by Taryn Quinn
“Oh?” Kay bristled. “It’s fine. Maybe next time.”
Immediately, I remembered how tight her funds were. I opened my mouth to ask for the other sweaters, but when I saw her gaze focus on her boots, I thought better of it. Pride was a tricky thing.
I couldn’t even call it a present.
Christmas strikes again.
I cleared my throat. “We’re looking for gloves and a warm scarf.”
“I have just the thing.” The shop girl twirled away, leaving a wake of spicy scent as she led us to what she had in mind. “If you like this style of sweater, this should appeal to you.”
Kay’s long fingers grasped the bulky yarn with the same yearning she’d had when she took the sweater. I nodded to the girl and slipped my card to her while Kay dug through the various colors.
She picked up a soft blue, then a deep red, and surreptitiously checked the tag. I pressed my hand over hers before she could look at it. “I’ve already bought a set.”
“Linc…”
I shrugged. “Call it research. I’m always on the lookout for specialty items for our stores.”
She frowned up at me. “You don’t carry handmade things.”
My eyebrow rose. “Know my store, do you?”
“I’m observant, and I like to shop. Sue me.”
I hid a smile. Kay’s sunny personality hid the clipped New Yorker that bubbled under the surface. I liked when she got a little pissy. It probably meant I was demented, but the contradictions to her personality made being with her infinitely more exciting.
It was hard to flip over and fuck the sweet girl with the innocent smile.
More like it made me hard as hell and I wanted to do it anyway, but I liked both sides of her personality. And now I needed to think of something else besides Kay in a pile of soft material or I was going to have a problem walking.
Finally, she settled on the red and gave a sweet sigh as she twined the looped scarf over her head until she could burrow into it. I mentally took note of each thing she touched in the store and nodded to the girl a few times.
Kay was so tactile. I should have known since she’d spent most of the time touching me with one part wonder and two parts greed.
Another thing I would miss when she was gone.
I curled my fingers into fists. A wool-covered hand peeled my fingers open until we could lace the tips of our fingers together. I’d never understand the fingerless gloves phenomenon. Seemed to contradict the entire reason for gloves in the first place.
We walked to the counter where a large cotton bag waited for us. I signed the slip without looking at it and took the bag. Kay tried to look inside, but I slung it over my arm before she could peek.
“You don’t have to buy things for me.”
“Research,” I said again.
“Hmm.”
I didn’t want the noise of the festival again, and she seemed to be of the same mind. She tugged me down to the docks and trailed her fingertips along the weathered rail. “This place is beautiful.”
I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“You’re not even looking.”
My eyes didn’t waver from hers. “I don’t need to.”
She dragged me to stand beside her at the end of the pier. The vast lake with chunks of ice at the edges called to me like no other. I loved the city, but a large part of me loved this place. The mountains dotted with green and layers of purple in the distance. Miles and miles of protected land.
Maybe that was why I liked it so much.
No one could change it.
She settled her hand on mine on the rail again. “Tell me why you hate Christmas, Lincoln.”
“Why do you always need to poke?”
“Because you don’t make any sense. A guy that goes all out for Christmas in his store, owns a Santa suit that was as carefully made as an Armani suit, and gives to his employees with a generosity that belies your Scrooge-like behavior doesn’t make sense. I like things to make sense.”
“You’ll be disappointed then because I still don’t understand it myself three years later.”
17
Kay
I wasn’t sure what to say. If I pushed, he might clam up again, but if I said nothing, he didn’t react much better. I opened my mouth to ask a question when he finally spoke.
“Christmas Day was supposed to be my wedding day. It was my favorite holiday, so why wouldn’t I want to extend the celebration?”
A swallowed down the lump that formed. “Oh, Linc.”
He shrugged. “That wasn’t even the bad part.”
How could anything be worse? Oh, God, was she dead? I was afraid to ask.
He tightened his fingers under mine. “I lost two people that day in the church.”
He didn’t mean… God, no. I wound my arm around his so I could lean my cheek against his arm. When he didn’t say anything else, I prompted him. “Lost?”
“Sheridan was pregnant. It wasn’t why I was marrying her. To me, it had just been a bonus since we’d been engaged for nearly a year. I wanted a family, so it seemed like everything was falling together perfectly.”
“Did she die?” I whispered.
His laugh was harsh. “No, but I did think about killing her a few times after she disappeared.”
Okay, now I was confused. “She disappeared with your baby?”
“She disappeared with a baby. Not mine.”
“Oh, no.”
“Oh, yeah. Tale as old as time,” he said with a harsh laugh. “Only this time it was the guy left at the altar. With five hundred of our closest friends.”
How had I not heard that story? I mean I didn’t exactly run in the same circles as the Murdocks, but I read the society columns. It was my livelihood after all. Then again, the gossip pages were full to bursting with people I didn’t know.
The tone of his voice made my chest ache and my eyes sting. The breeze off the water was as brutal as his story. “She’s an asshole.”
He laughed. “Pardon?”
“She’s the asshole, not you.” I swallowed. “Was it…how did you know?”
He glanced down at me. “Know?”
“How do you know the baby wasn’t yours?”
“Oh.” He sighed. “A little math. I was in London for a month at just about the time she would have conceived. I’d wanted her to come with me, but at the last minute, she backed out.”
“Okay, I’m going to upgrade her from asshole to stupid bitch.”
He barked out a laugh and shook his head. “I had a few darker slanted words for her. In the end, it was better that she left before I was attached to a baby.”
I burrowed under his arm until I could snuggle up to his chest. “You were already attached to the baby.” Only losing someone or something he loved could have done as much damage to a man like Lincoln Murdock. Pride was one thing, but pain kept a wound festering.
He swallowed and stared out on the lake, but didn’t reply. He didn’t need to. Everything made sense after that. Christmas was all about children and wonder.
He was reminded of all the things he lost every single day of the holiday season. And then I’d come along with the worst possible problem, but he’d put himself through the pain to make children happy for his office party.
I shimmied in front of him at the rail and for the first time tonight, I didn’t curse the five-inch heel of my boots. I cupped his face and dragged him down to me.
It was like kissing an immovable statue for a moment before he crushed me to him and the kiss turned heated. The kind he’d given me that first night when his control had flown out the window.
His hands fisted into the back of my sweater and our bodies lined up in that perfect way that I knew I’d never find with another man. He pushed me up against the rail, his fingers racing over my ass and my hips as he dragged my skirt higher.
There was a difference between getting naked wherever the mood struck us at the cabin and a pier with a wind chill of seven. �
�Home, Linc.”
His eyes were hooded in the shadows of the overhead string lights. “Home,” he agreed.
My phone buzzed along my hip. It was the first time I’d had a signal since we arrived. I’d almost left the stupid thing at home.
Wow. My breath caught. Not home, the cabin.
“Everything okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I just need to…is it okay if I call Mel?” I peeked at the text. “I’m pretty sure she’s at DEFCON 2 right now.” I turned my phone toward him.
“Call me or I’m sending the National Guard.” His eyebrow rose. “A bit dramatic.”
I laughed. “That’s Mel for you. I did tell her I’d check in yesterday to make sure she knew I wasn’t being kidnapped and sold into slavery.”
He moved into my space. “I’ll have you on your knees tonight, Miss Kane, but of your own volition.”
My heart pounded and my nipples instantly hardened. Good grief, what was it about this man?
He slid his fingers under the cowl neck of my scarf and dragged me up onto my toes. His kiss was wild and as tempestuous as the mood between us tonight. Such a heady taste. I should have known every flavor of him by now, but I had a feeling I was just scratching the surface in many ways.
I curled my fingers around his wrist and arched back under his greedy mouth. I tried to push back, to let him know I was just as greedy, but all I could do was hang on. His other arm went around my waist.
He pressed his cock against my lower belly. “Don’t be long. I’m not sure how easy I can be tonight. Maybe not easy at all.”
“I don’t want easy. I never did.” I dug my fingers into the thick knit of his sweater. “I don’t want you to hold back. I want everything.”
“I don’t know if I can give anyone that again.”
My heart broke for him. I didn’t blame him for feeling that way—not after I knew the reasons. I just hated knowing he was locked into the pain, unable to get past it.
“Give me everything tonight,” I said against his mouth.
He nodded and slowly pulled away from me—after he palmed my ass in his caveman style, the jerk. “Make your call. I’ll grab us some food to take back up to the house.”
I nodded. “Good idea.”
He strode up the dock, then turned around. The wind off the lake threw his wavy hair into disarray and his eyes were lit with determination instead of sadness. “Allergic to anything?”
My heart tumbled and fell right out of my damn chest. Dammit, why? Why did it have to be this complicated man who made everything wake up inside me? Including my stupid heart.
I’d managed to live a long time without falling head over tits for someone. Puppy love, yes, but nothing like this. And not in just a few days.
The stupid was epic.
“Just cheap jewelry.”
He grinned. “Good to know.”
I drew my phone out of my pocket and texted back that I was alive. Almost immediately, I got a response to call her in ten minutes. Great. I didn’t know what I was going to tell her, but at least I had a few minutes alone to figure out just what I could do with the emotions spinning in my head like the Tasmanian devil on caffeine.
I wandered up the pier to a few shops along the waterline. Most of them were closed, but a few were hoping for overflow from the festival.
I picked a few pieces up and discarded even more. I’d always been a fussy shopper. I preferred the handmade over the commercial most of the time. It was probably why I started my shopping in July.
But the shop was a treasure trove of original work. I drew my fingertips over a music box in the center of a display. Jeweled ones sparkled on either side of it, but it was the onyx one that caught my attention. I lifted the heavy cover and expected one of the traditional songs. Instead, it played a song I’d never heard, a harpsichord melody rather than the usual tinny clink of tin grooves. A soldered pewter frame gave it an undeniable masculine flavor.
Strong and beautiful, it pulled at me until I had no choice but to put it aside to buy.
It reminded me of him. Of sadness and passion.
When I pulled it from the table, a little figurine shifted out of the chaos. I couldn’t stop the laugh that bubbled out of me. The Grinch with his wide, sneaky smile rolled toward me.
I took both up to the register. “Excuse me?”
The bored teen girl gave me a halfhearted smile. “Yes?”
“Do you have any other Grinch figures?”
Her face lit up. “Yes. We have an amazing collection by a local artist.” She ducked her head. “He’s my boyfriend.”
“I found this.” I held it out to her.
She grinned and took the wooden carved figurine from me. “I told him once that he reminded me of the Grinch. And you know what? He didn’t know what I was talking about. Can you imagine? I mean it’s on every Christmas.”
I laughed. “I can’t imagine. It’s one of my favorites.”
“Mine too. I made him watch it with me. After it was over, he locked himself in his studio and made this one.” She held up the one I’d found. “For the next three weeks, I didn’t see him. And then he came out with these.” She pointed at a shelf in the corner.
The entire cast of the movie was accounted for, even down to the bows in Cindy Lou Who’s hair, and the broken antlers on the dog. But the one I couldn’t stop staring at was the smiling Grinch who’d found Christmas in his heart once more.
I picked it up. “I’ll take both of these.”
“Eric will be thrilled.”
I took the original Grinch from her and cupped them both in my palm. “I always like to buy from local artists when I can.”
“Anything else?”
“No, I think that’s it.”
The girl gave me a bright smile. “Let me ring you out.”
By the time I left the little shop, Mel had texted me a half dozen more times. I tried to make a call, but it dropped three times before I could actually say hello. I went back to the little spot I’d been with Linc.
“Hello?”
“Oh my God. You’re alive.”
I laughed. “Of course, I’m alive.”
“You promised you’d call.”
I winced at the accusatory tone. I’d been a little busy being naked. Not like I could exactly say that to her. “I know. We came into town so I could get a signal. We didn’t have one in the cabin.”
“He could have killed you or tied you to a radiator and kept you. No one would have been the wiser, you know. I even went to see Parker and he didn’t have an exact address for me to go find you.”
“Okay, okay. Bring it back down.” So maybe she’d been at DEFCON 1 after all. Geeze. “I’m fine. I just got…a little distracted. And what do you mean you went to Parker?”
“Well, he was the next logical step if I couldn’t talk to you.”
“You know it’s Christmas Eve.”
“I don’t care. Serial killers still kill on Christmas, you know that.”
I tipped my head back. “Melinda Hendrix, get a hold of yourself.”
“I worry.”
“I know you do, and I’m sorry. It couldn’t be helped.” I tucked my fingers under the edge of the fingerless hem of the gloves. “I’m fine.” More than fine. I’d never felt more in tune with someone in my life. At least body-wise. Today had given me a lot more insight into the man behind the…well, the cock. Rude and crude, but definitely on target.
“I’m assuming your cherry has been thoroughly popped.”
“Wrapped up, tossed into the lake, and died in a watery grave.”
“Is that a euphemism?”
“It wasn’t until just now.”
“I’m jealous. Like a lot. I lost my cherry a long time ago, but I’m pretty sure the tree grew back. Can you re-virginize?”
I snorted. “Don’t think that’s a thing.”
“Hey, the holes in your ears can close. Why not?”
“Pretty sure that’s totally different.”
“I can say, with complete candor, that it is not the same thing.” I wiggled the handle of my bag down to my elbow so I could shove my hand under my armpit. Holy crap, it was cold.
“Now you’re just bragging.”
I nibbled on my lower lip. “Maybe.” And I hoped to be bragging again in an hour or so.
Dear Diary, today I got fucked until my teeth rattled. It was glorious.
“Yeah, I don’t like you anymore.” Mel blew raspberries into the phone. “Are you sure you’re okay with him for Christmas? I mean, I know it was bad enough that your mom escaped the New York cold for freaking Vegas this week, but to spend Christmas with Scrooge? Seems cruel.”
“It’s fine. Truly. We’re actually having a lot of fun. He likes to pretend he’s a cross between the Grinch and Scrooge, but he’s not that bad.”
“Oh, you’ve got it bad.”
“I do not.”
“You so do. Please be careful, okay? I know you’ve got raging hormones talking. Orgasms make people do very dumb things. That’s why there are just as many weddings as there are divorces in Vegas.”
“We’re not getting married. We’re just…enjoying each other.”
“Well, wrap that shit. I don’t need you to enjoy him with a baby.”
“We’re being safe, Mom.”
“You mock, but I’ve been taking care of you for years.”
It was more like the other way around, but I let Mel keep her delusions. And I didn’t need to tell anyone else that I was pretty sure I was in love with Lincoln Murdock. Not only would she think I was crazy, but I was almost certain I might be.
Because no one fell in love in two days.
Except maybe you.
I ignored that little voice and told Mel what she wanted to hear. It was just easier that way. “I’ll be home on the twenty-sixth. Don’t worry.”
“Good. Once your brain is back online, you can figure out if you still want to see Lincoln Murdock socially. You might be doing it backwards, but maybe you can do the dating thing.”
“I don’t think we’re going there. There’s little hope on that front.”