Page 6 of A Billionaire for Christmas

His eyes travelled the length of her stockinged legs, hovering over her cleavage before raking slowly upwards. She was almost swimming with desire; it was dizzying. Any brief fantasy she’d allowed herself did not compare to the real thing standing in front of her.

‘Didn’t I see you earlier at the burlesque party?’ A half-smile hovered on his lips. ‘You’re not following me, are you?’

Oh dear. He was a real triple threat. He was clearly an American and yet there was a hint of French to his accent.

Then there was the small matter of his being a billionaire.

If he declared that he liked nothing better than to snuggle up in front of the fire with his pet pooch and a good book, she’d be in real trouble.

Molly tried to pull her thoughts together.

Here was her chance. He was exactly what she needed.

Never in a million years did she think she would be capable of such a thing, and yet she was gazing into his dreamy chocolate-brown eyes, thinking there was nothing she’d like more than to get him into a hot tub.

He gazed back as though she was bewitching him. ‘Are you staying here at the Cigar Lounge?’ he asked when she failed to answer.

Molly looked up at him through her thick lashes, Keela’s warning about not flirting with the uber-rich guests fresh in her ears.

‘No. Not really, no.’

His interest was growing by the second. ‘Not really?’

‘I mean no. No, I’m not.’ Molly teased a curl of hair round her finger.

‘Are you … staying here?’ She couldn’t have dragged the sentence out any longer.

And why was she making it sound like a proposition?

Her hand went to her hip, and she stood as though on the corner of a red-light district, leaning a shoulder towards him.

This is probably how they do it in Amsterdam , she thought briefly.

She continued to curl a strand of hair. Disturbingly, she was taking to it like a duck to water.

‘Yes. I stay here a lot.’ His eyes were as dark and twinkling as the night sky. ‘Where are you going?’

Everything about him drew her in. It was as though she no longer had use of even a single functioning brain cell. ‘I’m not sure.’

She made an elaborate attempt to bite her lip seductively. It appeared not to work. ‘Are you lost?’ he asked.

How could she admit to desperately needing to escape the scene of a crime?

Levi squinted, his eyes roaming hers. ‘I haven’t seen you before. Is this your first time as a guest here?’

Not ready to correct him, she attempted to explain her hasty departure from the room without sounding too guilty. ‘I was at a party,’ she said quietly. ‘But things got a bit, erm, intense.’

‘Intense?’

How awkward. Molly blinked, heat rising from her neck.

‘And you can’t go back in?’

Molly shook her head. ‘No because…’ Because it is full of angry lesbians who hate me for kneecapping their famous camel and spoiling their sexy show.

‘…because they’ve started to get intimate…

licking each other’s… well, it doesn’t matter what they are licking, but I’d hate to interrupt. In fact, I really need to get going.’

‘Did you say licking each other?’

Did she? Did she say licking? What was wrong with her?

‘Yes.’ Images swam in her mind. ‘Like ice creams.’

It felt very playgroundy, like she was telling tales.

Levi took a beat before his face creased with laughter. It took him a few moments before he composed himself. ‘Sorry,’ he said, quick to apologise. ‘So is the plan to wait out here until they’ve finished?’ He took a deep breath in, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

She could barely look him in the eye. It was late, and Molly was shocked to imagine him licking her like an ice cream. She blinked the image away. ‘No. I just got the wrong room, that’s all. It was the wrong party.’

‘Which room did you mean to go in?’ he asked, loosening his already loose bow-tie. Her eyes were drawn to the perfectly neat fit of his shirt across the chest. His voice sounded husky and warm. It was playing havoc with her ability to tell the truth.

‘That room there.’ She pointed to a random door further along the corridor.

‘Really?’

Molly needed to come up with a way to seduce him quick, so that perhaps he’d ask her back to his hot tub.

‘What a coincidence.’ Levi raised his eyebrows and swept his arm down the corridor. ‘I was on my way there too. We’ll go together.’

Shit.

Molly walked beside him trying to think up a billion excuses as to why they shouldn’t go into that room and why they both should in fact go back to his room, away from angry lesbians and away from further trouble. The door loomed ever closer. What if she ruined another perfectly good orgy?

No excuses sprang to mind during the thirty-second walk.

Levi tightened his bow-tie and straightened his tux jacket, tugging at the sleeves, before he flung the door open.

Molly was surprised to see that a wedding party was in full swing.

The soundproofing in this place was out of this world.

A nuclear device could go off and you wouldn’t hear a thing.

All the guests were in glamorous glittering evening gowns.

Molly stood out like a sore thumb in her burlesque costume, and their entrance caused an immediate stir. People eyed them both with interest.

‘Well, you seem popular,’ Levi murmured in her ear. ‘Do they all know you?’

Panic came at her like a charging rhino. A light film of sweat formed on her upper lip. She was simply a chef gone rogue and not used to all this. She flapped her hands around, trying to deflect attention. ‘Goodness. Why is it so hot in here?’

Levi put a hand to her elbow and guided her to a less crowded spot. ‘Better?’

They were at a wedding! She slid her clammy hands over her corset. She needed to somehow brazen it out and persuade him to invite her back to his room. ‘So, are you here for the bride or groom?’

He gave her an amused look. ‘Groom. You?’

Why was he so handsome? It really wasn’t helping.

Molly smoothed her hair to calm her nerves. ‘Erm, the bride.’

What was she doing? She’d have no idea who the bride would be. Suddenly, she caught sight of a huge wedding cake and the names Bev and Wyn on a swirling cake topper.

Which one was the bride?

‘Actually, I’m a friend of both Bev’s and Wyn’s.’ She was rambling. Words spilling unfiltered from her lips. ‘Lovely couple. Lovely. So young and in love.’

Molly glanced around the room. The average age was at least eighty.

Levi tried to stop himself from laughing. ‘Seriously?’

‘I meant young at heart.’ There was no way she could go through with this.

Stupid bucket list. She was going to have to abandon this mission before things got too out of hand.

A lump formed in her throat. ‘Actually, I forgot my… erm, my gift for them. That’s it.

I’ll go back and get my gift.’ Molly prayed that Levi wouldn’t ask where she was going back to.

Or what the gift was. All this lying had her nerves in shreds.

‘Perhaps we could meet up tomorrow? If you’re not too busy skiing or partying or… ’ Attending orgies for posh people?

Molly stopped talking as two elderly gentlemen approached. They shook hands with Levi and welcomed him. ‘Is this your date?’ one asked. ‘Hello, dear. Don’t you look divine? Simply ravishing.’ He gave a small bow, maintaining eye contact with Levi. ‘But then, you’ve always had exquisite taste.’

Molly’s blood pressure skyrocketed. Pretending to be a guest at a wedding wasn’t as easy as it sounded. If only she could ask which of their grandchildren was getting married without Levi hearing.

Levi’s eyes were sparkling as he turned to her. ‘I presume you’ve met the two grooms , Bev and Wyn?’

The words left Levi’s mouth but took an eternity to reach Molly’s ears and settle in her brain.

From the amused way he was regarding her, he knew she didn’t have a clue who they were.

The cat was out of the bag. Luckily, a survival instinct kicked in from out of nowhere as the third challenge on the bucket list sprang immediately to mind.

Crash a wedding and give an uplifting toast.

‘I’ve come to give your toast,’ she said shamelessly.

‘As a surprise.’ Keeping her voice steady, she continued the lie.

‘This lot hired me.’ She thumbed to the crowd of people dancing.

Before Bev and Wyn could reply, Molly spotted a microphone by a small stage area and darted towards it.

A DJ was playing hits from the 1950s. His eyes nearly popped from his head as he took in her costume.

She hurried towards him and reached out to grab the microphone, held it up and tapped on it.

Feedback squealed everyone into silence.

‘Can we pause the music, please? Just for a moment.’ Molly had no idea what she was doing.

Perhaps some evil spirit had taken possession of her body.

‘Let’s all stand to toast the happy couple.

’ Molly spotted a couple of wheelchair users.

‘Sorry, not you two. You don’t have to stand.

’ She spotted a whole table of disgruntled geriatrics, huffing and puffing as they struggled to scrape back chairs.

‘In fact, let’s not stand if you’re not already standing, and stay standing if you can manage it. Or seated if you prefer.’

It wasn’t rocket science but somehow she’d managed to cause confusion. Half of the dance floor had emptied, scrambling to grab the nearest seat. Levi was looking on with a puzzled frown.

Molly cleared her throat. ‘The main thing is we’re all here to celebrate this wonderful union.’

‘Will the dance take long?’ a frail voice called out. ‘You’re not going to take off all of your clothes, are you? I’ve recently had a pacemaker fitted, you see.’

‘And I’m on beta blockers for my blood pressure,’ another guest cautioned.

Molly felt every pair of eyes on her. She smoothed down the tiny ruffles of her skirt, pulling at them to see if she could make the outfit a little less revealing. She really couldn’t. This miniscule costume wasn’t doing her any favours.

‘I’m not here to dance.’ She grabbed a flute of champagne from the tray of a passing waiter.

‘Besides, I’m strapped in pretty tight. This thing won’t come off without a fight.

’ Why did she get a sudden urge to look at Levi while she said that?

Why? ‘Can we all raise our glasses to the happy couple, Bev and Wyn? May they enjoy a long and healthy life together…’

A ripple of sniggers ran round the room. It was then that Molly noticed Wyn’s walking frame, and that Bev was attached to an oxygen tank on little wheels. She wished the ground would open up and swallow her whole.

‘To Bev and Wyn. To everlasting love. Or however long you have together.’ Molly felt herself falling down a rabbit hole. She tried to recall the affirmations from Ava’s journal. ‘We have to live in the moment, don’t we? I mean, you never know what’s around the corner.’

Was her corset getting tighter?

No. It was the air. It was hot in here. Hot and stuffy. She wiped the back of her hand against her brow.

The crowd stared at her as though waiting for her to make sense, perhaps hoping for a few pearls of marital wisdom.

‘We just have to take each day as it comes and be thankful. You just don’t know when your time will be up.’ Molly exhaled gloomily into the microphone. ‘Life can be so short.’ She should know. Just take poor Ava. ‘Very, very short.’

Eerie silence.

She felt herself spiralling and began rapidly fanning her face.

‘To the grooms, everyone. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough, as someone famous once said.’ Molly cast her eyes around at the forlorn and slightly confused-looking crowd and swept a hand towards a worried Bev and Wyn.

‘Here’s to only living once!’ Grateful that everyone clinked glasses, Molly quickly whipped out her phone to take a selfie before giving the microphone to the DJ, who started the music back up.

Slipping her phone back into her stocking top, she rushed towards the door.

At least that was another challenge completed.

But she was going to have a stroke at this rate.

‘Going somewhere?’

It was Levi.

‘Yes. I’m leaving. My work here is done.’

‘Work? You’re a professional at this?’ He was trying not to snigger. ‘I should have guessed. That was quite the speech. Very powerful. Intensely thought provoking. You almost had me reevaluating my life.’

Molly relaxed. ‘It was a… I did it for a friend. So you can cut the sarcasm.’ She would have to give up on the idea of persuading him to get naked with her.

She was not coming across at all well. She needed to lie down somewhere cool and dark and re-examine her values.

She had finally hit rock bottom. ‘I guess I should be getting back now. Down to the main square.’

‘Ah. I’m afraid the gondolas back to the square have been stopped due to the snowstorm.

It might be best if you wait here. Explain to me in a bit more detail about this only-living-once theory you have.

It’s triggered something of an existential dilemma for me.

’ Levi seemed to have enjoyed her display of buffoonery a little too much.

‘In fact, here come Bev and Wyn now. They’re probably keen to know who gifted them such an inspirational toast.’

She would rather have poked her own eyes out than stayed here to face the poor grooms whose wedding she had crashed.

Plus, the longer she spent in Levi’s company, the quicker she’d blurt out that she wasn’t a wedding guest or any other sort of guest, that she was technically an employee, and not a very good one at that, and she had a perfectly serviceable snowmobile waiting downstairs, outside the kitchen door. ‘That’s okay. I’ll find a way back.’

‘Wait. I was only…’ she heard him call.

She darted quickly from the room, resisting the urge to glance over her shoulder at Levi as she closed the door behind her.

What had she been thinking? She scurried down the corridor before stopping to lean against the wall.

Hanging her head, she rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes against the sting of tiredness.

Her entire body ached. She needed to take off this ridiculously tiny costume and these towering, spindly heels and go straight to bed.

Her eyes snapped open at the sound of some extremely loud, raucous voices.

‘Well, what have we here, gentlemen?’

Molly took in four very large, very drunk, very leery men sauntering down the corridor towards her and froze in panic.