Christmas From Hell (21 page)

He should have just apologized to her, drove her home and left, but somewhere along the line he’d turned into a greedy bastard who hadn’t wanted to let her go. He wanted to kill a few lonely hours with her, which was funny, because whenever he was around her, he never felt lonely, wondered why he couldn’t find the one, or felt like he’d lose his fucking mind if he stopped or slowed down his fucked up life. It kept him sane, kept him whole, and that was the real reason why he never said no to anybody.

He needed them just as much as they needed him if not more.

Christ, he was so fucking pathetic, he thought as he tilted his head to the side, used his lips to push her lips open and attacked, kissing her with everything he had. She felt so fucking right in his arms, so fucking good and it terrified him at just how good she felt in his arms.

He’d been with a lot of women, probably too many woman, always hoping that one of them would comfort him, soothe the thing inside him that drove him out of his fucking mind and told him that there was something missing in his life.

It had been her.

It had always been her and that fucking terrified him, because she wasn’t right for him. They had absolutely nothing in common and to add insult to misery, for the past year he’d hated her, hated every fucking thing about her and if he ever found himself watching her a little too closely, thinking about her a little too long, it only made him hate her more.

This was so fucking wrong, he told himself as she hesitantly returned his kiss, so shyly and sweetly that it nearly drove him out of his fucking mind. She felt so good, too fucking good, but he knew that sliding inside her and losing himself would feel so much better. He wanted to lay her back across his bench seat, rip her pants off and slide her panties off while he slipped a finger inside her to see how wet she was before deciding that she wasn’t wet enough and lowered his head between her legs and licked her slit, making her cry and beg for more as she tried to ride his tongue.

Thinking about licking her pussy clean had his already painful cock hardening even further and demanding that he take it out and let it play with her. Maybe she’d take it in her small hand and stroke him as he pulled back and fucked her with his finger. Maybe he’d take his cock out of her hands, sit back and slowly jerk himself off as he watched his finger disappear inside her wet pussy or maybe even that would be too much for her.

She’d sit up, lean over and wrap her lips around his cock and-

Fucking cry himself to sleep tonight, he realized when his emergency line went off, interrupting what had been a very promising night. The good news was that his suspension was most likely over. The bad news was that he was probably going to spend the rest of the night fantasizing about the adorable little klutz that was driving him out of his fucking mind.

*-*-*-*

Friday, December 11
^th
.

Maybe she should call in sick, she pondered as she rolled over onto her side and stared at her alarm clock as another minute rolled by, bringing the last time that she saw Duncan closer to the forty-eight hour mark.

Well, this was depressing, she decided yet again, but then again, what wasn’t depressing about this situation? In the past couple of weeks she’d unintentionally crashed her van, set her favorite apron on fire, ran over the guy she’d been crushing on with a serving cart, she was pretty sure that she’d kneed him in the balls on more than one occasion, but that was after she’d lost her virginity to him, announced that she was in love with him and got to see that lovely look of horror on his face as her words sank in.

After that he became distant then somehow stalkerish, bossy and she wasn’t sure, but she thought that she may have given him a hand job, she still wasn’t sure about that one, received the hottest kiss of her life and then…

And then he’d stopped kissing her, picked her up, put her on the opposite side of his truck, started the truck, drove her home, walked her to her door, turned around and walked stiffly next door, slamming the front door behind him.

That was just about two days ago and since then she hadn’t seen or heard from him. Not that he could call her since she’d never given him her phone number, mostly because he’d never asked for it. But, he knew where she lived and worked, so if he’d wanted to see her then he could have easily found a way to do it.

Granted, from what she’d heard from her grandfather, who for some reason had been cleaning every gun that he owned for the past two days, Duncan was still banned from the bakery and if he tried to come onto the property her grandfather was going to find out if his sharpshooting days were long gone.

She should probably be a bit concerned about that, she thought mildly with a heavy sigh as she rolled over and faced the wall, deciding that staring at the clock wasn’t exactly helpful. Now, stealing all of the bullets in the house and making a few calls to prevent her grandfather from getting anymore for a few months probably had been the best way to go.

Unfortunately, she’d forgotten all about his bayonet and knife collection. She’d spent a few hours every day looking for the key to lock them all back up, but the only thing she’d found so far was three boxes of Twinkies, a bag of peanut butter cups, the remains of a pizza, and a half pack of Coke. After she’d finished off the last of the Coke and Twinkies she’d searched the house again, but damn if he wasn’t getting better about hiding the keys to his weapons.

If only he’d used that level of skill to hide his sweets, because before she’d called it a night she’d found a fresh box of donuts from the bakery. She’d eaten half the box of donuts with a large glass of chocolate milk while she’d pathetically stared out the kitchen window, waiting to see
him
.

Duncan never showed up, but her grandfather had. So, just because she needed to teach him a lesson, and definitely not because she was hungry because at that point she felt sick to her stomach and just the thought of eating another sugary treat had her stomach rebelling, she’d refilled her glass and taken a large, unsatisfying bite of that delicious donut while he’d sat across from her with a plate of rice cakes and glowered at her. She would have to admit that she became a tad concerned when he had that butter knife in a death grip.

Not wanting to push her luck, she’d finished her milk, tossed the rest of the donuts in the trash and just to make sure that he wouldn’t go digging for a donut, she’d swept the floor and threw all that dust, dirt and rock salt brought in on their shoes into the trashcan, directly on top of the donuts she’d baked yesterday morning.

After he’d announced that he was no longer speaking with her, and she informed him about the loss of his stash, she’d ran to her room screaming for mercy for old time’s sake as her grandfather turned that murderous rage on her and for old time sake, promised to tan her hide. The moment that she’d made it safely into her room she’d flipped the lock and breathed a sigh of relief, which only went to remind her that she’d foolishly pigged out and was probably going to die.

Her grandfather on the other hand stood outside her door for a good thirty minutes. She didn’t open the door or peek under the door like some amateur, but simply listened to the grinding of his teeth as he waited for her to foolishly open that bedroom door so that he could throttle her.

Since he hadn’t raised a moron, she’d stayed in her room, soaking in a hot bath and downing three Advils for her stomachache while she tried not to think about Duncan and that kiss. She’d failed miserably and gave up on trying not to think of him and simply tried to remember all the reasons why she wanted nothing to do with him anymore.

Every time she remembered his words after she’d foolishly declared her love to him like some pathetic schoolgirl with a crush and finally got good and mad at him, she would remember the way that he’d kissed her and just like that, she couldn’t stay mad at him.

Why couldn’t she hate him? she wondered as she threw back the covers and finally said the hell with it and dragged her ass off to work.

Chapter 24

Saturday, December 12
^th
.

God, he was so fucking tired, but then again, it seemed as though he wasn’t the only one, he thought with a smile as the beautiful woman sitting in the large leather chair, using the desk as a pillow as she continued to lightly snore the early morning minutes away, was just as exhausted.

He considered waking her up, but he was surprised to realize that he knew that she would be off in only a few minutes. Apparently over the last year while he’d manage to memorize her schedule so that he would never miss the days when she was on the grill, he also inadvertently memorized her entire schedule.

As soon as the last flame was put out this morning and his relief showed up, he’d jumped in his truck, telling himself that he was going home, grabbing a shower and sleeping for the next two days straigh, but instead he came here.

To see her.

She was so damn beautiful, he thought with a wistful smile and a chuckle when she let out a small little snore that was somewhat fitting. He glanced up at the clock and debated whether or not to wake her up now or let her get a few more minutes of-

“
Oh my God!” the small woman that he was probably more than halfway in love with if the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her meant anything, screamed as she jumped up from her chair, tripped over her own two feet, and then the chair, fell to the ground, jumped back up and ran past him, mumbling, “Not my muffins, please not my muffins!”

Curious, and admittedly somewhat entertained, he forced his tired body to get up from the really uncomfortable chair and followed after her as she ran, skidded, tripped, ran and finally skidded to a stop in front of the first set of ovens. He watched as she went to grab the heavy-duty oven-mitts only to go still as she scented the air with the cutest little frown that he’d ever seen.

He watched as she stood there, scenting the air as she slowly turned around, no doubt looking for the source of where the scent of smoke was coming from. When she saw him standing there, covered from head to toe in soot, he realized that he should have at least taken a shower at the station and changed into his clothes before he came here, but it had been too damn long since he’d seen her.

He hadn’t been able to wait.

And apparently, she didn’t give a damn that he smelled like smoke and sweat, because she got the cutest little smile on her face when she realized who was standing there, for her. After a moment, a blush crept up her face and her smile turned shy.

“
What are you doing here?” she asked, forcing herself to glance away from him and busying herself with straightening the containers and spices on the large metal prep table that stood between them.

He put his hands in his pants pocket as he cocked his head to the side while he studied her and admitted, “I came to drive you home after your shift.”

Her hand stilled over an assortment of stainless steel containers, but she didn’t look up at him. “You came to drive me home?”

“
Yes,” he said without hesitation.

Of course, he didn’t mention that he was planning on taking her to his house since her grandfather apparently was on a warpath for his balls, something that he’d have to take care of later. Right now, all he wanted to do was to take her home, take a hot shower, crawl in bed behind her and hold her as he finally got some sleep.

“
Where did you go?” she asked, returning to straightening out the canisters and acting like his answer didn’t matter.

“
The fire over in Wakefield,” he murmured as he hungrily watched her every move.

“
Oh,” she said, her blush deepening and telling him everything that he needed to know.

She’d missed him.

Probably not as much as he’d missed her, but damn if it didn’t make him feel good to know that he was missed by a beautiful woman, who drove him out of his fucking mind. It was honestly the best feeling in the world.

Well, the second best feeling in the world, he corrected himself as he remembered just how good it felt to be inside her.

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