by Melody Anne
“Very funny, Lucas. You both know I’m under flipping house arrest. The only place I get to go now is to my wonderfully quaint apartment — that is, if I don’t get mugged on the way there,” he said as he reached the break room and began yanking the Santa suit off.
“Well, then, I guess we’ll just have to drink a couple of beers in your new digs,” Crew said. “I’m looking forward to checking the place out.”
“What if I’d rather not have the company?” Tanner didn’t want to take a chance that he’d run into Kyla while these guys were around. If she came up and spoke to him, they’d get ideas. He didn’t want them getting ideas. As soon as he was done with this sentence, he was out of here and he wouldn’t look back. He shouldn’t need to worry about it, though, as he hadn’t seen her since last Thursday, when she’d been attacked. That was four days ago, and he wasn’t happy about it.
“You have to be bored out of your mind,” Lucas said. “Of course you want the company.”
“I’m not going to get you two to go away, am I?”
“Not a chance,” Crew said, sitting down and relaxing, even though the bench was absurdly uncomfortable.
“Fine. Give me a few minutes to change and you can give me a ride back. I get sick of taking stinking cabs or the bus. The walk takes too damn long after being at this mall all day. Kyla likes the walk, though — says it relaxes her.”
Tanner wanted to bite his tongue off as soon as the words popped from his mouth. There was no hope the two of them hadn’t noticed his slip.
“Kyla?” they said in unison, eyebrows raised.
“Don’t,” Tanner replied, and added a glare to let them know it was a closed subject.
“Hmm, have you managed to find romance in the projects?” Crew asked.
“The apartments aren’t the projects, and no, I haven’t. Even if I had, I certainly wouldn’t tell you about it.”
“I think you’re protesting a little too much, cuz,” Lucas said with a big grin.
Tanner had met his Anderson cousins a year ago or just a little more. He hadn’t known of their existence until then, thanks to a very desperate doctor who’d kidnapped his father when he was a newborn. But it was as if they’d all been together their entire lives. All of them got along beautifully, and none of them had a problem with flinging crap at each other.
“How could I have met someone? I’m under house arrest,” Tanner reminded them, trying his best to sound convincing.
“You do have a point there, but you are staying in an apartment building, not an all-male prison facility,” Crew told his brother. “I think meeting someone is a definite possibility.”
“Fine. I did meet a woman, but it’s not what you think. She’s an elf.” Again, if he could kick his own ass, he would.
“An elf? Oh, this just keeps getting better and better,” Lucas said with a Santa-like belly laugh.
“I think there’s an adult movie or two with Santa and his elves,” Crew managed to choke out in the midst of an explosion of his own guffaws.
“You’re both dumbasses,” Tanner said as he buttoned his coat, and left the room. There was no way he was continuing that conversation. But he knew the two of them were right on his heels, because their laughter followed him out of the mall.
“Where are you parked?” Tanner practically growled.
“This way,” Lucas said, trying his hardest to suppress his merriment now.
Tanner was really hoping they were driving a truck. Then he could sit in the bed and ignore both of them. Or maybe he could just jump from the vehicle as it was going down the road and land himself in the hospital for the rest of his sentence. Either option sounded all right with him.
When they reached the car — not a trunk, dammit — Tanner climbed in back, and, miracle of miracles, his two tormentors kept silent for the short ride back to the apartment building.
When they made it inside without running into Kyla, Tanner breathed a huge sigh of relief. If the two of them saw how unbelievably gorgeous his elfin neighbor really was, they’d be right back to harassing him, and they’d keep at it for the rest of the night.
Instead, they popped open a few beers that they’d had in a cooler, and they sat down, the joking over with as the three of them talked about the pros and cons of remodeling versus starting fresh. By the end of the conversation, Tanner was torn. He couldn’t alter his plans. That would be foolish.
However...
He wanted new, but he knew he might not get his way — damned judge! — so he needed to have a plan B. No! He wouldn’t change his mind.
If only the what-if thoughts about Kyla didn’t keep running through his head.
“Some of us aren’t locked into this apartment building, so we’re going to get out of here now,” Lucas said with a sly look at Tanner.
“Yeah. Yeah. Enjoy your fun, but one of these days you’re going to find your ass in a similar situation.”
“I don’t think so, cousin,” Lucas said as a knock sounded on the door. “I’ll get it.”
Lucas swung the door open, and before Tanner could stop him, he felt his cheeks instantly heat up. Kyla was standing there in the opening with a shy smile, but her cheeks reddened, too, when she noticed Lucas and then looked past him to where Tanner was standing awkwardly next to his brother.
“My, my, my, a hot girl delivering cookies,” Lucas said as he turned to wink at Tanner. “Maybe I shouldn’t be in such a hurry to leave.”
“Shut up, Lucas.” Tanner was finally able to make his feet work and he moved to the door, pushing Lucas out of the way. “Hi, Kyla. What’s going on?”
The smell of her freshly baked cookies was wafting from her open apartment door and Tanner’s mouth watered. As much as he didn’t want his brother or cousin to meet Kyla, the deed was done, and he found himself wanting to drag her into the room and devour her, take her temptingly pouty mouth with his own and kiss it, kiss it, kiss it …
“I…uh…baked some cookies as a thank-you,” she murmured.
Tanner could barely hear her.
“Cookies? I love cookies,” Crew said as he walked up next to Tanner.
Kyla could do nothing more than gape at Tanner’s brother in surprise as he reached out and took the plate.
And her surprise didn’t end there.
“Thanks, Kyla. I’ll talk to you later.” Tanner did the rudest thing he’d ever done in his life and shut the door in her face. Yes, his brother and cousin had seen her, but if she now disappeared, the ribbing should be minimal. He absolutely didn’t want his family to torment him with questions about her, even though he knew at least a few were coming his way. The damage had been done.
“Hot damn! She’s a beauty, and she bakes. I’d keep her,” Crew said as he bit into a still-warm cookie.
“Hands off,” Tanner told him. “Those are for me.” He snatched up the plate and walked away. If he didn’t respond to the taunting, maybe they’d just let it drop.
Fat chance.
“She’s for you? Or her cookies are?” Lucas was obviously amused by himself and his so-called wit.
Not funny. Yeah. Tanner knew they couldn’t possibly let this one go. He wouldn’t have let it go if the situation was reversed, but that was beside the point. This was him on the receiving end, and he didn’t like it, didn’t like it one little bit.
“Weren’t you guys just leaving?” he said, praying that Kyla wasn’t on the other side of the door as he yanked it back open. Thankfully, she was gone.
“I don’t want to leave now,” Crew said. “Things just got interesting.”
“Tough. I’m going to bed,” Tanner told them.
“At nine?” Lucas asked. “You’re becoming an old man.”
“Yeah, yeah. Well, you’ve been here a couple hours and you’ve already overstayed your welcome. Now, get out of here before I tell your wives what great guys the two of you are.”
There was a short pause. After they threw a few more lame jokes Tanner’s way, they finally exi
ted his apartment. Tanner shut the door then leaned against it in frustration. If only Kyla had waited ten more minutes to show up… This night could have ended a hell of a lot better.
Chapter Thirteen
Tanner slammed the door to his apartment. Another day at the mall — it felt like he’d been there a year — and he was sticky, irritated, and in desperate need of a hot shower.
He hadn’t managed to see Kyla the last couple days, since she hadn’t been at the mall performing her North Pole duties. Of course that thought led to another, that there was another pole he’d love to show her, one that was definitely pointing north. Yeah, he was a pig. He shook his head, disgusted with himself.
Anyway, knocking on her door had done him no good. He was beginning to think that she’d possibly up and moved from the building. Sure, he’d slammed the door in her face, but that was a minor offense wasn’t it? Okay, he’d yet to meet a woman who was forgiving after getting such a cold shoulder, but she should at least give him a chance to apologize.
But he couldn’t fault her if she had moved to better pastures. The place was a dump. As soon as his punishment was over, he wasn’t setting foot in these doors again — not until he managed to get a demolition crew in and he could personally direct the first wrecking ball through its thick walls. Starting, of course, with the very apartment he was imprisoned in.
After taking as long a shower as the ridiculously small hot-water tank would allow, Tanner stepped from the tub and was grateful no one was around to see all his goose bumps from the freezing-cold room. He was wrapping a towel around his waist when he heard a knock on his door.
He wasn’t expecting anyone.
He moved toward the door, and then realized his ankle monitor was on full display, so he rushed back to his room and threw on thick socks. But he didn’t have the time or the energy to do anything about the towel, which was the only other thing covering him. If his visitor had a problem with it, he or she shouldn’t knock on his door.
Beyond irritated and shivering, he stomped over and flung the door open, and then just stood there at a loss for words. Standing before him was a large green pine tree, real needles and all. The smell of the freshly cut tree filled the air and brought back happy childhood memories — ones he quickly tried to squash back down.
“I didn’t know trees knew how to knock,” he said, and much to his surprise, he laughed. Was he bipolar? He couldn’t quite rule that out. After all, he was ready to growl one minute, and the next he was laughing. At the very least he was getting permanent brain damage from who knew what that was seeping from the building’s walls.
Kyla’s head popped around the tree and then Tanner’s ego swelled at the way her eyes widened as they traveled over his half-naked body.
Hmm, maybe he would get his sexy neighbor into his bed after all.
* * * * *
Kyla hated to admit it, but one look at the guy had knocked the breath from her lungs. Tanner was a fine specimen when he had clothes on — okay, in anything but that Santa suit. In a tank top and boxers, he was breathtaking. Magnificent. Wrapped in nothing but a towel, with droplets of water sliding down those solid pecs, he was too good to be true. Talk about a ripped torso.
When she realized she was standing there practically drooling, she snapped her gaze back to his knowing – hell, almost gloating — eyes and tried to form a coherent sentence.
“I…uh…thought you might like to have a Christmas tree for your new place,” she mumbled.
Her impulsive act had probably been pretty foolish, especially since he’d slammed the door in her face the last time she’d seen him. She couldn’t explain why she was doing this. It was just that the man had helped her the other day, and he seemed lonely, didn’t he? Maybe he’d shut the door on her because the men in his apartment had been bill collectors or he had a gambling problem and they were there to collect.
Okay. Fine. Even if she was curious, and she was, she wasn’t going to ask. But if he slammed the door in her face again, she would take the hint and stay away, like she should be doing right now. She was just trying to spread the Christmas spirit, something she hadn’t wanted to do in two years, not since she’d lost her family. Since it was the first time she’d even thought of having a tree after that horrible “holiday” two years before, she’d bought one — and brought it to him. It was just too painful still to have the tree in her own apartment.
Now she was regretting her impulsive act. Tanner was too worldly and cynical to go for such a holiday tradition.
“It’s good to see you, Kyla. And I like the tree. Please come in.” Did he sound a bit stiff? Probably. He took the tree from her and dragged it inside the apartment. “You haven’t been at the mall. Did you quit?”
One of the branches snagged the bottom of his towel; she held her breath and waited, eyes peeled. Sadly, the towel stayed in place. When he leaned the tree against the wall and turned back to her, she jerked her gaze up and met his eyes again, realizing he’d asked a question that she’d never answered.
“I…um…have another job, so I only work part time at the mall,” she said before taking a long breath and trying to sound a little less ditzy. “I don’t need to stay. I just wanted to drop this off and…I’ll…uh…be going now.” Kyla stumbled as she backed toward his door.
“You can’t just drop off the tree and run. I’ll need help decorating it,” he said. His large frame filled the doorway, blocking her exit. “Also, I need to apologize for…um…shutting the door in your face the other day. It was just that the guys that were here were…” He trailed off awkwardly and his cheeks flushed.
She knew it. Those two guys were thugs. That had to be it!
“No need to explain. I wasn’t offended,” she lied. “And you can decorate the tree however you like. It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. You did me a great favor a few days ago, and I wanted to find a way to show my appreciation beyond the…um…cookies.”
“I do appreciate the tree, Kyla, and the cookies,” he said, but his expression — it was almost a leer — had her stomach dropping. “Both things are really sweet. Now let me repay the kindness. I ordered pizza right before I jumped into the shower, so join me and we’ll throw on a few decorations.”
She found that she actually wanted to help him. She really wanted to keep looking at his indecently clad body.
“Well, I guess I could help,” she muttered as her eyes drifted to his chest again. It should be illegal to have a body that chiseled. If all of Seattle could see him, the man would prove lethal to half the people there — maybe a bit more than half.
“Thanks,” he said, then walked over to his fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. She didn’t know her wine, but it didn’t look like a cheap grocery store brand.
“Don’t you think you should get dressed first?” she croaked out as she stepped up to the counter. She would never be able to stay here in his apartment with him looking like this. Not without succumbing to every temptation known to man or woman, anyway.
“I just got out of the shower. Sorry,” he said blithely, and he took a sip of his wine. He didn’t appear to be the least bit apologetic.
“I shouldn’t have just barged in. I’ll go ahead and wait while you dress.” Please, go dress, she thought.
With a shockingly smug smile, Tanner passed by her, far too close for comfort. The fragrance of his body wash hit her point-blank, making her inhale extra deeply. She really wanted to run her fingers down his perfect chest — just once, she thought. But she somehow managed to keep her hands to herself, though her eyes devoured him as he disappeared into his bedroom.
He left that door open, damn him, and it took all her willpower not to stretch her neck. The thought that he’d be standing in there completely naked for a few moments was making her pant like a… She stopped that thought and turned away from the door to face his empty kitchen counters.
“I don’t have any ornaments, so what are we going to use?”
Kyla jumped when
Tanner spoke right into her ear from only a couple of inches away. She’d have been quite the happy girl if he’d decided to just slip his hands around her and pull her back against his chest.
Spinning, she angled around him, cursing her traitorous body. No, she wouldn’t allow this stranger to make her lose her mind.
It might be too late, her body taunted.
“We’ll do popcorn strands,” she said desperately.
Tanner gave her with a blank look. “Popcorn?”
“Haven’t you ever made popcorn strands?” she asked, and he shook his head. “Gee, Tanner. Not even in elementary school?”
“Nope,” he replied, refilling her glass.
Kyla was shocked. She’d somehow drained the first glass of wine in no time flat.
“Well, then, you’re in for an experience. I’ll be right back. I have some things we’ll need in my apartment.”
She rushed from his place back to hers and gathered up all the supplies not only for popcorn strands but for some other homemade ornaments as well. Cheap decorating was simple if you had an ounce of knowledge and a desire to do arts and crafts. As she took a minute to control her breathing, she looked at the things she’d amassed with a bit of sadness.
Making popcorn strands for the trees outside had been a tradition in her family. Her dad loved feeding the birds and squirrels, and they’d all had so much fun threading mountains of popcorn and berries. Of course, her family had eaten as much in goodies as they’d put on the strings, and always did so to the sounds of the Rat Pack singing Christmas songs.
Kyla didn’t know what had possessed her to buy those things this morning. One minute she’d been doing a little grocery shopping, and the next she’d been checking out with popcorn and cranberries in her cart. That was before she’d even ended up at the Christmas tree lot. There weren’t even any trees outside the apartment building. The act had been completely senseless. Well, it had been until now.
Maybe her mom had been there with her, and she’d put the items in the cart. The thought made Kyla’s eyes sting — but she was finished feeling sad and refused to shed more tears. It was time to embrace some happiness.