A Christmas Home

by April Zyon

  He caught her arms so she didn’t land on her ass, then took a step back so he could see her better. “You okay?” he asked, staring into her eyes.

  Chapter Three

  She could only look up at him stupidly. Finally, however, she found her brain, somewhere. “Uhm, yes?” She was fine. Why had she made it sound like a question? “Sorry, yes. Yes, I’m fine. Holy mother of all that’s holy you are huge. Not in a bad way but—” She flushed and slapped her hand over her mouth. “Ignore me. I’ve started a new leaf in life to never again tell an untruth and it just slipped out. I mean no offense, it’s just, wow.” And hot. Holy Christ, the man was panty-melting hot. “Hi,” she added when she realized her hands were on his chest, moving around on the firm muscles there and practically feeling him up. Okay, not practically, she was. “I guess since I’ve gotten to second base with you I should introduce myself, huh? I’m Ophelia Lambros. My friends call me Phi.” She wouldn’t blame him if he just laughed at her and walked away.

  His gaze was steady on her, and much like the beating of her own heart she could feel the heat coming from his body. “Jagger,” he said. “A pleasure to meet you, Ophelia. I’m going to take a wild guess here and assume you are a guest of the hotel, right?”

  “A guest?” Christ, there went her brain again. She shook her head and laughed. “Yes, sorry. I swear I am not normally like this.” Her brain usually was in her head and not melting out of her panties. She so needed to get her battery-operated boyfriend working again. “I’ve been here a week and love it. It’s so beautiful here. I’m planning on staying until after New Year. And you? Are you a guest?”

  “I’m a local,” he told her. She liked the deep rumble of his voice. It was only adding to her fantasies, though. “I operate the auto shop here in town. I stopped by to drop off a guest’s car that picked up an attitude and needed an adjustment, and ended up getting a few snowmobiles needing their tune-ups. You should come by one day, and I’ll take you around to show you the parts of the Falls that only the locals know about.” For a second she thought he looked startled by his own offer, but it vanished quickly so she figured she’d only imagined it.

  “I’d like that. I love the snowmobiles, so whatever you do to them to keep them running works. One of my favorite things is just how free you feel. I know how silly that sounds, but I love it.” She loved the wide-open spaces and how people gave her a wide berth to do what she wanted. Their friendliness was what she had needed in order to heal.

  “It’s not silly at all,” he said. “Part of the draw for everyone, locals and tourists alike, is the fact there is so much undeveloped space to play in. The feeling of rushing over the surface of the snow at top speeds is pretty exhilarating. Turning off your engine once you get somewhere and the pure silence, pretty amazing stuff.”

  “And lying back on the seat and watching the sunset,” she added with a wistful smile and a sigh. “It’s one of the best parts of this place. Maybe we could go out on the snowmobiles tomorrow if you aren’t busy?” Had she really just done that? She’d just asked this handsome man to go out with her. He was massive. His deep, dark blue eyes seemed to look into her soul. His hair was like an obsidian rock she had back home. Shiny and so dark that the color seemed to reflect in it. He was beyond handsome and so not her type, but her body thought he was exactly what she needed and wanted. Typically she was more of the gal that went for the nerdy guys that were just an inch or so taller than her five foot five inches, but not with this man. This man made her girly parts tingle.

  “I have to work in the morning, but I’m free for a couple hours after lunch. I need to be back in town for a meeting in the evening, but we could do dinner before I have to head off for that. If you’re interested. Why don’t I meet you here around one, and then we can go grab lunch before we head off on the tour and come back in time for dinner at a friend’s restaurant before I have to leave you for the night.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good. I’ll check the snowmobiles out for the two of us,” she said with a grin. “The fast ones, are those good for you? Because those are the ones I like.”

  “Fast works for me,” he said.

  Ophelia nodded, then studied him for a moment. “You don’t seem so happy about your meeting. I’m sorry about that.” She didn’t know him, but she felt the need to make him feel better. How odd was that?

  His eyes narrowed. Leaning back slightly, he seemed to be searching for something from her. “Thank you for your concern. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything I can do about it except attend and figure out what’s going on. No need for you to worry about it. Best for you to get some sleep, though, since there will be a lot of hard riding tomorrow afternoon you’ll want to be ready for.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be ready.” She looked down at her hands, which were still on his chest, then laughed. “I’m so sorry. I seem to be feeling you up.” His muscles were so heavily defined they were rock solid under her hands and she liked it. A lot. Finally she moved her hands back from his chest and bit her lower lip. “Right, I really don’t go around feeling up total strangers. I swear I don’t. I do like how you feel, though.”

  His mouth opened, closed, then opened again. “Yeah I’m not entirely sure what to say to that. Thank you seems wrong, and yet fitting. We’ll just settle with you not feeling up any more strangers during your stay here. Unless you happen to be a doctor and your services are needed. Then that’s an entirely different scenario.”

  She snorted. “No. No, I’m not a doctor,” she said with a smirk. “And no, I have absolutely no desire to feel anyone else up. In fact, you are the first man that I’ve touched since I’ve been here, and several men have been giving off that come fuck me vibe.”

  “You should continue to ignore those vibes. Getting involved with someone that desperate never ends well.” He looked past her, then handed off some keys to a man who stopped next to them. “Leah marked them for us, and they’re out back off to the side. Start loading them up and I’ll be there in a minute.”

  The other guy shot her a look before giving a nod and walking off. But Ophelia caught him throwing her a speculative glance before he vanished from sight.

  “I should let you go, shouldn’t I?” But she stayed right there in front of him and damn her soul, but she found herself lifting her hand and placing it over his heart. Her thumb rubbed over his chest, and she felt the thumping of his heart under her palm. “Right, okay, what was I doing?” Holy crap, this man made her forget everything. She had no idea what it was. She’d never done that with her ex so why and how in the world she did that with him was beyond her.

  “You were going to go and get some sleep,” he cooed. “And I need to go do some work. I only have one speed on a snowmobile, so you better be ready to rock and roll come tomorrow afternoon.” Lifting her hand from his chest, he pressed a kiss to her knuckles, then let her go.

  “Right.” She stepped away from him and walked away, twice looking back at him. She made it to her room without any trouble, showered, and fell into bed. As she drifted off to sleep she thought about Jagger.

  Chapter Four

  The next day dawned bright and clear, the snow from overnight a fresh, white, fluffy layer on every surface. Streets were being scraped clean, and some folks were out dusting off their own vehicles.

  By lunchtime, Ophelia had used up her entire store of patience and was more than a little anxious for Jagger to arrive. She even started to watch the clock with fifteen minutes to go in the hopes it would speed up the time she still had to wait. It didn’t and only made her more anxious to see him again, something she really would have to examine at some point.

  His voice reached her at one minute to one, sending her pulse into orbit. Her palms began to sweat, and she had to resist the urge to jump him when he came into sight. A hell of a lot harder to do than she’d realized. His long stride brought him quickly toward her but still gave her a couple seconds to appreciate his sauntering walk.

  “Hi.” She wa
s a bit breathless as she spoke. “I was getting a little nervous that maybe you decided not to meet me today,” she admitted with a small frown. “I was hoping I was wrong. Then again I was here really early, too.” She took a deep breath and damn her ass but she reached out and touched a long scratch on his cheek. “Did you get into a fight or something?” She stroked her fingers over the scratch that oddly enough looked to be healed over already. She was sure she hadn’t seen that on him yesterday. Then again he’d said he was a mechanic so maybe something happened there?

  “No fight,” he told her. Jagger stepped in closer so they were nearly pressed flush to one another, his hands coming to land on her hips. “I made a promise to be here and to show you around and I always keep my promises. I don’t make them all that often, so when I do folks know I’m serious. So you are aware, I plan to kiss you now. I’ve been thinking about it all night and all morning long. Any objections?”

  “None,” she whispered and turned her face up to him, going up on her toes. “As long as you don’t object to me kissing you back.” She moved her free hand from his chest and wrapped it around his neck, tugging him down toward her. She kept her other hand over his heart.

  “No objections at all from me.” Lowering his head, Jagger cupped her ass to grind her against him. At the same time, his lips made contact. Firm and yet soft, they were warm against her own. Ophelia had a hell of a time focusing, though, with his hands on her ass. His lips teased hers open for the wet slide of his tongue to her own.

  He was hard all over. She felt the length of his cock against his jeans. He nibbled at her lips, took the kiss deeper and showed her what a real kiss was. Man, she had been missing out like crazy all of her life if this was a kiss. She tightened her hand around his neck, leaned into him even more, and took the kiss deeper. His low growl sent vibrations through her entire body. His hands flexed, then relaxed on her ass. Slowly he lifted his head to rub his nose to hers. “We should go to lunch before I give in to the ideas running through my head.” Another quick kiss, then his hands let her ass loose and slid up to her lower back.

  “Probably a good idea.” She licked her lips and tightened her hand on his shirt, the hand that was still on his chest. “You growled. That was so sexy.”

  “You liked that, huh?” At her nod, his lips twitched into a crooked grin. “I’ll remember that for later. Come on, it’s time for lunch. Have you tried the diner up the block yet?” he asked, stepping back to take her hand in his, lacing their fingers together.

  “Not yet, no. It was on my list of places to try.” She gave his hand a squeeze and chewed her lower lip, taking the taste of him into her mouth as she did so. “I think I could become addicted to your kisses.” Which would make it that much harder to leave when the time came. Damn. She liked this man, a lot. She had done nothing but think about him since she met him.

  She caught him licking his lips. “I’m already addicted to your taste. So I guess we should talk a little and get to know each other. That way when I eventually give in to the urge to throw you over my shoulder, haul you off to a room with a door that locks, and do plenty of sweaty, naked activities with you it won’t feel so awkward.” Jagger pulled and held the door for her to step through before following her out onto the sidewalk and reclaiming her hand.

  That had her grinning. “Or before I somehow trick you into going to my room with me and doing all sorts of naked, sweaty things with you.” She shook her head. “This is crazy. We’ve just met.” She wasn’t one to simply jump in. Her ex had dated her for months before she slept with him, and her ex before him was the same but for some reason with Jagger she wanted to have everything with him as soon as humanly possible.

  “You wouldn’t need to trick me.” Reaching the diner, he held the door for her, and a minute later they were seated in a booth by the windows, menus in hand. “It also doesn’t matter that we only just met. Sometimes it happens that fast, instant attraction, the pull to another person. It’s rare but not unheard of. But like I said, we should learn a little bit more about each other before we get to stripping our clothing off. By the by, the pulled pork sandwiches are great, and all the soups are top notch.”

  Ophelia picked up a fork and idly twirled it. “I’d like to get to know you,” she said and took a breath. Her mouth watered at the mention of pulled pork. “I love all things pig. Funny, I know. Bacon, ham and pulled pork, yum. I would eat pig over cow anytime. I know that’s pretty unusual, but that’s me, weird, but I like me being weird.” She set the fork back on the napkin and reached for his hand. “And dessert. If you are going to get me naked, you need to feed me something sweet, you know.”

  Jagger’s lips twitched. “I’ll take that into consideration. There’s a bakery across the street we could hit up on the way back to the hotel. Maybe once I’m through with my meeting I could come back for dessert.”

  She nodded slowly. “But it doesn’t have to be tonight. From the way you were talking, the meeting’s going to be pretty intense.” She didn’t want him to be forced to do anything he didn’t want to do. “How about we eat, get the dessert to go, and have it while we’re out on the snowmobiles? I’ll take you to the spot that I like the best. It looks out over the valley and it is stunning.”

  “Or we could do that. But I’m still going to want to come back to see you after my meeting. Maybe not for dessert, but definitely to spend time with you. I want to know you, Ophelia, all about you. Let’s order and then you can tell me all there is to know about your sexy little self.”

  That had her smiling. She wasn’t exactly a tiny girl. She was a fit size sixteen with big boobs and a bigger butt but she was healthy and that was all that counted. No one, not even her ex, had ever called her sexy. “I want to get to know you, too, Jagger. I like your name, by the way.”

  She placed her order with the waitress who came to take their order, a woman who was a perfect ten, the type of woman that handsome, sexy men like Jagger typically went for. Oddly enough he didn’t give her attention save to give his order. “What is it with this town? Everyone is so handsome or so gorgeous. All of the world’s magazines could have came here to get their cover models.”

  “Good genetics, for the most part. The majority of the town are shifters. Even in the animal kingdom they find their mate based on a number of factors, strength, skill, and whatever ticks the box for looks in their mind. Which leads to damn good-looking kids. Works the same way in the shifter world, although the fates do have some help in choosing who we hook up with. They throw them in our path and then it’s up to us to decide if they are truly the one for us or not. Why are you staring at me like that? I know for a fact I haven’t grown a second head.”

  She had her drink in her hand and stopped dead in her tracks. “Wait. What?” Her hand shook when she put the drink down. “Shifters? Like werewolves?” Oh God, that was it. He was hotter than hot but crazier than a fucking loon. That’s why he was attracted to her. Was this him making fun of her? Did he lose a bet? “That’s not even funny.” She scooted to the edge of the booth seat. “At all. If you lost a bet or something or you were told to find the next fattie that came into town and fuck with her I don’t appreciate it.” She was angry now, shaking. She was hurt, very hurt, because she liked this man and now he was pretty much trying to weave a tale of bullshit around her. She didn’t appreciate it and dammit she was crying, which made her angrier.

  “What the hell, Ophelia?” Standing, he tugged her from the booth and led her to the hall where the bathrooms were located. He pulled her into his arms and held her. “There is no bet, and I don’t see any fatties in here, sweetheart. I’m not lying to you, or pulling your leg. I’m giving you the facts as they are. You can ask any of the locals, shifter or human, and they will tell you the same thing. There are currently six shifter packs living here. I’m with the Kodiak bears. We do have wolves, jaguar, lynx, grizzly, and tiger. Plus a nearly equal amount of humans. We all live in harmony working and living side by side. I’m sorry if you
thought I was teasing you, but I’m not. I don’t do subtle very well, have never liked playing games unless they’re sexual in nature, and I prefer straight-up blunt truth. It tends to keep hurt feelings to a minimum.”

  She did the only thing she could think of. “Show me,” she whispered. “If you are a bear, show me. Change your hand or your face, something?” she asked and found herself soaking up the heat of him. God help her. She wanted to believe him but it was so hard because she didn’t believe in silly things like shifters, or whatever. “And why me? Why tell me? I’m just a tourist who will be gone in a month, so why?” Okay, so maybe she was getting ahead of herself.

  “That part we’ll get to later,” he said. Then he threw a look around before he lifted a hand between them. When she looked down she saw it thickening up, the nails getting longer, thicker, and curving as they darkened. “Will that do for proof?”

  She was gasping and felt her vision going blurry. “Holy shit.” She put her hand on his paw and looked up at him. “You, oh God.” She couldn’t think. She could barely breathe. “You’re…” She was typically pretty talkative but right now she couldn’t seem to form words to save her ass.

  “A bear shifter. Why don’t you hit the little girls’ room to wipe your eyes and come to grips with what I’ve told you so far? Lunch will be on the table in five minutes so don’t dally too long.” Cupping her face with both hands, which were hands again, he pressed a light kiss to her lips. “I will never lie to you, Ophelia. You may not like or be able to process all the truths I will give you, but you can believe them. Now go clean up, sweetheart, and I’ll see you back at the table.”