A Naughty Little Christmas (Cowboys, Cops, and Kilts: 8 Seasonally Seductive Romances from Bestselling Authors)

by Randi Alexander

  The only other thing he wore was a blousy white shirt, which opened at his neck in a vee.

  She gazed at his chest, her heart thudding in her ears. Surely he must hear it as well.

  Was it her thunderous heartbeat that had woken him?

  “Take off the blindfold, Belle.” It was a whisper, a seduction. “Let me see you.”

  She shook her head.

  “What are you afraid of? I never thought I’d lay eyes on you again.” He coaxed with his voice, as if speaking to a temperamental horse. “It’s been seven years and three months, almost to the day. Please, Belle. I’ve wanted so badly to see you. Keep me bound, but let me look on you again.”

  No. He was lying; he was full of lies. He had abandoned her, left her alone and loveless, while he…

  All he wanted was to be set free. He would coax her to remove his blindfold; then he would wheedle freedom from his bonds. He could easily subdue the stick-thin boy on guard outside.

  “God, I can feel you,” he whispered. “Come closer.”

  Nay, she couldn’t.

  “It has been so long. How is it that you are here? What are you doing with those women?”

  Those women? Isabelle stiffened. “They are my friends,” she whispered.

  “How? Why? Where have you been for all these years?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Tears pricked at her eyes. “But I know where you have been.”

  He bowed his head.

  “Why?” she whispered, no longer bothering with her attempts to mask her Scottish accent.

  “Why did you hurt us?”

  And why, after all the pain he had caused, did every inch of her skin cry out for his touch?

  “I never meant to hurt anyone. Especially you.”

  “But you did.”

  And, glutton for punishment that she was, she still wanted him. Despite all the pain he had caused her and her friends, and who knew how many others.

  Her knees wobbled. The image of him bowing his head in shame swam before her eyes.

  Oh dear God.

  This was not what she had expected when she’d agreed to go along with Susan and Anna’s scheme. She had expected to calmly close the book on her heartbreak by discovering the true reasons behind his callous abandonment.

  She still didn’t know why he’d left her. But it didn’t matter, really, because against all reason, she wanted him.

  His voice was low, steady, and earnest, as earnest as he had sounded when he’d held her in his arms so many years ago. “I didn’t intend to hurt you. I wanted you, Belle. Just you.”

  Isabelle swallowed hard. She clenched her fists to keep her hands from reaching out toward him. What would she do? Slap him? Hold him?

  She was so confused. This raging desire, unbridled anger, desperate pain. All of it had been simmering within her for seven years, and now, seeing him again brought all the feelings to a boiling point, flooding through her veins and over her skin.

  She didn’t know what to do, to say. Her heart pounded. This was Leo. So close. Saying she was the only woman he’d ever wanted. She wanted to fall into his arms and curl up in the comfort of his embrace and forget everything in the world but him and how she knew he could make her feel.

  She closed her eyes and clenched her fists and fought that compulsion with every bit of strength she possessed.

  She won. Her raging need was under control. She’d turn on her heel and leave.

  She opened her eyes and saw him, tense and still on the edge of the chaise longue. Looking at her as if he could see through the blindfold.

  She lunged across the floor and knelt before him. Grabbing him behind his neck, she pulled him forward and pressed her lips to his.

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  Illicit Christmas

  By Yvette Hines

  Illicit Christmas

  By Yvette Hines

  Even during the holidays, a woman can have one reckless night that will change her life forever...

  Amber Malcolm has lived under the controlling thumb of her ex-husband for years, only to be cheated on, humiliated and end up divorced. A job offer has given her a get out of hell free card. It’s Christmas Eve and on her way to a new life, she swerves off the road and accidentally hits a man. A moment’s stop to render assistance turns into an illicit situation. However, she has rules. Just one night and she needs to be in control. Soon, she discovers that Chris Manning is just the man to give her what she wants.

  Amber soon discovers that what she wants isn’t always what she needs. When the sun comes up, she finds herself yearning for a man who showed her passion, tenderness and kindness like she’s never known. She believes that all is lost until the day she comes face to face with Chris in a place she least expected.

  A man with an ironclad will. Chris respected the wishes of his holiday angel once, but refuses to do it again. His mind won’t let him forget the woman that saved him from a road filled with pain and loss. When he discovers she’s within reach once again, he’s determined to prove they belong together.

  Dedication:

  To the Ambers of the world, who have been jerked around by a man; may you have a lifetime filled with illicit nights with a good man who teaches you how to trust your heart. Dare to live again.

  Chapter One

  Bastard!

  “You’re a damn rat bastard, Doug!” Amber screamed to the vacant interior of the car as she drove her ‘94 compact down the road. She was angry as hell. Her head throbbed, as if being smacked repeatedly with a mallet to the temple.

  Meeting Doug had been a mistake. Dating him had been a bigger one. Marrying Doug was the worst mistake of all. One of epic proportion. Four years of hell was finally over, but not without her final humiliation.

  Her heart was as isolated as the road outside the window. Her eyes ached and burned with the desire to cry, but she refused to give the lowdown, dirty rat bastard the satisfaction.

  Today had been the end of her past and the beginning of her future. With two hundred and fifty-nine dollars in her purse, she was starting over. New destination and a new life. She had given Doug and his military career four years of her life and barely over forty-eight hours ago, she finally received her get out of hell free card. Giving up her dreams to teach to be the stay at home, beck and call wife he wanted had gotten her nowhere.

  For the last six months since her divorce from Doug, she had been substituting all over the area waiting for a position to open—with no luck. Constantly running into her ex-husband and his new wife and their new baby was beginning to wear on her nerves. Amazingly, while Doug and the new wife both were deployed, supposedly protecting the country, they met and fell in love. Doug was the only person she knew who could find something to stick his prick in, while in the middle of nowhere.

  “We didn’t have sex. It was against the rules, my ass.” That was a big six-month-old baby his new wife delivered. At nine pounds three-ounces, it could go in the ‘Guinness World Records’ for the largest premature baby.

  She should have seen his infidelity coming. A month before he was expected to deploy they had found out she couldn’t have kids. Doug promised her that it wasn’t a problem, he was happy with it just being them. He was a lying rat bastard.

  This week, opportunity knocked. She got a call from Yorkshire County School Board offering her a teaching job. She was told that the history teacher, who had been tenured, fell ill and would not be returning after the winter break.

  “‘Found a teaching job yet, Amber?’” Her lip curled up in a sneer as she mimicked Doug’s repeated question.

  “Yes, low-down, dirty, good for nothing, lying rat bastard, I did.” She laughed as she rolled down the window and let in the icy December air to help clear her head. It looked like rain, with thick dark clouds rolling across the moon.

  Relax. She took a deep breath. Relate. She bobbed her head to Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive on the radio. Release. Now that’s what I really
need. Something she’d never had with Doug. Sex was one thing she wouldn’t miss from her ex. He was just as controlling in the bedroom as he had been with the rest of their lives. What he wanted was what he got. To hell with what she had needed.

  It amazed her that while Doug was getting off in the desert, she had finally gotten off by herself. She had learned the art and fun of masturbating after reading an erotic book her neighbor loaned her. It had opened her up to another side of herself.

  She was going to experience life. Yorkshire County was going to be her bridge of no return.

  Static began to play on the radio. She reached down and fiddled with the dial, twisting it from left to right in an attempt to find a station. Glancing down for a moment her car hit a pothole and she veered right.

  “Aaah!” Looking up she saw a man walking along the side of the road. “Oh, my God, don’t let me hit him.” Honking her horn and jerking the wheel left toward the street she swerved around, barely missing him, until the rear of her car fishtailed. Thump!

  Tires screeched as she slammed on the brakes. Throwing the car into park, she slung the door open, vaulted out of the car and ran toward the back of it. A man lay on the ground illuminated in the red glow of her taillights.

  “Are you okay? Are you okay?” She knelt down beside him and fanned her hand over his face. “Sir…sir?”

  “If there’s any mercy left in the word, you’ll stop yelling.” His head rolled toward her, gaze locking.

  Reaching out, she brushed her fingers along the side of his forehead. “You’re bleeding.”

  “And I’ve just been touched by an angel. A pretty caramel-brown angel.” He smiled.

  Her stomach flipped. “How do you feel? Can you sit up?”

  “You bet.” Proving his words true, he sat up. He reached his hand up to feel his head and winced. Looking at the blood on his fingertips, he declared, “Good thing I have a hard head. I think I’ll live.” Sitting there with his dark hair falling over his brow made him look like a modern James Dean.

  Unwillingly, her lips turned up on the sides. The humor behind his words caused her to do what she hadn’t done in a year—smile. What was it about this man?

  “I’m sorry…my car hit a bump…and I didn’t see you…until it was too late.” She knew she was rambling.

  The lopsided smile he gave her let her know he knew it too. “No sweat. I shouldn’t have been walking in the dark.” He held her eye contact.

  His level gaze caused her stomach to flip-flop again. “Were you headed somewhere?”

  Rising to his feet, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath as if to stabilize himself. Opening them again, he swiped his hand across the back of his pants removing the dirt and gravel. “My car broke down before the exit ramp. I was on my way to town.”

  She stood as well, almost meeting him eye to eye. He had to be an inch or two over six feet, she was five ten and he still had her by a bit. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Noticing her height, his gaze traveled down the length of her body. Returning to her face, he lifted an eyebrow and inclined his head. It was an appreciative gesture like when one sees the value in a work of art. “Peachy.”

  Tingling sensations ran down the front of her body everywhere his gaze touched. She cleared her throat. “I’m going into town. I could give you a lift.”

  “Didn’t your mother teach you not to pick up strangers?” he questioned.

  “Yea.” She looked at his wound. “I could leave you out here to bleed to death if you’d prefer?”

  The sky chose that moment to open up and present a show of force. Cold, fat drops of rain battered their clothes.

  “I believe I’ll take you up on your offer.”

  They darted toward her car. Once inside they closed the door against the heavy wind. “It’s always great when a man can see reason.” She rolled up the driver’s side window.

  He laughed, deep and masculine. She liked it.

  The interior of the car was dark, caused by the overhead lamp that broke years ago. Doug promised to fix it, but never got around to it.

  Thunder rumbled outside.

  Not wanting to think about her ex, she stuck her hand out in his general direction. “Amber.”

  Lightening shot from the sky, light flashed in the car as if someone were taking a picture of them. Of that moment.

  Seeing her hand, he grasped it. “Chris.”

  For a few ticks of time, they sat just like that, in silence, neither of them moving.

  His thumb stroked the back of her hand then let go.

  Shifting the car into gear, she proceeded down the shadowy road.

  After ten minutes, the visibility became minimal. She passed a sign that said town was still twenty miles away. They were moving at a snail’s crawl and her windows were fogging up.

  Chris occasionally wiped the window in front of her with a fast-food napkin he’d found in the glove compartment.

  “I can’t see a thing.” Hunching down closer to the wheel, she squinted her eyes trying to see into the night. “I have a reservation at the Yorkshire Inn. I’d like to at least make it there.”

  “There’s a sign coming up on your left.” He pointed to the window as if she could see where he indicated. “I believe you’re in luck.” As they approached, moving closer to her, he announced, “It’s the entrance for the Inn.”

  Following the sign’s directions, she steered the car around the corner and pulled into a vacant spot. The Yorkshire Inn’s main office was a house, decorated with flashing Christmas lights around the trim; its guest quarters consisted of two bungalows. Amber was shocked. Having lived in the city all her life, she wasn’t used to such sparse existence.

  Chris must have read the stunned look on her face in the dim glow from the office window. “Welcome to Yorkshire County, Amber.”

  She needed to pull herself together. The place was going to be her new start and she was going to embrace it, welcome its simplicity with open arms. “Thank you, Chris. I’ll go get the key. I’ll be right back.” Opening the car door, she stepped out into the rain. First thing on my agenda tomorrow, buy an umbrella.

  At least it wasn’t snowing. She had never been one to look for snow for the holidays. Being raised in Arizona before college and marriage, she couldn’t drive in it.

  Rushing forward, her feet made splattering sounds in the muddy gravel. Her tennis shoes would need to be washed before they could be worn again. They were soaked and dirty. Trying the knob, she was surprised to find it unlocked. That would never have been the case in the city.

  Stepping into the home office, she spotted a man appearing to be in his late fifties, kicked back in a recliner watching It’s a Wonderful Life on television. She assumed he was the inn owner she had spoken to on the phone.

  “Hello…Mr. Wilks?” she questioned, approaching him.

  He sat up and gave her a broad grin. “Yup. You must be Amber Malcolm? I’m glad to see you made it in that weather outside. We're packed tonight.”

  Packed? With only two bungalows, she didn’t see how he wouldn’t be packed every night.

  Mr. Wilks babbled on as he got up from his chair and pulled out a drawer under his desk, removing a key. “About an hour ago I almost gave your room away, but Claire Donaldson had a room available at the B and B in town, so I sent the man there.”

  “It took me a little longer than I thought. Thank you for waiting for me.” Amber pushed her hair behind her ear. It had come loose from her ponytail from the wind whipping in while she had the window rolled down. Adding the rain's effects to it, she was sure she looked frightful, similar to a drowned cat. No telling what Chris thought of her. Not that she should care about a stranger’s opinion.

  Pulling her wallet out of her pocket, she sifted through the bills to pay Mr. Wilks.

  “Think nothing of it. It’s just what we do around here.” Mr. Wilks held up his hand toward the money offered. “Rents due at the end of each week. and because of Christmas I�
�ll give you to the week after.” He gave her a trusting smile. “Here are the keys. You’re in bungalow number two.” He pressed the keys in her palm and pointed toward an open book lying on a pedestal by the door. “Sign the register on your way out. Do you need me to show you where you’ll be staying?”

  He can’t be serious. The sincere look on his face told her he was and that he didn’t take his job lightly.

  “No, Mr. Wilks, I think I can find it.” She signed the book and headed out of the house.

  He called after her, “Let me know if you need anything. Merry Christmas.”

  “I will. Merry Christmas to you, too,” she yelled back and waved.

  When she got in the car, the cheery tune of 12 Days of Christmas was playing low on the radio. She realized he must have turned the volume down. She couldn’t fault him for it; holiday chorals were the last thing she wanted to hear.

  Chris’ voice greeted her. “Thanks for the ride. I think I can wait around here until the rain lets up.”

  “You can at least come in and let me clean that wound up for you.” The thought of him going was doing strange things to her. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she wasn’t ready for him to leave just yet.

  He looked at her, not saying a word. The quiet stretched on. Then he spoke. “How can I say no to that?”

  She felt breathless under his intense scrutiny. “You can’t.” Backing the car up, she pulled around the home office down the short gravel driveway. Passing number one she continued until she stopped the car in the parking space in front of the bungalow with the number two nailed to the door.

  Chris helped her unload the car. She carried the large shoulder bag and he lugged her suitcase. Dashing to the door in the rain, she stuck the key in the lock and led the way inside. Flicking the switch on the wall, she scanned her new temporary home. She would be living here until she found another place closer to town.