The Christmas Challenge

by Sinclair Jayne

  “Yeah. Well, three’s the charm, but your point is taken.” Then Tucker smiled. “And as a distraction it worked.”

  “I wasn’t distracted. I was pissed.”

  Tucker grinned at the bartender, who shook his head darkly.

  “Admit it, you miss me when I’m gone.”

  “Maybe you should be a screenwriter,” Laird said. “You have a gift with telling stories even when you get derailed with your own reality.”

  “I think there’s a compliment in there somewhere,” she said. “Or I’ll pretend there was. Anyway, about Colt and Luke and the family drama.”

  “This is why you should be drinking whiskey, Tucker. You drink and act crazy stupid instead of running your mouth off too much,” Jason said.

  Tucker lowered her face toward her water for a split second then her head shot up, fire in her eyes.

  “That you being a business man, Jason? You tell my daddy that too?”

  Jason’s face shuttered even more. “You think I wanted that, Tucker T, then I think you better find another place to drink or not to drink,” he looked at the Pellegrino.

  “Fine I will,” Tucker hopped off the stool.

  Laird expected her to stalk off. Instead she stopped, her hand on the bar trembled. He covered it with his marveling at his tanned, calloused hand compared to her small, delicate pale one. But he knew she had so much strength underneath.

  “Tucker?” he questioned. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jason watching them, his face unreadable.

  “It’s going to be fine, I know. It will be fine,” she whispered, looking down at the floor where her red cowboy boots stood out brilliantly against the dark scratched wood of the floor. “Just don’t ask me any more questions, Laird, please.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Laird adjusted the cuffs of his white dress shirt. Cuff links. He had cuff links. He didn’t even know there was such a thing still. He felt like he was on a movie set from the 1940s or something equally alien. Still it was fun dressing up. He hadn’t since his high school prom, and then his mom had hovered, nervous. Excited. Taking pictures. Impatient with his preening and memories, he left the apartment and headed to the main house where Tucker had gotten dressed.

  “Why the hell are you still knocking? Whoa! You clean up good,” Luke said answering the door. He stood back. “You look totally different. Going for the good-boy look tonight huh? Didn’t even notice before you had a scar,” he said looking at the puncture wound scars that dotted Laird’s cheekbone and his jawline. “Where the hell did you pick up something like that, a lion’s mouth?”

  “Not that time,” he said easily although he hated telling the story because even ten years later, he still felt so stupid although the scar itself didn’t bother him. Mostly he forgot about it but since he’d decided to go full date mode, he’d shaved, bought a suit, which was totally impractical since he often lived out of a backpack. And, just to be more of a sap on his first official date with Tucker, he had seriously trimmed his hair so that it skimmed his jawline instead of his shoulders.

  “Great Pyrenees,” he said, not adding that he’d been in Oregon working harvest on Chardonnay grapes and he’d been rough housing with the vineyard dog and had been getting his kicks chasing the miniature sheep around, who were in the vineyard to keep the undergrowth on the vines low. The stupidity of that afternoon still amazed him. And no, he couldn’t even use drinking as an excuse.

  “Thought they herded sheep and goats.”

  “Baaaaaaa,” Laird said. Luke smiled. The subject dropped.

  He heard the familiar thump of heels and turned expectantly, but it was Tanner who breezed into the kitchen in a pale green tight fitting dress that hugged her slender body and spilled around her ankles. He’d seen that dress before. He hid a smile, pleased he’d been right. Tucker had bought that dress with Tanner in mind not herself.

  “Amazing,” Luke wrapped her in his arms. “Now I know why you kicked me into the downstairs bathroom to change. Turn around, let me get the full view.”

  Tanner kissed his cheek and then nibbled on her lower lip. “Tucker was right. This lipstick does stay on.”

  “Maybe we should test her theory again and a little more vigorously.”

  Tanner laughed. “I know you’re smooth, cowboy, but no way are you wiggling out of the ball. Kane did you right hauling you and Colt off to Bozeman. I love the suit. I could get used to this.”

  “Because suits are so practical when rebuilding barns, riding broncs and bulls.”

  “You’re going to be a businessman as well,” she teased. “They wear suits.”

  “I would be tossed out on my ass if I showed up on a Montana ranch in a suit. They’d probably show me some dairy cow to contract with and puke their guts out laughing thinking I didn’t know any better.”

  “Not like you’re not used to being tossed on your ass,” Tucker teased, breezing into the room.

  Tanner frowned, but Luke laughed. “I placed third this year at the national finals, Tucker, so there was no ass tossing involved. I stuck every ride, bull and bronc.”

  “Modest much?” She blew Luke an air kiss and then focused on her sister, letting out a long whistle. “Look at you, girl,” she checked Tanner up and down. “I told you you would kill in that dress. It’s perfect on you. Way better than on me.”

  Tanner snuck a quick peak in the mirror on the opposite wall of the sitting room.

  “Thank you for lending it to me.”

  Laird watched the two sisters, happy to see Tanner seemed a little less reserved.

  “It’s yours,” Tucker said. “It never looked good on me, but I loved the color so impulsive buy,” she lied easily. “It looks like it was made for you. Are you wearing the boots?” Tucker demanded.

  “Yes,” Tanner stuck one tan beaded cowboy boot out from under her dress. “It’s amazing luck we wear the same size still. Thank you for lending me these. I know you said you’ve had them for a while, but they don’t look worn.”

  “Another impulse buy. You know me.”

  Actually, Laird had long ago begun to suspect, Tanner didn’t know her twin as much as she might think. He watched Tucker interact with her sister. She sparkled and glowed and he had to remind himself to breathe.

  Wow. Just wow.

  Laird didn’t think of himself as a particular ogler of women, but Tucker could turn him into an inarticulate, mouth breathing, drooling man mess with one cheekily tossed verbal bomb and comment. And then there was the dress and that body. He’d been acutely aware of her body for three weeks because he’d been lying beside it trying to think monkish thoughts but usually ending up taking care of his physical needs in the shower. The relief was far too temporary, but still he didn’t want Tucker to go back to the couch.

  Tucker wore a halter style dress so he was treated to a tempting display of her beautiful creamy skin and the knowledge that she was not wearing a bra. And the color, a deep bronze, brought out the beautiful highlights in her hair that was twisted to one side and fell in waves over one shoulder and made her eyes look a vivid, sparkling green.

  “It is a change of pace to dress up,” Tanner said, touching her hair that was gathered up in a loose bun that had curls spilling around the crown of her head like a brilliant halo. “But you’re right, Luke. Not very practical.”

  “To hell with practical,” he said kissing her. Over her head his eyes caught Tucker’s and he mouthed “thank you.”

  The pleasure that shone on Tucker’s face made Laird feel like the sun had just come out. He wished she were his. He wished this were his. This life. These people. And where the hell was this coming from when he should be trying to find his real biological family not insert himself into someone else’s life? Tucker leaned into him.

  “You are devastating,” she whispered and the feel of her lips near his ear caused him to get semi-hard. What was new? Just like high school all over again although in high school he’d had more success.

  “Only
one more week to go,” she licked along the rim of his ear, and her hand surreptitiously brushed along the front of his pants, and now he was fully hard and aching.

  “It’s like you have a chain you pull,” he complained softly, and Tucker laughed.

  “Same for me. I’ve been soaked the last weeks just thinking about you,” she whispered against his mouth. Her words shot a jolt of awareness down his spine that lodged in his cock, which was all primed for action that was never going to come tonight.

  His stomach dropped and he had the urge to pick her up and carry her out of the room so he could figure out how she got her breasts so high and pushed together without a bra. He was not going to make it through the night.

  “Oh.” Tanner stared at her phone in dismay. “The babysitter Talon had lined up for Parker is sick, and they’ve struck out with the others they’ve called as most of the town is going to the ball.”

  Tucker looked at Laird, her eyes pleading, but he didn’t catch on.

  “No worries,” Tucker said. She took Tanner’s phone and pushed Talon’s number. “How ’bout a plan B?” she said as Talon answered. “Laird and I will go to the ball a little early instead of meeting at your place for drinks and then we’ll cut out early and play tag team so you and Colt can attend and meet Tanner and Luke there. That sound okay?” She looked at Laird again. “No problem at all. In fact, brainstorm! Why don’t you bring Mister P dressed for ice skating and Laird and I will bring a change of clothes and take him skating and for ice cream?”

  Her eyebrows, always so expressive, asked him a million questions, and Laird tried to imagine why or when he would ever say no to her.

  “It’s a threesome,” he drawled.

  And Tucker crossed her eyes at him, which made him feel a part of the conversation.

  “Don’t you mind?” Tanner asked. “Maybe we…”

  “Gets me out of a lot of dancing,” Laird said quickly. Although now that he saw Tucker’s backless dress dancing seemed like the best idea ever. He could put his hands on her body. Hold her. And it was public so he’d have more incentive to behave.

  While he loved ice skating with her, it involved a lot more clothes, which was better for her to complete her Christmas challenge, but hell on his ability to sleep. And walk. And talk. He felt like now that he couldn’t have sex, he was obsessed with sex. And while he enjoyed sex and had definitely had his share, he’d gone dry for a month before, no problems, but now that it had been over six months his libido had awakened and was roaring for release.

  Luke looked at Laird then shoulder checked him. “I owe you,” he said to Laird.

  “It’s all good,” Laird said.

  And he realized that it was. The anger. The betrayal. The heavy weight he felt he’d been choking on the past half year was gone. The restlessness that had always burbled beneath his skin making it hard to sit still and listen and to think and to plan had eased to a quiet conversation. He’d enjoyed cooking on the ranch these past few weeks, and had even come up with his own recipes that he’d notated for the future, and the sheer physical demands of the past week working construction renovating a couple of barns at Colt’s ranch filled him with satisfaction. He hadn’t once felt the twitch of boredom, nor the desire to wonder what he was going to do next.

  *

  Tucker laid her cheek against Laird’s chest and put her palm over his heart. She pretended she could feel the steady beat through the silky fabric of his shirt even though the music filling the ballroom of the Graff Hotel and the casual conversation bubbling around them made that impossible. But she felt it and that was important. She’d always been about feelings more than her head. She and Tanner probably made the perfect person. Head and heart. Impulse and control. Dreamer and doer.

  “I love this,” she whispered.

  It was so magical. So outside of her normal life. Eve Cannady had done a bang-up job creating the look for the ball.

  Laird bent his head to hers.

  “I could hold you all night,” he said, his fingers playing at her nape. A few times, he’d let his hands sweep down her bare back, and she had shivered with pleasure. His hands were warm and large and calloused and she wanted to feel them on her body. Desire thrummed deep in her body. It was like a drum beating, heavy, deep, and then rippling through her body making her limbs feel heavy and fluid and her breasts ached. Her nipples had been peaked as they danced, and she had a fantasy of sneaking off to a corner with Laird and begging him to kiss her. She wanted to feel his mouth on her breasts. Her breasts had always been so sensitive, and Laird had such a gorgeous mouth and was such a divine kisser that she thought she could orgasm if he would just touch her nipples with his strong, beautiful fingers, suck one into his hot mouth and tongue her into paradise.

  Why the hell had she decided to go the month celibate? It’s not like Tanner didn’t think they were doing the nasty, so why was she still keeping to that unnecessary part of the challenge? She closed her eyes and tried to find some calm and strength like Laird seemed to. It was childish, but she felt like since she’d made the ask at Miracle Lake, she had to stick to it. Like if she could stay the course, she’d be able to stick with everything else to follow. Remake her life. Find the happiness and security she’d been thrashing around looking for for so long.

  “Wait!” She looked up at him. “The Christmas challenge, it was just until Tanner’s wedding, right? Christmas Eve day? I didn’t say the whole month did I?”

  “That would be funny, Tucker, if I weren’t so completely frustrated that I was draining your ranch’s well dry with all the cold showers I’ve had to take.”

  “I know,” she whispered pressing a kiss on his neck as they moved around the floor to a dreamy ballad. She saw Luke and Tanner dancing, and he was holding Tanner like he’d never let her go, and there was no pang, only happiness that Tanner had found someone who deserved her.

  “You get up in the middle of the night and I can hear you. I imagine that I’m in there with you, naked as you are touching me, or I have you in my mouth and as I listen to you in the shower, I’m touching myself,” Tucker confessed dreamily, moving her hips against him in time to the slow beat of the song.

  Laird swore softly and eloquently in her ear.

  “Why the fuck did you tell me that? Jesus we are in public and there’s nothing more that I’d love to do than jerk all those place settings to the floor and spread you out on that table and work my way up your body with my teeth and tongue.”

  “Teeth? Are you wild in bed?”

  “You make me wild. And now I’m thinking of you touching yourself while I’m a wall away trying to practice some polite subtlety.”

  “It’s kind of pathetic and funny and sweet.”

  “It’s frustrating as hell.”

  Tucker laughed softly. “In a way it’s a gift, Laird. I’ve gotten to know you. Usually I just go for the sex. That’s all I wanted in a man. With you—”

  He pulled back a little and looked at her, and Tucker had never felt so exposed.

  “With me?”

  She licked her lip suddenly feeling nervous with him. He said he was falling in love with her. What did that mean? What would that look like? What would happen next? She’d always been in the moment, never planning much ahead.

  “It’s different,” she said, and realized they were standing still in the middle of the dance floor as other couples danced around them. “I feel different. I’m scared, Laird. I’m going to disappoint you.”

  He smiled. “Tucker, I don’t have any expectations other than I enjoy being with you. You make me laugh and feel alive. You’re sexy. Beautiful. You keep me on my toes and I just want to be with you. So let’s just go with that for the moment.”

  She looked at him uncertainly.

  “When you look indecisive it makes me want to kiss you, stupid,” he murmured against her mouth. “I like it when you’re flipping me and everyone else shit.”

  “I’m good at that, but I feel so lost,” she said. “
Everything’s different and I feel like I can’t get my footing. My dad’s not the strong one anymore. It’s Tanner. The careers I’ve been pursuing I don’t think I want anymore, and the home I returned to is no longer going to be my home at the first of the year.”

  “You’re not lost,” he said, wrapping her up in his arms. “You’re strong. Your dad may have some problems, you and Tanner will find a way to help him and to build a new ranch together if that’s what you want to do. And whatever you decide, I just want to be a part of the process if you’ll let me.”

  She laid her head against his chest and sighed happily.

  “You should probably try not to be so perfect,” Tucker said. “But the word ‘process’ makes our friendship sound a bit corporate.”

  He laughed. “I’m better with action, babe, than I ever am with words.”

  “So I’m missing out on the best part of you?” She looked up at him through her thick sweep of eyelashes. “I’ll keep that under advisement.”

  He laughed. “I definitely deserved that.”

  “And so much more.”

  Tucker snagged one glass of champagne from a circulating waiter. She took a sip and then held it out to him.

  “Do you know how to share, Laird?”

  “Champagne, yes. You, maybe not so much, but I think I’m going to have to adjust to how so many men are following you with their eyes. Damn but you are a beautiful, sexy woman, Tucker.”

  “Hope that’s not all you’re going to have to adjust,” she said a little breathlessly letting her body brush his.

  “That’s my girl,” he said. “I like it when you flirt with me. Sad and uncertain makes me feel like I’m not doing my job keeping you happy.”

  “So that’s your job,” she said bringing the champagne he was holding to her lips and taking a sip.

  She was happy. Laird made her happy. He just was. Calm and steady but never boring. He didn’t have an agenda for how their time together should go. He didn’t criticize her or try to change her. And she didn’t feel like she had to fight to hold his attention or prove to him that she was independent, not his property by trying to catch and hold another man’s attention. Instead, she hadn’t really noticed anyone else, including the prince that everyone was craning their necks to see. She’d seen the prince dancing with Rowan Palotay and hadn’t felt the urge to meet him.