Kissing Santa Claus

by Donna Kauffman, Jill Shalvis

  His eyes seemed to glow behind his glasses. “You…miss me?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But…you asked me to leave.”

  She sat up and pulled him up with her, keeping her hands on him, noticing with a heavy heart that he didn’t do the same. “You didn’t.”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  He looked at her, his glasses fogged and wet with snow. “First tell me why you came running out of the kitchen like a bat out of hell when you thought I’d left.”

  Heart pounding in her ears, she gently pulled off his glasses and cleaned them on her sweatshirt, then replaced them, relieved to see his warm eyes were still warm.

  And on her.

  “I was wrong,” she whispered, glad Ben was gone and that Lori hadn’t followed her out. She wanted to be alone, no audience for this one. “Really wrong.”

  He nodded agreeably. “About anything in particular?”

  She stared at him and had to laugh. Wasn’t that just like him to sit there in the snowstorm patiently waiting for her to get her words together? “About getting scared and sending you away.”

  “So…now you’re not scared?”

  “I’ve taken my time letting a guy in before, and gotten royally screwed. Maybe the answer is in trying something different this time. Someone different.” She shook her head at his silence. “Okay, I’m not making sense. Look, the important thing to note here is…I’m over myself.”

  “Good. So when were you under yourself?”

  She looked into his smiling eyes and felt her own helpless smile curve her lips. “I’ve never been good with asking for help, Danny.”

  “You didn’t ask. I offered.”

  “Turning it down was instinctive,” she admitted. “I wanted to handle things on my own.”

  “Understandable.” He reached for her hand, and just like that, the fist around her heart, the one that had been there so long she’d forgotten what it was like to take a full breath, released. “So back to my change in tactic,” she whispered, her voice rough with emotion. “I want your help—Not your money. I can’t take your money, but—”

  “Hope—”

  “I mean, I want you, Danny. Your brain, your sense of humor, your incredible roof-shoveling skills…”

  His next smile came slow and sure, and he pulled her in for a hug that warmed her from the inside out. “Seems fitting,” he said. “Since I want you, too, temperamental stubbornness and all.”

  She pulled back to look into his face, feeling her relieved-smile face. “So…I don’t suppose you get to Colorado often.”

  “There’s no CPA in town, did you know that?”

  “I guess I never noticed.” She found that her throat was tight, almost too tight to talk. “You’d really be happy here?”

  “I think it’s the company,” he said with a serious nod. “Though it might be the bears and frozen pipes.”

  God, his smile. “Danny.”

  “It’s you, Hope. It’s all you.” He squeezed her hand, running his thumb over her knuckles. “But there’s something you should know.” He brought her hand up to his mouth. “I’m falling for you. Hard and fast.”

  “You—” She let out a breath and touched his jaw. “Really?”

  “Yeah. So what do you say, are you going to go out with me when I move here?”

  A bone deep warmth filled her. “I think I could clear my schedule now and again.”

  “Good.” He slid a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled into her eyes. “You asked why I didn’t leave. It’s because I asked you to accept my help, without first telling you how much you’ve helped me.”

  “Come on. I didn’t help you with anything.”

  “Yes, you did. You made me remember to feel for something other than just work, to feel something with my entire heart and soul.”

  Emotion welled up and threatened her air supply. “That’s convenient,” she managed. “Because my heart and soul seem to want to be with yours.”

  His eyes were shiny, so damn shiny she couldn’t look away. “The best Christmas present I’ve ever had,” he murmured, and leaned in and kissed her, giving her the best Christmas present she’d ever had—him.

  It’s Hotter at Christmas

  HELENKAY

  DIMON

  1

  Ted Greene passed a uniformed valet and jogged up the four steps to the open-air lobby of exclusive Kalihiwai Beach Resort. In keeping with Hawaiian tradition, the main hotel area lacked walls, letting the trade winds breeze through from one side to the other.

  All the easier for Ted to get in and out. At least he hoped that was true.

  “You’re late,” Nicki Albright said. Her high heels clicked against the shiny white marble floor as she made her way from the registration desk to stand in front of him, fancy clipboard in hand.

  “Be happy I showed up at all.” Ted glanced at the fourteen-foot Christmas tree wrapped in wide red ribbon and sitting in the middle of the room. “That thing touches the ceiling.”

  She followed his gaze. “Looks good, doesn’t it?”

  More than good. He knew Nicki arranged the hotel’s holiday decorations, right down to the twenty-foot-square gingerbread village and gumdrop train set running through it, with a precision usually reserved for a military offensive. Last year’s efforts gained the attention of a big travel magazine that named the hotel the “it” place to visit for Christmas this year. From the number of people walking around, Ted guessed a lot of folks checked out travel magazines for vacation advice.

  “At least you don’t have to wear a Santa suit,” he said, thinking back to her previous job at a discount hotel chain.

  She glanced down at her navy dress pants and Hawaiian print shirt. “That is the only good thing about this uniform.”

  “You’d think the assistant hotel manager could wear whatever the hell she wants.”

  She shrugged. “The tourists like this look.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “You’re a fashion expert now?”

  He excelled at many things. Picking clothes for females wasn’t one of them. He preferred them in as little clothing as possible. A bikini. Better yet, nothing.

  Yeah, mostly that last one.

  “I’ll skip the clothing advice and stick to law enforcement,” he said.

  “Which is why I called you.”

  “Yeah, the question is why I bothered to show up.”

  Nicki flashed one of her “too big to be real” smiles. “Because I asked so nicely.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  The corners of her mouth fell. “How about because you’re the deputy police chief of Kauai?”

  “Which means I should leave stuff like this to someone else. Hell, your security folks should be able to handle this situation.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Then how about because you’re my big lug of a brother and you owe me.”

  She finally hit on the one argument guaranteed to get his attention. If his sister or brother called, Ted came running. Had nothing to do with obligation. Had everything to do with a pact the three of them made long ago. When a guy lost almost everything he grabbed on to whatever was left and held on.

  “One of these days that guilt thing isn’t going to work, you know,” he said even though he knew the statement was a damn lie.

  “Sure it will.”

  He laughed. “You win.”

  “’Bout time you bent to my superior will.”

  “Dream on.” He abandoned the brother–sister jabs in favor of a strategy sure to change the subject. “Really, tho, the place does look good.”

  He knew the floor-to-ceiling tapestry hanging behind the registration desk cost more than his house. The thing had that antique Hawaiian royalty look. It was probably worth more than he’d earn in a decade of working for the Kauai police department. It should be in a museum, but tourists liked authentic Hawaiian art, so someone shoved it behind glass and put it up on a wall.

 
From the carved koa wood furniture to the huge hand-blown glass sculptures and elaborate red and green holiday floral arrangements set around the large room, the place reeked of wealth. So did the guests. The couple walking past him talked on matching cell phones as they dragged brown luggage with little symbols all over it behind them. Some called that designer. Ted called it a waste of money. Not to mention damn ugly.

  If you could ignore the floors of annoying visitors, which he tried to do since Kauai needed the tourist trade to survive, the place did have an ass-kicking ocean view. The boutique hotel sat high on the rock lava cliffs on the North Shore of Kauai overlooking the Pacific. From the middle of the lobby, he could see the infinity edge pool down in front of the outside eating area and the bright blue ocean water beyond.

  The scene made him want to go surfing. Go anywhere else but there, actually. But he had a job to do. He showed up for one reason—a conversation with Ms. Marissa Brandt. Make that another conversation with Marissa Brandt.

  “I guess we need to get to it,” he said.

  Nicki’s smile brightened. “I wondered how long you planned on stalling.”

  As long as possible. “Where is she?”

  “Marissa Brandt?”

  “Who else?”

  “Just checking.” Nicki nodded toward a door marked PRIVATE on the far side of the lobby and started walking toward it. “My office.”

  His frustration gave way to a brief window of concern. After all, the woman in question was a victim. Of what he wasn’t really sure, but something was going on with her. Something that kept dumping her right in his path.

  “She okay?” he asked.

  “This time.” Nicki fiddled with the cap of her pen. “I’m starting to worry about next time.”

  “I’m sort of hoping there won’t be a next time.”

  “With Ms. Brandt?” Nicki snorted. “Oh, there will be a next time. Count on it.”

  “You know something about her I don’t?”

  “Let’s just say trouble seems to follow the woman.”

  As if he needed a reminder of that fact. In two days he had seen the Brandt woman three times. Most tourists came and left Kauai without ever meeting the police. This lady had been interviewed by three officers plus a federal agent. And without his intervention, she would have been fingerprinted and interrogated by an overzealous newbie FBI agent in connection with a little airport confrontation that went on to make the news.

  “I knew I should’ve gone away for Christmas,” Ted mumbled.

  “Too late, big boy.” Nicki pushed open the door to a long hallway leading to several offices and motioned for Ted to take the lead.

  This wasn’t exactly how he planned to spend the Monday before Christmas. The holiday would arrive in four days, which meant long hours on call in order to let the other officers take a few days off. That was the deal he and the police chief, Kane Travers, had struck to keep everyone happy despite budget cuts.

  Now Ted seriously considered getting back into his car and leaving. Instead, he rapped twice on Nicki’s door before entering. “Hello?”

  If his presence shocked Marissa, she sure didn’t show it. She sat in the chair across from Nicki’s big desk and stared out the window looking out over the water in the distance. At the sound of his voice, she glanced up at him, but that was about it.

  With or without a warm welcome, he’d recognize Marissa anywhere. There was something about her smell, a mix of flowers and East Coast money. Straight brown shoulder-length hair and wide chocolate brown eyes, five-foot-six and slim with a round face and small upturned nose. She was one good-looking woman under all of that bad luck.

  Her pink complexion suggested she spent little time in the sun. Her firm body made it clear she spent most of it in a gym.

  Which brought his mental wanderings to her ass. That translated just fine no matter the geography. He couldn’t appreciate it at the moment since she was sitting on it, but he remembered. Ah, yes. Hard to forget something so round and perfect.

  The pretty face and smoking body worked for him just fine. Her uncanny ability to get into trouble on his watch was the problem.

  “I’ll stay here,” Nicki said.

  He left his sister, smirk and all, lounging by the door and stepped in front of Marissa. The move forced her to lift her chin to meet his eyes.

  “Officer Greene,” Marissa said in a husky tone that vibrated right down to his feet.

  “I thought you were leaving Hawaii today,” he said, going with the least offensive small talk kicking around his brain.

  “Believe me, I tried.”

  He slid his thigh on the edge of Nicki’s desk. The move brought him even closer to Marissa but still far enough to be able to read her actions and assess her mood.

  “Your identification paperwork came in?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He couldn’t blame her for the curt response. Last time she tried to leave the state, TSA officials at airport security detained her. The memories couldn’t be good ones. “I take it you never even made it out of the hotel this time.”

  “Obviously not.” She rubbed her hands together on her lap. “And I still say that incident yesterday wasn’t my fault.”

  Incident. Such a little word for such a big mess. Ted suspected he’d be answering questions and filling out paperwork over Marissa’s TSA run-in for months. Sure as hell would take that long for Kane and everyone else at the station to stop laughing over Ted’s attempts to keep Marissa from getting an armed escort to jail.

  “You threatened the TSA agent,” Ted pointed out for what felt like the tenth time.

  “He wouldn’t let me past security.”

  “Because you didn’t have a license or other form of photo identification.”

  “It was stolen along with my purse earlier that afternoon,” she said.

  He noticed she kept missing the point. “True, but—”

  “And before you say my attitude was the problem, we both know that guy with the big neck and little brains could have let me through security after a secondary search.” Her face flushed redder with each word. “He chose not to. He decided to be difficult and then acted all surprised when I got ticked off.”

  “Probably had something to do with the fact you kicked him.”

  From what Ted could tell the agent had asked Marissa a few questions, she got frustrated, then insulted, and then started yelling. Stolen wallet or not, that was never a good idea at airport security.

  But that was only Marissa’s first robbery of her trip. He was at the resort today to talk about the second one…or what Marissa claimed was another one. He was starting to wonder. Kauai had its share of petty crime, but for some reason this woman was the only victim these days. Seemed like an awful big case of bad karma. An unbelievable one.

  “What exactly happened this time around?” he asked.

  She frowned, her big eyes growing darker with each breath. “Are you blaming me for this, Officer Greene? If so, your good cop routine could use some work.”

  “I’ll try to remember that.” He folded his arms in front of him. “Suppose you tell me what the issue is.” He fought the urge to say “this time” but he could tell from his sister’s dramatic eye roll that he got the point across.

  Marissa sat back in her chair. “Someone broke into my room this morning.”

  Marissa. Bed. An interesting combination. “And you were…?”

  “Excuse me?” Marissa didn’t even try to control the rise in her tone.

  The little lady was pissed. Yeah, well, she could get over it.

  “Were you in the room or somewhere else?” he asked.

  “I was in the gym.”

  “But you were supposed to fly home today.”

  Her hands froze in mid-wring. “So?”

  Nicki made a noise somewhere between a wheez and a chuckle, but Ted ignored her.

  “You’re dedicated to fitness. Got it.” He forced his gaze to stay right on Marissa’s face. He wa
nted to let it wander, see if he could make out her body under her baggy sweatshirt, but he refrained. For now Marissa seemed calm. He had seen her wound up and trembling with fury at the airport. He preferred her current quiet seething.

  “When I got back to my room it was evident someone had been in there. The comforter was on the floor. My suitcase had been turned over.” Marissa sighed. “You get the idea.”

  What he was getting was a headache. “Are you sure it wasn’t the maid?”

  Marissa’s mouth opened and shut twice before she spit out an answer. “Maids don’t throw everything on the floor and then leave.”

  “We do frown on that sort of thing,” Nicki said.

  Ted didn’t need to see his sister’s face to know she wore a smirk. “Don’t help.”

  “Sorry,” Nicki said in the least apologetic voice possible.

  He eased his grip on the edge of the desk. It was either that or crush the wood in his fists. “Was anything missing?”

  “No,” Marissa said.

  “Yet you’re sure someone came in.”

  In that second, a strange calm washed over her. The tension eased from her shoulders and a small smile played on her lips. Ted knew enough to see the newly relaxed position as a sign of verbal war.

  “I’m not an idiot,” Marissa said in a tight voice that stood in sharp contrast to the carefree way she brushed her hair off her shoulder.

  “Never said you were.”

  “Maybe not in so many words but I sensed it.”

  The woman sure was touchy, so he used his best soothing cop voice. “You’ve had a rough time.”

  “I’ve been in Kauai for five days and robbed twice.”

  Like he said, tough. “Technically nothing was missing this time, so—”

  Marissa shot him a frown severe enough to crack teeth. “Your point is?”

  That she was either the unluckiest woman ever or, well, nuts. He hoped for the former. “Is it possible you have an enemy on Kauai?”

  “You’re the person I’ve spent the most time with at this point.”

  “No wonder she hates Hawaii,” Nicki mumbled under her breath.