by Leah Braemel
Still standing in the open doorway, Derek grinned like a fool. “Tell me I interrupted you two and my morning will be complete.”
“I knew I never should have given you that key.” Ryan rummaged through Meg’s clothes and picked what he hoped she’d need. He knocked on the bathroom door; when it opened he handed it through the narrow opening. “Why the change in plans? We would have been over there before lunch.”
“We wanted to see Meg’s reaction when you tell her your big news. Amy’s brought her video camera to record it all.”
Ryan grabbed Derek and hauled him into the hallway, closing the bedroom door behind him. “Hey, it’s supposed to be a surprise, remember?
“Yeah, I remember. Everyone remembers.” Derek’s grin widened. “That’s why we had to come over and watch you guys exchange presents.”
Totally lost, Ryan shoved his brother against the wall, though with no heat. “You are such a butthead.”
“I’m guessing you haven’t watched television or listened to the local news yet?”
“Five minutes ago we were both still asleep.” Well, Meg had been. His morning woody had been arguing with him to wake her up by sliding into her sweet pussy. The amusement in Derek’s voice gave Ryan pause. “Why?”
“No reason. Just wondered. And bro? Can you put some clothes on? I really don’t want to have to spend Christmas morning with you in your ugly-ass boxers.”
“Those are not ugly-ass, they’re cute,” Amy corrected him as she waddled into view, one hand resting on the top of her enormous belly. “Now leave him alone and come wait out here.”
She blew a kiss to Ryan as she hauled Derek into the main room. “Don’t take too long, though, or we will come in to get you, dressed or not.”
“Sheesh, cut a guy some slack, will you? It’s Christmas morning.” Despite his complaint, he knew he’d miss their squabbling and bickering and good-natured teasing.
He ducked back into the bedroom to find Meg emerging from the bathroom, tucking in her shirt. A minute later, they wandered into the front room, hand in hand, to find Amy ensconced on the couch, Derek beside her, Noah and Sophie on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. And every single one of them grinning like loons.
* * *
Excitement sizzled through the air as if lightning had just struck nearby. The Porter family was up to something, but from Ryan’s confusion, Meg decided he wasn’t in on their surprise.
As Noah muted the television they must have turned on, Sophie, her white-blonde hair standing out starkly against the rest of the Porter family’s chestnut, jumped to her feet and hugged her. “Merry Christmas, Meg.”
Ryan sat in the leather chair and pulled her onto his lap, eyeing each of his family as if they had sprouted horns. “Someone want to tell me what’s going on here?”
“You’ll see.” Derek pointed to the largest present at the side of the Christmas tree. “Let’s get this party started. Noah, why don’t you slide Ryan’s present to Meg first?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Derek.” Amy struggled to sit forward, her smile replaced with concern. “I think maybe Meg should give Ryan his present first.”
With a shushing motion to his wife, Derek helped Noah slide the huge box to Meg’s feet.
Oh, so Ryan had given her something outlandish and they’d wanted to see her reaction. Hoping it wasn’t a vacuum cleaner, Meg slid her finger under the tape and peeled off the paper. A moving box. She eyed Ryan. “Let me guess, I’m the victim of your family’s practical joke this year?”
She opened the box and found—yup—another present, nestled inside. She lifted it up. Hmm, light, and no noise when she shook it. A discarded printer box, a recycled pop twelve-pack box and a shoe box later, Meg slid a handmade envelope from an empty whole-wheat pasta container. “Really, you people go over the top. You realize that, don’t you?”
Derek made a rolling motion with his hand. “Open it already.”
Exchanging a bemused glance at Ryan, Megan flipped up the flap, slid out a single white sheet of paper and unfolded it. She frowned at the plane ticket.
Departure: Pearson YYZ
Destination: Iqaluit YFB
They wanted her to leave and not come back? No, not “they”—Ryan wanted her to leave.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice shook and she cleared her throat. “If this is a joke, it’s not funny.”
Ryan reached over her shoulder to point at a line on the ticket. “Look at the name on it.”
Passenger Name: Ryan M. Porter
“It’s a one-way ticket, babe. I’m moving north to stay with you. Permanently.”
“I—I don’t understand. You have your job at the school. Your students. And your career.”
“Not anymore. I’m yours for good.” He slid off the chair to the floor beside her. “We never have to be apart again, babe.”
No. He couldn’t have. The joke they’d thought they’d played on her had backfired on them all. “Tell me you didn’t. Tell me this is a joke.”
Oh God, what had he done?
His smile changed to confusion. “I’m not joking. I turned in my resignation after I got back from my last visit.”
Which had been Thanksgiving. He’d been planning this since October? Oh, God. She’d already set her plans to join the O.P.P. in motion.
“They’ve already found my replacement,” he continued. “And I’ve arranged for my tools and as many supplies as I figured I’d need for the next year—Roger took them with him when he picked up the statue.”
“But you love to teach.” Oh God, what had she done?
“I can teach up north too. Give those kids something to do, to earn money. Maybe even give someone a future career.”
No. Honorable, but why had she thought it was a good idea to surprise him? And why hadn’t he said anything to her?
“You can—” She cleared her throat in an attempt to lose the hysterical edge creeping into it. “You can get your position back, right?”
He had to be able to get his job back. His tools and equipment could be shipped back, though it would cost a ton he shouldn’t have spent. But his position at the college...
“I told you, the college have already found my replacement.”
“What about Amy and the babies when they arrive? You’ll miss out on watching them grow up.”
“It’s not like they’re my kids. No offense, Amy, but Derek’s their father. He’ll be here for them. I’ll be the strange artistic uncle who flies in from the north with presents and fantastic stories.” Ryan cupped his hand beneath her chin and tilted her head until she met his gaze. “I want to be with you, babe. I can’t imagine being able to carve or draw or do anything without you in my life. I love you. I want you in my life twenty-four-seven, not just a few weeks each year.”
She blinked fast, torn between wanting to melt at his sweetness and hysterical laughter. “Oh, Ry. I can’t believe you did that. I’m so sorry. I’m touched, honest I am.” She looped her arms around his neck and shook her head. “I just wish you’d talked to me about it first.”
Ryan let his hand drop to her shoulders, a hint of fear joining the confusion in his expression. “The plan was always for me to join you. I thought you’d be happy that we could finally be together all the time.”
“I am,” she said slowly. That he would move thousands of miles away, leaving his family, his teaching position, possibly even jeopardize his artistic career only proved how much he loved her.
“What’s going on?” He stared pointedly at Derek, who was snickering. “What the hell do you know that I don’t?”
“You should have watched the news, dude.” Derek picked up the remote. That’s when she realized Noah hadn’t just muted the television, he’d paused it.
“The village of Porter’s Mill experienced some excitement yesterday,” the reporter announced. “Here’s our own woman-on-the-spot Sharon Marcotte to give you the details.” The picture changed to the same woman who had insisted on interviewing her yesterday. �
��Thanks, Frank. Haliburton O.P.P.’s newest member got a chilly welcome to the area yesterday when—”
“Derek, please!” Meg scrambled off his lap, snatched the remote from Derek and turned off the television then retrieved the box she’d placed strategically at the top of Ryan’s stocking. She knelt at his feet and placed it in his palm. “Open it.”
* * *
Uncertain whether the family had psyched him out and made him that year’s Christmas prank victim, Ryan tore the wrapping paper on the palm-sized box. He lifted the lid and found a plain black leather wallet.
So what the hell was everyone laughing about? He’d made this grand gesture, and gone through a helluva lot of trouble to make it too, and they’d laughed.
“Open it.” Excitement shone in Meg’s eyes. She reminded him of Noah when he’d been named captain of his hockey team. Then again, that look also reminded him of Sophie when she’d put a toad in his bed.
He gingerly lifted the wallet and flipped it open. It was Meg’s badge. Except... “Meg, why did you give me an O.P.P. badge?”
She must have borrowed it from one of the guys who responded yesterday. Except they wouldn’t have leant out their badge any more than she would have voluntarily given up her RCMP badge.
“Oh! Wait, I got it! They made you an honorary O.P.P. officer as a reward for saving Kevin yesterday.” He glanced at Derek. “That’s what the reporter meant, right? And why you’d asked if I’d seen the news this morning? That’s fantastic. And completely deserved after you laid your life on the line like that. But why’d you turn it off? I want to watch it.”
Noah snickered and Amy and Sophie chuckled, but his brother shook his head. “Go on, Meg, tell him the rest of it.”
“That’s my new badge, Ry. After you left for New York, I decided I was tired of us always being apart. So I started talking to some friends of mine and one thing led to another, and next thing I knew I was submitting my application to the O.P.P.”
He glanced at the badge in his palms. “So you’ve applied to the O.P.P. You’ve not quit your job in Nunavut yet, though, right?”
“No, Ryan. I’ve resigned. I’m finished and my stuff has been shipped down here already.”
Ryan’s head spun as he tried to figure out if this was some elaborate practical joke. If she hadn’t looked so damned earnest, he’d swear she’d gotten together with Derek and Amy and set him up. “Babe, being a Mountie was always your dream.”
“I’ve been a Mountie. I’ve achieved my dream. But it’s not my only dream.” She clasped her hands around his. “And coming home to an empty apartment, without you to talk to, to make me laugh? Going to sleep in an empty bed without you beside me? That’s never been my dream. If it meant switching from patrolling in Nunavut with an RCMP badge to joining the OPP so I could be with you every day? Turned out I didn’t have to think about it at all. I’m just sorry it took me so long to realize it.”
She’d quit. So had he. Oh God, all his equipment—most of it—was heading to Nunavut. But she wouldn’t be there.
“I have to go through their training program to get me up to speed on their methods,” she continued, “but once I’m done with that, I’m going to be stationed with the Haliburton office. We can live together right here. You don’t have to give up anything. And neither do I.”
Ryan couldn’t stop the snort that erupted as the irony hit him, nor could he stop the laugh that followed. “I can’t believe it. We both quit our jobs.”
“I’m sorry, but I had no idea you were planning on quitting. I would never ask you to give up your career. You’ve already given up so much.” Dismay filled Meg’s face, muting his laughter.
Aware of their avid audience, he linked his fingers with Meg’s and stood up. “If you’ll excuse us, folks, but I think this discussion needs to be done in private.”
Ignoring Derek’s and Noah’s hoots, he led her to the bedroom, and turned the lock. With a frown, he handed her the stocking, grabbed a chair and lodged it beneath the doorknob. “Just in case Derek decides to interrupt us again.”
Meg placed the stocking on the bed and turned to him, looking more unsure that he’d ever seen her. “I’m so sorry, Ry. I thought it would be a nice surprise—”
He placed a finger over her lips. “Sssh. Are you sorry that you’ve quit the force?”
She shook her head.
“And I’m not sorry I quit the college.” He sat on the side of the bed and pulled her onto his lap. “I like teaching, but I can still teach out of my workshop if I want. Instead of having to work with twenty or so students, I can pick and choose, and do it within my time frame. But I am completely prepared to move wherever you want to go if you want to see if you can get back into the Mounties.”
She rested her forehead on his. “I like it here. I like knowing if I run out of toilet paper, I can get a roll for less than what you’d pay for a dinner for four at a restaurant around here. I like having choices when I want to go shopping, and being able to look out the window and see trees. And best of all, I love waking up and finding you beside me. In this bed.”
“So no more second guessing, no more feeling guilty that either of us have done anything wrong.”
“Deal.”
“There is one other thing.”
“What’s that?”
He dumped the contents of the stocking everyone had stuck something into—two pairs of brightly colored socks, a pair of leather gloves, a book light and a myriad of foil-wrapped chocolate coins.
“I know we’ve discussed this before. And I remember that you turned me down.”
Meg put her hands to her mouth when, with a final shake, the blue velvet box fell from the toe.
“I didn’t turn you down. Exactly. I asked you to wait.” She dropped her eyelids, but not before he got a peek at the tears filling them. “You know neither of us were ready to get married back then.”
“Who said anything about marriage? This is a set of nipple rings. I want you to finally get them pierced.” He laughed out loud when her jaw dropped.
She snatched the box from his hand and flipped it open, finding a two-carat diamond solitaire. “Oh Ryan!”
His throat clogged for a second as she slid it onto her finger and held it up to admire. His surprise might have not come off exactly as he’d planned, but he’d got everything he’d wanted. And more. He cleared his throat and forced down the emotion threatening to well over. Guys didn’t cry, damn it. “For a cop, you are so easy.”
She shoved him onto his back and straddled him, grinding her mound over his cock with a delicious pressure. “I may be easy—with you—but I’m not cheap.”
There was no way to answer that without having his balls introduced to his throat. Instead he shoved his hands beneath her shirt and cupped her unbound breasts, stroking them in time with each rotation of her hips.
“Are you two doing it in there?” Amy called through the door. “Because if you are, I’d like to remind you it’s Christmas morning and we’re still waiting to exchange presents before we have breakfast.”
“Yeah, Ry,” Noah called, “you know better than to get between a pregnant woman and food. Amy’s already eyeing us like we’re Christmas dinner.”
Ryan and Meg both laughed at the screech of indignation from the hall. He reached up and pulled Meg to lie on top of him and tilted his head toward the racing footsteps followed by slower ones. “Are you sure you want to live here? With all these crazies?”
“Positive.”
“I love you, Meg.” His arms wrapped around her shoulders, he rolled until he was on top, just where he’d wanted to be. “Now, about those nipple rings...”
* * * * *
Don’t miss another seasonal favorite When desire and duty clash, things can get a little tangled…and a lot hot!
Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his
brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.
Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?
Texas Tangle
Forced to marry a man she just met, Sarah McLeod clings to the hope that she’ll finally find the love and acceptance she’s always craved. Her dreams are in danger of being dashed by the one thing she can’t change—her husband’s love for another man.
Jackson Kellar’s determined to do right by his bride, yet he’s torn between his newfound love for Sarah and his still-burning desire for Nate.
Ranch owner Nate Campbell loves them both. How can they fix the tangled mess they find themselves in? Nate suggests a possible solution—a permanent threesome.
With the open frontier closing in around them, is Nate’s solution their path to happiness—or will others destroy what they’ve found together?
Tangled Past
Both titles are available now from author Leah Braemel.
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About the Author
Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two sons, Leah is the only woman in a houseful of men—even their dog is male. Though she now writes full-time, she gained some varied and interesting insights while working with a security firm liaising with Toronto’s Emergency Task Force and bomb squad and later teaching computers to women escaping abusive relationships.
After a conversation with her eldest son about how he needed to follow his dreams, Leah decided to follow her own advice and make her dream of getting published come true. She was thrilled when one year later her first sizzling romance, Private Property, was published.
Reviewers have since awarded her books numerous Top Pick and Recommended Reads designations, along with Romance Studio CAPA nominations in 2010 for “Best Erotic Romance” and “Best Erotic Romance Author” and 2011 for “Best Erotic Romance” and a nomination from The Romance Reviews in their “Best Erotic Ménage and More of 2011” for Leah’s Tangled Past.