Their Yuletide Promise

by Stacy Connelly

  The shock on his face was priceless, and Evie took advantage of the moment to pull her hand from his and take off at a dead run toward the water.

  Looking back over her shoulder, she laughed as Griffin half ran, half hopped after her as he tried pulling off his shoes and socks without breaking stride. “Are you crazy?”

  Even with her head start and Griffin’s footwear striptease, he caught up with her before her own toes had done more than hit the edge of the frigid surf. She sucked in a quick breath as cold water struck her skin like a thousand icy needles. Then she gasped again as Griffin scooped her up against his chest.

  “Are you crazy?” he asked again, but this time he was laughing as he said it. The earlier shadows of the past had disappeared, and Evie didn’t worry about Griffin having to hold her weight because she felt lighter than air at her accomplishment. She—straitlaced, oh-so-serious, stick-in-the-mud Evie McClaren—had made Griffin James laugh.

  Giving a carefree shrug as she indulged in the pleasure of running her fingers through his hair, Evie said, “What? I felt like a swim.”

  “Oh, well, in that case...” Taking two giant steps into the waves, he swung his arms back in a rocking motion as if ready to toss her straight into the ocean.

  Giving a girlish squeal, a sound Evie never thought she’d make in her adult life, she threw her arms around his shoulders. But Griffin merely spun them both around in a circle before letting go of her legs until she stood in front of him. The water was freezing, every icy splash stealing her breath, but Evie didn’t care. The rush of the waves pushed her body into Griffin’s before the receding undertow tried to pull her away. Through it all, his arms held her tight, anchoring her body to his against the ebb and flow.

  The salty scent of the ocean mixed with Griffin’s expensive, spicy aftershave, the combination drawing Evie closer to the warm skin of his neck. His pulse pounded along the strong column of his throat, and Evie couldn’t resist the temptation of pressing her lips to that exact spot.

  “Evie.” His voice was a low growl of warning, but she took no notice, parting her lips to taste that small square inch of skin. This time she was the one who absorbed the shudder rocking his strong body in reaction to an attraction as elemental and irresistible as the tide. “Evie...”

  He groaned her name again, and a shiver raced through her. One that had him pulling back to look down at her. “You’re cold.”

  “No,” she argued. Granted, she could no longer feel her feet, but that had more to do with her floating above the earth than it did with the salty water swirling around her calves.

  “Yes,” Griffin insisted. “But don’t worry. I think I have a good idea how to warm you up.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What is this place?” Evie asked as they stood on the porch of a small cabin.

  The rustic structure was tucked away in a wooded area within walking distance of the airstrip. With its log exterior and green roof, the cabin blended in perfectly with the rugged surroundings.

  Griffin switched the travel bag he’d grabbed from the plane to his left hand as he reached for the door handle. He always kept a duffel with a change of clothes in the plane in case he took off on a whim and decided to stay overnight wherever he landed. He hadn’t anticipated using the change of clothes on this occasion.

  He smiled. Of course, he hadn’t anticipated Evie wanting to take a dip in the frigid ocean, either. They were both soaked from midthigh down. Granted, this was California and the temperature was in the low sixties, but swimming weather it was not. He still didn’t know what had possessed Evie to rush into the surf. She couldn’t have surprised him more.

  “The owner of the airstrip told me I could use this place, in case the weather turned.”

  The front door was unlocked, as promised. Considering the cabin and airstrip were on a dozen or so acres of private property, that was no surprise. What did take Griffin completely off guard, however, was the sight that greeted him. As he hit the light switch, the room was bathed in the muted glow from a small but elegantly decorated Christmas tree in one corner. Silver and gold glass ornaments hung from nearly every branch. The colorful lights glinted off a pair of champagne flutes and a bottle on ice.

  Despite her professed humbug attitude, Evie’s smile beamed as brightly as the star on top of the tree as she stepped inside the small living area. “Just in case, huh?”

  Griffin didn’t know if he should take credit for the romantic arrangement or deny that he’d had any part in it. Settling on middle ground, he repeated, “Just in case.”

  Lowering his duffel bag onto the hardwood floor, he bent down and unzipped the top to pull out a pair of drawstring sweatpants. “Here. Put these on.”

  “Hmm,” Evie held the oversize sweats against her slender legs. “Sexy.”

  “Take these, too.” He held up a pair of long athletic socks. “There’s nothing sexy about hypothermia.”

  Evie’s husky laughter heated his blood and eliminated any possibility of him suffering from low body temperature as she accepted the clothes from him. “Unlike oversize sweatpants and athletic socks.” The wry voice and slight smirk were typical Evie.

  But the look in her eye as she tossed the clothes aside made Griffin’s heart thunder, pounding against the walls of his chest harder than the waves crashing against the shore. Something about Evie was different. She had an added confidence, a certainty in herself, in him, in knowing that what the two of them had together was real.

  “Evie...”

  Stepping closer, she said, “I can’t believe you did all this for me. The champagne, the tree...”

  Growing up as the son of a wealthy man, Griffin had coasted through life plenty of times—accepting what was given to him with little thought about what he’d done to earn it. But not now. Not this time with Evie. He wanted... He needed to know he deserved this woman. “I had help,” he confessed. “A lot of help.”

  He’d wanted their meal to be a complete surprise, so he’d asked Trisha and Aaron to arrange the picnic on the beach and told them about the small cabin. He really had only intended to use the place if the weather was too cold. Clearly the other couple had had something else in mind when he mentioned the cabin was at his disposal...just in case.

  “Trisha and Aaron...” he began.

  “Trisha and Aaron didn’t ask me to come with them today. They aren’t the ones who shared their love of flying with me. They aren’t the ones who found that gorgeous spot on the beach. You did that. All of that and more. You—” Evie swallowed and a tender smile trembled on her lips as she whispered, “You make me laugh, Griffin. You make me happy.”

  And just like that, the emotions building inside him became a tsunami. Rushing beyond all walls, all barriers. Too strong, too powerful, too overwhelming for any possible defense to hold them back. “Evie—”

  The words rushed up inside him, the promise to spend the rest of his life making her happy. Maybe being rich had made him greedy. He wanted all of her tomorrows. But Evie hadn’t offered him a lifetime.

  She’d only given him a day.

  A better man, a stronger man, might have held out for more, but Griffin would take what he could get. He would grab hold of today and do everything in his power to make sure Evie still wanted him when the sun rose in the morning.

  Reaching up, she cupped the back of his neck, her slender fingers cool against skin that felt on fire. “When you told me you had a way to warm me up, sweatpants were not what I had in mind.”

  The look in her sapphire-blue eyes was enough to set off a slow burn inside Griffin. Her hair was tousled from the ocean breeze and from her run on the beach. The dark strands were too short and too straight to truly run wild. Compared to the woman he’d met three months ago—a woman whose razor-sharp hairstyle matched her razor-sharp wit—this Evie was reckless and daring and even more irresistible. Her silk shir
t was untucked. Salt water dampened the hem of her straight black skirt. Sand coated her slender feet and he had no idea where she’d left her shoes.

  He ran his fingers through that wind-tossed hair, tucking the silken strands behind her ears. “I could...build a fire in the fireplace.”

  “Very romantic,” Evie murmured, “but still not what I was thinking.”

  “Run you a hot bath?”

  “Hmm...getting warmer.”

  “Take off all of these damp clothes?”

  “Now, that’s what I call hot.”

  * * *

  Evie’s heart pounded as Griffin captured her in a kiss as heated as any she could have hoped for, dreamed of, imagined. It was as though every other kiss had built toward the perfection of this one. She could still taste the sweetness from their earlier dessert mixed with the salt from their near dip in the ocean and a spice that was 100 percent Griffin’s own.

  She fisted her hands in his shirt, her body aching to get closer to his. “Griffin.” She all but groaned his name and felt a shudder work through him in response. The tremble in those strong muscles gave Evie a feeling of power that was as heady and potent as his kiss, emboldening her to find the hem of his shirt and lay claim to the smooth warm skin of his back.

  “Too many clothes, remember?”

  Reaching back with one hand, he grabbed hold of the material and stripped away the shirt in one smooth, decidedly masculine motion. The flicker of candlelight played against his tanned skin, and for a moment Evie could only stare at the broad shoulders, perfectly honed abs and dusting of hair across his chest.

  Swallowing, Evie admitted, “You were right, you know.”

  “Was I? About what?”

  “The first night we met...I really did want to take your shirt off.”

  “Well, sweetheart, why didn’t you say something? We could have ended up here a whole lot sooner.”

  But despite the words, despite his quick removal of his own clothes, Griffin seemed determined to take his time when it came to hers. She couldn’t wait to feel his hands against her skin, and yet she didn’t know if Griffin could move any slower. His fingers slid down the V neckline of her shirt to the buttons that trembled between her breasts.

  Goose bumps danced across her chest, but Evie was anything but cold. By the time he pushed the silk from her shoulders, she was almost surprised steam wasn’t rising from her skin. She didn’t give him the option of turning her skirt into some kind of lingering striptease. She made quick work of the zipper and let the garment fall to her feet, leaving her clad in nothing more than a black lace bra and matching panties.

  “I was right about that first night, too, you know.”

  Desire had roughened his voice, and Evie could practically feel the scrape against her exposed nerve endings. “About what?”

  “The first night we met, I was sure that beneath that sleek skirt and the oh-so-professional blouse buttoned to your throat you were wearing some of the sexiest satin and lace I’d ever hope to see.”

  “Good thing I’m not wearing boring old cotton,” she teased.

  It wasn’t like her to exchange sexy banter while standing nearly naked in front of a man. But neither was it like her to skip out on work to fly off to a secluded beach or go running fully clothed into the ocean. This was her one day, and she was certainly making the most of it.

  “Wouldn’t matter,” Griffin vowed as his big hands spanned the small of her back and he pulled her body tight to his. “All that would have done was prove how foolish I was not to realize how sexy cotton could be.”

  Maybe it was just a line. Maybe it was the type of thing Griffin James would say to any woman standing half-naked in front of him, but the raw honesty in his expression urged Evie to believe every word.

  She clung to his broad shoulders as the trembling muscles in her legs threatened to give way, but then it didn’t matter if she was falling because Griffin was there to lower her to the soft pillows scattered across the floor. He trailed heated kisses down her throat to the swell of her breasts before brushing the garment aside.

  Each gasping breath she took brought her closer to his openmouthed caresses. Her back arched, drawn to the pleasure of his touch, as his lips trailed lower across the sensitive skin of her stomach. Her muscles trembled and tightened as he stripped off the last barrier of satin and lace. He broke away only long enough to toss his own pants aside and grab protection. The lights from the tree illuminated him, and Evie’s breath caught at the sight of such masculine perfection.

  His lean body covered her, claimed her as he touched every part, and a wild rush of emotion threatened to overwhelm her. Evie had to look away, to close her eyes against the raw honesty she couldn’t bring herself to trust.

  But as Griffin had pointed out before, some things didn’t need to be seen to be believed. Closing her eyes only made the passion in Griffin’s kiss, the intensity of his body stroking deep within hers, that much harder to resist.

  “Evie.” His deep voice murmuring her name was as intimate and seductive as everything that had come before it. “Open your eyes.”

  She was helpless to deny his command, as helpless as she was to deny the building pleasure inside her. Any hope of holding on to some thread of control, of holding back some tiny part of herself, was lost as she shattered around him, the pleasure breaking in a brilliant burst that brought Griffin with her.

  * * *

  A faint buzz pulled Evie from a heavy slumber. Had she switched her phone alarm to Vibrate? She reached out blindly for her nightstand, wanting to slap the annoying sound into submission, but it wasn’t wicker furniture her hand came in contact with as she threw an arm out across the bed.

  Warm skin... Smooth muscles... Griffin.

  Evie jerked into a sitting position. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she felt her cheeks start to flame as she met his amused grin. Despite the tousled disarray of his dark blond hair and the early-morning stubble shadowing his jaw, he was clearly wide-awake and had been for some time... Doing what? Watching her sleep?

  After making love in the living room, they had eventually managed to find their way to the bed. The shyness she hadn’t felt the night before washed over her as he glanced down, and she clutched the sheet to her breasts. In her haste, she tugged a little too hard, stealing his side of the covers and leaving even more of all that warm skin and smooth muscle exposed.

  “Morning, sweetheart.”

  The buzzing continued over the pulse pounding in her ears, and Evie swallowed. “Is that—I need to find my phone.” She tried to scramble from the bed but stopped short, tethered to the spot by the corner of the sheet still tucked beneath Griffin’s hip.

  Chuckling, he reached out one tanned arm and tugged, giving Evie little choice but to tumble back beside him. “Relax,” he said as he brushed her lips with a kiss. “That isn’t your phone. It’s mine.”

  “Oh. Well, aren’t you going to answer it?” she asked, but the buzzing had stopped. At least, the one coming from his phone had. A different sort of vibration hummed along Evie’s nerve endings as his kiss trailed across her jaw and down the length of her throat. Her hold on the sheet loosened as he murmured, “I can think of better things to do...like keeping you here forever.”

  Her hand tightened on the sheet. Forever wasn’t part of the plan. Just one day and one night. One night of—yes, she would admit it now—pure magic that she would never forget. One night that would be enough to last her in the days and nights and years that stretched out in front of her.

  Griffin James was gorgeous, sexy, exciting and unpredictable, and she should be glad that, for even a brief moment in time, he’d been hers.

  But he didn’t fit into her logical, well-ordered world any more than she could fit into his jet-setting, whirlwind life. What had he told her about Hillcrest House that first morning? The old-fashioned, solid, staid hotel
didn’t fit the James brand? Well, neither did she.

  “Evie?” he asked. “What’s going on in that big beautiful brain of yours?”

  “We really need to get back to the hotel.”

  “Hillcrest House will survive without you.”

  But she wouldn’t survive without the hotel. Her aunt was right that her job had become her refuge, her escape from living and loving, and once Griffin moved on, she would need it more than ever. “The whole point of this was so that it doesn’t have to.”

  “The whole point of this...” he echoed slowly as he pulled away to lean back against the wooden headboard.

  Evie gave a short laugh, the only pretending she’d done since Griffin had taken her hand the day before. She gestured toward the tangled sheets between them. “Well, not of this, but you know what I mean.”

  She expected a joke or at the very least a flippant comment in response. But Griffin held her eyes until her heart started to pound. She had to look away before he finally muttered, “Yeah, I’m starting to think I do.”

  “Griffin...” She didn’t like knowing she’d hurt him. Didn’t like knowing that she could. She’d spent so much time reminding herself that their relationship was strictly pretend, that she didn’t dare fall in love, she’d never considered that Griffin might forget, that he might be the one to fall. She opened her mouth, completely unsure of what she might say, but the phone buzzed again before she had a chance. This time he swung his legs over the side of the bed and reached for his cell on the nightstand.

  With his back turned to her as he barked out a greeting, Evie used the moment to slip away and escape into the bathroom. Maybe it was cowardly of her, but she needed some space, some distance to regain her perspective on everything that had happened the night before. Not an easy thing to do when confronted with the sight of her bra and panties draped over the shower rod.