A Husband For Christmas

Chapter Four- Introduction to Luxury

With the plane venture uneventful and therefore soothing with a lethargic companion, I would be able to luxuriate in the silence and lack of a lustful prater at my side. Instead, I would take this time studying the notes I had made of Xander's and my relationship as if it had been a screenplay. But somewhere over Minnesota, I had turned to analyze the man at my side, doing so to try and understand how so many women could be vulnerable to his advances.

Sure, his jawline was etched into hard edges and his slight stubble had only outlined this feature into deeper noticeability. Next, my eyes fell to his chest; broad and fit, with the lines of his muscles at the mercy of the cheap fabric worn over his torso. He took impressive care of himself, but not to where he appeared unhealthy and obsessed with appearing bulk, instead, he was lean and carved, and enough to make me think about something other than how he had annoyed me...not love, not lust...but definitely something.

The sudden shift of his body making him comfortable in his slumber would dart my gaze away as I did not want to add inflation to his already enlarged ego. Therefore, I would spend the remainder of my trip with my nose in my k****e while reading of a forbidden love affair between a Scottish highlander and a time traveling English woman who would pique my interest in its unique placement.

"Xander?" I summoned him to awaken as he would groan and eventually give within my third attempt to command his consciousness. Following in classic fatigue, we would collect our luggage and move to a car prearranged for borrow through a rental service the night before.

"If you have all of this money, why do I have a crick in my neck for sleeping in economy?"

"Just because I have the money doesn't mean I should use it." I answered honestly while navigating the roads of these familiar powdered hills that led to this winter vacation home I had known since I could remember.

"You're kidding right! Do you have any idea what I would do with money like that?!"

"Probably buy a yacht and party with as many girls as you could swindle on board...Probably with models or actresses and go someplace exotic like Tahiti-" he would scoff at having been insulted.

"Am I wrong?"

"Exponentially." He explained. "First, I would buy a cabin or a cottage somewhere away from the city and then I’d travel...see everything that makes cultures different from ours...the food...the music...the people...There is something surreal about standing in a foreign place and feeling at home somehow." I would pause to berate him as this answer was definitely unexpected as I understood him perfectly. But then he would have to up and ruin it…

"And then I might find a model or actress...Maybe even more than one...who knows?" I would scoff before a comment would slip my lips before I had the chance to cease it; one I would regret immediately for its cruelty.

"Considering what you do, you really think any girl worthy of bringing home would actually find you to be a candidate?!" My eyes closed in the desire to repeat against having spoken it to begin with, as he would hide his hurt in a sideways grin marked by pensive silence before turning back to me.

"You think you're so much better than me don't you? A martyr to the culture of silver spoons that you have been accustomed to your whole life? Seeing them dragging you to a debutante event to vacationing in the Bahamas as a chore when it is really just a mark of your privilege...But let me ask you this…" his anger would blend into curiosity as he would look to me in study.

"What is the difference between what I do and someone who just sleeps around for ‘fun’?"

I would remain silent for a moment as I knew if I were to continue to speak, the insults would fall freely from my lips and I did not want to begin our faux relationship on a bad note. But that arrogance in his eyes and that smirk over his lips would drive me to rival his own pretentiousness.

"Well?" He would finally ask as I would glare between focusing on him and the road, opting for the asphalt before me so I would be exempt from the judgmental curiosity of his gaze.

"Well...you ruin relationships...Porn kills relationships."

"It can also help very lonely people…"

"Is that how you justify it? By claiming it's for the greater good? Do you realize that husbands cheat on their wives for a look at someone unattainable?!"

"If they are looking, then there were problems before the introduction to...what I do…Next?"

"Okay...what about the fact it's disgusting! Being with all of those different girls! It's distasteful and disrespectful-"

"Yeah...it's REAL disrespectful considering nobody forces them into the position, it makes them confident, everyone is tested on the regular for infections and diseases, and there is an intimacy coach on set to ensure everyone is comfortable...but you're right...VERY degrading-"

When I was silenced by this as I had no knowledge of the adult entertainment industry in any aspect, he would take this as a chance to corner my intellectual mind.

"Let me ask you, what is the difference between a special on mating animals on the Discovery Channel and what I do?"

"Only one of you is the real animal?" I returned to him with a smile of pride as he would seem pleased by my response, before I would find myself forcefully turned to him as we came to rest at a red light.

"No...Only one of us is aware we're actually BEING recorded...So the argument could be that documentaries are vile for exposing the intimates of something natural now made s****l-"

"People don't watch that to…"

"You'd be surprised...But the real difference is that one is organized with two willing parties and the other is some pervert in the forest diddling himself watching the s*x in front of him." Although I wanted to pick holes in his comment, I couldn't. Even if this didn't make me support the adult entertainment industry or find him as a saint, it did make me understand his points-although I would never let him know this.

A sudden honk at my back would startle me as I had become temporarily lost to him in this argument, before I would make a series of turns in silence before coming to the house I had known so well. Until now, it seemed typical to the residences my family owned in each corner of the world and seemed novelty in place of lavish. But as I looked at Xander's expression wiped clean with amazement, I couldn't help but admire both him and the architecture before him.

Considered a chalet by its listing, this wooden structure made up of both dark oak and stone sat upon five acres that bled effortlessly into the forest backdrop towered with mountainous terrain overhead. Snow covered peaks and thick forestry had existed as my background for almost every winter in the last three decades, now seeing a new set of eyes for the first time since my siblings' significant others.

"f**k…" he spoke beneath his breath as he pulled himself into the crisp Washington air with his eyes fixated on the structure as if it was a lost wonder of the world. Rather quickly, I became in bewilderment of him as he had become of my home; not because of an irresistible attribute impossible to look away from, but in the contradiction that someone so immoral could wear such childlike innocence.

"Why in the hell if you live in a place like this are you in a less-than-thousand square foot apartment off the NYC campus?!" He questioned as I would be returned to my reality of how different we truly were before moving to the trunk of the car.

"Because it's suffocating." I confessed without the intent to be so honest.

"Yeah...with at least twelve bedrooms, a theater room, and a private fire pit...there's nowhere to find privacy!" I rolled my eyes to his sarcasm as he would finally join me towards the trunk.

"Well don't get used to it. We are staying in a hotel about ten miles that way…" I explained pointing at my back as he began to pout.

"Why?"

"Because otherwise we would have to share a room here and I have no interest in giving you an excuse to be...vulgar." his eyes lifted in illumination.

"I don't need an excuse..." He would move closer to me to try and get a rise out of me, but after a handful of moments, I had managed to pill myself from his thrall of annoyance.

"Well you better get it out of your system now, because if my parents hear you talk like that, they are going to think you've corrupted me-" I had turned away from him and into the bags within the trunk to retrieve my gifts gifts set beneath the tree before turning to find him now sandwiching me between our shared luggage and his strong physique.

"Surely they would assume we've f****d-made love, since we ARE married...Isn't there a saying about "newlyweds doing it like bunnies?" He inquired as I pressed my palms to his chest, impressed at how hard his chest felt beneath my attempts, as he would oblige by stepping to the side although he could have kept me pinned if he wished as he was certainly strong enough to throw me about without much of a try.

"Then what was your excuse back in New York? Luring a new victim to your apartment every night-"

"You would only know that if you were watching me…" his eyes found me through his lashes now coming open with a smolder.

"It's kind of hard to ignore when you have a littering of girls, new every night, coming and going in shame-"

"You're so cute when you're jealous…"

"Jealous?!" I flushed as I may not have wished to be in the place of one of those girls, but I couldn't deny to myself that he had made me curious-something my body wished to construed as I fought to keep it concealed; therefore leaving this blush.

"Please!" I scoffed as he would suddenly take hold of my hips and bring me towards him.

"You're expecting a lot out of me here, Josie, but you can't insult me by being so uptight…"

"How is that an insult? I assure you I was like this well before you..." He would move closer into my ear, his breath as hot as sin on my canal, as I was doomed to be a victim to his allure for this moment.

"Because if I...made love to you...I would find a way to pull every piece of tension from those tight little thighs while you found God in each of my thrusts…" my fingers would dig into the fabric of his coat as I had managed to become lost in the vision he allowed me with such a description.

"A woman is only as happy as her pleasures...and I could help you find yours…" feeling the awakening of goosebumps on my skin as his breath now descended to my neck, I would recall the details of our reason for being here; it was an act. It needed to be.

"I won't do anything unless you want me to...But just understand right now that the minute you say so...I am going to make it my mission to relax you...By. Any. Means. Necessary-"

"Josephine!" My mother called from my back as I would turn with the feeling of being pulled from a thick smile or deep sleep even as I slipped from his grasp, curious how I allowed myself to be captured by him to begin with. But as my mother would give me a quick hug, one full of as much love as could be administered without causing harm, she would eye Xander.

“And you must be…"

"Xander, Mrs Keaton, it's lovely to meet you." My head darted towards him as I narrowed my eyes in a mix of surprise and concern. I didn't realize he was capable of acting quite this spectacular as this gave me the illusion he must be quite the thespian, which unlocked the insight of how he could convince many women to be his for a few intimate hours.

"Same to you...I wish I could day I've heard a lot about you, but if I'm honest, I only learned of you a few days ago…" he nodded and offered a sheepish run of his hand to the back of his neck as if posing for a camera.

"I hope you don't mind, I guess we became so swept up in each other that it still didn't feel real…"

"Well as long as you treat her well, then I look forward to getting to know you and accepting you into our family." I would smile at my mother as she would invite us inside for dinner, as I could watch Xander’s politeness in amazement. I couldn't believe as I crossed the threshold that this could actually work…