A Christmas Proposal: A Hidden Threat Short Story

by Sherri Hayes

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Hidden Threat Preview

  Copyright

  Ch_01

  Ch_02

  Ch_03

  Ch_04

  Ch_05

  Ch_06

  Also Available

  First published by The Writer’s Coffee Shop, 2011

  Copyright © Sherri Hayes, 2011

  The rights of Sherri Hayes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The Writer’s Coffee Shop

  (Australia) PO Box 447 Cherrybrook NSW 2126

  (USA) PO Box 2116 Waxahachie TX 75168

  E-book ISBN-978-1-61213-139-9

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the US Congress Library.

  Cover image by: ©Mark Hryciw

  Cover design by: Jennifer McGuire

  http://www.thewriterscoffeeshop.com/publishinghouse

  Chapter 1

  Ever since Cali Stanton had agreed to move in with him, Matthew Andersen had been planning how he would propose to her. She was it for him. There was no question in his mind.

  When she’d taken the emergency room job over at Chicago Memorial Hospital, he’d had no idea how crazy her schedule would be. He’d never lived with a doctor before, and while he knew they had crazy hours, it was still eye-opening.

  Her crazy schedule had him pushing his plans back and reassessing. She’d not had more than twelve hours off for the last month. After tonight, that would change. Cali was due to end her shift at midnight, although in all likelihood she wouldn’t finish until a couple of hours later, but after that she didn’t have to return to the hospital until seven o’clock in the morning on the twenty-sixth. They would have more than twenty-four hours together, and he was going to make the most of it.

  Carrying the last armful of bags into their townhouse, Matthew began unloading them onto the counter. He was not one to wait until the last minute, but seeing as how he didn’t want Cali to suspect what he was up to, he didn’t have a choice. Luckily, the grocery store wasn’t busy this Christmas Eve. Matthew suspected everyone was at the mall, given the packed parking lot he passed.

  His plan was to give Cali a day she wouldn’t forget. It was their first Christmas together, which would be special enough, but given that he planned to ask her to be his wife added extra pressure.

  Matthew was used to pressure. He’d spent nearly four years as a sniper in the military. It was one of those jobs where losing your cool in high-pressure situations could get you dead in quick order. This, however, was perhaps the most important thing he’d ever done to date and he wanted it to be perfect. He was not above admitting that he was nervous. She could say no. Matthew didn’t think she would, but there was always that possibility.

  He spent almost an hour washing and cutting fruit, prepping breakfast for tomorrow morning. Breakfast in bed was the first order of business. It would get things moving in the right direction and hopefully show Cali just how special she was to him. Before her, his life had been a series of things that needed to be done. She’d opened him up, made him relax and enjoy life a little. Cali made things less predictable.

  Once he felt everything in the kitchen was prepared, Matthew moved into the living room. They’d put up a tree and decorated it. He’d never been much for Christmas decorating, at least not since his mom died. His father and brother Jason had seemed to feel the same way, so their house had pretty much looked the same all year around. The only nod to Christmas had been a fake tree about two feet tall on a small plastic stand. Most of the time, however, it remained bare of any ornaments or decoration.

  With Cali now living with him, decorating had felt right. They picked out a live tree together, bought decorations, and spent several hours on a Saturday afternoon covering nearly every surface in their living room with some hint of Christmas. Every little touch made their house feel more like a home instead of just a place to live.

  She did that. Every day. Not just with the Christmas decorations, but with everything.

  I never want that feeling to go away, he thought as he slipped the small black box out of his pocket.

  His thumb rubbed gently over the box. It had taken him just over a week to find the perfect ring. He’d spent hours searching the Internet, but continued to come up short. Nothing seemed to fit her personality and what he wanted to say.

  Finally he decided that maybe a physical search would have better results. It had taken him little more than a half hour inside the small jewelry store to find what he wanted. The ring displayed a single-carat diamond flanked on each side with a cluster of three smaller stones. A white-gold band wrapped round the diamonds in a show that was elegant rather than flashy. He’d known the moment he saw it that it was the ring he wanted to put on Cali’s finger.

  They’d placed presents under the tree for each other over the past few weeks. It had been easier for both of them to wrap them and put them under the tree as they went rather than trying to hide them from each other. They were both adults, after all.

  Matthew used the already-stacked presents to his advantage and tucked the small box in behind everything else so that it couldn’t be seen. His plan was to give it to her last. He didn’t think she was expecting it, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  Looking up at the clock, he realized it was almost midnight. Christmas Eve had come and gone. Cali would be home soon, the morning would arrive, and he could put all his preparation into practice.

  He took one last look around, making sure everything was in place, ready for tomorrow, before heading to bed.

  As he slipped under the covers, he glanced at the empty spot beside him. This time tomorrow he hoped to be sharing this bed with his fiancée.

  Cali reached for the medical chart lying on the small desk assigned to her. The ER was hopping tonight, and one of the scheduled doctors had called in sick. You never knew what you were going to get on Christmas Eve in a Chicago emergency room, and tonight had been one of those where anything goes. She’d treated everything from chest pains to helping with two births.

  Her shift was supposed to end at midnight. It was now drawing close to two a.m. As a doctor, she couldn’t just punch out when her shift ended. Injuries and illness didn’t adhere to a time clock. Thankfully, things were slowing down, and after seeing this last patient she was going home.

  Knocking on the door outside the patient’s room, Cali waited for the voice inside to give her the okay to enter. According to the chart, her patient, five-year-old Travis Maky, snuck downstairs in his home two hours ago looking for Christmas presents. He’d found them and, being a five-year-old, did not want to wait until morning to see what Santa had brought him. His parents had been woken by their child’s screams. Travis had opened all their presents, not just his own, including a set of earrings meant for his mother. One of the earrings was now lodged inside Travis’s ear.

  Cali stepped into the room and smiled at the child’s parents
before addressing her patient. “Hello, Travis. I’m Dr. Stanton. I understand you have something in your ear that’s not supposed to be there?” With apprehension, he looked over to his mom before nodding his head. “Well,” she said, putting on a pair of gloves and retrieving her tweezers. “Let’s see if we can get it out of there for you, okay?”

  “Okay,” he whispered shyly.

  “Can you lie back for me and turn on your side?” Cali motioned for his parents to help the boy get into the right position. “Now this shouldn’t hurt. You let me know if it does, okay?”

  He nodded.

  It took some maneuvering, but Cali was finally able to wrap her tweezers around the small round earring and pull it out of her patient’s ear. She made sure there were no scratch marks from the entry or removal and then patted the little boy’s leg. “All done,” Cali smiled.

  Cali placed the small piece of jewelry into a plastic baggie and handed it to Travis’s mother. “Thank you, doctor.”

  “You’re welcome,” Cali smiled at the woman before turning her attention back to her patient. “Now, young man, you have to promise me that you’re not going to be putting things in your ears anymore.”

  Travis ducked his head and said, “I promise.”

  Cali smiled, breaking the seriousness of the conversation. Travis had been lucky. Over her years as a doctor she’d seen much worse, but sticking things in one’s ears was not an advisable practice. Reaching into the deep pocket of her white coat, Cali retrieved one of the suckers she kept there just for such occasions and offered it to her young patient. Travis’s face brightened and he took it eagerly.

  She left the family in the small room and walked back to her desk. The nurse would have some paperwork to finish up with them, but her part was done, which meant she could finally go home. Slipping on the heavy winter coat she’d bought at the first sign of snow, she began the trek to her car.

  As soon as Cali stepped beyond the sliding glass doors, the bitterly cold Chicago wind wrapped around her. Somehow, no matter how many layers of clothing or how heavy your coat appeared to be, the wind found its way through all of it and settled deep in your bones. She’d missed a lot of things about Chicago when she was away in Africa for two years. The winters weren’t one of them.

  Racing toward her vehicle, Cali was happy to see that no additional snow had accumulated since arriving for her shift fourteen hours ago. She wouldn’t have to spend time brushing, or even worse, digging, her car out before she was able to drive it. Quickly unlocking the car, she dove inside out of the wind.

  Pulling out of the parking lot, Cali wound her way through the deserted streets. Being Christmas Eve, not even the normal traffic was out this time of night. The night was filled with a peaceful silence, waiting for morning and Christmas to arrive.

  As she turned onto the street where they lived, Cali’s lips pulled up into a smile. She’d received a text from Matthew just after midnight saying Merry Christmas, beautiful. He’d taken to adding beautiful to the end of almost all his texts to her after they’d watch a movie where the hero never once used the heroine’s name. They lay in bed for hours that night discussing the whys of it. It was one of the things she loved about their relationship. Such basic things were enjoyable with him. They could debate, tease, argue, but when it was all said and done, they still loved each other and usually ended up making love until real life forced them back in to reality with either her work or his.

  Matthew wasn’t big on endearments, although he never hesitated to tell her how much he loved her. No, Matthew wasn’t all frills and lace, but she wouldn’t have him any other way.

  Since moving in with Matthew, her life had changed completely. Sure, there was the natural adjustment of sharing a space with someone else, but Cali also had a new job to add to the mix. Working in the ER of a major hospital was a lot different from the small villages and the makeshift bush hospitals she was used to. Chicago Memorial scheduled their doctors in twelve-hour shifts, which realistically became more like fourteen-hour ones. Long shifts Cali was used to, but the pace was definitely an adjustment.

  Matthew hadn’t batted an eye through it all. He was supportive even when she came home exhausted and cranky. She’d never in all her life met a more amazing man.

  Turning into the driveway of the townhouse they shared, Cali quietly made her way into the house. He’d left the hall light on for her just like he usually did.

  The house had little touches of Christmas everywhere, but she’d mostly kept her decorating frenzy to the living room. Matthew owned no Christmas decorations, so what was now adorning their home consisted of a mixture of new and some things she’d borrowed from her father’s house. He had enough Christmas decorations to cover his house more than once and that was saying something considering its size.

  She tiptoed into the kitchen, noticing that everything was clean and in its place. After getting herself a drink of water, she turned off the light and walked up the stairs.

  The bedroom was dark, but she could see his outline as he lay in their bed asleep. He was lying on his side, facing her, with his arm outstretched. If she had been in bed with him right now, his arm would be around her waist, tucking her into his side. It was his favorite way to sleep.

  Cali walked across the room trying not to make any noise. As much as she’d love to just slip under the covers with him, she needed a shower.

  She slowly stripped off her work clothes and stepped into the shower. The warm spray hit her full force, but she welcomed it. After a long shift, it eased the ache in her muscles.

  No matter how quiet she tried to be so as not to wake Matthew, he slept so lightly that she rarely held out much hope. Sure enough, less than two minutes after turning on the shower, she heard the bathroom door open. Seconds later, warm muscular arms circled her waist. “Welcome home,” he murmured against her shoulder.

  “Mmm,” she hummed, sinking back into his embrace. His chest pressed up against her back and she could feel every hard angle. Matthew might no longer be in the military, but he kept himself in shape by exercising every day. She completely appreciated his efforts, especially when she was the one who benefited.

  One of his arms left her and reached for her shampoo. Matthew always started at the top. He was also methodical, massaging her scalp until she was completely and totally relaxed.

  Her hair clean, he took the soap in both his hands, building up a thick lather before reaching for her neck and shoulders. She could feel muscles she didn’t even know she had. He was a great masseur and thankfully he didn’t seem to mind. Of course, it usually led to sex. Somehow Cali thought that might have a little bit to do with his motivation.

  Gently, he pressed and rubbed his way down her torso making sure every inch of her was clean. His hands lingered on her breasts and her back arched, pressing her flesh farther into his hands. He could make her body sing like no one else.

  Before Matthew, sex had been mediocre at best. There were times she enjoyed it, but usually it was more a chore than anything else. She’d never felt that way with Matthew. The way his hands and lips moved against her skin made her feel alive, wanted, needed, and incredibly aroused.

  Matthew took his time. No matter how much she tried to get him to hurry his pace, he would not be deterred as he tortured her with his hands and mouth. Her head fell back onto his shoulder as she gave herself up to the sensations. “Good night?” he asked.

  “Much better now,” she whispered.

  He chuckled, the vibrations rippling over her damp skin as he buried his face in her neck. “I would hope so.”

  Matthew’s right hand left his spot on her breast and traveled down over her belly to the junction between her legs. But much to her disappointment, his hand barely skimmed over the good stuff before releasing her altogether. She whined in protest.

  Suddenly her back was no longer against him as Matthew spun her around. Her back hit the cold tile wall behind her, but she didn’t have all that much time to register it be
fore he was there again, pressing against her. She could feel every inch of him as he leaned forward leaving no space between them.

  His mouth hungrily took possession of hers. He was acting like a starved man, desperate. It was rare for her to feel him so out of control and edgy. She’d only felt this from him one other time. It was not long after she’d moved in with him, but it had been tempered given her injuries. Now there was no fear of hurting her to dampen the flames, and she could feel it as the muscles in his arms tensed and flexed beneath her hands.

  He molded his body to hers, pressing her against the hard tile. She hardly noticed the discomfort as her body responded to his touch.

  All the hours at the hospital fell away with the feel of being this wanted, this needed, by him. Cali threw her arms around his neck and met each stroke of his tongue with her own. It was a battle of the most delicious kind.

  Hands roamed as they continued to kiss and explore. She met his passion with every bit of her own. No one had ever made her feel as Matthew did, and she knew no one else ever would.

  His hands traveled down her sides, skimming the sides of her breasts as they descended. Matthew’s touch was gentle, yet demanding at the same time. It sent shivers down her spine.

  Matthew’s palms caressed her backside gently before his fingers dug into her flesh and lifted her. She eagerly followed his lead, wrapping her legs around his waist.

  As soon as her legs were locked in place, Matthew wasted no time positioning himself. He checked quickly to see that she was ready for him, before pressing forward and sinking into her.

  She would never get used to the feeling of them joined together. She’d had lovers before Matthew, but with them it had been all about the physical. Sex with Matthew was never just about physical gratification. With every movement, every sigh, every moan, she could feel his love for her.