The One: The Complete One Series Collection (7 page)

The volunteer staff went to a lot of trouble to make the inside of the shelter has homey and welcoming as possible. The furniture was all second-hand, but clean. We were alone in the foyer and William helped me out of my coat.

“How is this place funded?” William asked as I hung our coats in the closet.

“There are a few female business owners in town that do most of the funding. A couple of churches also help out, and we hold fundraisers, too. It’s a group effort.” I reached for his hand. “Come one. I’ll give you a tour.”

I led him around the first floor and pointed out the living area, kitchen, dining room and playroom. One of the volunteers must have recently cleaned because all of the toys were put
away for once. A few of the shelter’s residents milled about and they all eyed William suspiciously. For his part, William went above and beyond to be as charming as possible. Fortunately, it played to his strengths.

“How long have you lived here?” he asked Molly, one of the residents I had come to know quite well. We found her in the kitchen, making a snack for her children. She had four kids, and six months ago they had left their home in the middle of the night after her husband had smacked one of her sons in the face. They had been in the shelter ever since.

“Six months and four days,” Molly said with a stubborn chin in the air. She didn’t like pity and refused to feel sorry for herself. “Olivia found me a job a few months ago, and soon I’ll have enough saved for my kids and me to get our own place. It won’t be much, but at least it will be ours, ya know?”

William nodded and I detected a haunted look in his eyes. It was a lot for anyone to take, but I thought he was handling it well. Molly grabbed the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and left us alone in the kitchen.

“How old is she?” he asked, nodding his head to the door Molly had just exited.

“She’s twenty-two.” I opened one of the cabinets and began removing party supplies. “She has four kids under the age of six and had her first one when she was sixteen.”

“And her husband hit her?” William took the stack of tablecloths from me.

“All of the time. Her kids, too.” I looked him in the eye. “You’re going to see and hear a lot of stuff today. If you’re not up for, I completely understand. Now is the time to decide.”

“Do you really think that little of me?” William placed his armful on the counter and did the same with the bags of food I held. He took my head in both his hands and kissed me gently on the lips. “I’m not leaving. Not leaving here, and not leaving you. Deal with it.”

“Don’t say it if you don’t mean it,” I pleaded, ever-so-quietly. I wanted very badly to believe William. I needed someone like him in my life- someone to stand by me. But it was a lot to ask.

“Just give me a chance. I’ll prove it to you.” William kissed me again, and I knew at that moment I would give him a million chances to prove it to me.

CHAPTER TWO

It only took a few minutes of watching William mingle with the shelter residents to realize that I had underestimated him. The women were skeptical when I would first introduce him to them. Many of them had ended up in the shelter precisely because they had fallen for charming, attractive men. But it didn’t take long for them to see that William wasn’t like those men. The way the kids flocked to him, scampering for attention, made the mothers smile.

I didn’t have time to stand around and smile; pulling off the party was going to be harder than I thought. I had food to make, decorations to set up and kids to entertain. At one particularly frazzling moment, I stood in the kitchen staring at the floor where one of the kids had just knocked over an entire container of eggnog. I needed to get the ham out of the oven, but now a river of liquid Christmas stood in my way.

“How can I help?” William asked, noticing that I was about to tear out my hair. He reached for a roll of paper towels and tore off a bunch before handing me the roll.

It wasn’t until I looked over at him that I realized the child responsible for the mess was cowering in the corner of the kitchen, quiet tears sliding down his cheeks.

“Teddy, what’s wrong?” I forgot about the mess and knelt in front of the boy. William stepped up behind me and Teddy crouched in fear.

“Hey, it’s okay,” William said, startled.

“Teddy, look at me,” I said, as gently as possible. Teddy peaked out at me from behind his hands. “It’s okay. No one is mad at you. It’s just a little spill. No problem.”

Teddy stayed frozen, looking from me to William. He finally lowered his hands. I held out my arms to him. “Come give me a hug. Please?”

He kept his eyes on William as he crawled toward me, looking away only after I held him in my arms. I motioned for William to crouch next to us.

“William isn’t going to hurt you,” I whispered in Teddy’s ear. He lifted his head and glanced at William.

“You promise?” he said in his tiny voice.

I squeezed him tighter. “I promise. I would never let anyone hurt you.”

Teddy wouldn’t take his eyes off William, who was doing his best to look unintimidating. “I won’t hurt you, Teddy. I swear.”

Teddy swallowed and wiped tears from his cheeks. “Okay.”

William tilted his head at him and smiled warmly. “I was thinking, if you want to, maybe we could go outside and build a snowman. Does that sound fun?”

Teddy nodded shyly. “Okay.”

“Cool.” William held out his hand and Teddy took it after just a second of hesitation. William glanced at me. “I’ll take the other kids outside, too.”

“What an excellent idea.” I returned William’s smile. Watching him talk to Teddy as they left the room, holding his tiny hand, made my heart melt.

“He’s good,” Molly observed, grabbing the paper towels that William had abandoned. She stooped to clean up the mess. “Teddy doesn’t trust anyone. Well, anyone male anyway.”

“I know.” I had seen Teddy run screaming from the janitor. “William is one of the good ones.”

“I hope so.” But Molly’s eyes said that she didn’t quite believe me. “For your sake, I hope you are right.”

An hour later, the meal was complete and ready to be eaten. William had kept the kids entertained outside, and they came to the dinner table with red cheeks, damp hair and empty stomachs. It didn’t take long for them to clear the table in front of us.

After dinner, we gathered in the large living area and the kids sang Christmas carols while their mothers took pictures of them in front of the tree. William and I hung toward the back of the room.

“You were pretty great today,” I said, nudging him with my arm. He nudged me back.

“You are pretty great every day.” William put his arm around me and I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Today has been pretty amazing. You’re really helping people here.”

“I hope so.” I thought about what Molly had said to me in the kitchen. “Sometimes I’m not so sure. It’s hard to make a difference after the fact. These people are pretty damaged.”

“We’re all pretty damaged,” he said quietly.

I thought about my own past. “I guess that’s true.”

A loud knock on the front door caused everyone to jump. Another volunteer, Vivian, ran to answer it. “I wonder what that’s all about.” I said. When I looked at William, I detected a faint smile. “What did you do, William Connor?”

“Who, me?” he said, his familiar playful smile returned in full force.

“Ho, ho, ho!”

The kids all squealed in delight at the sight of the fat man with a beard and red suit. He was carrying bulging bags filled with wrapped presents.

“Santa!” Teddy jumped to his feet and rushed at the stranger. Santa managed to drop the packages just in time for Teddy’s hug.

“How in the world did you find a Santa Clause on Christmas Eve?” I asked William.

He shrugged innocently. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Santa always works on Christmas Eve. It’s kind of his night.”

I poked William in the side. “Now who’s the amazing one?” I said, giving him a long kiss.

“Olivia! William! Look what Santa got me!” Teddy interrupted us, jumping up and down and waving his present in the air.

“A helicopter?” I laughed at Teddy’s excitement. I had never seen him smile, much less jump up and down. “That’s pretty cool.”

“It really flies!” Teddy explained. “It has a remote control.”

William was laughing, too, his eyes as bright as Teddy’s. “Let’s get that thing in the air,” he said. I watched as he helped Teddy open the package and put everything together. He was kneeling on the ground while Teddy sat in his lap, asking questions. William carefully explained all the parts of the helicopter and how it flew. After they got the batteries in place, Teddy ran around the room, chasing the helicopter.

The other kids were just as excited about their presents, and Santa even brought presents for the mothers. I stayed in the corner of the room and watched it all, loving the pure innocence of Christmas.

“One last present,” Santa said, crossing the room. I was startled when he handed me a small package.

William was across the room, listening to Teddy talk about helicopters. When I glanced over, he was watching me. “Thank you, Santa,” I said with my eyes still on William. He had gotten me a Christmas present. I hadn’t expected that.

My hands shook a little as I unwrapped the package. It was both small and light, and almost felt empty, but I could tell something was sliding around inside. I lifted the lid on the box and stared in surprise at the key inside. My brow wrinkled as I thought about the significance of the gift.

William was standing in front of me now and he took my free hand. “This will make it easier for you to stay with me,” he said. “No excuses.”

“A key to your house?” I asked lamely. Everything was moving very fast. “Are you sure about this?”

“You should know by now that I don’t do things I’m not sure about.” William kissed my forehead. “I’m not saying you have to move in with me or anything. I just want you to be able to come and go as you please. I want you to feel at home there.”

I looked over William’s shoulder and saw that several of the kids were looking sleepy. It was time to go. “Okay. Let’s go home then,” I said.

When I had first stepped into William’s house, it had scared me. It was big, and freakishly tidy. He had housekeepers that came in three times a week to keep it immaculate. But after spending the past few days in it with William, the scariness had disappeared. Cuddled on his couch watching
Christmas Vacation
and drinking spiked eggnog, I had never in my life felt more at home.

William must have felt the same way because he fell asleep next to me, both of us fully dressed and perfectly complacent to actually “sleep” together without having sex for the first time in our relationship. The next morning, we woke up tangled together on his couch with the television still on.

“Merry Christmas,” William said, his voice heavy with sleep.

“You, too,” I murmured into his chest. I wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. William’s phone rang shrilly from across the room. “Ignore it,” I advised.

“Gladly.” William wrapped me tighter in his arms. The phone stopped ringing for a minute and then started up again. We tried to ignore it, but when it started ringing for the third time, I urged him to answer it.

“This could go on all morning.”

William’s shoulders tensed as he checked the caller ID. “Hello?” he said tersely.

He paced the room and ran a hand through his tangled hair. Whoever was on the other end of the line was speaking shrilly and I could make out a few random words.

“I was busy.”

“No, I wasn’t avoiding you.”

“ Yes, I’m still planning to come today.”

“I don’t know. Later.”

His eyes narrowed at whatever was being said. When he looked at me, he mouthed that he was talking to his mother and rolled his eyes. I smiled and stretched lazily. William would be spending time with his family today which meant I could swing by my place and check my mail and do some laundry. William had other ideas.

“Actually, I’m bringing someone with me.”

“Yes, a woman.”

He rolled his eyes again. “Mother, I’ve told you a million times that I’m not gay.”

“I have to go.”

“Mothers,” he said, shrugging helplessly as he tossed the phone onto the table. “Can’t live with ‘
em, wouldn’t be alive without ‘em.”

I shrank away from him when he took a seat on the couch and reached for me. “Did you have something you wanted to run past me?”

William winced. “Yeah… so you’re coming with me to my family Christmas.”

“I am?” I cocked my head. “You’re sure about that? Did you maybe want to ask me, rather than tell me?”

“Well, you kind of owe me,” William said. I could see the playful smile lurking behind the surface.

“I do? Why is that?”

“Because of what I’m about to do to you.” He lunged at me and I yelped. He pinned me to the couch and I slipped my hands directly to the waistband of his sweatpants. Right when he started kissing my neck, his phone rang again. He sighed loudly. “Damn it. Hold that thought. I will be right back.”

But once he started talking, I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick call. It was all business talk. Gravity, Inc., the company William owned and where I worked, was a demanding job. When William took a call, it wasn’t something that could be handled in less than fifteen minutes.

I slipped off the couch and mouthed to William that I was going to take a shower. A pained look passed over his face and I knew he was thinking about how much he wanted to join me. As much as I loved good shower-sex, I was in need of a thorough cleaning, so I wasn’t exactly disappointed to have the shower all to myself. I felt refreshed as I brushed my teeth and then combed out my dark, wet hair. Wrapping a fluffy, white towel around me, I stepped into the master bedroom the find my clothes.

“I told you to hold that thought,” William said, his phone conversation over. He was standing next to the bed, completely naked.

“The thought hasn’t gone anywhere,” I said, taking slow and measured steps. “You made a promise out there and I intend to hold you to it.”

William waited until I was only a foot away and then reached for my towel. I opened my arms and let him pull it away. He threw it to the floor and crushed me to his body. My skin was still damp from the shower but William didn’t seem to mind. He used his tongue to wipe away beads of water from my shoulder. It was delightfully rough against my skin and I thought about what it would feel like on other parts of my body. William seemed to be reading my mind.

He laid me on the bed and scooted me forward so that my butt was on the very edge. Starting at my neck, he kissed and licked his way down my body. He paid special attention to my breasts, licking and sucking tenderly on my nipples. He caught one between his teeth and pulled gently, sending a pleasurable pain through my body. My hands tightened on his shoulders.

He slid lower, focusing on the curve of my hip bones with his tongue while one hand continued to caress my breasts. A moan escaped my lips and William looked up at me through his thick, dark lashes. “Your body is perfect,” he said, sounding stunned. I had spent nearly all of my time with him in varying stages of nakedness so he should have been used to my body by now.

He slid a hand through my pubic hair until his fingers found my clitoris. This time, my moan was much louder. William had been standing at the edge of the bed, leaning over me, but now he parted my legs and stepped between them, sliding me forward until my feet reached the ground. My lower back rested against the edge of the bed. William knelt between my legs and trailed kisses slowly up the inside of my thigh. I squirmed with anticipation as he got closer to my sweet spot. Then before I saw it coming, he was there.

His tongue was moist and firm against my clitoris, and he flicked the very tip of it back and forth rapidly. The effect was electrifying and the muscles in my vagina contracted sharply. He removed his tongue and blew a gentle breeze of cool air, sending a new wave of chills through my body. Then he was back at it with his tongue, this time harder and more pulsing. I could feel its roughness as he tasted me. The familiar warmness was spreading and I planted my feet more firmly, anticipating the release.