“Meredith,” he said, lifting her against him in a strong hug. Her body molded to his, the soft curves of her breasts pushing into his chest, and he rubbed one hand slowly down her back to caress her sweet ass. He felt her breath hitch, and she leaned in to kiss him then, tangling her tongue with his and making soft noises of appreciation into his mouth.
He pulled away long enough to whisper “You’re incredible” against her lips, before opening her robe and pulling her legs up around his hips, then carrying her back to the bedroom to show her just how much he appreciated every last inch of her.
Chapter Eleven
“Are you nervous?”
It was Christmas Day. They were in a cab, heading toward his sister Lily’s apartment in Brooklyn. His mother, brother, and sisters were all gathering there together to celebrate a holiday that, for her, had for so long been filled with sadness and regret.
“Why would I be nervous?” All of my dreams are coming true. In this moment, Meredith couldn’t imagine feeling anything but intense happiness. She was practically glowing with it.
“Oh, I don’t know. Big holiday dinner. Lots of people you’ve never met before. Presents, festive sweaters, possibly carol-singing around the tree…,” he teased.
“There’s nothing wrong with presents or festive sweaters.” She pointed to her own bright-green sweater, woven with images of Christmas trees, candy canes, and dancing gingerbread men. Last night, on Christmas Eve, she and Andrew had exchanged the presents they’d left for each other under the tree in her apartment. The sweater had been among them—a gag gift that she’d surprised him by actually wearing. And despite his protests when she’d emerged from her bedroom with it on, she’d seen the delight in his eyes.
“Or carols. Or trees,” she added. Especially not trees.
The morning after the gala, after they had celebrated the discovery of the missing money, he had dragged her out of bed again to go buy the small fir that now sat in her living room, and carried it back to her home still wearing his tuxedo pants and dress shirt. After some cursing and a couple of broken boughs, they’d managed to set it up, at which point he had declared it unacceptably barren and whisked her off to Saks for ornaments and tree trimmings, dropping by the office along the way to pick up the extra set of clean clothes that he kept there.
Once at the department store, he’d insisted on buying her not one, but two handmade, delicate angels to stand atop her tree. “For your parents,” he’d said, and then held her in the middle of the store as she’d cried and cried over all the Christmases she hadn’t had with them.
“Well, good, because I don’t think we have a shortage of any of those things.”
She laughed, thinking of how they’d spent the rest of the weekend alternating between her apartment and his place in Tribeca, filling each one to the brim with Christmas decorations. Definitely no shortage.
And then, last night, they had started a new Christmas tradition. They’d given each other gifts, kissed under the mistletoe, stuffed themselves with iced sugar cookies, and played Christmas carols on repeat. After that, they’d gone to bed and made love until they’d fallen asleep, exhausted, waking up with just enough time to jump out of bed and dress hastily so as not to be late for Christmas dinner.
Christmas with family.
“I almost forgot to tell you.” Andrew’s voice broke into her thoughts, and a smile flashed across his face. “I sent a thank-you gift to Bob right after you moved the money back into the fund account.”
The fact that the Christmas Bonus Fund had grown so much only elevated Andrew’s status as a philanthropic visionary, and he’d spent nearly an hour on the phone with Bob on Monday, talking excitedly about North Star Industries. Now, mere days after the gala, the new organization already had several corporate clients and a recently appointed executive director. Meredith would wrap up her work at Harbor and step into her position at North Star at some point in the coming months.
“I hope it wasn’t a six-thousand-dollar dress,” she teased.
He let out a loud laugh, then reached over the seat and squeezed her thigh, leaving his hand there.
“Speaking of,” he began, a mischievous glint in his eyes. “Lily is very excited to meet you, so get ready for a lot of enthusiasm being aimed in your direction. She’ll probably end up talking your ear off, pressing you for all the details about the gala and how I took such good care of you.”
Meredith rolled her eyes, but she curled her fingers into his hand and squeezed his palm as if to say, You do take good care of me. “First you ask me if I’m nervous, and now you’re warning me about Lily talking my ear off. Are you trying to intimidate me with threats of family closeness? Because I have to tell you, it’s not working.”
He grinned, his eyes crinkling at the corners, but quickly grew serious. “Really, if you do feel overwhelmed at any point, just say so and we can bow out early. They’ll understand. Besides—” He shrugged. “They just want me to be happy, which I am as long as you’re happy.”