A Very Daddy Christmas (Lucky Lady Reverse Harems)

Chapter 4

4

Sebastian

“ W e’re in deep trouble here,” Waylan says.

Cora is upstairs putting Dario to bed. She spent all day letting him show her around the house, playing in the garden, and drawing together. He helped her with the dishes and proved himself a reliable sous-chef for tonight’s dinner.

“Trouble doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Riggs chimes in.

We’re in the living room, sipping our post-dinner scotch on the rocks, looking at one another and contemplating this particular predicament. We’ve yet to find a solution to our problem.

If anything, our problem has only become more arousing with the passing hours. Our problem is Cora Levine. She’s too fucking beautiful and sexy to ignore.

“But do we regret this decision?” I ask, half-smiling. “I know I don’t.”

“Hell no,” Waylan replies.

“She seemed receptive. Or at least interested,” Riggs adds.

“We have to let her take the lead,” I say. “She’s a good woman. A hard-working woman. And she doesn’t strike me as the damsel-in-distress type.”

Waylan shoots me a cool grin. “Although, technically speaking, she kind of is.”

“In distress? Yeah, definitely. Not a damsel, though. More like a queen in the making,” I say.

“Listen to us,” Riggs scoffs. “The girl hasn’t even spent her first night here and we’re already getting ahead of ourselves.” He pauses, reflecting. “Then again, it’s been a long time since we’ve had a dynamic like this.”

“Dario loves her already,” Waylan says. “I’m both excited and a little alarmed by that. What if it doesn’t work out?”

“We’re two months away from delivering what is likely to become one of our most successful campaigns,” I say. “Orson St. James was furious after Urban Parkour dropped him to come to us. Imagine what he’ll say when he gets that escrow offer and has no choice but to accept it. I think that needs to be our primary focus, aside from making sure Cora has everything she needs here with us.”

Riggs gives me a look. “We’re not afraid of St. James, are we?”

“No. But he might lash out and Cora could fall smack in the middle. He’s a ruthless prick, and from what I understand, he’s been making her and her sister’s lives miserable.”

“That man is a hypocrite,” Riggs says. “Through and through.”

“Fellas, set St. James aside for a minute. I want to talk about Cora while she’s still upstairs putting the little guy to bed,” Waylan cuts in as he refills his glass with a double shot of scotch. “I’m not crazy, am I? She seems different.”

“Different than most women? Yes, absolutely,” I say. “She has experienced the kind of hardship most women her age only see in daytime dramas. Orphaned at fifteen. Practically raised by her sister.”

“Self-reliant,” Riggs says. “I like that. I’m not sure about the bakery, though. Is it worth all the trouble? Because pissing Orson St. James off is asking for serious trouble.”

Waylan rolls his eyes. “Again with that schmuck…”

“He’s part of the problem here,” Riggs shrugs. “At least until the escrow expires. There’s a chance he’ll get a better offer than the market value before the end of the contract term. It may be close to the holidays, and the real estate market may be wobbling, but it isn’t dead yet. And if that happens, Cora and her sister could still lose the bakery, their apartments, everything.”

A thought crosses my mind. A terribly devious thought, but it could help cement this fragile yet precious ecosystem we’ve just managed to build. Waylan is the first to notice the spark in my eyes.

“What are you thinking, Seb?”

“Oh, just that Cora and Eva are going to make that escrow payment on Monday,” I sigh deeply.

“They’re still just shy of fifty grand short,” Riggs reminds us.

“I wasn’t joking about the signing bonus,” I say. “Not to mention, we didn’t foresee how good of a cook she is. We can up her base salary on top of it.”

Waylan shakes his head slowly. “Cora won’t accept that. She barely accepted the current offer, and she probably did so because her sister goaded her into it. You saw how reluctant she was at first.”

“Then we’ve got until Monday morning to smooth things over and prep the field. We’re doing it anyway,” I say. “What do you think she’ll do? Give us the money back instead of cementing her offer? Cora is anything but stupid.”

“She’ll want to pay us back,” Waylan says.

I offer another shrug. “It’s a bonus. She’ll have to understand.”

“Just how do you intend to smooth things over?” Riggs cuts in.

I simply smile in response.

“Sebastian,” Waylan warns me.

“Do you trust me?” I ask.

“With my life,” Waylan concedes, watching the whiskey swirl in his glass. The amber liquid captures some of the light, refracting it through the crystal and causing a spectrum of colors to briefly dance in my eyes. “You know that.”

“Then let me do this,” I say. “One day at a time. Cora is anything but indifferent to us. She’s already been made aware of the kind of men we are, and she has yet to run for the hills.”

“Well, that’s one way to encourage yourself.” Riggs holds back a chuckle.

It’s true, though. She could’ve said something. Anything. She didn’t. She didn’t even move when we were close to tearing the clothes off one another. Whatever is there, bubbling beneath the surface, I’ll get to it. And when I do, I will revel in the explosion.

Everything else will fall into place.