Free The One: The Complete One Series Collection by Emma J. King Page A

around inside. I lifted the lid on the box and stared in surprise at the key inside. My brow wrinkled as I thought about the significance of the gift.
    William was standing in front of me now and he took my free hand. “This will make it easier for you to stay with me,” he said. “No excuses.”
    “A key to your house?” I asked lamely. Everything was moving very fast. “Are you sure about this?”
    “You should know by now that I don’t do things I’m not sure about.” William kissed my forehead. “I’m not saying you have to move in with me or anything. I just want you to be able to come and go as you please. I want you to feel at home there.”
    I looked over William’s shoulder and saw that several of the kids were looking sleepy. It was time to go. “Okay. Let’s go home then,” I said.
    When I had first stepped into William’s house, it had scared me. It was big, and freakishly tidy. He had housekeepers that came in three times a week to keep it immaculate. But after spending the past few days in it with William, the scariness had disappeared. Cuddled on his couch watching Christmas Vacation and drinking spiked eggnog, I had never in my life felt more at home.
    William must have felt the same way because he fell asleep next to me, both of us fully dressed and perfectly complacent to actually “sleep” together without having sex for the first time in our relationship. The next morning, we woke up tangled together on his couch with the television still on.
    “Merry Christmas,” William said, his voice heavy with sleep.
    “You, too,” I murmured into his chest. I wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans. William’s phone rang shrilly from across the room. “Ignore it,” I advised.
    “Gladly.” William wrapped me tighter in his arms. The phone stopped ringing for a minute and then started up again. We tried to ignore it, but when it started ringing for the third time, I urged him to answer it.
    “This could go on all morning.”
    William’s shoulders tensed as he checked the caller ID. “Hello?” he said tersely.
    He paced the room and ran a hand through his tangled hair. Whoever was on the other end of the line was speaking shrilly and I could make out a few random words.
    “I was busy.”
    “No, I wasn’t avoiding you.”
    “ Yes, I’m still planning to come today.”
    “I don’t know. Later.”
    His eyes narrowed at whatever was being said. When he looked at me, he mouthed that he was talking to his mother and rolled his eyes. I smiled and stretched lazily. William would be spending time with his family today which meant I could swing by my place and check my mail and do some laundry. William had other ideas.
    “Actually, I’m bringing someone with me.”
    “Yes, a woman.”
    He rolled his eyes again. “Mother, I’ve told you a million times that I’m not gay.”
    “I have to go.”
    “Mothers,” he said, shrugging helplessly as he tossed the phone onto the table. “Can’t live with ‘ em, wouldn’t be alive without ‘em.”
    I shrank away from him when he took a seat on the couch and reached for me. “Did you have something you wanted to run past me?”
    William winced. “Yeah… so you’re coming with me to my family Christmas.”
    “I am?” I cocked my head. “You’re sure about that? Did you maybe want to ask me, rather than tell me?”
    “Well, you kind of owe me,” William said. I could see the playful smile lurking behind the surface.
    “I do? Why is that?”
    “Because of what I’m about to do to you.” He lunged at me and I yelped. He pinned me to the couch and I slipped my hands directly to the waistband of his sweatpants. Right when he started kissing my neck, his phone rang again. He sighed loudly. “Damn it. Hold that thought. I will be right back.”
    But once he started talking, I knew it wasn’t going to be a quick call. It was all business talk. Gravity, Inc., the company William owned and