Christmas From Hell (22 page)

“
I’m just going to grab a quick shower,” Duncan said as he brushed his lips enticingly against hers one last time, making her heart race as she tried to tell herself not to panic.

Everything was okay, she told herself as she watched him, wearing only his boxer shorts because his sister-in-law was still sensitive to the scent of smoke so he’d stopped by the laundry room and stripped down before bringing her up to his room, grab a towel from the closet and walk into the bathroom, closing the door behind him while she sat there on his bed trying not to freak out.

She was going to have sex again, she realized, shooting a nervous glance over at his locked bedroom door, half expecting someone to break in at any moment and flip out. Okay, so that someone that she was expecting was her grandfather and it wasn’t so much as flip out as it was to tear Duncan apart with his bare hands.

God, she was nervous.

Should she be this nervous?

She didn’t think so, definitely not after she’d already had sex with him once, but then again that hadn’t ended well, now had it? She’d announced that she was in love with him, he freaked out, Grandpa came in and all hell broke loose.

Could she really go through with that again? she wondered as she stood up and hurried towards the door, deciding that no, no she couldn’t survive going through something like that again. She just needed to think, she told herself as she unlocked the door, poked her head out and looked down at the attic stairs that suddenly looked a lot steeper than they had before.

Swallowing nervously, she shifted a nervous glance over her shoulder and when she made sure that the coast was clear she carefully stepped out of his room onto the small landing, closed the door behind her and quickly made her way down the stairs like the coward that she was. When she opened the door that led to the second floor and didn’t see or hear anyone, she quickly stepped out of the stairwell, closed the door behind her and practically ran for the stairs.

She was halfway to the kitchen before she realized what she was doing. By the time she was poking her head inside the large empty kitchen, she’d decided that this was exactly what she needed to clear her head. She just needed to think this over and figure out what she should do. She considered calling her grandfather, but since that would probably just lead to Duncan’s untimely death, she decided that she was just going to have to work this one out for herself.

Even though common sense told her that it was incredibly rude to invite herself to use someone else’s kitchen, she couldn’t have stopped herself even if she’d wanted to, and right now she definitely needed this. She was so freaking nervous that she was actually trembling by the time that she found everything that she needed.

She was so nervous that it actually took her twice as long as it usually did to whip the batter up. By the time she had the pan nice and hot, the butter sizzling to let her know that it was time, she was no longer alone.

He’d found her.

*-*-*-*

“
Do you want some help?” he asked, forcing himself to take a seat behind the kitchen island when all he wanted to do was go to her and pull her into his arms. He wanted to kiss that spot where her neck and back met while he reached around and slipped his hands beneath her shirt so that he could palm her large breasts, but she was nervous and so was he.

He didn’t know what she was to him yet, wasn’t sure about how he felt about her, and he didn’t want to scare her off before he could figure it out. He wanted her to come to him, wrap her arms around him and kiss him in a way that gave him all the answers that he was searching for.

So, for her, he kept his ass in that chair and his hands to himself. It was probably the most difficult thing that he’d ever done in his life, but for her, he did it.

“
No, I’ve got it,” she said, keeping her back towards him as she ladled some batter into the hot pan, immediately filling the air with the scents of buttermilk pancakes, letting him know that his time alone with her was about to be cut short so he got to the point.

“
I’m not going to rush you into doing something that you’re not ready for, Necie.”

She paused over the pan as she quietly admitted, “I have no idea what I’m doing,” making him grip the edge of the granite kitchen island top until his hands hurt, because he knew that going to her right now would only scare her away and he couldn’t risk that.

“
Neither do I,” he admitted just as quietly, feeling foolish and giddy at the same time.

He was nervous, he realized with a chuckle that earned a delightful little glare from the woman that he’d missed more than anything over the last few days. He’d never been nervous about a woman before. His first kiss had been nothing to him, just a meeting of the lips that had excited him like any normal teenage boy, but that had been it. It had been the same after the first time he’d bedded a woman. He’d enjoyed the act, fucking loved the release, but she could have been any woman and he knew that it wouldn’t have made a difference to him.

With Necie…

He chuckled again as he finally gave up fighting it and went to the small angry woman yielding a spatula in a way that told him how close she was to shoving that spatula through his gut if he said one more word that pissed her off.

Knowing that he was probably seconds from being skewered by a spatula, he pulled her into his arms, kissed her nape and said, “I have no idea where this is going or what we’re doing, but I don’t want to stop.”

After a few seconds he felt her relax in his arms as she turned around in his arms so that she was facing the stove. Keeping his hold loose on her, she carefully, yet quickly, flipped all the pancakes.

“
I don’t either,” she whispered so softly that he’d almost missed it, but once he realized what she’d said, he couldn’t help but say, “Thank God.”

Chapter 25

Later that night…

“
You’re not going.”

“
Yes,” she said, picking up the little black number that she’d been dying to wear for at least two years now and held it in front of her body, “I am.”

Grandpa snorted, obviously deciding that she’d issued a challenge. Since she was already nervous enough, she decided to put a stop to this before it got out of hand. “Then I guess I’ll have to call your doctor and leave him a message,” she said off handedly as she shifted the black dress to the side and held up the light pink dress that she’d also been dying to wear.

As expected, Grandpa cocked an eyebrow at that, trying to look innocent and intimidating all at once. It was seriously wasted on her, because they both knew that she would never make a threat that she wasn’t ready to follow through with, especially when it came to his health.

“
Oh? And why would you do that?” he asked in that cold, crisp tone that had sent more than one busboy running, crying for his mother.

Instead of getting into an argument with him, she simply said, “Black Jack’s,” as she met his eyes in the mirror, daring him to try and deny it.

He met her glare with one of his own as he said, “You set me up.”

“
Uh huh,” she said, returning her attention back to the decision at hand, which dress was she going to wear on her first date in three years.

“
You did,” he bit out angrily, probably expecting her to cry or argue with him so that she’d miss her date, but that wasn’t happening.

Not tonight.

“
You left the receipt in the van,” she said, before adding, “You wanted to get caught.”

When he opened his mouth, most likely to tell her some bullshit story like it wasn’t his, she added, “You paid with your credit card and signed the receipt.”

His mouth snapped shut as he considered her for a moment before saying, “You’re still not going.”

“
Yes, I am,” she said, switching her attention back to the black dress, because if she was going to be honest, she’d admit that she really wanted to wear the black dress.

“
Fine
,” he bit out. “But you’re not wearing that dress.”

“
Black it is,” she said with a smile, because he’d just made the decision so much easier for her.

“
It’s freezing out,” he pointed out, clearly not happy with her choice.

“
I’ll wear a wrap,” she pointed out, getting more excited with every passing second.

She was finally going on a date with the man of her dreams!

At least, she thought she was, but four hours later when it became obvious that he’d forgotten all about their date, she took off the dress that she’d been dying to wear, pulled on her favorite pair of worn jeans, shirt, and boots and decided to go tell a certain Bradford to go to hell.

*-*-*-*

Several hours earlier…

“
You…mother…fuckers…,” he managed to get out on a slur as he took a swing at what he thought was one of his brothers and ended up face down on his bed and once he was there, he found that he couldn’t get up and he definitely needed to get up.

“
You needed this, asshole,” Aidan said, sounding a hell of a lot braver than he had fifteen minutes earlier when he’d been screaming like a girl and begging their brothers and cousins to save him from the psychotic bastard as Duncan went to beat the shit out of the sneaky bastard for taking him by surprise and sticking a huge fucking needle in his ass.

“
You haven’t slept in almost a week,” one of his other brothers said, but he couldn’t be sure which one since his head was spinning and he couldn’t really understand what they were saying anymore.

The only thing that he knew was that he was going to be late for his date and that would probably get him killed. For some reason the thought of the klutzy little Necie Dixon coming to kick ass made him smile as the medicine took over and dragged him under.

*-*-*-*

“
Please state your name and business,” the ten-year-old boy who looked very familiar said as the front door swung open.

Instead of answering him, she narrowed her eyes on him and within seconds knew that she was dealing with the next generation of Bradford males.

“
Necie Dixon,” she said, keeping her tone businesslike even though there was just something about this little boy that made her want to smile. “I’m here to see Duncan.”

Sighing heavily with a sad shake of his head, the boy said, “I’m sorry, but Duncan isn’t accepting visitors at the moment.”

“
I see,” she said, looking past him to see all the large Bradford males standing guard, ready to stop her just in case she got past the boy. “And why is that?”

“
I’m afraid that’s classified,” the boy said, crossing his small arms over his chest and mimicking the stance of all the large males behind him.

She sighed heavily in disappointment and shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I’ll have to come back another time then.”

“
I guess so,” the little boy said with a firm nod, really looking just too damn adorable.

“
It’s too bad, because Duncan promised that I could use his kitchen to practice my new recipe for double fudge brownies, but if he’s busy…,” she said, purposely letting her words trail off with another lazy shrug as she turned to leave, but of course she didn’t make it very far before she was grabbed and dragged inside.

As she was carried towards the kitchen, she just prayed that she didn’t run out of cocoa powder before she got her chance to escape and go have a word with a certain Bradford.

*-*-*-*

Heart pounding against her chest, telling her that she needed to move her ass faster and demanding to know why she’d done something so foolish as to only make one pan of brownies when she knew the house was filled to the rafters with Bradfords, she practically dove for the attic door.