Family for the Holidays

by Victoria Pade

  Not a lot. Just about an inch. Probably not enough for Dax to even notice, and all the while telling herself that since she would be sitting when she got to the living room again the hoodie could pull back and be tight around her throat if she didn’t give herself some leeway.

  But the tiny flutter of sensual longing deep in the pit of her stomach let her know comfort wasn’t the only issue.

  She didn’t raise the zipper again, however. She merely went out of the bathroom and back down the stairs.

  The sound of the vacuum cleaner greeted her as she neared the bottom step. Sure enough, when she looked from there into the other room Dax was running it. She’d taken it out to vacuum up pine needles once the tree was up and had not put it away because she’d known there would be more cleaning necessary when the tree was finished. But she hadn’t intended that to be a hint for Dax to do the job.

  Still, there he was, one hand on the upright’s handle, his other hand slung in his pocket, the cord draped over his shoulder—the man was cool even when playing housemaid. And so attractive it nearly made her heart skip a beat.

  Seeing him like that also inspired a smile as she paused to watch him perform the everyday household chore.

  They’d all taken off their shoes when they’d gotten home so, like Shandie, he was in his stocking feet, and he presented an odd combination of renegade and domesticity that was endearing and sexy at once.

  He caught sight of her as he flipped off the vacuum, and Shandie had to stop staring and go the rest of the distance into the living room.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” she told him as she did. “Or any of the rest of this,” she added when she realized that he’d neatly stacked all the empty boxes and packaging remnants in one corner of the room so it was almost as neat as it had been before they’d begun today.

  “Now we can sit back and relax,” he said, winding up the vacuum’s cord.

  Then he relinquished the machine to her so she could put it in the hall closet.

  When she got back to the living room he’d taken the quilt she kept draped over the cracked headrest of an antique rocking chair and he was spreading it on the floor in front of the rustic redbrick fireplace. Then he sat leaning against the hearth, one leg curved in front of him, the other bent at the knee to casually brace a forearm while he patted the blanket beside him in invitation to her. “The best seat in the house,” he said, referring to the front-row view of the Christmas tree.

  Shandie went first to the lamp on the end table beside the sofa, turning it off so that the Christmas lights were the only illumination. Then she situated herself next to him on the blanket, sitting cross-legged.

  “Now squint your eyes at the tree,” she commanded. “It’ll be all blurry and sparkling.”

  He laughed at her indulgently, much as he had done numerous times today with her daughter. But he did it, screwing up his face to accomplish the squint.

  “See how pretty it is?” she said, squinting herself once she was sure he was following orders.

  “I see a couple of sections that could use more lights,” he said conversely.

  “Still pretty,” she judged.

  “Mmm,” he agreed with a lascivious intonation before she opened her eyes and saw that he’d gone from studying the tree to studying her.

  Shandie opted to ignore the flattery—despite the fact that it pleased her—and move on.

  “Thanks for all of this today,” she said. “Kayla isn’t the only one who had a good time, and you made the beginning of our first Christmas in Thunder Canyon something to remember.”

  “Glad to be of service,” he said with a lazy smile. “I had a good time, too. It’s been forever since I did any Christmas tree cutting.”

  “We both loved the snowmobile, too.”

  “You’ve really never been on one before?”

  “Never.”

  “Any time you want to do it again, there are all kinds of trails I can take you on—some that the resort uses as hiking trails in the summer and some others that are more off the beaten track, leading up into higher ground that’s good for overland skiing or just watching the herds of deer and elk.”

  “Sounds like you know the countryside pretty well,” Shandie observed.

  “Sure. As kids, D.J. and the Cates brothers, and Grant and Russ and I all spent time scoping it out. We skied, hiked, camped, hunted, fished. Plus, I used to like to take my motorcycle off-road, go out on my own sometimes. I know it all like the back of my hand.”

  “Hmm,” Shandie mused as the wheels of her mind began to turn in problem-solving mode.

  “Hmm what?” he inquired.

  “I was just thinking that it seems like there could be a whole lot more your business could offer if you branched out into that.”

  He gave her the confused frown she’d become familiar with. “If I branched out into what?”

  “Well, why couldn’t you sell snowmobiles and off-road and all-terrain vehicle kind of things along with motorcycles? And repair them, too. Are they something else you can fix?”

  “Sure, I can fix about anything with a motor or an engine. But I’m not doing a bang-up business as it is. Expanding seems like something you do when things are booming, not when you’re on the verge of busting. I’m also not sure how big the market around here is for that other stuff, either.”

  “What if you created the market?”

  He looked at her as if she were out of her mind. “How would I do that?”

  “Even though your shop isn’t booming, Thunder Canyon is—thanks to the resort—right?”

  “Right.”

  “Couldn’t you do something in connection with that—like convince the resort to buy snowmobiles or those other ATV things from you? They could have them available to their guests and you could do any repairs and upkeep. Plus…” The wheels really were turning and something else occurred to her. “What if you even offered to take guests into the countryside, on the trails or out to snowshoe or ski the way you just offered to take me? You could be the guide to the backcountry, too.”

  He was smiling at her with a crinkled-up brow. And although the smile was slightly bemused, she could tell he was intrigued by what she was suggesting. “How would I expand my sales and my repairs and be the guide into the backcountry, too?”

  “You could set aside only certain times—or certain days—to do tours, and hire someone to cover the shop when you weren’t there.”

  He laughed. “Ah, now you even have me hiring help. You’re just full of ideas, aren’t you?”

  “If Kayla and I liked doing what we did today, why wouldn’t other people? Summer and winter? The resort is looking to offer more and more to attract tourists—this would be another attraction, wouldn’t it? And here you are, in a position to be in on the ground floor of it. It could be exciting. And take you from being on the verge of busting to booming along with everyone else.”

  “Just like that?” he said as if she were oversimplifying.

  “Why not just like that? You even have an in with the resort’s bigwigs—Grant Clifton manages it, and there’s Riley Douglas. You’re friends with him, too, aren’t you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Couldn’t you talk to Grant? I’ll bet he’d jump at the chance to have this other outdoorsy activity to offer resort guests, and he’d probably go to bat for you with Riley Douglas. So why not just like that?” she repeated.

  “I can think of half a dozen reasons—money for starters.”

  “There are always complications—like the construction on the remodel of the Clip ’n Curl taking so much longer than it was supposed to. But anything can be worked out. And if the resort commits to buying the snowmobiles and the ATVs before you invest anything, the money you’d be using would be theirs. You wouldn’t even need a loan to get things going.”

  He smiled as if he liked what he was seeing in her. “Do you always have this much energy?”

  “Most days.”

  “No wonder
your cousin Judy asked you to be her partner in the beauty shop.”

  “She was talking about how business was hurting and why. I told her what I thought would help,” Shandie confirmed matter-of-factly. “Like now, with you,” she added. “For whatever it’s worth.”

  He was staring at her, a sparkle of amusement lighting his eyes, and something else there, too. “I’ll think about it,” he said, seriously enough to let her know he honestly would.

  But she also had the impression that he was saying he didn’t want to talk about his business anymore, that he wanted to mull over expansion on his own, and that was verified when he changed the subject.

  “So you’re teaming with business ideas and plans for the future—for everybody—but what about for Shandie herself? What plans do you have for you alone?”

  “You mean, like, personally?”

  “Yeah, like personally,” he said, taking her hand.

  Shandie tried not to notice the little charge that skipped up her arm at his touch and said, “I don’t really have plans. I guess I just go day to day.”

  “One day at a time—has that always been the case or just since your husband passed?”

  “It’s been since I got involved with Pete, really. He lived for the moment because he couldn’t be sure how much future he had, and I guess I learned to do that, too.”

  “So, pretend you have to come up with a plan for yourself right now. What would it be? Would you outlaw marriage? Is Kayla enough of a family for you? Do you see a dog in your future…?” he finished as if a dog would be a much bigger change than anything he’d mentioned before it.

  Shandie laughed as much at that as at the feathery strokes of his thumb along the back of her wrist. “I don’t know about a dog,” she said as if she agreed that that was the weightier possibility.

  “But marriage and more kids…” he reiterated.

  He probably thought she was considering it when he let that dangle in the air and she still didn’t answer him right away. But marrying again and having more kids were things she’d thought about a lot. What she was actually doing at that moment was marveling at the sudden realization that, for the first time since her husband’s death, she could think about those two things without pain or guilt.

  Which, she also realized, was true of what was going on with Dax, too. Because before this, even considering dating someone had filled her with both pain and guilt. And while she didn’t know if what they were doing was dating, surprisingly she hadn’t felt those with him.

  “Yeah,” she finally answered his question. “I suppose I could see myself getting married again and having maybe one or two more kids.” Then, not wanting to dwell on it, she said, “What about you? I know you aren’t against the idea of marrying again if you just jumped into an engagement to Lizbeth Stanton. But where do you stand on kids?”

  He grinned. “I try not to stand on them. They yell a lot if I do.”

  “Bad joke,” she decreed, laughing anyway.

  “I’d like to have kids,” he answered then, seriously. “I didn’t want them when I was married to Allaire, mainly because we were young and having kids seemed like a drag—something that would tie us down too much. But now…why not? Especially if I end up a motorcycle-ATV-snowmobile mogul.”

  “Oh, especially then,” she said, playing along with his teasing her about her idea.

  He apparently appreciated that she had because he grinned at her. “You’re a good sport, you know?”

  “Just what every girl wants to be—a good sport,” she said, rolling her eyes.

  “Better than being a bad sport.”

  “But not as good as being the bodacious bombshell babe from Bootyland.”

  He laughed—a hearty, barrel-chested laugh that she loved.

  “You did not just say bodacious bombshell babe from Bootyland,” he said.

  “I didn’t?”

  He closed the grip on her hand and pulled her to sit in front of him, close enough that she was leaning back against him. “Just look at the lights,” he said as if her comment had cost her the privilege of conversation.

  She didn’t mind. How could she when it was so nice to be sitting in the V of his widespread legs, his shoulder her headrest, his arms coming around to encircle her?

  And as they sat there with the only illumination coming from the fire and the Christmas lights, the only sound the crackle of the flames, Shandie thought again about what had just come to her moments before—the fact that she hadn’t felt any guilt about being with Dax. About how everything with him had just evolved so naturally that it had never seemed as if she were cheating on Pete or being unfaithful to his memory.

  She wasn’t sure if the passage of time had made it possible, or if it only had to do with Dax, but it left her feeling that she was in a good place suddenly. In Thunder Canyon. In this house. In her life. In this man’s arms.

  And while she reminded herself that Dax might not be a forever-friend— or someone who she was likely to have a future with—and that she needed to keep her eyes open when it came to him, the fact that he was a part of reaching this good place now made it feel okay to be there with him. To have kissed him. To have more than kissed him the night before. To want that next step with him, and maybe to have it if she just didn’t expect it to be anything serious…

  He dipped his head so his face was close to the side of hers and, in a quiet, husky voice, said, “Are you squinting?”

  She tipped her head so she could look at him. “At the lights? No, are you?”

  “Sorry,” he said without contrition but with only a hint of a smile that was pure bad boy and that just plain turned her on.

  That was when she knew she was going to give in to what she wanted to do, what she’d wanted to do the previous evening and every minute since then.

  Somehow he seemed to register her decision because his hint of a smile stretched into a full, sexy, lopsided grin just before he nuzzled his way to her neck to kiss it, and pulled the cocoon of his arms tight enough around her to press his forearms into her breasts.

  Her nipples instantly became pearls, and Shandie tilted her head farther still to give him more access as his tongue tickled the side of her neck and he sucked just enough to entice without leaving a mark.

  She could feel him already beginning to harden where the juncture of his legs cradled her hip, and she couldn’t suppress a smile of her own at the proof that he wanted her as much as she wanted him.

  She raised a hand to his face, feeling the faint trace of roughness that his reemerging beard caused, and liking that sign of his masculinity, too.

  “What about Kayla?” he whispered.

  “She’s sound asleep and her door is shut tight. It creaks like crazy when it opens so if she gets up for any reason there will be a lot of warning.”

  Dax nodded.

  He kissed a line to her ear and nibbled the lobe for a moment before one of his hands came to tilt her chin so he could take her mouth with his.

  Shandie made it easier and swiveled enough to almost face him, enough that she could respond to his kiss with equal devotion.

  No finesse was needed for lips to part, for their kisses to be instantly sensual, for tongues to come together and part, circle and spar and mingle decadently.

  She sent her hand around to his nape, testing the bristles of his hair there as one of his hands made the opposite journey, traveling downward from where it caressed her face to trail to where he’d left off Saturday night, clasping her breast—but only on the outside of her velvet top.

  He wasn’t wasting any time. Not that Shandie objected because it almost seemed as if her breasts hadn’t stopped being aroused during the past twenty-four hours, and having his hand there again was welcome relief.

  Mouths opened wider still and their kiss became so intense it pushed Shandie to rest against the inner side of Dax’s upraised leg. Her head was braced by his knee as he ravaged and plundered with an abandon she met and matched.

 
Both of her arms were around him by then, her fingers digging into the thick cable knit of his sweater. She could feel the heat of him seeping through it and, added to the heat of the fire and what they were generating themselves, that seemed like a prime excuse to give herself what she’d been fantasizing about since first having it last night.

  She found the hem of his sweater, escaped his kiss in order to pull it off over his head, and then reclaimed her place as her hands sought out the skin of that broad, bare back and the shoulders that were a shame to ever conceal.

  His hand went to the zipper of her hoodie then, inching it open and allowing her to burgeon from it in the filmy lace half-cup bra that gave away what had been on her mind even this morning when she’d first gotten out of the shower and chosen her underwear. It was sexier than having nothing on at all and, as if Dax could sense that there was something to see—or maybe just because he wanted to look—he took a turn at cutting off their kiss to have a peek.

  A bold peek because as he pulled the hoodie off completely he devoured the sight of her breasts only scantily concealed by the bra, the shadow of her nipples visible through the lace.

  He made a sound—a sort of gravely sigh of awe and admiration just before he buried his face between her breasts. Then he took hold of the scalloped edge of one cup and pulled it low enough for flesh to bob above it and be caught by that mouth that had been on hers only moments earlier.

  She might have missed the kissing except that what he was doing to her breast was too glorious not to make her close her eyes and breathe a sigh of her own.

  Oh, what the man could do with tongue and teeth and the wet wonders of that mouth! He knew exactly the right amount of suction, of pressure and coercion, of hold and release. He knew the perfect combination of tugging and teasing, of firm and feathery, of flicking and tracing and tormenting until what he was setting alight in her was so bright and hot and demanding it made her gasp.

  He unhooked her bra and tossed it aside, showing her other breast the wonders he’d introduced to the first. And even as he did, he laid her on the quilt, coming with her to lie beside and half on top of her. His mouth continued its marvels while his hand roamed from a farewell fondling of her free breast down her side to her waist and then forward to her stomach.