, and I lived mine with too many.”

Leaning forward, he took her hand and held it between both of his. “It breaks my heart to know you went through all of that, Joy. Yet somehow, you still managed to graduate at the top of your class. How did you do it all?”

“That’s your privilege speaking, Kian, because it never occurred to you that there wasn’t a choice. I had to do it all. No one was there to cook meals, pay the bills, clean the house, or manage medical appointments. Sure, I graduated at the top of my class, but you didn’t see me in AP Chem or AP Algebra. I was taking business and life skills classes I could apply in the real world after I graduated.” She pulled her hand from his and waved it. “We’re supposed to be talking about business, not our pasts. We’ve beaten that piñata and spilled its contents. Now we can move on.”

Kian hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Let’s move on.”

Before Joy could say another word, Kian took her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss took her by surprise, but in seconds she let him pull her to her feet, their lips fused in a kiss of exploration and discovery.

Maybe whatever had transpired over the last few minutes between them had cleared the air and opened a door for them to walk through as friends instead of enemies. As friends instead of bully and bullied. As two lonely people who might have always had a strange connection they could now explore. Like the way he was exploring her mouth with his tongue.

Wait, was she French kissing Kian Van Adler in his mother’s kitchen?! And was she liking it?!

Hell yeah.

His kiss was unexpectedly hot but sweet. It wasn’t a throwaway kiss either. Kian Van Adler desired her. She could tell by the way he held her face as though she were made of porcelain, all while devouring her lips like dessert.

“Kian,” she moaned softly as he pulled his lips away from hers. “What the hell was that?”

His eyes were hooded as he gazed at her. “That was a long time coming. Did you feel it, too?”

As much as she hated to admit it to her sworn nemesis, she nodded. “What’s happening between us?”

“I can’t answer that question yet, but I’m not afraid to follow it and see where it leads. Are you?”

When she shook her head, he fused his lips to hers again, and all she could think was that she wouldn’t mind going on a date after all.

21

#Backtobusiness

Carrying two cups of coffee into the office shouldn’t have been hard, but Kian struggled to coordinate his limbs after that kiss in the kitchen. Correction: after several kisses in the kitchen, which only ended when they heard someone coming down the hallway. It was Riley, arriving to clean the inside of the windows in preparation for the holiday light show.

Like two guilty teens caught necking on the front step, they quickly excused themselves and headed to his mother’s office to talk about the business that brought them out here. Kian just hoped he could keep his desire for the woman across from him in check. Did his reaction to kissing Joy shock him?

Yes and no.

He had always found Joy beautiful, even when his mouth said the exact opposite. But now, as an adult, she was stunning, and her curves had him coming and going. Whenever she was within reach of him, his hands itched to cup her hips. He didn’t, but one more kiss like that, and he just might. Truthfully, he should have asked permission before he kissed her, but all good sense was lost when he put his lips on hers. When she dug in and returned the kiss just as hard, yeah, he’d lost his battle not to get, well, hard. After several deep breaths in the kitchen, he could finally walk normally again, which was good since he didn’t want to scare or offend Joy in any way. Not when he was finally making headway in their friendship.

And kissing her is how you form a friendship? The inner voice asked.

Rolling his eyes, he huffed. The thing was, the kiss had been unexpected. If he never kissed her again, as long as she remained his friend and they could work together, he’d be happy. In his opinion, the kiss also made what he was doing more dangerous. If he didn’t tell her soon that she owned half the mall, she might think he was being dishonest about his feelings for her. Kian groaned and shook his head. He couldn't do anything about that until Christmas Eve. First things first. Business. Then he could worry about everything else.

“Coffee with two creams,” he said, setting it before her.