Pleasures of Christmas Past (A Christmas Carol Book 1)

by Lexi Post

  He tried to keep his optimism. “Why are you crying?”

  Jessica scowled at him. “Because she misses him, why else?”

  “No, that’s not why.” Holly’s head came up. “I’m crying because I just remembered what happens to my Christmas Eve dinner. It was a total disaster and we had company. I was so embarrassed.”

  Jessica let go. “You were crying over your failed dinner?”

  Holly wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “Yeah, I was trying so hard to impress Cameron and his friends and I totally blew it.”

  Jessica looked at him in confusion.

  He floated across the room. “Cameron specifically wanted you to see this night, Holly. Why do you think that is?” He smiled encouragingly.

  She sniffed. “I don’t know.”

  “Come, lass. Think about it.”

  She looked around the room then shrugged. “Maybe because in the end it really didn’t mean much.”

  Duncan nodded. “Aye. Cameron loved you for you, no’ for your skills or ability to impress his friends.”

  Holly’s lips twitched up. “We did laugh about this night every year. He said I improved with age.”

  Jessica grinned. “What a sweetheart.”

  Holly nodded, pride in her face. “He was and he was mine.”

  “He still is.” Jessica squeezed Holly’s shoulders.

  There was a knock on the door and Cameron left the room, the tray in his hand. When he returned, two couples joined him.

  Jessica’s smile disappeared and Duncan stared at the newcomers. What the blazes was going on now?

  Chapter Six

  Holly had turned at the new arrivals, oblivious to Jessica’s shock. “Oh wow, there’s Tommy and Hannah and that’s Jacob and his girlfriend of the hour. I don’t remember her name. We never knew who he would bring.”

  Duncan watched as Jessica’s fists clenched before she spoke, her voice rough. “When was this?”

  Holly didn’t turn. “It was five years ago. It was Cameron’s and my first Christmas together. He took two weeks holiday, as he called it, to spend Christmas and New Year’s with me.” She pointed to one of the men. “We always invited Tommy to Christmas Eve dinner because if he hadn’t brought Cameron to the Highland games earlier that year, we would never have met.”

  Holly glanced at Duncan. “The other guy was a friend of Tommy’s. We saw him a few times after that, always with a different woman, but even Tommy got tired of him.”

  The look on Jessica’s face proved she barely kept herself from solidifying and telling Jacob what she thought. That sent a slice of fear straight up Duncan’s spine. He leaned toward Holly. “I need to talk to Jessica outside. Do you mind waiting here?”

  Holly shook her head before glancing back at Jessica. “Oh, of course. I’ll wait right here.”

  “Good lass.” He floated to Jessica and grabbed her arm.

  She looked about to argue but he shook his head and pulled her outside.

  A light snow was falling and the moon reflected off the white blanket covering the rooftops and trees. It gave Jessica the appearance of a silver angel and something in Duncan’s heart shifted.

  She apparently didn’t feel like an angel as she floated back and forth across the roof. “That son of a bitch. And here I felt guilty for putting off the wedding.”

  He didn’t say anything. The second Holly had mentioned the name Jacob, he knew in his gut it was Jessica’s fiancé. Too many emotions had roiled through him—jealousy, anger and protectiveness. But he’d had little chance to examine the man because fear had overtaken everything. Fear she’d solidify. What in the blazes was Cameron doing?

  “And Tommy.” Jessica threw up her hands as she floated. “How could he? He introduced me to that bastard.”

  Duncan’s concern grew. “You know Tommy too?”

  “Of course I knew Tommy. We worked together in Maine. Oh…” She slowed to face him. “I’m the one who told Tommy about the New Hampshire Highland Games when he said he had a friend visiting from Scotland. That friend must have been Cameron.”

  Duncan’s fear for her was turning to anger at Cameron now. It was time the man answered some questions.

  Jessica’s hand on his arm had him swallowing his curse.

  “I always wondered if I’d made the right decision. I accepted a job in Maine that paid me more money and a promotion, but I always felt like maybe I’d abandoned the people back in New Hampshire. But I would never have met Tommy if I didn’t and if I hadn’t told Tommy about the games, Holly would have never met Cameron.”

  She stared at him, her eyes wide. “I never realized how connected we all are.” She attempted to smile. “Maybe if we try hard enough, we can find a connection between us.”

  Duncan couldn’t keep from touching her a moment longer. He pulled her into his embrace. His heart raced with fear and he wanted to confront it, but he had no idea what the threat was. “This is no coincidence. Cameron knew you were key to him meeting Holly. What I want to know is why he’s revealing this to you. He should be focused on making Holly happy. I dinna like it.”

  Jessica rested her head against his shoulder. “I’m so glad this isn’t the normal way these assignments go. I don’t think I could handle a hundred different cases that revealed so many of my past assumptions were wrong.”

  He held her tight, liking the feel of her against him, but for once no’ in a sexual capacity. She was being put through an emotional cider press as if she were a living person in need of redemption, but he’d never met a more caring soul in his entire afterlife. She didn’t need redemption.

  Something inside him told him to stay with her if he wanted to keep her safe, but he had to speak to Cameron if he wanted to discover what was in store for them in order to protect her. That Cameron hadn’t told Duncan the full plan had him skunnered.

  He leaned his head back and lifted her chin. “Jess, I need to find out what Cameron is planning. I dinna want you taken by surprise again. If you had solidified…” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “It’s time Cameron told us what his real goal is with this assignment.”

  “Good idea. Let’s go.”

  “No, I dinna think he’ll tell me if you are with me.”

  Jessica nodded and pulled out of his arms. He forced himself to let her go, his gut tight over what was the right course of action. “Do you want to wait in your house, maybe have more ice cream?”

  She gave him a scowl. “Are you saying I’m fat?”

  “No. You’re perfect.”

  “Duncan, I was kidding. No, I’ll stay here with Holly.”

  There was no way he’d allow that with her former fiancé present. If she stayed with Holly it would be after Jacob was long gone. He doubted her ability to keep from solidifying. She was far too angry at the man, which he didn’t mind in the least. “Very well, but whatever happens, dinna solidify. Promise?”

  She nodded.

  He took her hand, moving them through time a few hours and into the apartment where Holly stood watching her former self cuddle with Cameron on the couch, all the company long gone.

  “I’ll be right back, lassies.” With a last look at Jessica, he floated aloft as fast as he could, already anxious to return.

  Jessica put her arm around Holly’s shoulders. She needed to focus on making Holly happy, not on her own revelations. “How are you doing?”

  Holly turned to her. “I’m good. It was so great to see us together like this. Everything was so simple. It only became complicated when we decided to get married. The whole quandary of which country to hold the wedding in, or to have two weddings or one in one country and again in another country. It got so crazy, we finally went to Vegas and eloped.”

  Jessica smiled, happy to focus on Holly’s marriage instead of her own close call in marrying a jerk. “How did your families take the news?”

  “Remarkably well. We did end up having receptions on both continents. Oh, you should have seen the party Grandma and Grandpa Tinder
threw for us. It was a celebration of our marriage, but also a going away party because I was moving to Scotland permanently.”

  “Was that difficult?”

  “Yes and no. It was hard leaving my friends and family, but I had Cam.” Holly sighed as she looked back at him. “I would have gone anywhere with him.”

  Jessica laid her hand on Holly’s shoulder. “You were very lucky to have found each other. Many people live very long lives having never known the kind of love you two shared.”

  The other woman snapped her head around. “You’re right. I never thought of it that way.”

  Jessica nodded, barely keeping her own tears at bay. Even her own illusion that she had found love had been stripped away.

  “Oh, Jessica. I’m being so selfish. I didn’t realize Jacob was your fiancé. I just heard him telling Cam about you. Once Cam heard that, we stopped inviting him. We were disgusted.”

  She shook her head, refusing to shed any more tears over her life. If she’d learned anything so far, it was that most of what she’d believed was wrong. “It’s okay. This is not about me, but about you.”

  “Still, I’m glad you never married the asshole.”

  Jessica grinned. She’d forgotten how nice it was to have a girlfriend to commiserate with. She’d had one while she lived in New Hampshire, but once she moved out of state, she hadn’t been able to keep in touch and never found time to form a new friendship. With Holly, she clicked right away, but that may have been because she thought of her as a client first. “I guess delaying the wedding had been the smartest thing I did. Maybe in my subconscious I knew he wasn’t the right one for me.”

  “So is Duncan the right one?”

  She stared at Holly as if she’d just sprouted antlers and turned into a reindeer. “Why in the world would you say that?” She put as much shock into her voice as she could, though something too close to her heart waited anxiously for the answer.

  Holly crossed her arms. “I don’t know, it’s just something about the way you two react to each other. It reminds me of the Tinders, only you seem to be a bit more exasperated by him than he is of you.”

  She didn’t like the tiny glimmer of hope that started in her chest. Duncan had stated quite bluntly that he couldn’t love. Why she had no clue, but he obviously believed it, so she tried to darken the light. “We’re just colleagues.”

  Holly snorted. “Yeah, and I’m the leaning Tower of Pisa. If you two are just colleagues then I’m sound asleep in my bed, dreaming all this up.”

  That little light in Jessica’s chest burst back to life. “Remember, Duncan’s a flirt. He’s great at making women feel special.”

  “I don’t know. I think you should reconsider your judgement. I didn’t think Cam was seriously interested and yet look what happened with us.” Holly looked away for a moment. “Do you think Cam will come see me again when we’re done?”

  Jessica hesitated. She didn’t want to squash Holly’s hope. “I’m not sure. He’s kind of like my boss, so he keeps me on a need-to-know basis only.” She gave Holly a half smile. She just wasn’t sure that was such a good idea anyway, but she couldn’t tell her that.

  Movement on the couch distracted her. Cameron was in the process of pulling off the younger Holly’s sweater. “Um, I think I’ll go into another room.”

  Holly looked over at the couch and blushed, but she didn’t follow Jessica as she floated into the tiny kitchen. It was one thing to spy on Holly’s past, but she definitely wasn’t about to become a voyeur. What was Cameron thinking sending them here at this time of night?

  She stilled. It wasn’t this time of night when she and Duncan had spoken outside. He’d pushed them further in time. She’d do the same thing right now if Holly wasn’t so mesmerized by watching her old self with Cameron.

  Why would Duncan have pushed them into this scene? Unless he was hoping it would get her in the mood. Seriously, the man seemed to have a one-track mind. Except the track he was on right now was to protect her.

  She couldn’t help but sigh over that. He really was concerned for her. He’d been worried about her at his castle too. Shit, the man had grown up in an actual castle. Life was very different at the turn of the nineteenth century. He had adapted well, though to be fair, he’d had over two hundred years to do so.

  A moan from the other room derailed her thoughts. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to watch herself making love to a man she cared for. Just the thought of what she and Duncan must have looked like on the stairwell of his castle had her cheeks heating. Even then his instinct was to protect her from getting hurt.

  What if he’d remembered they were dead and had continued with his lovemaking? Would he have taken her there on the stairs? She could have leaned forward and placed her hands on the higher steps. He was tall enough to easily throw up her skirt, nudge her legs apart and penetrate her.

  Her folds moistened at the image of Duncan sliding into her from behind. He would at first sink slowly because he was the type of man who would savor the new experience of being inside her. He would lean over and grasp her breasts in his hands, his fingers finding her nipples and he’d play, refusing to move his hips.

  She would be driven crazy by the lightning striking from her hardened nubs to her core. Her sheath would react, teasing him into moving.

  He’d laugh at her attempt to make him lose control and instead he’d tease her back, leaving her nipples to let them brush against the stone step below her. Instead, he’d smooth his hands down her belly and into the hair between her legs. With expert skill he would find her clit with his finger and rub it down and up, slowly, building the fire within her.

  Her juices would coat him and she’d moan, but he still wouldn’t move. Desperate for release, she’d reach between her legs and cup his balls. He’d grab her wrist. “Ach, you’re a sneaky one, lass.”

  She grinned as her imagination conjured Duncan at his best. Would he finally move? No, he wouldn’t. But she would, and he’d grab her hips to still her, but she’d tighten and loosen her passage around him, anxious to feel him pump inside her.

  His growl would fill her body as finally, he pulled out slowly only to glide back into her as far as he could go, his pelvis pressed hard against her ass, his cock pushing against her cervix. His hands would hold her tight against him as if he strove to gain control of his raging need. Then he’d pull out again, pushing back in faster this time.

  Her nipples lightly brushed across the abrasive stone of the step as his hips met her ass. The fire at her core burned hot, the extra stimulation not needed, but welcome.

  “Ach, lass, ye are a siren sent to whisk me away to the depth of the loch. I just know ye are.”

  She arched her back and pushed her ass more firmly against his pelvis.

  A hiss issued from between his lips before he pulled back and rocked into her again.

  Yes. This is what she wanted. The feel of his full cock sliding in and out of her, feeding the fire inside her. She closed her eyes, the sensations inside too intense.

  Duncan’s own need had finally conquered his control and his thrusts grew faster, his hands holding her hips, pulling her toward him as he rammed in and pushing her away as he pulled out. In and out, again and again, the fiery sensations flooding her like the tide coming in, wave after wave until they burst outward, engulfing her body with hot liquid pleasure.

  She held on to the stone step as her world exploded. She yelled her gratification, her voice amplified by the stairway even as Duncan continued to pump into her, pushing her bliss to an intensity she’d never known.

  The sound of Duncan’s primal growl vibrated into her core just as he came inside her, flooding her sheath and sending her orgasm into another circle of ecstasy.

  “Jessica?” Holly’s voice penetrated her consciousness.

  She opened her eyes and snapped her head toward the doorway, flushing with heat at being caught daydreaming.

  “Are you okay?” Holly drifted closer.

/>   “Yes, yes, just trying to figure out a problem Duncan and I were discussing earlier.” She wiped the sweat off her palms against her skirt and pasted on a smile. “How are you doing?”

  Holly tried to pull out a chair and her hand went through it instead. “Oh, I forgot.” She grinned and folded her legs up under her to sit as she floated. “This is weird.”

  “I know, but it’s only for one night.”

  Holly’s brows drew together.

  Jessica moved toward her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing’s wrong. You and Duncan have given me a lot to think about.”

  “In what way?”

  Holly remained silent for a moment then she shrugged. “I’m not sure yet. My mind keeps going around in circles about Cam and me and you and me and you and Duncan.”

  “Me and Duncan? I thought we just determined there is no ‘me and Duncan’. What would you have to think about us? We are just your Spirit Guides.”

  Holly raised her brow. “Oh, you’re a lot more than that. He is totally mystified by you and you think he’s a hunk. Not that I blame you, he is. So have you two had sex, or can you after you’re dead?” Holly held up her hand. “No, don’t tell me, I really don’t want to know.”

  Jessica blushed, discounting Holly’s assessment of her and Duncan’s relationship even as a flicker of yearning permeated her heart. He was her mentor, and yes, there were definitely sparks, but any woman spending any length of time with Duncan would spark off him. That was exactly why he was the way he was, and why she needed to keep him away from her heart…if it wasn’t already too late. “Then what about you and Cameron? He chose these separate times in your past for a reason.”

  “Why does he get to choose?” Holly unfolded her legs and floated in a standing position.

  She pointed up. “Because he’s the boss.”

  “But what about what I want to see?”

  Doubt niggled its way into her brain. That was a good question. As a case worker, she’d always been open to what the client thought would help him or her the most. If she agreed, it usually worked out better than foisting something onto them. But other case workers she’d known were adamant they knew best. Was this what she was facing now? “I know there is at least one other episode in your past that we will go to when Duncan gets back.” Where was he? He could have popped back in minutes.