Chapter Fourteen
Three days before Christmas
He flustered her, Faith thought as she slipped on her blouse the next morning, trying to act as if it was perfectly normal for her to get dressed while a hunk of man sat on her bed, watching her with hungry, grey eyes.
‘I could get used to this,’ he said quietly, hands behind his head, eyes not leaving hers.
‘Watching me dress?’ Her heart bumped a little beneath the buttons she was fiddling with. ‘Wouldn’t you prefer me undressing?’
His mouth, capable of giving such pleasure, curved upwards. ‘I enjoy that, too, but there’s something very satisfying about watching you slip on clothes I’ll be taking off later tonight.’
Desire flooded through her and she fumbled with the last, errant button. ‘I think your inner caveman is coming out.’
He chuckled softly. ‘Perhaps.’
She wanted to tell him she could get used to this too, being the sole focus of attention of a beautiful man. Knowing that he was watching her every move, listening to her every word. Two years spent with Patrick, yet she’d never felt this important to him. With a flash of insight, she realised her ex hadn’t been patient, he’d been indifferent.
‘What would you do if I forgot to turn up tonight?’
Adam arched his brow. ‘Are you trying to tell me something?’
‘No. Just wondering how you’d react.’
‘I’d be hurt. Then angry. Then I’d hunt you down and remind you of your promise.’
That, she thought with a rush of delight, was exactly the answer she’d wanted. Fastening the zip on her skirt she strode over to him, and wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘I can’t imagine I would ever forget a date with you, but I’m glad you’d care enough to be hurt and angry.’
‘I have ways of making sure you don’t forget me.’
‘Oh yes?’ Her lips teased his. ‘What ways are those?’
‘I don’t think I can tell you,’ he murmured, returning the kiss. Notching up the heat. ‘I think I’d have to show you.’
Breathlessly, reluctantly, she pulled away. ‘I look forward to it, but sadly right now I have to get downstairs.’
‘Ah yes. I forgot one of us has to work.’ He shifted off the bed, picking up his room key from the bedside table. ‘Don’t you have some more guests arriving tomorrow?’
‘A couple with two kids. Yes.’ For a beat she just stared at him. ‘You remembered?’
‘Of course. I feel like I’m part of this hotel now.’
Her heart flipped slowly and Faith put a hand over it to steady herself. All this talk; him getting used to watching her dress, feeling like he was part of what she was doing here. It felt almost too much. Too deep, for something that was meant to be a fling.
She was starting to fall for him, she thought in a panic. Yet in four nights he’d be checking out and going home.
Suddenly his big body wrapped around her. ‘You okay?’
She drew in a breath, told herself to stop being daft. It was impossible to fall for a man she’d only known a few days. She liked him, that was all. It would be a wrench to see him go but the hotel was her focus now.
‘Just thinking how I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye to you,’ she admitted, turning in his arms so she could bury herself in his chest.
He kissed the top of her head in a gesture that brought a lump to her throat. ‘It doesn’t have to be goodbye,’ he said quietly.
Her heart missed a beat. ‘We live at other ends of the country. You said you’re not in the right place for a relationship.’ She tried to dampen down the surge of crazy hope. ‘I’ve got a hotel to run.’
She felt his breath ruffle her hair as he sighed. ‘I know. Let’s enjoy the time we have left without thinking too far ahead.’
But that time was fast disappearing. Swallowing down her emotions, she stretched up to kiss him. ‘Deal.’
As she drew away he tugged her back, lifting her into his arms so he could kiss her properly, deeply.
By the time he put her down she was aching, panting. And late. Rushing them both out of the bedroom, she almost tripped over Nip and Tuck. ‘Damn. Sorry boys, I forgot to take you out this morning.’ How had she lost her mind so much she’d forgotten her gorgeous boys?
‘I’ll take them.’ Faith did a double-take, unsure whether she’d heard Adam correctly. He shrugged, as if his offer was no big deal. ‘Thought we’d agreed they were mine, anyway.’
‘Really? You don’t mind?’
‘Only thing I have planned for today is a work-out with Chloe at lunchtime. Think I can just about squeeze in some time to walk a pair of wild mutts.’ He bent to scratch them behind their ears. ‘It’s not like they’re going to want to go far on those stumpy legs.’
Gratitude swept through her, though it wasn’t only his offer to help with the dogs that had her heart melting into a gooey mess in her chest. He was helping her niece, too. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you. Their leads are hanging in the kitchen. The back-door key is in the lock. I’ll be downstairs in the office if you need me. Oh, and the poop bags are in the cupboard under the sink.’ His face paled and she had to bite back a grin. ‘You’re okay with picking up dog poo?’
His Adam’s apple moved up and down as he swallowed. ‘No problem.’
The feeling of her heart shifting, filling, somersaulting, happened again. ‘God, you’re gorgeous,’ she murmured, mostly to herself, before darting out of the door before she said anything more incriminating. Like I think I’m falling for you.
It didn’t take Adam long to find the leads. Longer to clip them onto the dogs who refused to sit still, despite his repeated attempts to ask them to, first nicely, then with what he thought was authority. Finally he gave up and hauled them onto his lap, wedging their wriggling bodies under his arm as he fastened the leads.
‘No crazy stunts,’ he told them as they gazed up at him, their faces looking like he felt. Dazed, confused. Eager to get going.
Only for him the eagerness wasn’t about the walk. It was all about the woman whose dogs he’d be walking. He could get used to all this, he thought with a burst of nervous excitement. For so long he’d been numb to life, frozen on a moment three years ago and unable to move from it. Since arriving here it had been like someone had put him next to a warm fire. He’d started to defrost, life seeping back into him, enabling him to take pleasure from things he’d forgotten he enjoyed. Walks in the fresh air, conversation, helping others. The smell, taste and feel of a woman as she lay beside him. Even something as simple as holding somebody in his arms.
It wasn’t a warm fire that had defrosted him though. It was Faith. And while she wasn’t looking forward to him leaving, he was dreading it. Now he’d had a taste of feeling alive again, he was loath to return to his old life.
He felt a tug on the leads and looked down to find the dogs trying to pull him towards the back door that led out to Faith’s small garden, and the fields beyond.
‘Okay, okay. Enough of the introspection, I get it. Let’s go.’
The dogs barrelled out, yanking on their leads, yapping away.
‘Quiet,’ he told them, locking up the door. ‘You’ll wake the neighbours …’ He trailed off when he realised why, or rather who, they were barking at.
Shock registered on the faces of Faith’s mother and father as they stood on the footpath, staring at him. ‘Umm, hello.’ He could feel a telltale blush creep up his neck and suddenly felt like his teenage self, caught sneaking out of his then girlfriend’s bedroom. Stupid, because he towered over both of them.
It was Faith’s mother who recovered first, giving him a tentative smile. ‘We came to see if Faith wanted us to walk the dogs.’
‘I’ve got that covered.’ You’ve got the flaming leads in your hand, Hunter. Talk about
stating the bleeding obvious.
‘So I see,’ her father remarked dryly.
He was a twenty-nine-year-old man, Adam reminded himself. A guest at their daughter’s hotel. He shouldn’t be feeling so wrong-footed. ‘Unless you want to walk them?’
‘Oh no.’ Her father let out a sharp laugh. ‘You’re not getting off the hook that easily. We’ll leave you to it. We might go and have a little chat with our daughter, instead.’ He levelled him a look. ‘I presume she’s left already?’
Adam swallowed, then swallowed again, his neck and cheeks feeling uncomfortably hot. ‘I think she went to her office.’ After we had sex in her shower. The way her father was scrutinising him, he’d like to bet he knew exactly what Adam had been doing with his precious daughter.
He started to walk, desperate to get away, but her mother spoke again. ‘How long will you be with us, Mr Hunter?’
Was it a pointed question, he thought frantically? Was she testing out whether he was the sleep-and-ditch type? Or was she just making conversation, one guest to another.
‘I check out Boxing day.’ It sounded better than I leave. Less final.
‘So we’ll see you on Christmas Day?’
He froze, every muscle tensing. ‘I’m not sure.’
‘Are you visiting family in the area?’
He cursed long and hard – and silently. If he hadn’t faffed around with the damn leads for so long he would have missed this interrogation. The dogs were looking at him as if to say come on, you promised us a walk. Stop talking to the oldies. ‘No family, no. My parents live in France. I have no brothers or sisters.’
‘Friends then?’
He looked desperately over at the dogs, pleading with them to start barking, damn it to take a dump. Anything to provide a distraction. The traitors just stared at him, a couple of mop heads with big brown eyes and lolling pink tongues. ‘No friends in the area, no. I came here to get away for a few weeks.’
‘Then you must join us for Christmas lunch.’ Hell, Faith’s mother was just like her daughter. ‘Faith closed the restaurant for the day so the chefs could spend it with their families. Her sisters are coming with their children and Faith and I will be doing the cooking. Though mainly it will be me, knowing my youngest daughter’s tendency to overcook everything.’ She beamed up at him. ‘It will be turkey with all the trimmings.’
‘They’ve not knowingly poisoned anyone yet,’ her father added helpfully.
‘I … that’s very kind of you.’ It was his worst nightmare, he thought despairingly. He’d come to get away from the day. Not be shoved into it, forced into polite conversation and false Christmas cheer. Feeling the first ripples of panic he nodded over to the dogs. ‘I’d better be going.’ Without waiting for them to ask him anything further he strode off down the path, hunched against the cold wind. Maybe he should check out on Christmas Eve, he mulled as the dogs scampered ahead of him.
But that would mean only two more nights with Faith.
He clattered into a fence post, stubbing his toe and yelping out in pain. Funny though, it was his chest that hurt more. Specifically, the part near his heart.
Chapter Fifteen
On hearing the tap on her door, Faith looked up with a start before breaking into a wide smile. ‘Hey there. You two are up and about early.’
Her parents shuffled inside the small office. ‘We’re popping into Kendal to buy the turkeys. We were going to offer to take the dogs, but it seems we were beaten to it.’
Faith saw the twinkle in her mother’s eye and groaned. ‘You came across Adam, didn’t you?’
‘We tried your front door, got no response so went round the back. There we found a very large man walking up your path with two tiny dogs.’
Faith’s lips twitched. ‘Quite a sight.’
‘Umm, quite a sight indeed.’ Her mother glanced at her dad. ‘Maybe your father should put his hands over his ears because I’m about to ask my darling daughter a very direct question.’ She turned back to her, a soft expression in her eyes. ‘Did the rather splendid Mr Hunter spend the night with you?’
Her father grunted. ‘It’s none of our business.’
‘Of course it’s not.’ Her mother pressed her hand to Faith’s cheek. ‘But my daughter’s happiness is. I’m only going on appearances and a very short, awkward, conversation, but I’ve rather taken a shine to the gentle giant. I wondered if she had, too.’
Her heart fluttering, Faith clasped her mother’s hand. ‘I have. A little bit more than a shine, if I’m honest.’
Though pleasure bloomed on her mother’s face, there was also a trace of worry in her eyes. ‘He leaves in a few days, doesn’t he? Have you made plans to see each other beyond his stay here?’
Emotion balled at the back of her throat and Faith sadly shook her head. ‘It was only ever intended to be a fling. He lives down south. I’ve got the hotel. Plus,’ she sighed. ‘Plus something happened to him a few years ago that means he doesn’t want a relationship.’ She recalled the look in his eyes that morning when he’d told her his leaving didn’t have to mean goodbye. Maybe the door was no longer so firmly shut.
Which still left them with the problem of two busy careers and two businesses in opposite ends of the country.
‘People change their minds,’ her mother said, patting her cheek. ‘I invited him to have Christmas lunch with us.’
Faith cringed. ‘Oh dear. He’s got this thing about Christmas. Whatever happened to him a few years ago must have happened around Christmas.’ She was almost too scared to ask. ‘What did he say?’
Her mother smiled. ‘He was a bit hesitant, but he said he’d come.’
Her father coughed. ‘No. He said, and I quote, that’s very kind of you.’
‘That’s the same thing,’ her mother insisted.
‘To a woman, maybe. To a bloke it means I don’t want to offend you by turning you down but there’s no way in hell I’ll be there.’
When her mother opened her mouth to disagree, Faith stepped in. ‘I’m afraid I have to agree with Dad. I invited him a few days ago, before we … umm … got together.’ Heaven help her, she could feel herself blushing. ‘He told me, thank you. I’ll see how it goes.’
Her father let out a triumphant sounding noise. ‘Another way of saying no way in hell I’ll be there.’
Though Faith knew he was right, it saddened her to think Adam was going to be spending the day on his own. She wanted him with them, not for his sake but for hers.
‘I’m going to buy an extra turkey,’ her mother said primly, noting something down in the small notebook she was carrying. Presumably her shopping list. ‘I think he’ll come and he looks like he eats a lot.’
Faith spluttered out a laugh but before she could argue that Adam was hardly going to eat a whole turkey to himself, there was another knock on the door.
Chloe popped her head round. ‘There’s a Mrs Leighton on the phone.’
Faith’s heart fell. ‘Oh no, she’s the party of four arriving tomorrow.’
‘Oh my, I’d forgotten you had that booking.’ Her mother’s pen hovered over her notebook. ‘Do I need to buy a turkey for them, too?’
‘No!’ Faith tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice. ‘I warned them in advance there would be no restaurant on Christmas Day and they’re fine with that. They’re visiting family. At least I hope they still are, and they aren’t phoning to cancel.’
‘Don’t think so.’ Chloe smirked. ‘She’s banging on about Father Christmas, like he’s real. Wants to know if we can arrange for her kids to see him ‘cos she hasn’t had a chance to take them yet.’
‘Oh God, it’s a bit late for that.’
‘That’s what I thought. I can always tell her he’s back at the North Pole.’
It was the easiest option, but if Faith
had wanted easy she wouldn’t have bought a hotel. ‘I’ll ring round. Tell her I’ll call her back, will you?’
Her parents quietly disappeared and Faith spent the next hour googling frantically and making numerous phone calls, trying to pin down a place that still had a visiting Father Christmas.
‘I can find one at a department store in Penrith,’ she told Mrs Leighton, who sounded pleasant but frazzled.
‘Oh dear, that’s so far away. We’ll already have been four hours in the car.’
‘We may be able to find a more local one if we ask around, but they might be,’ she hesitated over the word. ‘A bit tacky?’
Mrs Leighton sighed. ‘You’re right, of course. Better they don’t see him than see one who looks fake.’
Faith hesitated, an idea forming in her mind. ‘Leave it with me a little longer,’ she told her. ‘I have one more thing to follow up on.’
Adam walked the damn dogs further than he’d intended. Turns out the dopey mutts were okay company. It meant his work-out session at the gym was shorter than usual, something that would have stressed him out a few weeks ago. These last few days the need to drive himself into exhaustion had lessened. He still enjoyed the exercise but now he found he was happy to lift and bench his usual weights, not pushing himself to go beyond them. He went to the gym out of habit, and yes, out of vanity – Faith’s frank admiration was still etched in his memory. He no longer went out of need.
When he finally drove into The Old Mill car park he was only five minutes behind schedule. Hopefully Chloe wouldn’t think he’d forgotten her. He’d enjoyed taking her through some routines yesterday. Not just her company, though the girl had turned out to be surprisingly giggly once exercise had lowered her defenses. He’d also enjoyed knowing that what he was teaching her would boost her self-confidence. Help her to like herself more.
A Little Christmas Faith (Choc Lit) Page 12
