The Christmas He Loved Her

by Juliana Stone

  “Yes!” she whispered hoarsely. “It’s Mrs. Lancaster, and she’s not alone. Pastor Lancaster is out there with her.” Raine jumped over the sofa and grabbed the pink blanket. “Now get your ass upstairs, and don’t you dare come down until they’re gone.”

  His grin widened. “I distinctly remember you saying at some point last night…maybe after you did that amazing move with your—”

  She growled like an animal and slapped him on the chest. “Get going.”

  Jake grabbed the blanket and saluted her. “I’m just saying that you were all gung ho about not giving a damn what anyone thought about our…” He dipped low as the banging continued and kissed the corner of her mouth. His tongue slid up near her ear, and she shivered violently as he murmured, “…about our situation.”

  “Yeah, that’s true, but I don’t feel like explaining to our pastor and his wife that we’ve just spent the night having all sorts of kinky sex just yet, thank you very much.” She sniffed the air and alarm bells rang. “Oh my God, what if they can smell it?”

  Jake laughed and trotted to the stairs leading to the loft as Mrs. Lancaster bellowed, “Raine, are you in there?”

  He paused at the top of the stairs, his smile breaking her heart all over again. God, she loved him.

  “I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape, sweet cheeks. Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster have seven kids. So, you know, they’ve done it at least seven—”

  She scowled and cut him off. “Well I don’t need them to know we did it seven times last night.”

  “Seven?” His grin widened. “I thought it was at least eight.”

  She turned in a huff and smoothed her hair as she ran to the door and opened it.

  “Mrs. Lancaster.” She nodded to the woman and smiled at her husband. “Pastor.”

  Mrs. Lancaster was bundled in a red and black checkered wool coat with knitted purple hat, pink scarf, and knee-high black patent-leather boots. The woman was either color-blind or didn’t give a rat’s ass about fashion. Raine had always believed it was the latter.

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Mrs. Lancaster said, her concerned face relaxing as she took in Raine, her eyes moving from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. “My dear, you look wonderful.”

  Uh, really?

  Raine’s hands automatically went to her hair, smoothing the ends a bit before she crossed her arms over her chest as the early morning chill attacked her skin. She knew she looked like she’d just rolled out of bed, but hey, she’d take the compliment.

  “Oh, thanks. I got a good night’s sleep—”

  Was that a snort?

  She kept her smile in place but moved a bit so that she blocked any view of inside as she continued. “Despite the fact that there was a lot of snoring.”

  “Snoring?”

  Another snort.

  “Yep.” She smiled and shrugged. “Gibson.”

  “Oh.” Mrs. Lancaster smiled. “Your puppy.”

  “Who else?” she replied, smiling warmly at Pastor Lancaster. “I’m looking forward to Christmas. You guys must be busy.”

  “Oh, good,” Mrs. Lancaster said as she moved slightly and tried to peer inside the cottage. “Your mother told me you were spending some time out here, and from what I can see, you’ve done a lovely job for Jake.”

  “Ah, yes. I did this all for Jake.”

  Another snort.

  “You know, he needs a place to stay while he’s restoring the Wyndham house.”

  Mr. Lancaster nodded and glanced behind him. “A wonderful idea. I was very pleased when I heard the property had fallen into local hands. Jake will do a wonderful job with it.”

  Raine nodded. “Um, was there a reason you stopped by?”

  Mrs. Lancaster was still trying to see inside, and Raine knew it was rude of her not to ask the woman and her husband in, but how could she? That’s all she needed—the pastor and his wife to be overcome by all the sex fumes. Wouldn’t that just ruin everybody’s Christmas.

  Her cheeks darkened as she thought of the night before and of all the things she and Jake had done. Hello. Who knew if you bent this way and he did that with his…

  “Raine?”

  “Yes?” She shook the image from her mind and concentrated on the couple before her, though it was hard, because even though she was hot as hell, she was shivering and her teeth began to chatter.

  “You’re going to catch a death of a cold if you don’t go inside,” Mrs. Lancaster said.

  “Oh, yes.” She glanced down at her bare feet.

  Mrs. Lancaster must have realized she wasn’t going to be invited in. She cleared her throat—pointedly—and gazed into Raine’s eyes with a look Raine remembered well from Sunday school. The woman wanted something, and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  Good. At this point Raine was willing to agree to anything so that the woman and her husband would just leave. Not very Christian of her, but there it was.

  “I was making the list of floats for the parade tonight and noticed that the youth home you work at isn’t entered this year. I called but couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone, so I thought I’d check with you.”

  “Oh.” Raine exhaled and looked away. “I, uh, haven’t been working there for a while now, so I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I can call Marie if you’d like. I’m sure it’s an oversight. The kids love getting a float ready.”

  “Oh.” Mrs. Lancaster seemed a bit surprised and she glanced at her husband. “That would be wonderful.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “I wasn’t aware that you no longer worked there.”

  Raine shrugged, holding herself tighter as a blast of wind hit her in the face. “They needed someone more reliable. I—” She licked her lips and glanced away. “I missed some shifts and for a while wasn’t good for anyone, let alone counseling and helping troubled teens.”

  “Well you look like you’re finally on the mend, and it’s wonderful to see.”

  “Thanks,” Raine replied. “Was there anything else?”

  “I was wondering if you knew where Jake was.” Pastor Lancaster stepped forward.

  “No,” Raine answered hastily—maybe too hastily, judging from the look Mrs. Lancaster shot her way. “I mean, I haven’t seen him.”

  “Oh.” Pastor Lancaster rubbed his chin and glanced behind him. “His truck is parked in front of the main house.”

  Balls!

  Raine shrugged. “He’s probably inside working on something?”

  “We knocked, but there was no answer.”

  “Hmm.” Her teeth were now rattling against each other so badly that Raine had to take a moment and force herself to speak. “He’s probably got his iPod on and can’t hear you. I can give him a message when I see him later, if you like.”

  “No, that’s fine, dear.” Pastor Lancaster smiled. “I just wanted to say hello and ask him what his plans for the house are. Just an old man being nosy.”

  “I’m sorry I can’t help you there.”

  “We’d best leave you then. See you at the parade tonight?” Mrs. Lancaster said hopefully.

  “For sure, I wouldn’t miss it.”

  Just then Gibson began to bark up a storm, and Raine moved out of the way so the little monster could get outside, no doubt needing to make a nature run. The puppy flew past and skidded to a halt at Pastor Lancaster’s feet, his joy at finding a new set of leather boots to nip and bark at making the puppy so excited, his tail erupted in a blur of wagging, and he dropped something on the ground, right next to the Pastor’s feet.

  Something blue. And cotton.

  Raine’s face turned as red as Santa’s suit when she realized what it was.

  “Sorry, let me,” she said and would have walked across fire to retrieve the item, except Mrs. Lancaster bent over and grabbed it. She gazed down at it for a few moments
and then turned to Raine, the blue cotton garment in her hands, a slight smile on her face.

  “These must belong to you?”

  Raine gazed down at Jake’s boxers and wanted to die. She wanted a hole to open up beneath her and to fall all the way to China. She was pretty sure the sight of Mrs. Lancaster in all her red and black checkered glory holding up Jake’s boxers was going to be a funny memory someday. Maybe.

  But right now? She was horrified and hoped like hell they weren’t soaked in the sex fumes that were surely pouring out of the house and choking them both.

  “Thanks, yes, they’re…” she mumbled. “They’re like a new style of…”

  “It’s okay, my dear.” Mrs. Lancaster couldn’t hide her giggles anymore. “I’m sure they look wonderful on you.”

  She turned abruptly and nudged her husband. “We should go, Frank.”

  The pastor nodded and stepped back. “I look forward to seeing you tonight, Raine.”

  Raine nodded and watched as they made their way down the path. She heard Pastor Lancaster tell his wife they should try the main house again—that maybe this time Jake would hear them.

  And she cringed when she heard Mrs. Lancaster laugh softly and answer, “I don’t think he’s at the main house, but we can try if you want to.”

  Oh God.

  She closed the door behind her, scowling when she spied Jake a few feet away. He had pulled his jeans on, though the snap was undone and the zipper…

  Abruptly, she glanced up, irritated at the laughter in his eyes. “What’s so damn funny? It wasn’t you out there trying to make small talk with the woman who taught your Sunday school class.”

  His grin widened. “Got me there.”

  “I know!” she exclaimed. “And I swear she’s got X-ray vision. She knew you were inside.”

  “Don’t forget her super sense of smell.”

  She made an irritated noise but couldn’t look away as he strode across the room and reached for her. He slipped his arms around her and murmured into her hair, “You’re freezing.”

  She let him scoop her into his arms, and she snuggled against his chest as they flopped onto the sofa. For a long time, Raine rested on him, listening to his heartbeat and loving the feel of his arms around her.

  She could stay like this forever. But reality was only inches away, on the other side of the door. And though she knew that things had changed for the two of them—dramatically—she wasn’t entirely sure how to proceed. She knew what she wanted—a future with Jake—she just didn’t know how to get there without dealing with the crap that was still unexposed. Still hidden away.

  “So,” she began hesitantly, her eyes closed as he slowly stroked her hair. “The Christmas light-up parade is tonight.”

  “Yep.”

  She decided to jump off the cliff and put it all out there. It was one thing to be here with him, like this, together—but another thing entirely if they chose to venture out in public.

  “I want to go.”

  “I got that.”

  She looked at him quizzically and cocked her head. Jake smiled down at her and shrugged. “Well, it’s what you told Mrs. Lancaster.”

  She moistened her lips. “I want to go with you.”

  She held her breath as Jake shifted, and what she saw in his eyes made her heart skip. With his five o’clock shadow, wild crazy hair, and lazy brown eyes, he was sexy as all hell without even trying.

  And he loved her.

  “Good to know,” he said, and reached for her, his mouth closing over hers. Jake kissed her slowly, with great care, as if she were the most precious thing in the world. Their bodies melted into each other, and when they came up for air, he leaned his forehead against her and wrapped his arms around her possessively as he held her close.

  “So you want to go together,” he said slowly.

  She nodded, and kept her eyes lowered. “Is that going to be weird for you?”

  “No,” Jake said carefully. “I was planning on going anyway,” he said, and something in the tone of his voice got her attention. Raine squirmed until she could see his face.

  “You were,” she said.

  He nodded and couldn’t hide the grin. “Yep, I need to hook up with the Lancasters and get my boxers back.”

  “What?” Raine popped up out of his arms and glanced around, her hands on her cheeks when she realized that, in fact, Mrs. Lancaster had left with Jake’s boxers. She groaned and whirled around. “You think this is funny, don’t you?”

  He was on his feet, the look in his eyes changing and making her all hot and bothered in seconds.

  “I don’t think this is funny at all,” he replied. “In fact, that’s not where my head is at the moment.” His voice was husky, hitting a tone that sent shivers rolling across her skin.

  “My head is as far away from funny as you can get.” His hands went for his jeans and he slid them over his hips in one motion. “My head is thinking of naughty things.”

  Her mouth went dry as he strode across the room. “Naughty, wicked things that would make Mrs. Lancaster’s head spin.”

  “Really,” Raine managed to say.

  “Yeah.” He was in front her now, his dark eyes intense. “Really.”

  Jake Edwards spent the rest of the morning showing Raine exactly what he was thinking and feeling, and it was in fact naughty.

  And more than a little wicked.

  Chapter 23

  It was nearly six in the evening, darkness had long fallen over the lake, and with the lights twinkling from the many homes that lined its shore, the view was postcard perfect. Snow fell, but the flakes were huge and fluffy, the kind that signaled a return to milder temperatures.

  Jake leaned against his mother’s chair, a beer in hand, as he gazed out across the still-unfrozen water that he’d spent so many hours on as a kid. He and Jesse and Cain and Mac.

  He smiled a bittersweet kind of smile. It seemed like a lifetime ago. The Bad Boys, they’d been called, which was not really the case. They hadn’t been bad so much as—what had his mother called them? Rambunctious. Spirited.

  He snorted and took a long drink. Who was he kidding? They’d raised hell Monday to Saturday and gone to church on Sunday. If not for an overabundance of charm and bravado, they would have landed in a heck of a lot more hot water than they did. Christ, Jesse could talk his way out of most anything, and Mac? All he had to do was bat those long lashes, and every woman within miles would melt.

  God, to be able to recapture some of that ease. Some of that youth.

  “Hey.”

  He turned, spied Lily, and motioned for her to join him.

  With her hair thrown up in a messy ponytail, and dressed in old jeans, a sweatshirt, and a pair of fluffy rabbit-ear slippers, she looked like a kid.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked as she joined him near the window.

  He shrugged. “Mom left a note. She and Dad are running some errands in town but should be home soon.”

  Lily grabbed the beer from his hand, took a long drink, and then handed it back to him, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She stretched and sighed.

  “I don’t know what it is about your parents’ place, but I sleep like a baby when I’m here.” She gazed out across the lake. “It’s been a long time since I’ve slept like that.”

  “Huh,” he said slowly, taking another sip, thinking that he was feeling pretty damn good too.

  “So,” Lily said coyly.

  Shit. Here we go.

  “You look well rested.”

  “Yeah, I feel good.”

  “So”—she smiled—“you slept good too.”

  Sure, when I wasn’t having the best sex of my life.

  “Yep.”

  “But you didn’t sleep here.”

  “Nope.”

  “So
where were you?”

  “Out,” he replied.

  “Out, as in out with your buddies, whooping it up at that hole-in-the-wall you all like to drink at? Or out, as in you spent the night with Raine?”

  He tipped his beer and scowled when he realized it was empty. She wasn’t going to let this go. He knew Lily too well, and he knew that he may as well just get it over with and spill, because she’d keep nagging until he did anyway.

  “I was with Raine.”

  The screech that erupted from her mouth was enough to give any man a heart attack, and when she threw herself into his arms, he had no choice but to grab hold of her or the two of them would have landed on their asses.

  “About time,” she said.

  He hugged her tightly, this woman who had come to mean so much to him. And when she grabbed his face and held it between her hands, he couldn’t help but grin at the look in her eyes. It had been too long since he’d seen that kind of joy inside her, and to think it was there because of him—because she wanted him to be happy. That was really humbling.

  His throat tightened as he gazed down at her.

  Lily pushed away and shook her head. “Don’t go getting all emotional on me, Edwards. I’m not used to you being such a damn pussy.” She paused and glanced around. “Where is she?”

  “In the basement.”

  “What’s she doing down there?”

  He shrugged, smiling slightly as he thought of the mischievous look in Raine’s eye just before she’d disappeared downstairs. That was well over ten minutes ago, and he had no clue what she was up to. She’d mumbled something about Christmas, and that was it.

  “Oh God, Jake. Please tell me you’re not going to turn into one of those guys.”

  “Those guys?”

  “Yes, you know the ones. They get all emotional and pathetic every time they think about the girl they’re in love with.” Her eyes widened, as they tended to do when she was about to stir shit. “The girl they’re having sex with.”

  “Lily,” he warned.

  “So, is it good?”

  “What?”

  Why the hell was he playing along?