Romancing the Holidays: Twelve Christmas Romances - Benefits Breast Cancer Research

by Crista McHugh

  Static and snippets of conversation burst from the radio on Mick’s hip, and everyone turned.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. He pulled the radio from his hip and spoke into it, moving toward the door. He listened, and then said something Annie couldn’t make out.

  “Do you have to go?” Annie asked.

  He shook his head. “Fender bender by the county line, but Pete’s already out there. A Bluffet Edge ambulance coming back from a call stopped by. They’ll handle it.”

  “Pete?” Brady said with a grin in Annie’s direction. “Let me guess. Either the local doctor or the local sheriff, both of whom you all know on a first-name basis.” His grin widened. “Or no, wait. Maybe the local ghost? Taking a break from haunting the lighthouse?”

  She gave him a fake frown. “Not funny.”

  “Aw, come on. It’s a little funny.”

  “Pete McLemore is the local police chief,” she answered. “And yes we do know him by first name. He’s the older brother of a guy we went to school with.” She glanced at Julia, who wound her way between tables in a slow, awkward gait. The candlelight caught her face every few seconds, and while she didn’t look at ease, some of the pink had come back into her cheeks. Annie let out a breath of relief. She’d seen a few women in false labor while doing her clinical hours, and while it was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between those and real contractions, it didn’t look as though Julia was going to deliver her baby tonight.

  “Think I’ll go back to the car and get a few things,” Gabe said. “Just in case we’re here for a while, I’ve got a couple more flashlights in there, too.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Brady said.

  Annie began to walk with Julia, up and back, passing the booths and the jukebox and circling back by the pool table. “You feeling any better?”

  “A little.” Julia stopped to catch her breath and braced herself on the pool table. “I’ve had worse ones.” She rubbed her belly. “It’s just the little one’s way of telling me it wants to be part of the fun.”

  “Do you want to sit?” Annie asked after a few more laps. She got Julia another glass of water.

  “I think so.” Julia pulled a chair close to the bar. The rest of them watched the snow fall in silence.

  Finn leaned on the bar. Lucas typed something into his phone. Mick alternately checked his radio and snuck glances at Annie.

  “So tell me,” Julia began after a few minutes. “How do you all know each other?”

  Annie felt herself blush as her thoughts whirled. How do we know each other, or how would we like to? Suddenly, every comment seemed to have a double entendre. She swooped her palms above the candles, watching as the flames bent, straightened, and sent up puffs of smoke to the ceiling.

  “I mean, I hope that’s not too personal a question,” Julia went on. “I’ve just always lived in big cities, where you might know the people in your apartment building, or at work, but by and large, you’re living with strangers.” She looked around the Great White. “I love small towns. I’ve told Gabe a hundred times I want to raise our children in one.” Her hands returned to the swell of her belly, and she rubbed it rhythmically. “There’s something so comforting, right? About knowing everyone and everything that happens.”

  “Sometimes,” Annie said. “Not always.” She looked at the three guys. “Sometimes you don’t want people knowing your business.” She held Mick’s gaze for a long moment. And I don’t know if I want people to know about us. Not that there was an us, he’d said that himself just a few minutes earlier, but why was she looking at his mouth like she wanted to devour it again? “We all went to school together,” she finally said. “I’ve known these guys since before I could ride a bike.”

  Julia rested her chin on one palm. “That’s so great. So comforting.” She rolled her neck and pushed the hair from her forehead. “Tell me about the haunted lighthouse. What’s the history there?”

  Finn ran one hand over his head and glanced at the newspapers behind him, but before he could begin the story, a loud, brash, braying sound came from outside. Annie jumped. Lucas stood so fast his stool tumbled over.

  “What the hell?” Mick walked to the front window. The sound came again, louder and closer.

  “Was that a car horn?” Annie rubbed the gooseflesh on her arms. She’d never heard a noise like that. It didn’t sound mechanical. Nor did it sound human.

  Mick leaned close to the glass as well. “I don’t know what it was.” No lights came from outside. The sound came a third time, so close to the Great White, Mick jumped back a full foot. He caught himself on a table and almost landed on his ass.

  Annie strained to see outside. “Do we have an emergency siren in town I don’t know about?”

  Even Julia was staring outside, a puzzled expression on her face.

  Finn pushed up his shirtsleeves and chewed his bottom lip. Only Lucas didn’t look confused. “If that’s what I think it is…” He walked to the front door and pulled it open. A gust of frigid air rushed inside, but he didn’t seem to mind. Without putting on a coat, he disappeared into the dark.

  “What the hell is he doing?” Finn asked. A few of the candles had blown out with the wind, and he struck a match to relight them.

  A minute passed. Then two. Annie went to stand beside Mick near the window. The sound hadn’t come again, but that didn’t mean anything. Suddenly Lucas appeared outside, with snow covering his head, shoulders, and arms. He held a long leather lead in each hand. Behind him stood Gabe and Brady, looking completely confused. Annie burst out laughing.

  “You gotta be kidding me,” Mick said, but he started to laugh too, at the sight of Lucas and two donkeys standing in the middle of a blizzard on Main Street.

  CHAPTER 6

  “No,” Finn said as he opened the door. “You are not bringing Doc Eller’s donkeys into my bar.”

  “One of ‘em’s got a lame foot,” Lucas said. Snow swirled in eddies around their feet, and Annie shivered. “And they’re not blanketed.”

  Julia looked from the guys to Annie and back again. “Donkeys?”

  “You might think this is unusual,” Annie said, “but you’d be wrong.” She shook her head. “Finn, you have to put them somewhere,” she called across the room. She turned back to Julia. “They get out every so often. Jerry Eller has a farm up past Franny’s bed and breakfast.”

  “And he has donkeys?” Brady asked.

  “They’re guard donkeys.” Annie’s cheeks flushed.

  “Guard donkeys?”

  Finn stormed back to the bar, jaw twitching. “Try not to let them mess up my place too badly, will ya?”

  Mick held open the door while Lucas led the animals inside. Annie grabbed a handful of towels from behind the bar and went over to help. The poor creatures, only about as tall as her shoulder, looked up at her from baleful eyes. She handed Mick a towel and together they began to rub the snow from their soft brown coats. He bumped her arm a couple of times, and sparks went all the way north to her shoulder and south to her girl parts.

  “Unbelievable,” Finn said from behind the bar. “Welcome to Crazytown, everyone. We are officially off our rockers here.”

  Julia smiled. “I don’t know about that. Looks to me like you’re kind-hearted people who take in any strangers from a storm, man or beast. Like I said, Lindsey Point’s a place I’d like to live someday.”

  Finn shook his head, but he pulled two pots from a cabinet and filled them with water. “They okay?” he asked.

  Annie finished drying one donkey and looked at its hooves. “I think so. Any of you have Doc Eller’s cell number? So we can tell him they’re here again?”

  “They break through their fence every so often and take a walk down Main Street,” Lucas explained. He took the pots of water from Finn without a word and set them on the floor near the door. “Doc bought them a couple years ago to guard his cattle herd.”

  “Now that I’ve never heard of,” Gabe said. “Guard dogs, yes, guards
with rifles, yes, but guard donkeys? That’s a new one.”

  “They’re pretty effective,” Lucas said. “Doc said he’s thinking about getting two more next year.”

  “Then he better build a stronger fence,” Finn grumbled.

  Annie stroked one donkey’s side, feeling its solid warmth. It snuffled her hand as if seeking food. “Sorry, buddy,” she said in a quiet voice. “I think you’re stuck with water for now. If we ask Finn for anything else tonight, he might go ballistic.”

  Mick smiled and ran his hand over the other donkey’s head. “Guess this is one of the stranger things that’s happened in the Great White recently.”

  “It’ll make a good story to tell your little one,” Annie said. She leaned down and spoke to Julia’s belly. “A few days before you were born, your mommy ended up in a small town bar where the power went out and the locals danced to the Beach Boys and rescued two wandering donkeys.”

  Julia winced.

  “Oh, no. I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re fine. I think that’s a wonderful story.” With effort, she stood. “The contractions just started again.” She swayed on her feet and grabbed the back of the chair for support.

  “Braxton Hicks? You’re sure?”

  Julia nodded and began to walk. Gabe walked beside her, one hand on the small of her back.

  Over by the door, Mick looped the two animals’ leads over the heavy metal coat rack. They looked around but remained quiet. One bent and slurped water, spilling half the pot’s contents onto the floor.

  Finn shook his head. “Hope the health inspector doesn’t stop by for a surprise visit tonight.”

  Lucas pushed in his stool. “Don’t think that’s anything you need to worry about.”

  “And you know what I need to worry about? You know what’s involved in running a bar and restaurant?”

  Lucas stuck his thumbs in his belt loops and lifted his chin. “Since I helped you get this place up and running more than once, I’d say yes. I think I do.”

  “Well, good to know I won’t be able to count on you to do that anymore.” Finn turned, his back stiff.

  Annie looked at Mick. He shrugged. Julia watched them wide-eyed from across the room.

  Lucas turned for the door. “Think I’ve overstayed my welcome tonight.”

  Annie grabbed his arm as he walked by. “Wait a minute. I don’t know what’s going on with the two of you, but it’s one week before Christmas.”

  “So?” Lucas said. He stared at the ground.

  “So that means two grown men who have been friends since preschool should not be grumbling at each other around the holidays. Or ever.” She looked at Julia. “Finn, Lucas, Mick, and I went to school together. Kindergarten through twelfth grade, with about a hundred others. Those three played football together, started a poker league together, pranked teachers together, flirted with girls together —” Her face flushed. Suddenly, the idea of Mick flirting with anyone sent squiggles of discomfort through her.

  “—and mourned together,” she added. “We lost seven of our classmates in a plane crash our senior year of high school. The only thing that kept us together was having each other.” She tugged on Lucas’s arm. “So what’s going on with you guys that you’re spitting insults at each other?”

  “He’s leaving,” Finn said. “All that ‘together’ shit you mentioned? Having each other to count on? Apparently it doesn’t mean much when your wife gets a big-city job offer she can’t turn down.” He wiped the bar with a vengeance, extinguishing three candles in the process.

  Lucas stopped by the door. “I know you’re mad I’m leaving. But I’m not going across the country. I’m going to New York.”

  Finn stared past the donkeys, who paced back and forth in the small foyer. One of them had begun to gnaw at the Christmas tree. “Tell Sophie I said Merry Christmas,” he said after a moment.

  Lucas gave a short nod, pushed by the animals, stepped into the storm, and was gone.

  CHAPTER 7

  Annie, Julia, Gabe, and Mick stood in the bar in stunned silence. Brady walked over to the donkeys, his eyes on the window and the falling snow. Finn grabbed a towel and began wiping down liquor bottles. Annie stared at the door, half-expecting Lucas to return. The storm hadn’t let up, and he had a good ten-mile drive on back roads. She tugged a curl and wound it around her finger.

  Julia began to walk again, both hands rubbing her belly this time. “You just won’t let up, will you?” she muttered. Her face paled, and Annie wondered if they should be concerned, if these contractions weren’t false after all.

  Then Mick walked over and took Annie’s arm, and electricity shot through her. She stopped worrying about Julia. She stopped thinking about everything except how his hand felt wrapped around her elbow. Strong. Certain.

  “Can we talk?” he said into her ear.

  Her knees went wobbly at feeling his breath on her skin, but she nodded. He grabbed two candles off the bar and led the way to the kitchen.

  “I didn’t realize Lucas was leaving town,” she said as the door swung shut behind them.

  “Me either,” Mick said with his back to her. He arranged the candles on the stainless steel serving counter.

  “No wonder Finn’s upset,” she went on, “though he has to understand –”

  Mick turned, grabbed her mid-sentence, and kissed her. Longer this time, and with no hesitation, as if he’d been planning this moment since they left the storeroom an hour earlier. He pushed Annie up against the wall, his hands buried in her hair, and nibbled her bottom lip. Then her neck. And on to the top of her shoulder. She began to dissolve. As if her hands had a will of their own, they moved to his hips and pulled him closer, settling his thickness between her legs.

  Oh, God. He feels so good.

  She silenced the warning bells inside her head and let herself enjoy the simple pressure of his body against hers. Their hips moved in rhythm, and he nuzzled her ear as his breathing sped up. He pushed her hair from her neck as one hand traveled under her sweater and up her bare belly.

  Annie’s hips jerked, and heat pooled in all the places they touched. Especially the places with too many layers of clothing covering them, like denim and cotton and silk. As if reading her mind, his other hand slipped to the front of her jeans and unfastened the button.

  “I want to make you come,” he growled, and the pure want in his voice nearly sent her over the edge.

  She adjusted as he unzipped her jeans, spreading her legs wider and wishing the two of them were somewhere other than a cold, dark kitchen. He palmed her breast, and everything inside her turned to liquid.

  “I want to make you wet,” he said, “so wet,” and she would have told him he already had, if she trusted her voice. Instead, she ran her hands over the small of his back and down his ass, loving the taut muscles there, the way she could feel them tighten and release each time he moved into her. My God, he would be amazing in bed.

  “Annie,” he whispered, and she pulled back far enough to look him in the eye. “I’ve wanted this, you, for so long.” His mouth took hers again, rougher this time, and the command in his grip started a buzzing in her lower belly.

  She closed her eyes and let go, let everything give over to him. A whimper left her lips, then another, as he continued to touch her. The hand at her waist slipped beneath her silk panties, and when he spread her folds with two strong fingers, she lost it entirely. A ragged cry broke from her throat, and she pulsed in his arms and around his fingers as he made her come.

  * * * * *

  Colors whirled behind Mick’s closed eyes, and he drowned in the sensation of Annie in his arms. Holy shit. He’d never made a woman come like this, not standing up, fully clothed and mewing in his ear like some kind of wild animal. His fingers stroked her, loving her silken, wet texture. Her scent drifted up to his nostrils, combined with the vanilla fragrance of the candles and the faint smell of her shampoo. If I wasn’t in love with you before...

  As she came down
from her high, she reached for his hand and, in the next second, she had his fingers in her mouth, one at a time, tasting them with infinite slowness. “You better stop,” Mick stuttered as he unbuttoned his jeans to try to relieve the pressure. “You’re gonna make me…” He couldn’t finish the sentence.

  She only smiled. In the next second, she dropped to her knees, took over unbuttoning his jeans, and pulled him out fully. Then he was in her mouth. Mick groaned and reached out, propping himself against the wall. He hoped Finn wouldn’t come looking for them. Oh, sweet Gods… Her hands were everywhere, urging him on as her mouth slid up and down, a tight, hot sleeve he wanted to lose himself inside.

  He closed his eyes and moved with her, fighting not to rush the pace and explode. But he couldn’t last long. When her tongue dragged along his most sensitive ridge, everything tightened, and he had only a second to touch her gorgeous red hair and warn her.

  His release came quick and hard, and he almost collapsed against the wall, panting with the effort of staying on his feet. “Holy mother of …” He braced himself on his forearms and fought the lightheadedness that swept upon him. “Oh, Annie.”

  She stood and wrapped her arms around him. She bent her face close so their foreheads touched. For a few moments, they stood in silence and breathed together.

  Gently, he touched her face with the back of one hand. His legs wobbled. “I didn’t bring you in here to do that.”

  She crooked a brow. “No?” She lifted her chin at the candles. “You sure about that?”

  He smiled. “I just wanted to be alone with you.”

  “I’d say you got what you wanted.” She ran her fingers along his waistband.

  He kissed her lightly. “I’m so crazy about you.”

  “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

  “I don’t know. Scared. I mean, even earlier tonight, you said –”

  “I know what I said.” Her expression shadowed for a second.

  “You’re regretting it?”

  “No.” But she pulled away and leaned against the counter. “I know everything about you. And you know everything about me.” She smiled. “Apparently that makes for some pretty amazing chemistry.” She traced the bulge of his cock, still half-hard.