Bought for Christmas

by Doris O'Connor

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2014 Doris O’Connor

  ISBN: 978-1-77233-144-8

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To The RavDor Chicks, the awesome reader group I share with my partner in crime Raven McAllan. You were behind this story from the minute this hero first whispered in my ear, so thank you all.

  And a special thank you to my Gran, who instilled in me the belief that anything is possible at Christmas time...

  BOUGHT FOR CHRISTMAS

  Doris O’Connor

  Copyright © 2014

  Chapter One

  Emilia stopped at the top of the stairs and sighed when she heard the raised voices. So much for the season of goodwill. With a week left to Christmas none of that was present in her father’s house. Papa and Leo were arguing again. That’s all they ever seemed to do these days, and, yet, still Papa favored her twin.

  God only knew what Leo had done now, but words like ruin, it’s all over, and well, she can finally do something useful sent a shiver of unease down her spine.

  Sure enough the door opened to reveal a flustered looking Leo. With his blond hair stylishly falling over his blue eyes, and the permanent tan due to their father’s Mediterranean heritage, he had the rakish good looks that meant he was never short of female company. Too bad he was a chauvinistic ass with it—another trait he had inherited from Papa.

  Christmas is just a week away. You can smile and put up with it for a week. It’s what Mama would have wanted.

  Emilia repeated the mantra in her head, as she slowly descended the mahogany carved staircase and fixed a smile on her face. One that wasn’t returned by her brother. No, Leo looked downright furious, his complexion ruddy and his eyes glassy as though he was drunk, or high—maybe even both.

  He sneered when he saw her staring, and Emilia squashed the impulse that made her want to reach out to him. To help, to make him see that he couldn’t go on like this, but she couldn’t take another rejection.

  “There you are, thunder thighs. Papa wants you.”

  The old insult stung, especially as Emilia was the slimmest she had ever been. Well, as slim as she would ever get. Leo was the one who had inherited the skinny gene from their mother. Annalisa had been tall and willow-like and so beautiful it still hurt to look at her picture. Especially considering the frail cancer riddled woman they had buried a mere two years ago. Emilia blinked back tears and wondered when Christmas would get easier. Would she ever get back the joy she used to feel at this magical time? Even when Emilia had become a fully grown woman Mama had always made the season seem special, as though this truly was the time for miracles.

  One was sorely needed this Christmas, if the state of Leo was anything to go by.

  “Don’t just stand there gawping at me. Go see Papa, thunder thighs.”

  Emilia took a deep breath, and somehow managed to keep her cool. “If I told you once, I told you a thousand times, do not call me that.”

  Leo shrugged and almost fell over as the action made him overbalance. “I’ll call it the way I see it. Not exactly model material are you, little sis.”

  Emilia crunched her teeth and resisted the urge to lash back at him. Besides he had a point. Unfortunately for Emilia she took after their father’s side of the family, where the women were on the cuddly side. Emilia had long since come to terms with her body shape, but hearing Leo be extra spiteful took her right back to that painful time when she’d stopped growing taller and had started to grow curves instead. Curves that had kept on growing. Still, something was eating at Leo. Even he wasn’t normally this cruel.

  Before she could say or do anything else the doorbell chimed, and their father appeared out of his study, clutching a decanter of brandy in his large hands, and Emilia suppressed another sigh. It was barely afternoon, and he was already drinking. He took another large swig when the bell rang again, and then he glared up at Emilia.

  “Don’t just stand there. Make yourself useful, and answer the door. It was your idea to give Jenny the day off after all.”

  “It’s Christmas, Papa. The woman needs to do her shopping some time.” Their trusty old housekeeper had been delighted when Emilia had given her several days off, reassuring Jenny that they would manage just fine.

  “I’m perfectly capable of looking after the house and cooking some meals. There’s only the three of us, after all,” she’d said.

  Her father pulled a face as though he was sucking on a particularly sour lemon, and gestured to the door.

  “Go and answer it. He’s here for you anyway. Time to earn your keep, girl.”

  Again that shiver of dread threatened to steal her breath, but she had learnt long ago to never show any weakness in front of her father. He didn’t appreciate it, and the cruel streak Mama had tempered when she was alive had only become stronger at her passing. With as much grace as she could muster Emilia walked across the foyer and swallowed nervously at the imposing shadow she could see through the frosted glass.

  The man stood on the other side of the door was huge, and when she opened it her greeting stuck in her throat.

  She would recognize those broad shoulders and wide back anywhere. Even covered by the expensive tailor-made woolen coat he wore against the chill of this December afternoon, his muscled physique made her feel small and oh so feminine.

  Hunter Monahan inhaled sharply and then turned around slowly. Emilia took an involuntary step back when the harsh porch lighting illuminated the scars on his face briefly. His features tightened when he witnessed her reaction, and he turned slightly until only his good side was presented. His mouth kicked up in a grim smile, and his deep voice washed over her.

  “I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon, Emilia. When did you come home?” he asked.

  “Erm, yesterday, Sir.” She whispered the answer, feeling ridiculously tongue-tied like she always did around him, but frightening scars notwithstanding, there was something so earthy and virile about Hunter. Dangerous even, and as if to prove it, his amber eyes flared to yellow as he bent down and inhaled next to her ear.

  “I do like it when you call me that, kitten.” His hot breath skimmed across the sensitive skin under her ear, and Emilia bit her lip to stop herself from reacting to his presence. This close to him his intoxicating scent wrapped itself around her like a warm cocoon, and she had to fight the urge to lean in closer.

  The Beast, as he was known, would not appreciate the contact she was sure, so instead, she stepped back to allow him to pass, and took his coat when he shrugged out of it.

  He frowned at her, and she offered him a tentative smile, and after a moment’s hesitation he handed it to her. Their hands touched briefly, and Emilia almost dropped the garment. Her fingertips tingled from the contact, and she hastily yanked the coat up higher to hide her nipples. Like wanton beacons of her sex-starved self, they firmed and pushed against her silk blouse. Emilia wanted the ground to swallow her up when Hunter’s gaze rested on her boobs for several heart-stopping moments.

  He couldn’t have noticed, could he? It was bad enough that Emilia turned into a simpering wreck whenever her father’s former friend was around. It was altogether
far too mortifying that he would actually notice her lusting after him.

  Quite apart from the fact that Hunter was only seven years younger than her father, the man was way out of her league. Reserved to the point of rudeness, Hunter carried himself with an air of leashed power and aggression that separated him from his peers.

  As a child, Emilia had spun fairy stories about him as the scarred warrior, or the gentle beast, who needed the love of a good woman to break the witch’s curse. As a teenager those dreams had taken on a rather erotic turn. Moving away to go to university had done nothing to lessen her attraction to the man, quite the opposite.

  Not for lack of trying on her part, but none of her so-called boyfriends had ever made her skin tingle with just one look, and besides they only wanted her for her father’s money. When they found out that Leo was Papa’s only heir, they always scarpered, which was fine by Emilia.

  She didn’t need any boys in her life, and she might never get rich working as a midwife, but she loved her job, and how many people could say that?

  “You should smile more, kitten.”

  Hunter’s cool words shook her out of her internal musings, and her heart missed a few beats under his intense scrutiny. Standing sideways, so that his scars weren’t visible, Hunter watched her from under hooded lids with a curious tilt to his full lips. They were surrounded by several days’ worth of scruff that extended along his square jaw and disappeared into the neckline of his shirt—a pink one, much to Emilia’s amusement. His very presence pulled her under his spell. So much so that she must have missed something, if the way both her father and brother scowled at her was anything to go by.

  “Have you lost your brain completely?” Leo said, and grabbed the wall for support. “Go get some coffee, thunder thighs. I need some, and no doubt our beast here will want some, too.”

  Emilia winced at the look of utter disgust and hatred both her father and brother threw toward Hunter, and he seemed to grow taller in front of her eyes. Hands balled into fists by his side, jaws clenched, a rumble emanated from Hunter’s broad chest, and Leo blanched and put his hand up in an act of surrender. Emilia was half expecting her lily-faced brother to lose control of his bodily functions, and Papa, too, looked pale under his tan. Pale and very old, as he glanced at her and jerked his head to the kitchen in a clear demand.

  “You heard your brother. Coffee.”

  “Please don’t trouble yourself on my account, Emilia.” Hunter gave her a grim smile, and the almost growl in his voice had every feminine cell in her body sigh in submission. She could listen to him talk all day.

  “And you, pup, don’t talk to her like that in front of me. Not if you’re fond of your own teeth, that is.” Hunter took a step toward Leo, and Emilia knew her mouth had fallen open in astonishment at hearing Hunter come to her rescue.

  “I talk about her any which way I fucking want, beast. She ain’t yours yet. Fail to see why you’d want her anyway.”

  “Leo, enough. Let me handle this.” Papa’s stern words brought Leo’s head up, and he stuck his bottom lip out in a sulk so reminiscent of the brother she used to adore as a child that emotion clogged up Emilia’s throat. She swallowed past the lump and focused on what her brother had actually said.

  “What do you mean, I’m not his yet?” The earlier snatched bits of conversation she’d heard came back to haunt her, and she looked among the three men in dawning terror.

  “What did you do, Leo?” she asked.

  Her brother stuck his hands in his pockets, and that sulk grew. Right now he looked like a petulant child who hadn’t gotten the toy he wanted for Christmas.

  “He cheated, I’m sure.”

  Again that menacing growl rumbled from Hunter, and Emilia clenched her thighs together, as he stepped close enough to her that his scent drew her in again. Waves of heat seemed to come off him, and chased away the goosebumps that had broken out on her own flesh at the underlying tension in the room.

  “Watch who you’re calling a cheat, pup. I’m not the one who cannot hold his drink and threw his own sister to the wolves.”

  Leo gave a humorless laugh and shrugged his shoulders.

  “Says the guy who can’t get a woman to fuck unless he buys her. Have you looked in the mirror lately, beast? You … umph.”

  Hunter moved so fast that Leo couldn’t even raise his fists. One well aimed punch to his solar plexus had her brother doubled over and gasping for breath, and then Hunter pinned him against the wall. Hand around Leo’s throat, he had the younger man dangling several feet off the floor, and Emilia dropped the coat she was still clutching and pulled at Hunter’s arm to get him off her brother.

  “Let go, please. You’re going to kill him.”

  Hunter paid her no heed. Over the rushing of blood in her ears, and the outraged shouts of her father, Leo turned blue. His legs made futile attempts at kicking Hunter, and with both hands on a death grip on Hunter’s wrist, Emilia still couldn’t shake the much taller man off. In a last act of desperation, Emilia ducked under Hunter’s arm, earning herself a painful kick in the ribs from her brother in the process, and reaching up framed Hunter’s face in her hands.

  Her breath stalled at the different textures under her fingertips. One side had smooth even skin, covered by his stubble; the other was a mass of corded, scarred, raised flesh, which felt rough and tight under her hand.

  A shudder went through Hunter at her touch, and he turned his head to look at her. Emilia gasped at the inhuman eyes staring back at her until he blinked, and they were once again the deep chestnut brown she was used to.

  “Please, let him go. He’s my brother, please.”

  Hunter shook his head and then let go of Leo. Her brother fell to the floor, and Emilia let go of Hunter and scrambled to Leo’s side to help him up. Dazed as he was, he still pushed her help away and let their father pull him up instead. The rejection stung, and Emilia was dimly aware of Hunter’s deep sigh behind her. He bent to pick up his abandoned coat, brushed the dust off it, and stepping closer to her, nudged her chin up with his knuckles.

  “They don’t deserve your concern, kitten.” The ghost of a smile kicked up his mouth, and then he stepped away from her and looked the men in her family up and down.

  “I’ll be outside. Let me know what your decision will be, and I’ll have my lawyers draw up the contract one way or the other, though I fear I know what it will be. Know this, however. I need to hear it from her, or the deal is off.”

  With those ominous words he stalked off. The quiet thud of the front door sounded too loud in the room, and Emilia squared her shoulders and faced her father.

  “What does he mean by that? What deal?”

  The lights of the Christmas tree danced across her father’s tired features, adding another layer of weird to this whole scenario. Papa at least looked slightly chagrined, but that just made Emilia’s apprehension grow.

  “The bastard has cleaned your brother out. With Leo’s shares he’s now the majority shareholder and we’re finished unless—”

  “Unless what?” she asked.

  “Unless you agree to his terms. You see he’s bought either you or the company.”

  Chapter Two

  Hunter took a deep, cleansing breath of the chilly air, and braced his hands on the roof of his car. That had been too damn close. Even now his bear prowled under his skin, ready to tear the pup to shreds who dared to insult his mate.

  He was so damn fucked. This, right here, was the reason he kept his distance from Emilia. His bear was a volatile fucker at the best of times, but this close to the object of all of his desires there was no controlling him. His beast wanted to sink his incisors into her soft flesh, and mark her as his. He wanted to see her ample curves bound in ropes, her body covered in the marks of his possession, while he sank his aching cock deep into her sweet pussy and pumped her full of his seed, leaving her to scream his name, as she gushed all over his prick.

  Groaning he shook his head and adjusted his dick.
Fat chance of any of that happening now, after the stunt he’d pulled in there. Emilia was loyal to a fault, and despite the appalling way her father and brother treated her, she loved them, and always stood by them. Over the years, he’d watched her grow from the shy little girl, who used to spy on him through the banisters, to a gangly, equally shy teenager, and then a beautiful young woman who seemed unaware of her appeal. Emilia had curves to die for, not that the men in her father’s circle seemed to appreciate them. Hunter had scared many a potential suitor away from his kitten with a few quietly spoken words, until Emilia herself had grown wise to the gold diggers and told them all to take a hike.

  Hunter smiled to himself. She might be all soft womanly curves, but his girl had teeth and hidden claws, just like a kitten, and he had no doubt he would get the sharp end of her tongue when she found out what he had done.

  The sound of the door opening made him turn around slowly, just in time to see her bunch her hand into a fist, before it connected squarely with the side of his face, and he saw stars briefly.

  For such a little thing she sure packed a punch.

  “You damn … oh, ow. Shit, damn it. What’s your fucking jaw made out of, concrete?”

  Tears sprang into Emilia’s expressive green eyes, and she waved her abused hand up and down, her lips pulled together in a thin line.

  “Here, kitten, let me see what you’ve done to yourself.”

  Hunter reached out to her, but she snatched her hand away and glared up at him.

  “Don’t you fucking touch me.”

  Hunter’s bear roared at the rejection, and Emilia went even paler, as though it had just dawned on her that they were very much on their own out here. No help would be forthcoming from her menfolk, and he had no doubt that his bear showed in his eyes.