I'm Your Santa (21 page)

LuLu sat. “Think I'll hang out here for awhile.”

Rebecca added, “A Hummer? Now that's a truck with some major cahonies.”

Uncle Cordell's eyes rolled. “What kind of talk is that from a lady?”

“A lady who can make up her own mind, in case there was any doubt.”

“I'll wait with LuLu,” Sebastian said, making it a statement instead of a question and knowing he'd made a big mistake doing that the minute the words were out. He needed a class in women 102. He flunked 101.

LuLu glared. “There's only one main road through town so I'm not likely to get lost. I can handle it all by myself. And the snow's stopped.”

The women, except for LuLu, trooped for the door, the men looking pissed without a nice fat Hummer waiting for them. The customers took up with their food again, sad the new show in town was over.

When Sebastian got outside he stayed on the porch, watching the women load into the Hummer, the men trailing behind. He pulled a cigarette from a pack and lit up, something he rarely did anymore. The porch light caught the “
hazardous to your health
” warning and he considered where he'd be ten days from now. Hazardous was a hell of a lot more than cigarettes and he knew in his gut he did the right thing in calling off the wedding.

He inhaled another drag, turned his collar against the chill and waited for LuLu-the-stubborn to get her very lovely fanny outside so he could walk her home.

LuLu sipped her cider and gazed at the front door of Slim's. Another guy gone right out of her life, but this time like before with Jerome it was a good thing. Not only didn't she need to get involved with another Mr. coming-and-going but this one thought he had all the answers. She didn't need Handsome making decisions for her like he did for Bevvy. What the heck was the man thinking? And why did she have to keep thinking about him? At least she had the night to herself and could work on getting him out of her system.

She headed for the door, stepped outside and straight into Handsome's path. “This is not you going home.” And it sure wasn't her getting over him.

“Thought I'd walk you to your place.”

“I'm going back to the inn and I can do it on my own.”

“Going to the inn because you miss me?”

She did but she'd get over it. “Since you're here and not likely to leave me alone you can help. We need to get the happy couples happy again. They like each other well enough, some great attraction going on there but your little scheme with Bevvy turned everything upside down and got them doing battle royal instead of making out. We need to fix things, we're responsible since we set them up in the first place.”

She was babbling. Being with Handsome in the falling snow on a beautiful starry night was enough to make any woman babble her head off.

“We'll go with the original idea, lure them to the garden room and wine cellar. Cold but isolated and we'll only keep them there for a few hours, which should be enough time to let them work things out.”

She resisted the urge to snuggle close to Handsome as they walked to the inn. She needed distance and noninvolvement to get through this night and send him on his way tomorrow without ravaging him. Okay, how'd that last part get in there? She shouldn't even be thinking about ravaging. She was mad at him! No ravaging. She was glad he'd be gone…remember!

“I want to get something straight so you don't think I'm a complete jerk. When I went to pick Bevvy up from her bachelorette party she was sitting on Bruno's lap and he wasn't giving her percussion lessons, unless that's done with his tongue halfway down her throat. I figured if she was acting that way with me stateside and our wedding right around the corner, what would she be doing months from now when I was halfway around the world? I didn't want to be worrying about her, and she sure didn't want to be worrying about me. I did her a favor and she knew it. That's why she showed up tonight.”

“Dear man, the reason she showed up was to impress everyone with the Hummer.” Lights in the bushes led the way up the curvy drive to the warm lights of Hastings House glowing through the windows. “Looks like a Christmas card. Perfect place for a nonwedding.”

“And getting the loving couples loving again. With luck there should be so much love in the air by midnight the place will be dripping with it.”

“And I can go home and get some sleep.” She rested her head against his chest. “What a crock.”

“What's a crock?” His arms held her close.

She shouldn't let this happen, she was mad, remember? She really sucked at remembering lately. “As long as you're within a ten mile radius I'll never be able to sleep because I'll be thinking about you.” She looked up at him. “Well, more accurately, I'll be thinking about sex with you. Do all pregnant women want to get laid this badly? I don't remember feeling this way when Jerome was around.”

“Must be my good looks and great personality.”

And it was, but acknowledging that was no way to get over him and she was already doing a really bad job of that. “Mostly it's that you're good—make that great—in the sack. Can't believe I really said all that. Hormones on parade.” She wiggled out of his arms and pushed open the door, pulling Handsome inside behind her. She kicked off her boots and hung up her Joseph's coat. “On with the plan.”

“I liked our plan outside better.”

“We need to stay away from each other. We can do that. Right now we don't even like each other all that much, except for sex, so it should be a snap. Sex isn't everything.”

 

Sebastian hunted up Uncle Cordell sitting by the fire, sipping brandy. What Sebastian wouldn't give to have LuLu by this fire all to himself, and that her thoughts ran in the same direction only made him think about it all the more. Who knew that horniness was contagious? “Rebecca needs you to help bring up a case of wine from the wine cellar.”

“And your arm's broke?”

“Hey, she asked for you and I am not getting between two opposing fronts. Maybe she's looking for an opportunity to apologize, consider that. You really get along and a little difference of opinion over decision making shouldn't get in the way.”

“Criminy sakes.” Cordell gazed into the fire. “What is it with women? If I live to be a hundred I'll never understand them. You think you're trying to protect them, put yourself out for them and take care of them, and then they get their panties in a twist and get all huffy about taking care of themselves and doing their own thing, and suddenly you're the bad guy.”

“You are asking the wrong person about this. I got a bad track record in the female department.”

“True enough.” Cordell offered up his drink in a salute. “Neither of us is worth a damn when it comes to women. But if Rebecca needs me I'll help her out, and maybe she does want to apologize. She really is all wrong on this protection idea.”

“Uh, you might want to soft-pedal that idea a little if you're wanting her back. No woman wants to hear about being wrong.”

“Well, she is, dammit. But I'll go see what she wants all the same.”

Which was good since Sebastian just told Rebecca that Uncle Cordell wanted her to pick out the right wine for tomorrow's dinner. That was one way of getting them into the cellar at the same time. He sucked at telling lies.

“Can you forget about being right for a little while?” he called after Cordell.

“Hell, no.”

This part of the get-them-back-together plan was not going well. “Maybe you should try one of those bottles of wine while you're in the cellar.” Or two bottles or three.

“Not much of a wine drinker.”

“Now's a good time to start.” Following Cordell at a distance Sebastian waited for him to go down into the basement part of the old house.

Cordell called, “Rebecca?”

“In here looking for you.” He entered and asked Rebecca what she wanted. Then she asked why he was here. She said she could pick out her own wine, thank you very much, and Cordell said something about a fickle woman and Sebastian slammed the door shut. Least that stopped them arguing for a minute before they both started pounding on the door. Good thing it was in the basement so no one else could hear the commotion.

He sprinted back upstairs to the dining room and LuLu fluffing red tablecloths over tables. He stood in the doorway watching her work, appreciating the way she walked, moved, held her head, the way her hair fell across her shoulders. Getting too close was dangerous for both of them after her “in the sack” confession, and at the moment he couldn't trust himself not to tackle her to the carpet right there in front of the roaring fire.

“Well,” he said to break the silence and start thinking of something else besides LuLu. “The two hardheads have cheese, bread, soft lighting, and lots of wine and if they're ever going to make a go of it, it's now. If they find out I locked them in that cellar they'll either thank me or lynch me, and when I left them the lynching theory was winning big time.”

“Isabella and Terrance were fighting like rutting rams when I shut them in the garden room and locked the door. Hope they don't break any windows trying to escape from each other. Maybe it'll all work out.”

“Maybe pigs fly.” Sebastian looked around. “Where is everyone else?”

“Sleeping, or at least in their bedrooms. Even the owners retired for the night. Lots of snow, and big fireplaces in each room brings out the romance in everyone.” Her eyes locked with his and he stepped farther into the hall putting more space between himself and so much temptation in the form of one dynamite female, talking romance.

She said, “Why don't you go to bed?”

Did everything have to remind him of the two of them never being together, when he wanted it more than air? He ached. She looked pained too and hurried on with, “I have to set things up here then get going in the kitchen or Terrance will never have breakfast ready on time and any good feelings he has with Isabella could be lost in the chaos of running late. We don't want that.”

“You know how to cook?” He put plates on the table doing one side of the room as she did the other. Talking was okay as long as he kept his distance.

“I know how to organize.” She set out the glasses. “In school I was the one who got the cameras, people, sets together. Never knew what to do after that but I got things ready to roll.” He set the last plate and his back brushed against LuLu's. He stopped, the connection sending little jolts through his body. Slowly, he turned and faced her.

“Thanks for setting dishes.” Her cheeks flushed and big blue eyes darkened.

“Glad to help.” He hated small talk.

“You…smell so good.”

Okay, he needed lots of small talk, something to take their minds off each other and being alone. “I think it's the gorgonzola. I put it out in the wine cellar for Cordell and Rebecca. That is some strange cheese.”

Her lips softened and she placed the tray of glasses on the table. “I think I have an attraction to gorgonzola. Actually…” She sighed. “Actually, I hate cheese so that means it's you.” She licked her bottom lip. “All you and neither of us wants it to be, do we, but that's the way it is.”

“Oh, boy.” Then he snapped her into his arms and kissed her, her sweet body molding against his chest, her hands in his hair—what there was of it—and shooting their nonattraction, stay-away ideas all to hell and back.

“We can't do this.”

“We always do this.”

“Then we have to face it for what it is.”

“Insanity?”

“Sex. Nothing else. No promises, no commitments, no planning for the future. You don't want someone worrying about you when you're gone, and I don't want to have another revolving-door relationship that leaves us with sex.” She gave a sassy smile. “And that's not all bad. We can do just sex. I think we're aces at just sex.”

“But there's something between us.”

She kissed him, flattening him against the wall by the door with a sold thud. “Yeah, really good sex. Focus on that, only that.”

“Okay, got it.” His tongue fondled hers as he drew her deeper into his arms. “And we can walk away from sex easily enough, is that the idea?”

“Nothing personal, basic carnal involvement, simple stuff like you and me and fitting parts together.” She gazed up at him. “It's all the rest of the complications about leaving that makes us nuts. Sex is pretty straight forward. And…and I really like it. In fact—” She pulled in a quick breath. “The more I talk about it with you right now, the more I like it and want it.”

They dropped to the rug by the hearth, knocking over a stack of napkins. The logs crackled and hissed, Sebastian's insides did the same. Nothing could be more erotic than sex with LuLu in front of a blazing hearth on a cold snowy night. He tore off his shirt.

“You are really one ripped male.”

He laughed deep in his chest. “With what I do, it's be in shape or be dead.”

Her eyes clouded with concern and she bit her bottom lip, the very thing he intended to avoid, he quickly added, “But I am in good shape.”

She touched a thin scar on his shoulder.

“It was nothing and I know what I'm doing and I'll be fine. Don't think about that now. Sex, remember. Nothing but you and me and being here.” He kissed her hair.

She let out a deep breath. “Maybe I'll write you.”

“You're losing focus here.” He pulled off her fluffy sweater and grinned. “Better.”

She slid off her bra.

“Much better. You are so gorgeous.” Then he took her in his arms giving them bare skin against bare skin, a delicious sensation as his hands stroked her back and her hands stroked across his shoulders making him aware of his physical strength against her graceful form. His hands molded to her sides to the indent of her abdomen, then up to the gentle swells of her breasts. “You have skin like silk.” He kissed her shoulder.

His pulse drummed as he kissed her slender throat and gently laid her back. He kissed the furrow of cleavage between her firming breasts and she moaned, her body arching to meet his as his fingers found one dusky hard nub and his tongue worshiped the other.

“Oh, God, Handsome. You're too much.” Her fingers pressed into his shoulders while he dropped kisses, to her navel; the rise and fall of her chest quickening. He undid the button on her slacks then unzipped, the sound a promise of sweet things to come. He kissed her slightly swelled belly.