A Special Christmas Gift

New York City.

Bryce Royal had never seen crowds like this, people were everywhere. Two days out from Christmas and he was trying to fight his way through the crush of shoppers on Fifth Avenue, his destination Bergdorf Goodman department store.

Why did everyone in the tri-state area decide this was the place to be today?

He could just picture his fiancée, Vivian. She would be warm and comfortable in her office at the Royal Resorts head office in lower Manhattan. And knowing her, she’d been smiling smugly to herself happy in the knowledge that he was stuck in the bitter cold and the Christmas shopping crush.

But this was all his own fault. He’d lost the bet.

She’d teased him when he’d confessed, that he’d never once had to go out shopping for Christmas gifts. As a member of the billionaire Royal family he’d always had people to do that for him.

But not this year.

In losing the bet, he’d been tasked with buying Vivian one single gift. But it had to be from the heart. And he had to go buy it himself. In person.

After finally making it into the department store, Bryce found a spot out of the way. He pulled his cell phone out of his coat pocket.

Vivian answered on the first ring. “Hey, are you having fun?”

Bryce snorted. “Oh, I’m having an absolute ball. All my eight million fellow New Yorkers are out in town today. And I’m pretty sure that at least one million of them are in Bergdorf’s department store right this minute.”

Her wicked chuckle drifted down the phone line. “Aww, poor baby billionaire. Now you know what the rest of us have to suffer each holiday season. Just be glad I didn’t ask you to go all the way out to Queens to do your shopping because the Christmas crowds in Queens are next level.”

He couldn’t believe she was making him do this, but Vivian was nothing if not insistently evil when it came to making sure he made good on bets.

“Couldn’t I just say you were right and that Emily in Paris is better than Suits? I could call my driver and be back in the office soon,” he pleaded.

“Tsk tsk. Bryce Royal, you are not trying to get out of making good on a bet, are you?”

Yes.

“No, of course not. I just thought you might think it a better use of my time to be with you. Alone. We are heading to the family island tomorrow, and you know how busy that gets once all the Royal relatives arrive.”

“Hmm. What sort of alone are we talking?”

Bryce glanced around him, then whispered into the phone. “You know naked alone. Me with my face between…”

He didn’t finish what he was about to say as a mother and young child moved to stand within earshot.

“The sooner you finish selecting my Christmas present, the quicker you can get back here. Then we’ll see about what sexual position is on today’s elf on the shelf list,” purred Vivian.

He let out a long slow breath. His naughty little fiancée was trying to get him hot under the collar. Vivian’s idea of elf on the shelf was twenty four days of them tying themselves into naked knots.

I love this woman, but she will be the death of me.

“I am ending this conversation before I get arrested by store security. You are incorrigible, but don’t think I won’t be getting my revenge once we get to Turks and Caicos,” he grumbled.

Vivian breathed heavily into the phone. “Oh, I think once you get an eyeful of the tiny bikinis I have bought for the trip, you won’t be able to think of anything else but having my lips wrapped around your cock, Mister Royal. Happy holiday shopping.”

And she was gone.

Bryce stared at his cell phone for a moment, then smiled. Vivian would be waiting at home for him tonight. 

And to think his mother had once hoped he’d marry a well-bred society heiress. Not for the first time did Bryce thank his lucky stars that he’d met a hotel reviewer while undercover at one of the company resorts. And that Vivian loved him.

“But what am I going to buy her for Christmas?”

He was always giving her presents. He’d tried to buy her expensive jewels, but they didn’t hold much appeal for his future wife. And thanks to his insistence that she spend her monthly personal allowance, the shelves of Vivian’s walk in robe at their apartment was full of designer shoes.

Bryce loved spoiling Vivian, but he sensed she would rather he gave her thoughtful gifts, not just things.

His gaze landed on a nearby bag and purse display, and it got him to thinking. Early in their relationship he’d bought Vivian a handmade Celine bag, and she was never seen without it.

She loves that bag, but has said she would make changes to it if she could.

With a clever smile on his lips Bryce turned on his heel, and headed out into the street. He called for his driver to come pick him up.

As he settled into the back of the town car, he called a close friend in Italy.

What better gift could he give to the woman he loved than to fly her to Tuscany and let her work with the designers at Celine to create her very own bag.

He’d ask them to call it The Vivian.