A Soldier's Christmas (8 page)

Logan stood by the door and told himself
that he had to stay put while Emma finished getting dressed. What he really
wanted to do was rip her clothes off and make love to her. He’d gone years
without having sex, but, as he’d found his Emma, he couldn’t get enough.

Even after she’d sucked him off last night,
he’d wanted more, and more, and more. He’d lost count as to how many times he’d
taken her or how many ways, but he knew that he loved her. He’d known that
yesterday before sex had gotten involved. Hell, he’d known that for the last
year at least.

She’d kept him sane through his deployments,
and she was the only person he trusted with the more intimate details about his
family life before his parents had died. She knew everything about him, just
like he did her.

He couldn’t keep the satisfied grin from
his face when he looked at her or even thought about her because the carnal
knowledge blew his mind.

“I don’t think I need many guesses as to
what you’re thinking about,” Emma pulled her jeans up her thighs.

“You’d probably get the answer in one,” he
replied, and watched everything she
did
as she got
dressed.

Emma gave a throaty laugh. “I love you
watching me.” She cocked her head to one side. “It makes me wet.”

Logan felt his heart rate pick up. “I can’t
handle hearing that you’re wet when we’re headed out.” He adjusted the erection
in his jeans.

“Mmm, sure you don’t want to relieve, um,
something.” She pointedly stared at his groin, and he saw the amusement on her
face when he hardened even more while she watched.

He closed his eyes and tried to count to
ten, but Emma had her hand shoved down the front of his jeans by the time he
got to six.

A grunted response was all he could manage
as she rubbed his wet arousal around the crown of his dick. He throbbed to be
between her thighs, and just the thought had tingles of precum slithering along
the length of him to release on her fingers. If she
wasn’t
careful, she’d get more than she bargained for with how aroused she had him.

He needed to ask her to stop. He knew he
had to ask her, but the words wouldn’t form because her fingers felt too good
on his heated flesh.

“Logan,” she whispered against his mouth.

He snapped his eyes open.

“I don’t want to stop, but if I don’t we’re
not going anywhere today other than back to bed.” She pulled her hand free and
patted him through his jeans.

He laughed, although it was choked. “I’ll
survive...just.”

He held his hand out for Emma’s and tugged
her close when she grasped it.

“I can survive anything with you by my
side.” He kissed her knuckles. “I just hope your mom is more welcoming today
than yesterday,” he admitted.

Logan told himself to ignore how Emma’s mom
had acted yesterday, and that she was just looking out for her youngest
daughter, but…

“I don’t know. By now she’ll know that I
spent the night with you, in fact, the whole town will know.”

Logan groaned and Emma smiled.

“And you know what? I don’t care if the
whole town knows. It wasn’t a one night stand because we’re a couple.” Emma
beamed at him. “So if they have a problem with it when it isn’t their business,
it’s on them, because I sure as hell don’t have a problem with it. I also plan
on spending every night with you.”

“Good.” He kissed her lips. “Because that’s
where you belong.” He held her close before he glanced at his watch. “I think
we better leave. I’m not sure how long it will take to get the truck on the
road.”

“Okay, that could be awhile with the
snowfall last night, which reminds me, I wonder where Travis is. He would have
stayed in town, but we haven’t heard from him since his visit here.”

“Did he not stay here?”

“I don’t know. He may have, but he can’t
stand Adele always wanting in his business so he probably bunked at a friend’s
house. Either way, I need to talk to him about my books.” Emma frowned. “I
wonder how long he’s known that R. Logan was me?”

“You’ll find out once you’ve talked to
him.”

Logan moved and grabbed their outdoor gear,
helping Emma into hers before he shoved his own on.

As he opened the door, he wondered whether
they’d manage to escape before Adele or Greg saw them. They’d agreed to skip
breakfast at the B&B, so hopefully.

Emma tugged on his jacket and crept down
the hallway. He hid his laughter at their antics and followed her downstairs.
It was only as the doors to the hotel closed behind them that he let his
laughter out.

Emma giggled beside him while tugging on
her hat. “Let’s go and have breakfast at Mary’s Eat and Treats, I’m partial to
their biscuit and eggs.”

“Okay, and I can’t believe we just crept
out of there like two naughty kids.” Logan shook his head and grabbed hold of
Emma’s hand.

“It was fun. C’mon.”

She tugged him from the B&B and across
the street. They’d only taken a few steps when they walked into the café that
Emma had suggested.

As he looked around, there were only a few
people inside eating in the warm festive place, one of which was Emma’s brother.
“Hey,” he whispered, “your brother.” He nodded to the right and hid his mirth
behind his hand because her brother looked anything but happy to see them.

If he had to guess, he’d say that Travis
hadn’t wanted to be seen with the woman he was eating breakfast with. Logan
could have sworn that Emma told him her brother was engaged in one of her
letters when she’d talked about her family.

“Let’s go say hi.” Emma moved over to her
brother, and offered him a sweet smile, as though to say, ‘I’ve caught you.’

“Travis, fancy seeing you here,” Emma
smiled at her brother and offered her hand to the woman. “I’m Emma, his sister,
and this is my boyfriend, Logan.”

Boyfriend—he
liked that.

“Um, hello.”

“You’re British. I love your accent.”

“Yes. Yes, I am, and I’m Debbie Fletcher, a
friend of your brothers.”

Logan stood back and let Emma have her fun
with her brother. Travis squirmed where he sat with the odd glare at his sister
when Debbie wasn’t looking. It was nice not to be put on the spot again,
although he knew that wouldn’t last with the visit to her parents’ house after
they’d eaten.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Travis grouched.

Logan coughed into his hand to try and hide
his laughter, but with the look being thrown at him, he didn’t think it had worked.

“We’re here for breakfast,” Emma grinned at
her brother, and his eyes narrowed, obviously knowing what was coming, “and I
think we should join you.”

Logan grinned before he took pity on
Travis. The man obviously wanted to be left alone with Debbie. “Babe, we have
things to talk about, so why don’t we leave your brother in peace to finish his
breakfast with his friend.” He wrapped his arm around Emma’s shoulders.

She looked undecided, but gave in. “I guess...but
I need to talk to you sometime today.” She pointed at Travis as she talked.

“I figured. Go eat and stop bugging me.”

“Travis?” Debbie laughed behind a napkin.
“You seriously talk to your sister like that?”

“Only when I want to annoy her.” Travis
continued eating so Logan saw that as his cue to get Emma away from the table.

“We’ll see you later,” Logan chuckled as he
pulled Emma over to the far side of the restaurant. “You loved making him
squirm,” he commented as they got rid of their outdoor gear.

“I did. He’s done it to me often enough,
including last night when he interrupted us.” Emma took her seat next to him.

“I thought you told me he was engaged. Did
that go south?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what went wrong, but
one minute he seemed to be really into her and the next they were through.” She
shrugged. “Who knows what’s going on with Travis? He won’t say anything until
he’s good and ready, which makes me wonder just how long he’s known about me
being R. Logan,” she whispered.

About to answer Emma, a large mug of coffee
was placed in front of him and a menu shoved under his nose. “What will it be?”

Emma wouldn’t meet his startled expression
at the abruptness in which the woman appeared, so he quickly chose a full American
and passed the menu back.

“Service always like that?” He pointed in
the woman’s direction.

“It depends who’s working. Gloria hates
working here and makes no bones about it. Our breakfast will be good though.”

“Okay.” He took a sip of his coffee and said
what he’d planned to before they’d been rudely interrupted. “No matter how long
Travis has known about your writing, he’s obviously kept it to himself.”

“True.” Emma curled a leg under her. “Let’s
forget about him for now. Have you walked around the town yet?”

“I have. Visited your town square, and
bought some cookies from the bakery. They were good.” He rubbed his stomach. “Ate
them all while I watched a movie the other night.”

Emma shook her head, and softly smiled.
“I’m really glad you’re here, Logan.”

Logan took hold of Emma’s hand and entwined
his fingers with her delicate ones. “I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

The sour waitress interrupted them, but he
didn’t mind that much when the aroma from the food in front of him reached his
nostrils.

Emma chuckled. “You look like you’ve not
eaten for a while.”

“Not like this.” He pointed at his plate
with his folk. He wasn’t lying either, and had no idea what he wanted to eat
first because he had so many choices—hash browns, sausage, bacon, tomato,
biscuit and eggs.

After a few mouthfuls, he thought about
being where he was with Emma, and suggested, “You know, in a way, your mom has
done us a favor by holding our letters back, if that happens to be the case.”

“How’d you work that one out?” Emma
frowned.

“I was worried about you, which is why I’m
here now. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d have found you eventually. But I’m
here, right now, because I stopped receiving anything from you.”

“I guess.” Emma didn’t look too happy with
that observation though. “If she is responsible, then I’m not sure I can easily
accept it. I thought something real bad had happened to you, Logan.” She
blinked tears away. “She knew how I was feeling and she saw how upset I was at
losing contact with you. I don’t want to believe that she’s responsible for all
my heartache these past months.” Emma pushed her half eaten plate away.

Logan had cleaned his plate and drained his
cup of coffee before he focused on the woman he loved. “She’s your mom, Emma,
and she obviously had her reasons, which made sense to her at the time. If she
did, in fact, keep the letters. We also have to remember that she might be
innocent in all this.”

“I don’t see how she can be. But we’ll find
out soon.” She glanced over to where Travis was sitting. He hadn’t even glanced
toward them since they’d sat
down,
he was engrossed in
his conversation. “I hope, and I’m so going to get Travis alone at some point
because curiosity is going to kill me.”

Logan stood and pulled Emma to her feet.
“Stop being nosy and let your brother have some privacy. He gave us ours last
night.”

“Hmm. Yeah, but you don’t know what a pain
in the ass he can be.” Emma pulled her purple, thermal jacket on.

“I can imagine. I’d just rather have you to
myself because I’m selfish.”

“Aww, I like the idea of that, Mr.
Richards.” Emma stepped against him and reached up to his face. She cupped his
cheeks and kissed him. “I like the idea of that very much, and if it wasn’t for
my need to know about the letters, we’d be sneaking back into your hotel room.”

He groaned in the back of his throat.
“You’re killing me.” He dipped down to capture her lips again. A cough behind
him made him break the kiss and glance over his shoulder.

Logan turned back to Emma, kissed her
quickly on her nose and stepped back to include Travis and Debbie.

“We’re out of here,” Travis announced.
“Will I see you both at home later?”

“We’re heading out there now so it depends
on how things go and how long you’re going to be.”

Travis nodded.

“Will we see you later, Debbie?” Emma asked,
and took delight when her brother looked frantic.

“No, I don’t think so.” Debbie answered, her
lips pulled tight, a sure sign that she wasn’t happy with Travis.

He wasn’t surprised considering she saw how
Travis reacted to Emma’s question.

“Okay, well, it was nice to meet you,
Debbie.” Emma said her goodbyes and kissed her brother before she made her way
to the door.

Logan shook Travis’ hand and tried not to
show amusement when Travis said, “Look after her. She isn’t as strong as she
might appear.” With that, Travis took Debbie’s arm and walked out, past Emma.