by Annie Rains
He heard footsteps inside the town house, then the lock clicked and the door opened. Troy looked up, meeting those green eyes that he’d looked forward to seeing. His gaze traveled the length of her. She was dressed in a knee-length skirt that showcased those long legs of hers. The purple top she was wearing had a flattering cut that didn’t expose any cleavage, but hugged her so perfectly that he wished it did.
“I, um, thought maybe I should look the part,” she said shyly. “You know, dress for the occasion.”
“I’m sorry.” Troy looked down at his jeans and T-shirt. He’d dressed for the occasion of a Saturday evening, which he usually spent at home or at Heroes with a few of the guys. At least he’d showered and shaved.
“No, don’t be. It’s fine.” Allison smiled brightly. “I need to do a few things before we leave, if that’s okay. Why don’t you come inside?”
“Sure.” He followed her and shut the front door behind him.
Allison pointed to the couch. “Make yourself comfortable. There are sodas in the fridge if you want one. I’ll be right back.”
Troy watched her retreat down a long hallway that he guessed led to her bedroom and bath area. He then looked around her living room. It was cozy, with pictures on the walls. He took a closer look, guessing these were the family members he’d be posing for next weekend. They looked nice. Allison’s mother had her same green eyes. Her father looked like a good guy, maybe someone Troy could have a few laughs with. No brothers or sisters apparently.
So Allison was an only child. Which maybe meant she was a little used to having her own way.
“What are you doing?” Allison asked, reentering the room a few minutes later.
“Profiling you.”
Her brows lowered.
“Hazard of the job.”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Okay. So do I fit the profile of a criminal?”
He shook his head. “Not exactly. Do you have a restaurant that you want me to take you to tonight?”
She slipped the thin strap of a purse on her shoulder and shook her head, her red hair scraping along the top portion of her arms. “I like everything.”
Something about that made his mind roll toward the gutter. He reined it back. “Well, then, I think I know where we’ll go. I have a favorite spot.”
“Great.” Allison nodded. “I should definitely know your favorite spot. And favorite food. And whether or not you have allergies,” she added, walking to the front door.
Troy stepped ahead and opened it for her. “I can see tonight’s going to be a barrel of laughs.”
She stopped and turned to frown at him. “This is just research, remember?”
“Research can be fun, though,” he said. He hadn’t meant it to sound suggestive, not completely, at least.
Her eyes widened just a fraction.
Troy winked. “Relax. I’m harmless.”
With a slight nod she continued forward. They walked to his truck and he opened the passenger door for her.
“You don’t have to—”
He started to press a finger toward her lips, stopping before touching her. “Just because this is research doesn’t mean I’m going to treat you like a dude. You’re a lady, and I intend to treat you like one tonight. Is that okay with you?”
She swallowed as she stared back at him. “Okay.” Then she climbed in, her skirt rising up her thigh. She definitely wasn’t a dude. That was conclusive.
Troy walked around and got in beside her. She was quiet as he pulled out of her parking lot and turned down the road toward their destination. “Don’t you want to know where I’m taking you?” he asked.
In his periphery he saw her looking at him. His eyes stayed locked on the road. She was too much of a distraction to entertain while driving. He liked watching her facial responses to everything he said, especially when he was flirting with her.
“A restaurant, I assume.”
This made him smile. “A smart-ass, huh? I didn’t know you had it in you.”
She laughed softly, the sound stirring his soul. He hadn’t heard her laugh yet. A woman’s laughter had always been a little bit of a turn-on for him.
“Okay. I’ll ask. Where are you taking me?”
“Paradise Point.”
“Outside of town?”
“It’s only ten minutes outside. Well worth the drive.” He glanced over now. “Plus, I kind of own the place, so they have to treat us nicely.”
“You own the place?” she asked.
He nodded, focusing once again on the stretch of road ahead. “My family does. My brother Sam runs the place we’re going to tonight. My other two brothers run the dry cleaners, the Matthews Apartment Complex, and the jewelry shop. I have aunts and uncles, cousins, too, who run a few other things. The Matthews family owns the town, more or less.”
“So why don’t you live in Paradise Point?”
He shifted. He’d opened a can of worms, but that was the point of tonight, right? To get to know each other. “I joined the Marines, instead,” he said. His muscles tightened as he waited for her to respond in the way that most did. Most people asked why, with shocked expressions on their faces, and looked at him like he had two heads. Why the hell would he choose to wear heavy combat gear or go to the deserts of a foreign country where people looked at him as the enemy? Why would he choose to risk getting shot at as a military police officer on a daily basis? Why would he hang out with a military K-9 when he could be sitting pretty in his family’s heritage, adding to it, reaping from it?
“That’s very noble of you.”
It took a moment for her response to sink in. He waited for the but to fall off her pretty lips. It didn’t.
“You don’t think I’m crazy?” He looked over at her, suddenly very invested in her answer.
“Not for that. For other reasons is debatable.”
“Thanks.”
—
There was a plateful of food on the table in front of Allison, more than she could probably eat in a week, and a gorgeous man sitting across from her.
Merry, merry Christmas.
In little over an hour, Allison had learned that Troy’s favorite food was ribs, although he’d ordered a steak tonight because he’d told her that he didn’t want to scare her off by looking like a caveman. His best friend was a police dog named Bear, which she found curious. He enjoyed doing home renovations and owned a fixer-upper in Seaside. And sometimes he installed home alarm systems. Not for the money. She guessed he had a lot of that, considering his family owned so many businesses in Paradise Point.
“You told me you’re not going home for Christmas. But home is here.”
“Home is my mother’s house,” he said, pushing his cleared plate to the side and leaning back in his chair. “She’ll come see me in Seaside. We’re having dinner together next week.”
Allison started to ask another probing question, but Troy took over the conversation and turned the tables on her.
“Why do you need me?” he asked.
“Excuse me?”
“Why do you need a pretend boyfriend? Why don’t you have a real one? You’re a beautiful woman. Smart. Enjoyable to talk to.” He shrugged. “What’s the problem?”
Her spine stiffened. “No problem. I just don’t feel the need to have a boyfriend in my life right now.”
He leaned forward on the table. “Obviously you do, or you wouldn’t have purchased me.”
She pushed her plate aside, too. “Okay, like I already mentioned, my mother is a psychologist on Camp Leon. She thinks it’s unhealthy that I don’t date anymore.”
“Anymore?”
Allison looked down at the table. “I’m a bad judge of character. My mother, on the other hand, is a pro. I pick the rotten apples, or just the wrong apples, and she points them out. I’m tired of it all.”
His eyes softened. “Who says the next…apple wouldn’t be the right one?”
She pulled her drink close, needing something to do with her hands.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m happy on my own.” And that was the truth. She enjoyed a quiet house. Enjoyed having all her free time to herself. She could meet her girlfriends at Heroes anytime she wanted. Volunteer her time with Mercy’s kids. There was no significant other vying for her attention.
“Fair enough,” Troy said.
She felt her body relax as he moved on to another topic.
“Can I get you something else?” a waitress asked a few minutes later.
“Missy! How are you?” Troy said, obviously knowing her. “I didn’t know Sam had hired you on.”
The brunette nodded. “And he’s a good boss, you’ll be happy to know.”
“I’ll tell him to give you a raise,” Troy grinned.
“Taking this job came with a raise,” Missy said. “He told me to hand you this.” She laid a flyer down on the table. Troy glanced at it and groaned. Not his brother, too.
“What is it?” Allison asked.
Missy pointed at the top. “Only the biggest, brightest Christmas tree you’ll ever see. If you haven’t seen it, it’s amazing. Troy knows. He’ll take you.”
Troy lifted a brow. “I take back what I said about you getting a raise.”
Missy waved a hand. “Jokester.” She returned her focus to Allison. “Sam also said dessert was on the house. You like chocolate, right? What am I saying? Of course you do, you’re a woman. We have chocolate cheesecake tonight.”
Troy groaned happily now. “You’ve never had dessert like this,” he told Allison. “This will be the most satisfying thing you’ll put in your mouth this year.”
She swallowed.
He grinned.
Had he meant that to sound the way it had?
She hoped the blush of her skin wasn’t telling on her. “Great. I can’t wait.”
It was after ten when they finally left the restaurant. They’d talked and eaten for hours. Everything that Allison learned about Troy was polar opposite to her. He was a dog guy. She preferred cats. He liked steak and potatoes while she usually went for a lighter salad. The one thing they had in common was that neither of them was interested in an ongoing, serious relationship.
Good.
Allison pulled her jacket tighter around her to ward off the frigid December air and held up the flyer that Missy had laid down for them. “I have to see this Christmas tree.”
He glanced over. “It’s just a big tree with lights.”
“I love big trees with lights. The bigger the better.” Why was everything sounding so suggestive? “I’ve been a fan of Christmas trees since I was a little girl. I used to stare at ours and try not to blink, until the colors swirled and mixed, and everything except that blur of wonder disappeared.”
The man beside her was silent.
Allison glanced over. He hadn’t needed to know that piece of information. It wouldn’t be on the list of things her family expected him to know. She wouldn’t tell him, though, that while she’d stared at her childhood trees, she’d fantasized for a long time about her birth father coming home. That when she was really young, she’d pretend that there was some kind of magic in those trees that could make her deepest desires come true.
“Okay,” Troy finally said. “You’re a hard woman to say no to, you know?”
Allison laughed, resisting her need to lean in closer to him as they walked. Resisting everything he ignited inside her.
—
Paradise Point’s Town Park had been a magical place for Troy as a kid. He’d come here with his brothers and gone ice skating around the town’s tree for hours after school and all day on the weekends.
“I haven’t been here in years,” he confessed, as they climbed uphill toward the attraction.
Allison paused as the tree came into focus. “Oh, wow. It’s beautiful.”
Troy looked at it through her eyes, seeing it for the first time, too. Yeah, Paradise Point’s Christmas tree was pretty spectacular, large and decorated with a thousand yellow twinkly lights. Huge round balls painted red and silver hung from the heavy tree branches.
“Come on. We’ll be warmer if we huddle on the bench. We can watch the kids skate, fall down, and get back up. It’s a lot of fun.”
She laughed as she continued to follow him to an iron bench near the rink.
He sat, then patted the seat beside him. “I don’t bite, hard.”
She left a few inches between them. She was nervous again; he could tell by the way she fidgeted with her hands in her lap. She’d grown relaxed with him at the restaurant.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“No. It’s just very…romantic here, isn’t it?”
He lifted a brow. “Ice skating is romantic? I guess I’ve been out of the game for too long. I had no idea. But don’t worry, baby. I’ll behave.” When she frowned, he grinned and said, “Thought that was part of the arrangement.”
“I never agreed that you could call me baby.” She was smiling easily again, though. Relaxed. And so was he.
“Okay,” she said. “Favorite Christmas memory?”
He lowered his brows. “I thought we were done with the questions.”
She shook her head, her hair scraping along her shoulders. A few strands picked up with the cool breeze and tickled his cheeks. “That’s the point of tonight, remember?”
“Right.” He nodded resolutely. The point was learning her ins and outs, personalitywise. He could forget about the ins and outs of a more physical sense, which he’d been fantasizing about since he laid eyes on her. “Okay. Well, I grew up with three brothers, so individual time with my parents was a hot commodity. The Christmas when I was eight years old, I got this red plastic bow-and-arrow set that I’d been asking for. I’d begged for the thing relentlessly.”
Allison laughed softly.
“I’m not kidding. I circled it in the toy catalog, cut it out, taped it to the fridge. My parents knew exactly how much I wanted it. Anyway, I got it under the tree on Christmas morning and it was a total piece of crap.” He glanced over at Allison, watching her expression falter. “The piece of junk was impossible to shoot on my own. My brothers laughed it up. They thought it was hilarious.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe you heard me wrong. I said favorite Christmas memory.”
He nodded. “Dad took me outside that morning. Just me and him. We set up targets and shot that bow and arrow together. He gave it a new string, one that I could easily pull. We played for maybe two hours out in the cold.” Troy focused on the skating rink in front of him. Music swirled with the sound of laughter. “He wasn’t just pacifying me, either. He was having a good time, too. It was the best Christmas I ever had. The best day of my whole damn childhood.” Suddenly Troy’s eyes were burning. “God, I miss that man.”
Allison reached over and touched his thigh. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” The feel of her touch zinged through him, flipping off sentimentality and turning on something completely different. “He died a couple years back. Heart attack…Okay. Your turn. Favorite Christmas memory?”
She lifted her shoulders. “I don’t really have one specific Christmas memory. It’s really a collection. Every Christmas my parents and I went out to find the perfect Christmas tree for our home. We drove an hour away to this big farm and searched for what seemed like hours. And it was always my choice.” She smiled, hugging her arms around herself. Troy wished that he could wrap his arms around her, too.
“Sounds nice.”
She nodded. “It was.”
He tore his eyes from her because if he didn’t, he might have to touch her. He scanned the skaters again, his gaze snagging on someone from his past. Not too surprising, considering that he was in his hometown.
Jess.
Jessie was an old flame that’d burned out when he’d joined the Corps. The military life wasn’t for her. She’d expected the Marines would take him to all kinds of far-off places. Places she’d had no intention of going at the time. He’d thought he’d be far away from Paradise Poin
t right about now, too. But instead he lived just around the corner. He’d reasoned that splitting up with Jess was for the best. She was a nice girl, but he didn’t love her the way she deserved to be loved. He didn’t love her the way she’d professed to love him.
So he’d gone and broken her heart, which had never sat with him very well. He’d been a love-’em-and-leave-’em guy before that. Always restless. He’d stayed with Jess a good while, though. Long enough for her to believe that they might be the real thing. That they might last. He regretted that he’d let her believe that.
Jess saw him now, too. She stopped skating and stared across the distance. The last time Troy had seen her, she’d been in tears and he’d felt like the prick of the century.
She started a slow skate toward him. “Troy Matthews. It’s been a long time.”
“Hey, Jess. Yeah, it has.”
“Being a Marine looks good on you.” She was talking about the fact that he’d buzzed his hair short and packed on fifteen pounds of muscle since she’d last seen him.
“You look good, too,” he said, meaning it. He was aware that Allison was watching. He wondered if she’d get all jealous again like she had when he’d talked to the very pregnant Shelby Summers at the auction.
A kid skated up toward Jess and called her mom. That stung a little. His old flame was someone’s mom now.
“Thanks. This is my Petey,” she said, laying a hand on the boy’s back. “I’m Jessica Leonard now.”
Troy’s mouth fell open. “You married Peter Leonard?”
A smile swept over her face. She looked happy, really happy. For a moment he wished he’d been the kind of guy who could’ve offered her that—not that he’d ever truly been in love with her. He wasn’t a guy who committed easily, and according to his brother David, probably never would be.
Jess glanced at Allison with a smile.
