A Blazing Little Christmas

by Jacquie D’Alessandro

  “I’m not exactly a wild woman. You’ve seen my linen business. I sell pretty pieces of history. Very sedate stuff.”

  “That doesn’t make you sedate.” He brushed her hair back from her face, wondering how she could be blind to the things he saw in her after knowing her for such a short time. “People like being around you because you’re a live wire. And selling antique linens wasn’t enough for you, I noticed, since you expanded your business eighteen months after it began. Who knows how much your company might expand in five or ten years? That doesn’t define you. You are as passionate about your work as you are about the rest of your life, and that makes people respond to you. Trust me, your golfer would have been in over his head.”

  Which made him realize that he was no better suited for her than this guy she’d dumped. But it also reminded Jared that if he let her go back to Savannah alone this time, he would never have another chance with her. It had been a miracle no one had snapped her up for good before now.

  His chest tightened at the thought because, damn it, he wanted a second chance with her and he would do whatever it took to keep her here after this weekend.

  “I like seeing myself through your eyes.” She tilted her head to lay her cheek against his arm as he sifted his fingers through her hair. “It sure beats my family’s view of me as the most capable and responsible one in the gene pool. But enough about me. Are you going to tell me why you sent me that invitation after all these years?”

  And the hits kept on coming.

  Just when Jared thought he had a grip on the currents at work here tonight, Heather changed the whole playing field. Now he needed to figure out—should he play it cool to keep her from running? Or gamble everything and confess that he was hoping for a Christmas miracle with this reunion?

  * * *

  After the incredible way they’d made love tonight, and all the emotions this man could churn inside her with one sizzling look, Heather figured she owed it to him to at least ask why he’d wanted to see her again.

  She couldn’t ditch him in the middle of the night if there was any hope of a compelling desire to be with her. Three simple words—I missed you—had opened her heart to other possibilities.

  “I always regretted that I didn’t say goodbye to you.” He stared into the flames crackling in the stone hearth across from the bed. He looked a million miles away.

  Or maybe just five years into the past.

  “I regretted that, too.” She didn’t mind admitting it, at least not now that he had confessed it first.

  As soon as she formed the thought she remembered a time in her life after another breakup when her mother had told her that you couldn’t keep score in a relationship. Was Heather still doing that? It had seemed like a rare piece of practical Loralei advice and Heather had meant to put the wisdom into practice.

  “I didn’t know what to say. My life at that point seemed a far cry from yours and I didn’t think it would be fair to ask anything of you since we’d only just met.”

  “We did more than just meet.” At least in her book, that constituted more than casual flirting.

  “Which is why I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

  He massaged her shoulder and her whole body hummed in sensual response. She’d been with him for less than twenty-four hours and already she was attuned to the possibilities of his touches. This particular touch had a decidedly provocative meaning.

  In the back of her mind, she knew she should probably hang on to this thread of conversation. Hunt through the layers of meaning in what little bit he’d said to understand his motives for having her here.

  But oh, sweet temptation, it was hard to maintain a conversation with his fingers sliding down her collarbone to trace the curve of her breast. Her eyelids fell to half-mast, her nipples tightening into hard points at the promise of his touch.

  “I’ve thought about you a lot since then.” One hand found her ankle beneath the covers and he cinched it, tugging her down until she lay on her back. “I’ve thought about doing this a lot, too.”

  His lips found one taut peak and rolled it between his tongue and teeth. The liquid heat sent shock waves of pleasure rippling over her, concentrating in her belly and sinking lower in her hips.

  She’d never been with someone who held so much sexual sway over her. He made her hot and needy, out of control. That put him in a position of power she didn’t want on a mental level. But oh, sweet stars in heaven, she loved it on the physical plane.

  Love.

  She shut down her thoughts, squelched a word she didn’t want to think about. Instead she let his mouth ravish her and welcomed his hands roaming all over her body. He stroked her belly and drifted lower. Lower.

  He cupped her sex in one palm, his fingers playing in the wetness. How could she be so ready for him all over again?

  “How many times will you come for me tonight?” He did something magical with his finger, plucking at the most tender of places. “At least once more?”

  Her body answered him in a way her words no longer could, her hips rising off the bed to meet his touch. Pleasure wound up inside her, concentrating wherever he stroked her. She made pleading sounds in a mindless hum of want.

  He stroked and circled, his fingers closing in on what she needed and then backing off again until her skin flamed with hot desire. She reached for his arm, guiding his fingers near what she wanted, but he stopped her with his other hand.

  Pinning her wrists above her head, he held her where he wanted her.

  Something about the helplessness of the moment stirred her. She lay in front of him, exposed and at his mercy, and the situation stroked something inside her that went deeper than any physical caress. She gave herself over completely.

  Her orgasm shattered over her, tightening every muscle as the spasms clinched her again and again. His name wrenched free from her lips and he caught the cry in his mouth.

  And while she lay there beneath him, bucking with aftershocks and murmuring his name, she knew she wouldn’t just be hurting him when she walked away this weekend. Leaving Jared Murphy would require superhuman strength and there wasn’t a chance she’d go back to Savannah any happier than when she’d left.

  Because whether or not Jared ever admitted it, Heather knew they shared something special.

  Chapter 6

  Something had gone wrong the night before.

  Jared didn’t know how he knew that, but he understood it on a gut level. The sex had blown his mind. Heather had fallen asleep in his arms as though she belonged there. He should have been walking on clouds today, except that he hadn’t really confessed why he wanted her here.

  Would she run if she knew how tangibly he’d pinned his hopes on her? But if she was only returning to Savannah on Sunday night anyway, what did it matter if he sent her sprinting back?

  Heather was still drying her hair so they could go for a walk in the newly fallen snow. They’d had breakfast in the cabin and even though he’d been tempted to keep her hostage in the bed all day, he thought he had better get to the point of why he’d asked her here soon.

  Maybe the walk would present an opportunity. Now, while he listened to the blow dryer whirr away in the bathroom, he watched the family next door out the window as they trooped into the snow.

  The father picked up the toboggan that rested by their door while the mother zipped a little girl’s coat and tucked a boy’s scarf around the kid’s pudgy neck. Every one of them wore a reindeer scarf, even mom and dad. Something about that elemental bond grabbed him by the throat.

  God, he envied that easy sense of family. He saw his brother struggle to be a part-time father after his marriage had buckled under the stress of too much time apart and Jared had no plans to go that route. He had put off that kind of happiness in an effort not to make the same mistakes, but at some point it had become easier to not take the risk.

  And he’d never manage to take that gamble if he kept allowing Heather to think he’d invited her up here
for nonstop monkey sex. But damn. He couldn’t look at her without wanting her.

  “Ready?” She appeared in the hallway wearing a pale green sweater layered over a pink thermal shirt.

  He liked the girly way she dressed. No sophisticated dark colors or suits. She had curves and she showed them.

  “I’ve been ready.” He tossed her the hat and gloves she’d bought the day before. “Better bundle up.”

  The phone rang while she was putting on her mittens. He remembered her call from someone who sounded like family the day before and diplomatically made no comment.

  “I’m not getting that,” she announced, reaching for her jacket.

  She set it back down two seconds later and frowned.

  “What if it’s an emergency?” She seemed to ask herself more than him.

  “Do you want me to step outside?” The phone started a fourth ring.

  “No.” She dived on it at the last minute, picking up and answering in a rush. “Hello?”

  He turned his back on the conversation, hoping Joe Golfer Dude wouldn’t call her here. He hated the idea that she’d been engaged and—damn it—today would have been her wedding day.

  “I’m not going to plan this party from a thousand miles away.” Heather’s frustrated tone spoke to him more than the words he was trying not to overhear.

  Scowling, he clicked on the remote to the TV, hoping some sports scores would distract him from her conversation about a life that didn’t have jack to do with him.

  Unless…

  Unless he made a serious play for her.

  He looked back at her where she spoke on the phone, her eyebrows crinkled in worry. Or was it anger? It bugged him he didn’t know her well enough to distinguish between the two. He’d let a long-ass time elapse since he’d met her. Some of which he’d had reasons for, some of which he’d spent not wanting to seem like a stalker dude reappearing out of nowhere when she might very well have been married. If not for her business success and the articles he’d seen about her online, Heather might still be just a vivid memory.

  The way she would be next week if he didn’t figure out how to make her stay. How to make her understand that he wanted so much more than he’d been able to tell her back then.

  “I had every intention of coming home to finish up the details, Mom. I just wanted to take some time away for a change. This event gets bigger every year and—”

  Okay, he couldn’t help but notice that snippet of conversation since it was clear she was getting upset. Her tone pitched a notch higher and when he stole a glance in her direction, she sort of paced in circles.

  She needed to relax. Something he was good at helping her do. He smiled with satisfaction at his memories of last night. Too bad he hadn’t flat-out told her how badly the past few Christmases had sucked for him and that his need to see her came with a core-deep knowledge that she could fill the parts of his life that were empty.

  That was going to change today. No distracting her—or himself—with sex. It was past time for him to show her something about himself and his life here. Only then would she be able to decide if her future might have a place for him in it.

  * * *

  “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Heather tromped through the snow to some secret destination Jared had in mind, her legs getting a workout with two feet of snow on the ground.

  Who would have thought something that looked so fluffy on the way down could be so heavy to trudge through?

  They’d spent all day outside since her phone call from her mother. Heather had learned how to snowshoe, which was fun, but didn’t compare to ice-skating. Maybe those two hours she’d spent on skates were part of the reason her thighs protested the drifts they walked through now in the middle of nowhere. Supposedly this would be a path back to her cabin at the Timberline Lodge.

  “I’m sure. We’re following that star.” He pointed to a bright point of light in the sky even though night hadn’t fully fallen. The sun set noticeably earlier this far north.

  She smiled at the idea of navigating by the star, which seemed the right thing to do at Christmastime. The quiet trek through the forest provided welcome time for reflection, something her holidays had lacked the past few years.

  After having spent such a wonderful day with Jared, Heather knew her love ’em and leave ’em strategy seemed horribly immature, a petty revenge to take on someone whose company awakened a new joy in the season for her after years of succumbing to the massive holiday party and demands of family and business. Holding hands with a compelling man—an Army helicopter pilot turned rescue worker—seemed like a much nicer way to spend Christmas.

  But she’d been the one to make herself vulnerable last time and look how that worked out. She refused to be the one who lost her heart only to end up cold and alone on Sunday. Again.

  Relationships aren’t about keeping score. Was she doing it again? Making tally marks next to their names to decide whose turn it was to give in?

  “Too bad we don’t have camels,” she said, the quiet of the night made all the deeper by the two feet of icy insulation on the ground.

  She didn’t want to think about the fact that her holiday trip would end tomorrow morning and she’d have to figure out how she would handle leaving Jared. Her heart ached at the thought.

  “We’re almost there,” Jared assured her, holding back a slender tree limb for her to pass under. “I actually took us a little bit out of the way to show you something first. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “My seductive techniques must be sorely lacking if you can put off our return to the cabin to play tour guide.” She’d enjoyed their time today, but she had tossed out a few comments to make sure he knew she was his for the taking anytime he wanted to head back to the bedroom. He’d resisted, insisting on showing her all that Lake Placid had to offer.

  He halted his progress and pivoted on his heel to block her path. She fell into him at close range, her body thumping into his so they were chest to chest, his gaze glittering above her.

  “Don’t tempt me to show you how much it’s costing me to wait.” His hands gripped her by the elbows, steadying her. “And if I’m only going to have a weekend with you, I need to make sure I cram in a lot. That means I can’t necessarily put what I want ahead of everything else.”

  Words escaped her for a long moment, the heat between them assuring her he wanted her. A thrill shot through her, sparkling over her insides like the moon on the snow. Sweet heaven, but this man did incredible things to her.

  “Right.” She couldn’t match Jared in eloquence when he decided to speak his mind, although she still couldn’t imagine what he wanted to show her in the middle of nowhere. “Then I guess we’d better get going.”

  They stood unmoving in a silent showdown for a moment, although what exactly they were battling for, Heather couldn’t say.

  “It’s just up here,” he said finally, calling over his shoulder. “You can almost see it.”

  Squinting into the distance, she could see the outline of some low buildings ahead, although there were no lights in the windows, making their features difficult to distinguish. But even with a bright moon and the last remains of twilight to illuminate the night, the surrounding shelter of pine trees didn’t allow her to see anything special.

  “Is this where you live?” She remembered he mentioned living close to the lodge and she wondered if he wanted to take her to his place tonight. Curiosity bubbled as she wondered what kind of home he would keep.

  Everything about Jared seemed dark and mysterious since her knowledge of his intimate preferences was wide but her understanding of what made him tick was minuscule.

  “No.” He crushed any hope she had of dragging him into a nearby bed and having her way with him. “This is my building project.”

  “I thought you flew a Medivac helicopter.” She remembered he also said something about local rescue work on the mountains on his days off. “Just how many jobs do you have, Army-man?”
>
  Stepping out of the trees into a large clearing she could see six log cabins of varying sizes and shapes with multi-gabled roofs and small porches. They looked like new construction although there was a definite old-fashioned appeal to the cottages. Space had been cleared that could fit at least six more of the buildings.

  “This is more a hobby than anything, right now. My grandfather was a carpenter and he taught me how to build. In fact, I restored a few of the cabins at the Timberline Lodge when I first moved back here. Yours included.” He led her toward the closest cabin, the moonlight picking out a few more details on the structure now that they’d stepped out of the trees.

  The windows were expanses of multiple panes in keeping with the old-fashioned appeal. Heavy stone chimneys bracketed both sides of each building. The porch rails were rough-hewn split timber and the steps up to the cabins were natural stone.

  “And you liked that so much you decided to make your own village?” Peering around the small development she realized they were still close to the lake and that the property led down to the frozen expanse. Whoever had the rights to this land was sitting on a gold mine.

  “I thought about building some houses like a Habitat for Humanity community, but Roland Krause—the innkeeper—convinced me I’d be better off using my grandfather’s land for something profit-generating so that I could finance more humanitarian buildings down the road and well into long-term.”

  This was his land. Jared Murphy possessed the gold mine and the way he planned to use it tweaked her heart and conscience right along with it. She felt herself teeter on the brink of…oh, God.

  Love?

  The possibility blindsided her as much as the emotion behind it. She’d kept the lid on her feelings for Jared for so long that now, at this sweet provocation and the proof of his generous spirit, she fell headlong into what she’d tried to avoid five years ago.