Cinderella's Christmas Affair by Katherine Garbera Page A

me, CJ. Tell me what that means.”
    “I just forgot something that I shouldn’t have.”
    “What?”
    She bit her lip and looked away. He wished she trusted him enough to tell him her secrets.
    “You don’t have to tell me now.”
    “Tad, this isn’t going to work. I’ll call Butch and tell him to assign someone else to your account.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. I told you I’m going to marry you and I’m still determined to make that happen.”
    “I’m not marrying a man who isn’t my image of the perfect man.”
    “Tell me what the qualities are.”
    “It’s not a list of things you can go out and buy.”
    “What is it then?”
    “Just a feeling I’ll get deep inside when I know it’s right.”
    “Love?”
    “Maybe. It’s kind of this indefinable thing that I’ll know when it happens.”
    She stood up and crossed to the front door. She opened it and Tad got to his feet reluctantly. “You owe me a dinner. I’ll be back at six to pick you up.”
    “Do we really have to do this?”
    “Hell, yes. Love is overrated and I’m going to prove it to you.”
    He bent down, took her mouth swiftly and deeply and walked away.

Five

    C hristmas had never really been CJ’s favorite time of year. Mainly because her mom used to try to make them into the perfect little family during the holiday season. And that had just made her dad’s absence more obvious. She knew her mom had everyone’s best interests at heart. CJ wondered some times if that wasn’t why she tried so hard to make everyone believe she was an image of perfection instead of a real human with faults and weaknesses.
    Tad had sent a car and a dozen long-stemmed white roses for her at 6:00 p.m. Standing on the street with a light snow falling, cold wind seeping into her clothing, and a bouquet of sweet-smelling flowers in her arms, she debated getting into the limo.
    Tad scared her. More than she’d thought an old high school friend ever could. It wasn’t like she really had that many friends from the good old days, she thought wryly.
    “You okay, ma’am?” the driver asked.
    She hated being called ma’am. For God’s sake she wasn’t even thirty yet. Way too young to be called ma’am. Except today she felt old and wary. Very wary. Hell, too wary for a woman her age. She should be able to enjoy an attraction with the opposite sex instead of being afraid of it.
    But fear was part of the allure for her. Her body was pulsing in time with the music in her head. Slow, steady sex music that she’d ignored for a long, long time. Only tonight she didn’t want to ignore it and that’s precisely why she wasn’t getting in the car.
    “No,” she said to the young driver. “I’m not okay.”
    She pivoted and walked back in her building past the doorman with the curious expression. The ride up in the elevator was painfully slow, but the car finally arrived at her floor. The condo she called home had never looked more like the sanctuary it essentially was.
    She put her key in the lock and made up her mind. She wasn’t going to get back on the merry-go-round that had lead to her near destruction with Marcus.
    If standing Tad up cost her a promotion at work, so be it. Her sanity meant more than her job. At least right now it did. And she’d started over before. It was actually something she felt she’d mastered.
    Her apartment was warm and welcoming after the cold street. She changed into jeans and a thermal shirt and then lit a fire in the fireplace. Glancing in the gilt-framed mirror over the mantel, she scarcely recognized herself. She’d changed a lot in the process of trying to find herself. She’d thought she knew who she was but a wind from the past had shattered her sense of self. Now she saw a woman who vaguely resembled the image in her head and that hurt.
    She put on a Christmas CD and puttered around her apartment turning on the tree lights and trying to shake off her mood with seasonal cheer. Not even a cup of apple-cinnamon