Reluctantly walking into the French lingerie boutique with Stavros pushing a baby stroller, she’d felt nervous and out of place. When she’d looked at a price tag, she’d gasped and turned around, intending to walk straight back out again.
“Where are you going?” her husband had said, grinning as he grabbed the stroller handle.
She’d looked at him incredulously. “It’s two hundred dollars!”
“So?”
“For a pair of panties!”
“I would pay far more than that,” Stavros had said huskily, running his hand along the sleeve of her long, sleek black coat he’d just bought her at Dior, “to see you in them.”
Her blush had felt like a raging fire, and she’d glanced right and left, hoping the salesgirls, all as glamorous as French supermodels, hadn’t heard. Then her husband leaned forward and whispered what he planned to do to her later that night, and she was relieved that Freddie was still sleeping in the stroller so his innocent ears wouldn’t hear.
“And,” Stavros had said when he finally pulled away, “jewelry.”
“What could I possibly need more than this?” she’d blurted out, lifting her left hand, with its huge, bulky, platinum-set diamond on her ring finger.
Her husband had given a low laugh. “Oh, my sweet wife,” he’d said, cupping her cheek. He ran his thumb lightly along her lower lip, which was still swollen from their lovemaking the previous night. That simple touch made her tingle from her mouth to her breasts and lower still. “You will hav
e rubies as red as your lips. Emeralds bright as your eyes.” He’d looked at her with sensual, heavy-lidded eyes. “I will see you naked in my bed, wearing only diamonds that sparkle like Christmas morning...”
And he had.
Holly shivered now, remembering.
For the last three weeks, since their marriage, he’d made love to her every night. Somehow, each night was more spectacular than the last. She didn’t understand how it was possible.
Perhaps it helped that she was no longer so exhausted from waking up multiple times with their baby throughout the night. As if even Freddie felt the new stability and security of their lives, he’d started sleeping better and longer at night than he had before. And she also had Eleni’s help now.
So, almost against her will, Holly had found herself spending the holiday season as a princess in a New York penthouse, draped in jewels and expensive designer clothes, a lady of leisure whose only job was to cuddle her baby by day and be seduced by her husband at night. A life so wonderful it made her feel guilty, wondering what she’d done to deserve so much, when other people she knew had so much less.
So she’d asked Stavros if, instead of giving each other gifts for Christmas this year, they could donate money to charitable causes. He’d grudgingly agreed, seeing how important it was to her.
Holly was happy to make homemade Christmas gifts—knitted booties for Freddie, and a red felt star for Stavros, in the Marlowe family tradition. Whenever her former employer got around to sending her old Christmas decorations from Switzerland, Holly couldn’t wait to add her husband’s star to her family’s heirloom garland.
Wrapping his red felt star in homemade wrapping paper, Holly had hidden it amid the branches of the brightly lit white Christmas tree in their bedroom, and waited for the right moment to surprise him.
But after the first delicious week of their honeymoon, things seemed to change between them. Stavros went back to work. Instead of spending all day with him, she saw him only in the middle of the night, when he would wake her up to make passionate love to her. By dawn, when Holly woke, Stavros was gone again.
Finally, out of desperation, Holly had put the baby in his stroller and gone to the offices of Minos International, hoping to see him, maybe take him to lunch. But Stavros had been deep in a conference meeting and barely spoke two words to her, seeming only annoyed by the interruption. Rejected, she’d gone to talk to her old coworkers. She’d relished the other secretaries’ excited congratulations and demands to see Holly’s spectacular diamond ring. They’d invited her to lunch, and she’d accepted happily.
But seated at their usual delicatessen, the conversation had dwindled. The other secretaries, who’d once been her colleagues, didn’t really know how to act now she was the CEO’s wife. A few were clearly trying to repress burning jealousy, while others seemed merely uncertain what to say.
Holly yearned to show them that she hadn’t changed since her marriage, and was still the same person. But how?
As she ate her favorite Reuben sandwich with dill pickle, she listened to the other women talk about their problems. One had an ex not paying child support, another was falling behind on medical bills, another couldn’t find good day care. Then their eyes inevitably fell on Holly’s huge diamond ring, and baby Freddie, sleeping in his expensive, top-of-the-line stroller. Holly could see what they were thinking: lucky Holly and her baby were set for life.
Cheeks burning, Holly had said quickly, “If there’s anything I can do to help—”
“No, no,” her former friends had said, waving her off. “We’ll be fine.”
“Perhaps my husband could give you a raise...” But before Holly even finished her sentence, she knew she’d made a mistake. Her friends had stared at her, quietly offended.
“We’re fine, Holly.”
“We don’t need your charity,” another had muttered, sucking down the last of her soda noisily through a straw as she glared at the floor.
The lunch had gone downhill after that. When it was finally over, Holly had suggested they make plans soon. But none of her old friends seemed particularly keen to set a date.