“I’m aware, yes. And thank you for helping her, Julia. Though if I’m being perfectly honest, I’m not overly fond of those gold reindeer,” he teased.

She gave him an answering grin as she fired up the engine. “Tough. Tessa loves them, and that means they’re here to stay. But don’t worry. They’ll only be around through the end of the holidays, then they go into storage until next year.”

Julia drove off before he could think of a suitable retort, and he walked back inside the warm, cookie-scented house, trying very hard not to scowl at the aforementioned reindeer that had taken up residence on his antique entryway table.

As she began to get dressed, Tessa was relieved that she’d gone along with Ian’s suggestion - more like a demand, really - that she have her hair, nails, and makeup done at the salon earlier today. Because as nervous as she was about attending the office holiday party tonight, she just knew she would have smeared her mascara, stabbed herself in the eye with the liner pencil, and broken a nail or two in the process otherwise.

It was silly, she thought, as she removed lingerie from the dresser. There was no valid reason why she ought to be this high strung, this fearful. She’d attended plenty of fancy events with Ian over the past year - a benefit ball for the opera, opening night for the symphony, charity galas for companies of which he was a board member - not to mention numerous private dinners, cocktail parties, and other social gatherings. She knew quite a few of his friends, and everyone had been more than kind to her, had been gracious and welcoming, and she’d never sensed that anyone was merely tolerating her because she was with Ian.

So there was no reasonable explanation as to why she should be in near-panic mode at the thought of seeing her co-workers just over an hour from now. After all, she had socialized with most of Ian’s executive staff at last July’s manager’s meeting, and worked with several of them when they had accompanied her and Ian on visits to certain hotels. She was in frequent contact with Andrew, and she and Ian had taken him and Isobel out to dinner more than once. That pretty much left the employees who had been her peers at the office, in particular the remaining members of the management support team whom she had worked beside for more than two years.

Alicia was no longer employed by the company, of course, having handed in her resignation after that fateful evening last May when she’d launched a nasty verbal attack on Tessa in the presence of Ian’s mother. Joanna had never told Tessa what she’d said to Alicia afterwards, having shooed Tessa out of the room, but it had been more than enough to provoke Alicia into quitting. Tessa knew via Andrew that Alicia was now living on the East Coast with an aunt, and was considering going to law school. Tessa was simply glad she didn’t have to worry about running into her former - and spiteful - co-worker this evening. It would make things just a bit less stressful.

She felt badly that she hadn’t done a better job at keeping in touch with the rest of the team, though. She had seen Shelby in July at the manager’s meeting in Hawaii, and had run into Gina shopping at Barney’s one afternoon in October. But she’d seen or heard nothing from Marisol, and in particular Kevin, who had been the closest to her and had always gone out of his way to cheer her up and make her laugh.

It hadn’t been intentional, of course. At first, it had been important to keep her relationship with Ian something of a secret, not wanting the speculation to spread about exactly when they had started seeing each other. And then she’d just gotten caught up in the hustle and bustle of her daily life - traveling on business with Ian, taking care of the house and perfecting her cooking skills, starting online college classes. There had been her emergency surgery and weeks long recuperation to deal with as well, immediately followed by their vacation to Tuscany and London. And since then their lives seemed to have operated at a breakneck pace, between the traveling, the social events, school, and day to day living.

Still, she scolded herself as she began to dress, none of that was really a valid excuse for not having kept in touch with Kevin and the others. And a good part of her trepidation about attending tonight’s party had to do with how they were going to react after seeing her for the first time in so many months - and this time as their boss’s fiancée.

“Well, don’t bother buying me anything for Christmas, darling. Just the sight of you in whatever that is you’re wearing is the best present I could ever imagine.”

Tessa gave a little start of surprise at the sound of Ian’s lazy, sensuous drawl, and her cheeks flushed rosily beneath a layer of gold-flecked bronzer. “It’s, um, a - a corset,” she mumbled, completely flustered by the way he was studying her so intently. He was leaning against the doorway to their bedroom, his arms crossed indolently across his chest, as though he had nothing else to do at this particular moment but stare lustfully at her half-clothed body. “Madelyn suggested that it would work well with this dress. You know, because the corset is strapless, and the dress has one shoulder bared, and - oh!”

She clutched Ian’s forearms in surprise as he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his body - his very aroused body. He was already dressed in his black tuxedo trousers, white dress shirt, and expertly knotted black bowtie, the jacket still waiting to be donned. And while he always looked so handsome that she felt like swooning whenever he was nearby, he was especially so on those occasions when he wore formal attire.

But it seemed that Ian was far more interested in what she wasn’t wearing this evening, his fingertips tracing a slow, deliberate line across the tops of her exposed breasts. The shockingly expensive Agent Provocateur corset that Madelyn had insisted she wear with the gorgeous gown that had been chosen for tonight’s party was of gold and black lace, and pushed her boobs up into a rather startlingly display. The attached garters held up sheer, silky stockings, and her lacy panties exactly matched the corset.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have insisted that you get your hair and makeup done earlier today,” he murmured huskily, as one big hand squeezed her half-bared buttock before sliding up her ribcage to cup her breast. “I wouldn’t have felt quite as guilty getting you all mussed up right about now otherwise. But you’re such absolute perfection tonight that I won’t be selfish enough to ruin all of the salon’s work. Later tonight, though,” he added in a very seductive voice, “I’m going to take great pleasure in getting you as messy as possible.”