Wade smiled, and Tori’s breath caught in her throat. He’d never smiled at her that way. There was always a challenge, a hard edge of negotiation in his expression, even when he was trying to charm her. Tonight, for the holiday, he seemed to have put that aside. Now his smile was just pure joy. It lit up his face, making him more breathtakingly handsome than he’d ever been.
She swallowed hard and took a sip of her cider to distract herself. Wade sat down beside her again and took up his own mug. Tori held her breath, just knowing that the rapid pound of her heartbeat was loud enough for him to hear sitting so close.
Fortunately, someone suggested Julianne play some carols on the ancient-looking upright piano in the corner. That would be loud enough to muffle the sound. Heath goaded his sister until she took her place at the bench and started playing. She began with “The First Noel,” and everyone sat quietly listening to her play.
Tori was relieved to have some time without having to maintain a conversation with someone. She wasn’t an introvert, per se, but she did spend a lot of time alone. She’d gotten a little rusty at basic small talk. Eating dinner had taken up a lot of that time until now. Lifting her mug, she happily sipped her mulled cider and listened to the music.
“You may want to leave before too long,” Wade suggested.
Tori turned to him with a frown curling her mouth down. Just when she thought they’d called a truce. “Are you ready to be rid of me already?”
“No,” he said, turning to the piano and leaning toward her. “But you should know we’re hard-core on tradition around here. Once Julianne plays a couple songs, a group of grown men is going to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas on an old VHS tape. Then Dad will read ‘A Visit from Saint Nicholas’ to all of us before bed.”
Tori smiled. She could hardly imagine a room of powerful CEOs watching cartoons. “It sounds sweet. Are there footie pajamas involved?”
“No, thankfully they don’t make them in my size. When we were kids, yeah, it was cute. Now it’s just getting old and sad, but we haven’t provided the requisite grandchildren to pass on the tradition.”
“Mmm…” she murmured, taking the last sip of her cider as the final notes of Julianne’s song rang out. “I’d better go, then.”
“I’ll walk you out. My mom is loading you down with leftovers, so I’ll carry your tree.”
Tori arched an eyebrow at Wade but didn’t argue. As she rose, Molly got up as well, and the two women headed into the kitchen where Tori disposed of her mug in the sink. Wade was right: Molly had packed a bag full of containers to feed her for a few days. Molly gave Tori a big hug, thanked her for coming and walked her to the door.
Tori was careful to avoid the mistletoe this time as she grabbed her coat and flung it over her arm. She waved good-night to everyone, then headed out the door with Wade behind her.
They crunched through the snow to where she’d parked her truck without saying a word. She unlocked the passenger door and set the leftovers on the floorboard. Wade put the tree on the bench, and Tori fastened it into place with the seat belt. “That should hold it steady,” she said, tossing her bulky jacket inside and slamming the heavy door closed.
Wade was standing beside her, leaning casually against the truck. She expected him to go back into the house—he didn’t even have his coat on—but he stayed firmly in place. His green eyes were black in the dark night, fixed on her face. The intensity of his gaze made her skin flush and a tingle run down the length of her spine.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” she teased, unsure what else to say with him watching her so closely.
“No, it wasn’t. I rather enjoyed it. I hope you had a good time. My family seems to like you.”
“I did have a good time. They seem like really great people.”
“They are. I would do anything to protect them.”
Tori felt the mood shift. He wasn’t just talking about Christmas dinner anymore. She’d hoped they could shelve this argument for at least one night.
“I know there’s a part of you that thinks I’m the big bad wolf out to steal your property. The fact of the matter is that without getting lawyers involved and doing some fairly ugly things that would hurt my parents and their reputation, I can’t take this land from you. And I can’t force you to sell it. But I hope that meeting my family tonight helps you understand where I’m coming from and how important this is to me. So you know that I’ve been telling you the truth the whole time.”
Wade took a step forward, invading her space. If he was deliberately trying to use his size to intimidate her, his plan was backfiring. She was anything but intimidated. When he was that close, she was thoroughly turned on and extremely distracted from the conversation.
“I need you…” he began, wrapping a gentle hand around her upper arm. Tori couldn’t help leaning in to him, her brain short-circuiting with his touch and his words. “…to believe me, Tori.”
Tori sighed, an expression of disappointment wrinkling her delicate nose. “Wade, what difference does it make if I believe you or not? You want my land. I don’t want to sell it to you. It’s a fairly cut-and-dried scenario.”
Wade shrugged. “Nothing is that simple. Years of experience have taught me that there is always room to negotiate. Everyone has a pressure point. For some people, it’s a dollar amount. That’s obviously not the case with you or we would’ve resolved this the first day. I didn’t plan for you to be here tonight, but maybe some good can come of it. Perhaps you have a soft spot for family that would help you understand. I don’t want to be the bad guy. I like you, Tori. You’re spunky. And beautiful when you aren’t pointing a gun at me.”
He watched Tori’s eyes widen and her mouth softly part at his compliment. “You’re just flattering me to get your way,” she accused, shrugging off his hand.
“I won’t lie to you. I do want the land. But I also want to get to know you better. And for you to like me. I’d like to ask you out to dinner sometime. A nice romantic dinner without my family’s prying eyes watching our every move. The perfect scenario ends with both of us achieving everything we want.”
“How do you know anything about what I want?”
Wade looked into Tori’s eyes. They reflected a confusion he could sense in every inch of her tense body language. She wanted him. She despised him. He was walking a fine line between the two sides. He decided to push her until her desire won the battle. He leaned in and gently brushed a strand of red hair out of her face, barely grazing her forehead and cheek with his fingertips. Tori sucked in a ragged breath when he touched her. He spoke low, almost like a lover’s whisper. “Maybe I don’t. So tell me, what do you want, Tori?”
She swallowed hard but didn’t pull away from him. “I want…” Her voice trailed away as though she couldn’t find the right words. “I didn’t think you’d stoop so low as to try to romance the land out from under me,” she replied, choosing to ignore his question. “As if you even could.”
So she was onto him. That might make the seduction harder, but not impossible. “You doubt my abilities?” He grinned a wide, mischievous smile at her and pulled back to give her some room to breathe. He’d rattled her enough.
“No, but perhaps you underestimate my ability to resist you. Tell me, what was that kiss about?”
That was a damn good question. What was that kiss about? Tori was the last woman he needed to be attracted to, but his reaction to her was undeniable. Stupid, but undeniable. At best, he could try to use their attraction to tip the scales in his favor. “I told you already. I’m after the win-win scenario.”
“I’m not going to sell you my land, Wade. If that’s all tonight was about, all that kiss was about, then you can take your Christmas tree and go back inside.”
Tori shifted her boots in the snow and crossed her arms under her breasts. The act of defiance did little to discourage the thoughts about her running through his mind. It had only focused his brain on the perky orbs of her breasts that pressed against
her chenille sweater and threatened to erupt over the top of her scoop neckline.
It made his mouth water to think about gliding his hands over the soft fabric and kneading her supple flesh. He had the fierce urge to run his tongue along her collarbone and the crest of her breasts.
When he tore his gaze away and looked her in the eye again, he knew he’d been caught in the act. Her eyes widened, and he was struck by what a gorgeous shade of blue they were. Her eyes were a lovely shade of light blue that reminded him of the ice-blue eyes of his friend’s Siberian husky. Cool, wary and penetrating. They were also sparkling with the hint of a desire she didn’t want to acknowledge. She dropped her hands back to her sides to ruin the display she created.
“Actually, no. That isn’t all that it’s about.” He didn’t elaborate, but the pointed way he watched her lips as she tentatively licked them should have spelled it out for her.
Whether it was due to the cold or to his blatant admiration, her creamy cheeks turned a rosy pink and her breath came out rapidly in foglike bursts. He wondered if that was how she would look when she was flushed and breathless from his passionate caresses.
He hadn’t been lying when he said he wanted her to like him. That he wanted to ask her out to dinner sometime. When they argued, his blood boiled with irritation and arousal all at once. Wade liked a challenge. Tori was certainly that.
Sure, he intended to get that land back one way or another, but that was a separate issue. Business versus pleasure. He wished she could see the difference, but the women he’d known had a tendency to tangle issues together into an impossible knot. Tori was no different where this was concerned.
Initially he’d thought that indulging in their undeniable connection would complicate the issue. But kissing her in the foyer had changed everything. Denying the electricity between them might actually make their problems worse. He was certainly getting cranky returning to his bunkhouse room every night, alone, with Tori on his mind. Tonight he would have to share the room with Brody and listen to his opinion on the matter.
That wouldn’t help the tension building up, either. Perhaps if he and Tori blew off a little steam together, the situation wouldn’t seem quite so dire. On her end, at least. On his end, it was most certainly dire, no matter how much pent-up sexual frustration taunted him.
His perfect solution would be to get the land back, offer her enough money that she could buy land that was even better for her needs, and have her in his bed for a while. There didn’t have to be a bad guy in this story if she would be open-minded to the options. He wasn’t above abusing their sexual chemistry to get his way—if they happened to end up in bed together, so be it.
And at the moment, he wished it would happen sooner rather than later.
“This is also about the chemistry between us.” Wade took another step toward her and she didn’t back away. His hand went to her face, tipping her chin up to look at him. Even in heeled boots, she had to strain to look him in the eye this close. “I’m not the only one to feel it, am I?”
Tori gave just a subtle shake of her head. He could detect it only by his hand against her smooth skin. “I feel it,” she whispered.
She stepped closer until their bodies were nearly touching. He was suddenly aware of the scent of her perfume again, an alluring earthy and floral mix. It made his whole body tighten with anticipation of touching her the way he’d wanted to earlier but couldn’t. Now he was free to act without the eyes of his family and their obnoxious critiques.
Wade didn’t need any more of an invitation. He dived into her, capturing her lips and cupping her upturned face in his hands. She was soft and open to him.
He felt her hands press against his chest, not to push him away, but to feel him through the thick wool of his sweater. Wade moaned against her mouth as her silky tongue glided along his own. It sent a sharp barb of pleasure through his body, urging him to take more than he should tonight. His hands fell from her face to slip around her waist. He tugged her to him, relishing the feel of her soft body against his hard angles.
Without pulling away, he inched them backward through the snow until her back was pressed against the cold metal of her truck door. She gasped but didn’t resist it. In fact, it seemed to light a fire in her. When his mouth left hers to finally taste the hollow of her throat, Tori wrapped her arms around his neck, her silky stocking-clad leg sliding up the outside of his thigh to hook around his hip and draw him in.
The throbbing of his groin pressing into her was almost as uncomfortable as the needling cold on his exposed skin. His hot lips scorched across her frosty throat in a delicious contrast. It wasn’t until her pebble-hard nipples pressed into his chest that reality intruded. He was practically devouring her in twenty-degree weather, and neither of them had on a coat.
Forcing himself to pull away, he took one last gentle kiss and backed off. Wade sucked in a large breath of painfully icy air to kill his arousal. He couldn’t walk back into the house like this. He grabbed her upper arms and pulled her away from the frigid metal siding of her truck. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’ve got to be freezing. I didn’t think about that at the time.”
“To the contrary,” she said, her lips swollen and her cheeks still red. “I’m feeling quite warm for some reason.” She smiled sheepishly and brushed a long strand of red hair behind her ear.
Damn. He’d forgotten to touch her hair. He’d ached to do that from the first moment he saw it.
“You don’t have a coat on, either,” she said. “You’d better get back inside or you’ll spend your Christmas Day sick instead of with your family. You don’t want to miss the Grinch.”
Wade smiled and shook his head. “I’m certain they’ll wait for me, whether I want them to or not.” There were unnecessary words swirling in his gut that he had the urge to say before he left. They probably wouldn’t help the situation, but he couldn’t keep them inside. “I want you to know that all this doesn’t have anything to do with the land.”
Tori stood on her toes to press a soft goodbye kiss to his lips. “I know,” she whispered faintly against his mouth.
He had to force his hands into fists buried deep in his pant pockets to keep from reaching for her again.
“I’m glad this one wasn’t in front of your whole family,” she said with a grin. Before he could respond, Tori turned and ran around to the other side of the truck. “Merry Christmas, Wade.” She climbed inside and the engine roared to life.
Tori gave a quick wave as she turned her truck and pulled away from the Garden of Eden. Wade watched her disappear into the darkness, and then ran his hand through his hair.
“Merry Christmas, Tori.”
Six
Thursday night, Tori sat in her favorite seat at the counter of Daisy’s Diner. Now that the holiday had passed and the leftovers Molly forced on her were all eaten, it was back to her usual haunt.
Over the past few weeks she’d made her first friend in the waitress who handled the counter there. Her name tag said “Rosalyn,” but she told Tori to just call her Rose. Rose was off on Wednesday nights, but any other day of the week Tori would be at Daisy’s for dinner.
“Hey there, Tori. What will it be tonight?” Rose asked, leaning casually against the countertop.
Her eyes barely glanced at the menu before she made her decision. “How about the chicken pot pie and some hot tea?”
Rose smiled. “You got it.” She spun from the counter and disappeared into the back, returning a few minutes later with a teacup and a small kettle of hot water. “I’m surprised you didn’t starve over the holiday with us closed,” Rose said with a smile.
“I was able to depend on the kindness of strangers,” Tori admitted. “The Edens invited me over for dinner.”
Rose perked up in quite a peculiar way. “The Edens, huh? Are they all in town for Christmas?”
“Yes. At least they were. I met all of them on Christmas Eve. Some of them may have left by now.”
The waitress nod
ded, a hint of disappointment in her dark brown eyes. She turned and Tori followed Rose’s line of sight to where her son was sitting alone in a corner booth. The little boy was eight or nine, and whenever Tori came in, he was doing homework or playing his handheld video games while Rose worked.
“I always had a soft spot for Xander. We dated on and off in high school before he left for college. He had a smile that would make my heart just melt. Very charming. It’s no wonder he’s a politician. He has a way with people.”
Tori nodded in agreement. “He was very nice. I was more worried about Wade, though. He’s been giving me some trouble.”
“Worried? Why? My sister went to high school with him.” A sly grin spread across Rose’s face. “A lot of women in this town wouldn’t mind Wade Mitchell giving them trouble. Some say he’s the pick of the litter.”
Tori chuckled, a hint of bitterness beneath it. “Well, those people would say differently if they had something he wanted. He’s very persistent and downright irritating when he doesn’t get his way.”
“What could you possibly have that he wants? You just got here.”
“He wants my land.”
Rose frowned. “The land you just bought?”
She nodded and sipped her tea. “It belonged to his family and he wants to buy it back.”
“I don’t know why he’d want it. None of the kids have ever shown much interest in the farm. But I’ll tell you, if I had to have someone causing me trouble, I’d take an Eden boy in a heartbeat. At least you’d have something nice to look at while you suffered.”
That was certainly true. All the Eden boys were attractive. Even Brody, if you could look past the scars and the attitude. If given her choice of the lot, the decision wouldn’t be difficult. Wade was certainly her type: dark hair, soulful eyes, a wicked smile… Unfortunately, the magnificent view was a distraction she couldn’t afford. “As nice as that all sounds, he’s becoming a major pain in my—”
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