A Xmas Gift: The Sperm Donor Read Free

return.
    They never kept in touch with each other. There wasn’t a point in dredging up old memories.
    So in the present, Elise Ratner showing up in his office in London twelve years later is nothing short of a phenomenon. His pulse rises to a tappity-tap in his neck, and he clenches his fists to control the rush of emotions.
    No, she doesn’t want you back. She just popped in for a visit.
    Of course. What else could it be?
    He tries to suppress the tumultuous feelings – of anticipation, of excitement, of their last painful memory together – from overwhelming him.
    “Of course, Ferngully,” he says with studied calm. “Show her in.”
    “Very good, sir.”
    The connection clicks off.
    Justin stares at the door. He is as composed as he can be outwardly – even though inside, he feels like a little Dutch boy with his finger stuck in the dike, a one man army who is trying to stem the entire ocean from spilling in.

5
     
    Elise is glad she freshened up in the restroom before striding into Justin’s office. She resembled a drowned rat after going through that maelstrom. Gad, was London weather always like this? It hadn’t stopped raining – not even once.
    She notes that his office is set a little away from the rest, and that he has a male Personal Assistant who is now rising to his feet with undisguised curiosity.
    “Ms. Ratner, I presume. I’m Ferngully, Mr. Morgan’s assistant.”
    “So it says on your desk,” she says, smiling.
    “Step right this way, please.”
    He guides her to the door with a practiced knock, and opens it without waiting for the signal to ‘Enter’.
    She can feel her heart thudding as she walks through the door. It has been twelve years. How would he react when he sees her after such a period of time? They hadn’t exactly parted on the best of terms. She had called it off when he was willing to wait for her, but she recognized even then that he had not understood the concept of waiting.
    She isn’t prepared for the sight of Justin Morgan – all grown up. She thought she would be, but she isn’t.
    Not by a long shot.
    He had been a beautiful boy even then, but as a thirty-three year old man, he is beyond striking. His thick chestnut hair – the hair she used to dig her fingers into when they were making love – is what hairdressers would describe as being artfully disheveled. His handsome face possesses arresting hazel eyes which turn mud-green as he gets up in the different plays of light from his floor-to-ceiling windows. His nose is a blade cut marvelously in the middle of his face, and his mouth is generous, sensual, and wide.
    He is a man’s man now, not the pretty boy he once was. Every inch the gorgeous, impeccably-suited executive.
    He is staring at her too, and the expression on his face can only be described as ‘strangled’.
    “I’ll leave you two alone,” a voice interrupts them.
    She jumps. Ferngully closes the door with a knowing smile.
    Justin mutters something under his breath. “I swear one day he'll go too far,” he says aloud.
    “Why? I think he’s endearing.”
    “You don’t know the half of it.”
    She stares at him again, taking – no, soaking in the sight of him. My, but he is fine. And she had decided twelve years ago not to wait for this . Regret comes bubbling like a frothy witch’s brew, but she quells it by swallowing the lump which has suddenly bolted to her throat.
    He might still turn out to be an asshole.
    He is still flummoxed, disconcerted.
    “So what brings you here, Elise? You on vacation?”
    She has always been straight arrow.
    “Actually, I have a favor to ask you, Justin.”
    A funny look crosses his handsome features. She winces. She knows that look. It’s a ‘so you’re hooking up with me twelve years after we broke up because you want a favor from me’ kind of look.
    “Shoot,” he says. Right to the point, as always. Their relationship had never been one where they had to pussy-foot around each other.
    She clears her