GUILTY OR HOT

by Carson, Mia

  Chiding himself for letting his mind wander too much for sleep, he climbed quietly off the couch and tiptoed from the room, closing the door partially behind him before he trudged up to her small upstairs apartment. He pushed the door open and gaped at the mess Mel had left in the wake of her rage and pain. Pictures of her and Robert covered the floor, but none of them looked damaged. He knew she’d never forgive herself if she ruined those memories. After he snuck downstairs to grab a broom and a dustpan, he set to work cleaning up the mess and righting the furniture. The coffee table was broken, but he could fix it given time, along with the bookshelf she’d toppled over, but a few trinkets were shattered beyond repair. He swept up each small mess and tossed it in the nearby trashcan as claws tapped on the hardwood floor outside the door.

  “Hey, girl,” he whispered to Xena sitting on her haunches, watching him. “Don’t worry, just taking care of your mama for you.”

  Xena whined and sank to the floor, resting her head on her front paws. Danny stopped his sweeping and went to pet her, but she jumped up, ran into the room, and lay down again on a photograph he hadn’t picked up yet. Carefully, Danny tugged it out from under the dog’s body and held it up. It was the one of Mel and Robert with him holding her pregnant belly.

  “You miss him?” Danny asked Xena as he sat down on the floor beside her. “I bet you do, but don’t worry. I’ll take care of her, I promise you.”

  His words hung in the still air of the room, and he wasn’t sure if he was talking just to Xena or Robert, too. Something had brought him to Westbend, and he wondered if it wasn’t for something more than simply securing the purchase of an inn. He didn’t normally believe in fate, but when a strange draft caused the hair on the back of his neck to prickle and Xena’s ears to perk up, he wondered if he was wrong.

  He set the photo on the table with the others and finished cleaning up the room, sensing eyes on him the whole time—eyes that did not belong to the dog lying on the floor and staring into the shadows of the room as if they were not alone.

  ***

  Mel groaned as she rolled over. Her head throbbed. Carefully, she opened one eye and then the other, glaring at the bright morning sun shining in the room. Except this wasn’t her room, and this was not her bed.

  “Shit,” she gasped as she shot up and glared around Danny’s guest room. “Shit, shit!”

  She lifted the blankets but was still fully dressed. What had happened last night? Her head aching and threatening to explode with each move, she set her feet on the cold floor and pushed herself up into a standing position as glimpses of last night filtered into her mind. Her rant in her rooms and him stopping her from destroying every last thing Robert used to own. Them drinking whiskey together and her laughing—a lot. For a man she just met, she sure as hell was comfortable around him. What had she told him about herself? About the inn? She wracked her brain, trying to remember, but it hurt and she grumbled as she moved for the door. None of the dogs were up here with her and neither was Danny. She reached the doorway, and when her eyes landed on the stairs, she grinned, remembering their trip up here.

  “Piggyback ride,” she whispered. “He gave me a piggyback ride.”

  And before that… before that, they’d kissed on the couch. Her fingers touched her lips tentatively, remembering the heat flowing from his body into hers and the growing hunger for more that started low in her belly. They’d kissed, but thankfully, he stopped them from doing more.

  Too bad, she thought as she ran her fingers quickly through her hair and wiped at her eyes. He might’ve been a great lay after three years.

  The idea of them tangled together in the sheets inflamed the hunger for his body even more and the need to be possessed by someone after so long being alone. A one-night stand was not something she’d ever wanted, and if the kiss from last night was any indication, Danny wouldn’t be able to let go after only one night. I’ll never let you fall, that was what he’d told her before he carried her upstairs. They might’ve been intoxicated last night, but she saw the truth in his face, felt it in his steady grip on her body.

  After waking up to so many bitter mornings, a new sense of calm filled her and she told herself she would approach today as a fresh start. Some of the pain was still there, but she tucked it aside for now and stepped out into the hall.

  The second she peered over the balcony railing, all her anger flooded back. “Danny! Daniel Stone, you get your ass out here!”

  She heard a thud followed by a curse and pounding steps as Danny ran into the living area. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “What the hell is all of that?”

  “All of what?” he asked, but even from where she stood, she saw his lips twitch in amusement.

  “Pack it all back up and get it out of here. I don’t want to see it,” she demanded. “I mean it! Don’t laugh at me—don’t you dare.”

  “Sorry. I can’t help it that you grow more attractive in your rage.”

  She grunted incoherently as she made a motion to strangle him. “There is a damn wreath hanging above the mantle and mistletoe everywhere! And a garland and… What is that?” She pointed an accusing finger at the bit of greenery she saw hiding behind his back. “Is that a tiny Christmas tree?”

  He stood straighter, trying to hide it from view. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “And stop smirking,” she muttered as she walked down the stairs, taking in all the decorations he’d dragged out of her storage closet. “Did you really think I’d be happy about this?”

  “You don’t have a choice,” a voice called from the kitchen.

  “Donna? You dragged Donna into this?” she hissed, exasperated. “Mutiny, that’s what this is. Damn mutiny from both of you, but you especially,” she yelled towards the kitchen. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Danny set the small tree on the coffee table and rushed to greet her. He glanced upwards, and she followed his gaze, her lips thinning. “Really?”

  “Tradition,” he growled before he wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her.

  Mel was going to push him away, but her body melted against his chest and she deepened the kiss, remembering last night and how it had felt to have him hold her. To feel that security again, that heat building between two bodies that craved one another.

  Donna whistled, and Mel broke the kiss quickly, breathless, as was Danny. “My, don’t let me interrupt.”

  “Why are you here?” Mel pushed past a laughing Danny to get to her.

  “I was called in for backup and with an urgent request for breakfast food. There’s pancakes in the kitchen and fresh coffee. You have a long day ahead of you, so you better go eat,” Donna urged with a wink.

  “Long day?” she repeated and turned her glare back to Danny, her hands shoved in her pockets.

  “Yes, long day,” he agreed. “So go eat and we’ll finish up here and then you and I are going into town.”

  “No, we’re not,” she said sternly.

  Danny stepped closer, and Mel’s heart thundered behind her ribs. “Yes, we are,” he challenged. “It’s time you had some fun.”

  “I have fun,” she mumbled, but Donna barked a laugh. “What?”

  “Your idea of fun is messed up, dear,” she said as she opened another box of decorations. “Ah, here they are. Knew you still had ornaments.”

  “No tree, though,” Danny said. “Can’t have the holidays without a tree. Guess we’ll have to get one in town.”

  Mel watched them pull out her ornaments and lay them carefully on the coffee table. She wanted to be angry, wanted to kick them both out, but a man’s voice whispered through her mind and her annoyance calmed. You know they’re right, babe. What’s the worst that can happen?

  Robert. That man just wouldn’t leave her alone, but she knew that’s what he would tell her if he was there, watching over her. Three years had passed since his death. Maybe it was time to swallow her pain and move on. Sucking in a deep breath, she walked to the kitchen
for a stack of pancakes and coffee—lots of coffee. Listening to Donna and Danny work in the other room brightened the inn, and Mel no longer saw only its flaws. She saw the same potential Robert must have seen every day he worked to improve it.

  If only he really were here to see how great it would become if she managed to pull through. If she could keep Danny around for longer than a holiday. He’d already stayed longer than she expected any man to when dealing with a woman on the brink of mental collapse. What he did for her yesterday was more than she imagined someone doing for her, and this morning he was decorating her inn and risking her annoyance at the same time. Pushing her past the comfort zone she’d let herself fall into.

  Xena trotted into the kitchen and sat down on her feet before reaching up with her front paws to rest on Mel’s shoulders. She licked her face, and Mel hugged the massive beast close, burying her face in her fur.

  “What do you think, huh?” she asked Xena quietly. “Think there’s a chance with him?”

  Xena licked her face again in reply. Mel wanted there to be, despite her usual ‘never again’ when it came to falling for a man, but Danny didn’t give her a choice. After only two days, he’d swept her off her feet, and he didn’t even do it with roses or fancy dinners. He did it with that predatory glint in his eye, the stern tone of his voice when she tried to hide away, and the strength in his touch that told her that with him, she’d never have a thing to worry about.

  But he lived in New York City, and her place was here. She could never handle city life and neither could her dogs.

  “I guess we’ll worry about that later,” she told Xena as the dog fell back to her paws.

  Mel drained her coffee and ate her pancakes before Donna had a chance to come in and scold her, then hurried upstairs to find some clothes for the day. She sensed Danny watching her and want coiled in her belly and caused her hands to tremble, thinking of his touch. That man broke down her defenses, but she worried even he might not be enough to keep them gone for good.

  Chapter 7

  The snowdrifts down into town were piled high, and Main Street had not been plowed. Westbend was its own winter wonderland, and Danny walked with Mel by his side, loving how her eyes lit up the further into town they went, her three dogs trailing obediently behind them. The sun shone brightly overhead and the snow glittered from the light. Icicles glinted from the trees and overhangs of shops as others in the town walked along, headed for the festival. Today was Saturday, and since the blizzard had stopped, more people could be out and about to enjoy it.

  “Alright,” she said when they came to a stop at the edge of the festival tents.

  “Alright what?” Danny pushed.

  “You were right, this is nice.” She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you.”

  “Oh, we’re just getting started,” he warned and took her hand in his before they walked through the line of tents. Several heaters blasted from inside them, but Danny barely felt the cold with Mel so close to his side. “I have to pick up several gifts while we’re here today.”

  “For who?” she asked, then squealed in excitement, pointing further down the tents before taking off ahead of him. Bobby and Lucy ran after her, but Xena stayed by Danny’s side as he scratched the top of her head, watching Mel at the stall, talking enthusiastically to someone.

  “I guess we should follow her,” he said, and Xena barked.

  They passed stalls filled with food and beers, crafts from the local shopkeepers, and several frozen delights, as well as a stall dedicated solely to hot chocolate. He paused there and bought two large thermoses full before catching up to Mel. The woman she spoke to was around her age with short, spiked, blonde hair and black fingernails. She didn’t have a coat on, and Danny wondered how she wasn’t cold when he saw what lay further back in her large tent.

  “Danny,” Mel said and grabbed his arm to pull him closer. “This is Cindy, an old friend of mine.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” he said as he handed Mel one of the thermoses before he shook Cindy’s hand. “Strong grip there.”

  She laughed and shrugged. “Long days of working will do that to you.”

  “Cindy works a forge here in town. She does metal work, wall art, and weapons when she’s in the mood,” Mel said proudly. “She even did some work at the inn.”

  “And I’d love to do some more if you ever asked me to.” She eyed Mel until her friend’s cheeks flushed. “You know we’d all love to see you more, and that place of yours. Imagine my surprise when Marty told the entire bar last night that you had a man staying with you.”

  “I’m sorry, I should call you—wait, did you say about the bar last night?”

  Cindy grinned wickedly as she leaned closer. “The whole town knows your secret.”

  “Damn it,” Mel muttered. “Sometimes I hate that man.”

  “Is it bad?” Danny worried he might piss off the locals if they thought he was stomping all over Robert’s memory, but Cindy threw her head back and laughed.

  “Hell no, it’s about time she got some.”

  “Could you say that any louder?” Mel groaned, and Danny burst out laughing beside her. “Oh, think this is funny, do you?”

  He shrugged one shoulder and sipped his hot chocolate. “I don’t see why not? They obviously care about you. What’s the worst that could happen?”

  “I hope you like little old ladies digging into your life, buddy, because that’s what’s going to happen.”

  Danny leaned down and slanted his lips across hers before she had a chance to pull away, and they were lost in each other as the festival went on around them. Several people clapped, and someone whistled before Danny ended the kiss and straightened to find Mel torn between a glare and a grin as she smacked his arm.

  “You got yourself a damn fine kisser.” Cindy nodded in approval.

  “And that’s all we’ve done,” Mel emphasized. “Danny said he needed to find gifts for a few people, and I thought you’d be the best option to help him out. Give you some business.”

  Cindy waved Danny further into the tent, and she waved her hands over shelves and tables filled with glass and metal trinkets. “I have something for everyone, or I like to think I do,” she said with a throaty laugh. “Who are these presents for? Anyone I know?” She waggled her eyebrows, and Danny buried his face behind his thermos. “Knew it. She’d like something from that table.”

  Danny walked to the table filled with glass pendants and earrings in all colors and styles. “This is fantastic work. You have a shop in town?”

  “I do, but I’m working on trying to branch out. I just need a backer, I guess.”

  “Ever thought about selling your items in gift shops? I might know a guy who runs several hotels up and down the east coast,” he told her as he ran his finger over a beautifully crafted pendant. “These would definitely sell.”

  “Would you mind putting me in touch with him?” Cindy bounced on the balls of her feet in excitement. “I don’t think I could ever repay that favor.”

  Danny waved away her worries. “This one, what do you think?” He picked up the twisted glass icicles, formed together in the shape of a heart and colored red and black. A smaller heart hung between them, so delicate, yet safe at the same time, trapped within the larger one. “Think she’d like it?”

  Cindy took it carefully from him, smiling brightly. “You have no idea how much she will.”

  “You two were close?” he asked, chancing a glance to be sure Mel wasn’t too close to hear.

  “We were, until Robert died,” she said sadly. “It took so much out of her, losing him and the baby at once. I wasn’t sure she was going to make it there for a while, and some days, I still wonder.”

  “You didn’t stay in touch? You live so close, though,” he said as Cindy wrapped up the pendant and tucked it safely in a small, wooden, hand-carved box.

  Cindy set it aside and inquired about who else he shopped for. He said his parents, and she led him to another
table with metallic flowers and several knives he knew his dad would love. “I tried,” Cindy finally said, “to stay in touch. We all did, but she pushed us away. She didn’t want us to see her in pain, I guess. The only ones who ever really saw her were the guests and the five people who worked there with her, but she even cut back on them until it was only her and Donna.”

  “Donna helps her run the inn?”

  “She has her daughter take care of the diner when she’s busy up there. Anything to get Mel to open up and move on, but none of us could do it.” With a wry grin, Cindy looked at him straight on. “Until you came to town. What did you do to her?”

  Danny picked up an intricately crafted lily made of several different pieces of iron and pointed to a small, six-inch knife with a wooden carved handle and smooth blade. “I accidentally made reservations at her inn for the holidays. One thing led to another, I guess.”

  “You guess,” Cindy repeated in disbelief. “There had to be something else.”

  “Perhaps it was my charming attitude,” he added with a wink.

  “Nah, she doesn’t fall for that shit.” Cindy’s hands paused in wrapping up the last two items. “How is she, really?”

  Danny wasn’t sure what Mel would want others to know, but Cindy was her friend and if she could let Danny into her life, then it was time she let her friends back into her life, too. “She’s doing better now, I think, but last night, she nearly destroyed everything in her apartment upstairs. I stopped her before she broke something she’d really regret.”

  “You’re a good man, you know that? Not many people would wander into her inn and brave out the storm.” She set all three gifts in a paper bag and told him the total. He pulled out a wad of cash and handed her several hundred. “This is too much,” she argued, but he refused to take it back. “What are you, secretly rich?”