Her eyes lit up just as Gia’s had a few moments ago. The idea obviously hadn’t crossed her mind. “That can get expensive.”
“Let me worry about that, okay?”
“Okay, Mr. Athle-tante.”
He had plenty of money to travel back and forth if he wanted. He hadn’t been a careless athlete. He’d helped out his folks as much as they would let him and then kept the rest of his signing money away in savings. Then of course there had been the money from his job at ESPN and now. “I’ve got that covered. I just want you to stop bringing up New Year’s Eve being the end of things, because it doesn’t have to be.”
Macy stood up on her tiptoes, bringing her lips to his. “I like the sound of that. And I’ll try not to bring up New Year’s Eve.”
Duke responded at first with a kiss, slow, sensual and meaningful. He pulled away and wrapped his arms tighter around her waist. “Well, that’s the best Christmas present ever!”
Chapter 7
Mario’s annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party was in full swing by the time Macy and Duke arrived with the kids. His two-story house was filled with friends from work and friends from way back in the day. The kids made a plate from the buffet table and disappeared. Last year, Macy recalled, Mario recruited her for last-minute details. This year things went off without a hitch, which only made Macy happy because now she had plenty of time to spend with Duke. Macy shared a few pastries with Duke before he was pulled away by a group of guys for sports talk.
To keep up with the theme tonight, Macy wore a minidress decorated to look like a Christmas tree, garnished with tiny red, green and gold balls. She clinked every time she walked, and she hung out by the fireplace, occasionally stealing glances across the room and enjoying every butterfly flittering around her stomach. She twisted a strand of her flat-ironed hair around her forefinger. Gia had spent all evening on her hair and would have had a fit if she saw her twisting it. Letting it go, Macy inhaled deeply, agreeing with everything Serena yammered on about. Macy nodded in the direction where Duke was standing and talking to Mario and Pablo.
Serena had encouraged Macy to give in to her libido where Duke was concerned, but she had no idea how complicated her life was with Duke in the picture. In the afternoons when it was slow, Duke offered to pick up Gia from school after he helped the baseball team with drills. Some days, he would bring MJ with him to help chase balls. After practice and work, he would come by
Macy’s office, pick her up and take them all out to eat. In the evenings when homework was due, he would help out, whether it was Gia with her media class or MJ with his math, while Macy worked on dinner. When the kids went to bed, she and Duke would sit on the couch, kissing away like two teenagers until it became too uncomfortable for either one of them. Both had agreed not to do anything silly, like getting caught on the couch by Gia or MJ. And Duke’s spending the night would seem to send the wrong message for the kids. So Duke and Macy were forced to handle their relationship like grown, mature adults. A lot of cold showers were taken on Macy’s part.
Last night, Gia asked Duke to take her to the upcoming dance with Jimmy. Having a Ferrari could have had something to do with it. And it had been Gia who picked out the green cardigan Duke wore tonight, with a snowman family down at the bottom; what looked like snow falling on the family was actually cotton balls sewn onto the garment. It fit. It fit well, Macy thought, looking at Duke’s broad shoulders stretching the green twill.
In her eyes, Duke was the epitome of the perfect man. Besides having a sculpted body of a god, he knew how to make her feel like the only woman in the room—in the world, even, whenever he looked at her. Sure, he had a megawatt smile that dazzled her each time she looked at him and his kisses brought every fiber in her body to life. But it was beyond the hard body, seductive dark eyes, or his chivalry. It was that and more that made Duke so desirable.
When they were together, he hung on to every word she said, listened to idle chatter from Gia and MJ. He was creative with the children, even when they bickered with each other, overdramatizing the issue they were fighting about, though the conflict usually ended with the kids defending each other. With MJ, Duke figured out how to distract him from being sad over Mario forgetting to take him to get a haircut. Duke talked MJ into going with him to the barber and they both came home with fresh cuts. According to MJ, the barber gave the boy a hot towel facial while he trimmed Duke’s dark goatee. He was good with the children. He was good with her.
When she had mocked his hands weeks ago, she had no idea of the tenderness behind his fingers. The way he stroked her face when he kissed her goodbye, or the control he maintained when reaching over to massage her shoulders and feet after a long day. Every time he glanced at her with his deep brown eyes, he bored through another wall inside her. When he touched her with his large hands, every inch of her body wanted to melt. The past few nights, they had a few intimate moments on her couch. Macy could not believe how out of control she could get with him. Just the other night, she’d ripped off his shirt and almost begged him to make love to her on the couch downstairs, but he remained levelheaded. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t taken his shirt off when they worked during the day, but when the man stood hovered over her body on the couch at night, with candles set all around them, it was hard not to shake the feeling of his hard abs against her fingertips. But because she knew what he looked like without that sweater, it made the whole thing ridiculously funny at the same time. Macy inhaled deeply and focused on the man at hand.
It was a good thing Duke was so confident. He was good-natured through it all, teasing her and calling her a celebutante when someone would pull her to the side just to let her know they were voting for her homes in the decorating contest. He didn’t seem to mind at all when her former client, Lawrence Hobbs, came over to wish her good luck on the drawing tonight when she was standing off to the side while Duke had gone to get them something to drink. When Duke arrived, Macy made the introductions and Lawrence was on his way. He wasn’t bothered at all by the pilot. It’s nice to be in a mature relationship, she mused to herself.
“Ugly sweater be damned,” Serena said, holding her cup of eggnog in front of her mouth. No amount of slurping on the beverage could mask her grunted moan. “That man looks good.”
“I will have to agree to that,” Macy said, toasting her cup of apple cider in Duke’s direction.
“Isn’t it weird that Mario has a man crush on your boyfriend?” Monique asked, coming over to the two ladies. She wore a black sweaterdress with Santa on it that buttoned down the front. On the left side of the dress, Santa looked as if he was tiptoeing away, dragging his sack of toys behind him, but instead of toys spilling out of the open bag, it looked more like cotton padding, as if Monique stuffed her bra.
“I have two things to say.” Macy looked at the outfit and laughed. “First, let me say that I hate you for getting your body back so quickly after having Lucia!”
Looking down at herself, Monique blushed. “Sorry, but I have been working double time to get things back in place before I show my face on high-definition television again.”
“That’s why I’m never having kids,” Serena chimed in. “All that extra work to lose the weight? No thanks.” She shook her head. Macy and Monique shared a look, knowing they had once both said the same thing before in their lifetimes.
“So what was the second thing you wanted to say?” Monique asked, ever the reporter. She hadn’t forgotten how Macy had phrased her statement.
“Oh.” Macy shrugged and took another look at Duke across the room. He looked at her at that exact moment and gave her a wink. The status of their relationship hadn’t been publicly announced. She knew what they were when they were alone, but Macy wasn’t sure if she wanted the world to know. What would happen when he went back to his celebrity lifestyle in DC and she had to watch his life pass her by in the tabloids from Tallahassee? “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Whatever! Man-friend, gentleman caller.” Monique playfully pushed Macy’s shoulder. “I hear down at the station that he’s so eager to wrap up in the morning just so he can get over here to help you out.”
“So?”
“So?” Monique stood there and gaped. “So as a reporter, you’re only as good as your next story, and he hands off every bit of good news that comes across his desk.”
That was something Macy wasn’t aware of. She just assumed that because of Duke’s high profile, there wasn’t much investigative reporting he could do. “Oh, I didn’t realize that.”
“Did you also realize that Gia’s dropped her crush on Duke?” Monique pressed on. “I haven’t gotten a single Tweet about him and what he wore. Now it’s all about some guy named Jimmy.”
Macy had noticed she hadn’t heard much else about Gia’s love for Duke. Gia wasn’t the first one anymore to turn on the television in the morning to catch Duke’s broadcast while she got ready. Macy had figured that as a typical thirteen-year-old, she’d found someone else to crush on. “What do you think that means?”