Romancing the Holiday (8 page)

He stormed up the walkway, his heavy boots stomping on the boards balanced over the mud and small puddles of melted snow. He stopped right behind Travis. “Where is she?”

The man jumped a good three feet. “What’s wrong with you?”

A clear-cut case of uncontrolled lust. “I thought you heard me coming.”

“I thought it was the men clomping around. Didn’t know you’d shown up.” Travis’s eyes narrowed. “Are you okay?”

“Not lately.”

“Ah.” He nodded, even smacked his lips together. “I get it.”

Spence couldn’t handle one more minute of matchmaking without having his temper blow. “Don’t do that.”

“Sounds like a Lila problem.” Travis rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe you should cool down a second before—”

Good advice but Spence had no plans to take it. “Probably should but I’m not going to.”

Travis exhaled, long and loud, and shook his head with a definite you’re-screwed message. “The main cabin.”

“Thanks.”

By the time Spence reached the door his unrealistic anger had downshifted into something else. He didn’t want to scare her, but he did want her to know that kiss was no fluke. The tie between them started in that hotel and knotted them together even now.

After a quick count to ten, he shoved the door open. It only took a second to find her. She stood bundled up in a ski jacket and gloves, trying to paint the inside window trim even though it was cold enough to see her breath.

With that the last of his frustration fell away. She wasn’t running from him. She was running to this.

Maybe it was the cheeks stung bright pink by the cool air or the fake fur earmuffs that made her look like some sort of ski bunny. And the way the excitement lit her eyes there was no way he could deny her the right to rush to the project each morning, even if he wanted her somewhere else with him.

“Spence?”

“How long have you been here?” The words came out sharper than he intended but she didn’t even flinch.

She dumped the paintbrush back in the tray by her rain boots. “An hour.”

Since it wasn’t even seven yet, he found her work ethic more than a little impressive. He and Travis were the early risers at Thomas Nurseries. Mitch would sleep until ten if he could and Austin shoved more work into a nine-to-six workday than any other human on the planet. Already this morning Lila had set up the drop cloth and outlined the window in blue tape, though the finish wasn’t on the walls, so there was nothing she could ruin with a stray splash of off-white.

Which led to an obvious issue. “I’m not sure we’re ready to paint in here yet.”

“That’s what Travis said.”

Spence gave in to temptation. He walked over to stand in front of her, just out of touching range but close enough to reach out if he wanted to...and boy did he want to. “Regardless of the warnings, you thought you’d give it a shot?”

She shrugged under her oversized coat. “I just wanted to see.”

Big coat. Tiny T-shirt. Spence didn’t think he could take much more. He ached to get her out of all of it.

Instead of dwelling on her wardrobe or his plans for later, he went with the need thundering in his brain. “There’s one thing you forgot when you rushed out here this morning.”

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “What?”

The way her hair fell over her shoulders, all smooth and shiny, made him want to run his fingers through it. “This.”

Through all the layers and despite the tiny O that formed on her mouth as he leaned in, he wasn’t deterred. His mouth met hers and the fireworks sparked as strong as they had the night before. Heat raced through his body and the blood rushed to his erection. He’d take her over any drop of alcohol or drug out there. The taste of her, the feel of her hands against his chest, wiped out every oath he’d ever made about women.

His mother left. Women moved in and out of his life. Friends lost it over the females in their lives. He didn’t understand any of it. Didn’t understand his feelings for the woman wrapped in his arms or what made her different, because she was and he couldn’t explain how.

None of that stopped him from deepening the kiss until he knew he had to stop or risk giving his men an unbelievable show. When he pulled back and looked down at her, he saw flushed cheeks and cloudy eyes. Her death grip on his sleeves hadn’t eased even though the kiss ended.

“What was that for?” Her voice sounded breathy and thin.

“A reminder.”

“Of what?”

Damn, he could not stop wanting her. Touching her only ramped up the need. “Last night’s kiss.”

“You honestly think I forgot about that?”

Her smile rocked him. Yeah, this woman wasn’t on the run. That wasn’t the look of a woman trying to hide her feelings.

“A man needs to make sure.”

She treated him to a quick kiss that was over before he could join in. “And this woman needs breakfast. Take me to Schmidt’s.”

By the time he realized what was happening, she’d put three feet of formidable space between them. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were trying to drag me into public because you’re not sure if you can resist me in private.”

She stepped up and slipped her arm through his, guiding him toward the door. “Did I mention you’re paying?”

Question answered
. “With pleasure.”

Chapter Eight

Lila rubbed her hands over her arms as she stared up at the farmhouse two nights later. Spence had been a perfect gentleman. Except for a few stolen kisses he’d kept his hands to himself and ended each night within ten minutes of putting the last clean dinner dish away. Even now the lights on his first floor burned bright. She hadn’t ventured up there, thinking it was his sanctuary and she’d invaded enough of his life, but she knew from the talk around the nursery the bottom floor of the big house consisted of offices and he lived on the floor above.

Lost in her thoughts, she still heard a whistle right before the crunch of footsteps and had to smile. She recognized the low-pitched sound because Travis spent a good portion of his workday whistling. “You trying to warn me you’re coming?”

“A smart man doesn’t sneak up on a woman and a worthwhile one does everything he can not to scare ’em.” His voice came out of the shadows.

“That’s a good life motto.”

“Heard Spence’s father say it once and it stuck.” Travis stepped onto the porch with his heels thudding on the wood and his broad shoulders blocking her direct view of the farmhouse. “It’s pretty cold to be standing out here in slippers and without a jacket.”

She glanced at the pink fluffballs covering her feet. They were a gift from Spence that morning after breakfast and just looking at them made her smile. Being reminded she was outside had the opposite effect. A chill rumbled through her as she watched her breath turn to fog on the night air.

“I just wanted some fresh air.” The excuse sounded lame even to her.

He leaned against the porch railing and crossed one ankle over the other. “Working outside all day isn’t enough for you?”

“I guess not.” She noticed the V-neck sweater peeking out under his partway-zippered jacket and tried to remember if she’d ever seen him in anything other than a sweatshirt or plaid shirt. Looked like she was seeing the back end of date night. “You strike out tonight?”

He chuckled. “No, ma’am.”

“Must be nice to be so popular.” She doubted he spent many nights alone, but seeing him before midnight made her wonder if he’d even treated the woman to dinner first.

Thinking of sex sent her mind spinning right in Spence’s direction. Before she could stop, her gaze traveled to the farmhouse for the briefest of seconds. She realized what she was doing and dragged her focus back just in time to clash with the amusement in Travis’s eyes. Talk about getting busted in the act. “What?”

Travis glanced at the area in question then back to her again. “He’s working.”

She balled her hands into fists, even dug her nails into her palms to keep her expression neutral. She wanted to play it cool and not care. Certainly didn’t want to drag Travis into a conversation about his boss’s private life. This wasn’t high school after all.

Still... “Because of the holidays?”

Travis shifted around, uncharacteristically fidgety all of a sudden for a guy who had the ability to blend into the background and soak in everything happening around him. “That’s part of it.”

“What’s the rest?” When Travis shrugged, she lowered her head until he gave her eye contact again. “Tell me.”

“You should ask him.” He traced a random line on the porch with the toe of his shoe.

The diverting. The shrugs. The non-answers. It all added up to whack her in the dead center of her chest. “Son of a...it’s me, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know.”

The pieces fell like dominoes. Spence, his employees, they showed up each day, dedicated so many hours to getting her business up and running. There had to be blowback somewhere. She wanted to kick her butt for being too stupid to see it.

“Don’t play innocent. Spence is working now because he’s spending most of his days at the campground with me.” When the night stayed silent except for the soft rustle of wind through the trees outlining the cabin, she refused to let the subject drop. “Travis, talk.”

“Okay, yes. Something like that.” He almost spoke over her as he answered.

“You mean exactly like that.”

Travis tilted his head back and grumbled in words too low and rough to make sense. When he faced her again he wore a crooked smile, as if he’d been found out and was resigned to it. “With the campground work, and with Austin and Mitch away, Spence’s been working triple time. He handles the nursery business in the evenings after the days of construction.”

That sounded like such a careful sentence, one that downplayed the mess Spence unraveled each day. “How many hours are we talking about?”

“Probably four or five. Maybe more.”

She did a quick calculation and couldn’t come up with much extra time away from work or even for showering. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Look, Lila, it’s who he is. He’s a smart guy who works his ass off. He helps people and never talks about it, but he doesn’t let his job suffer, even if it means going days with almost no sleep.”

“That’s crazy.”

“Well, this time the sacrifice is for you.”

So much giving and she’d been clueless. Actually, if she were honest, she’d practiced a form of not wanting to know. It didn’t take a math genius or super detective to add up the clues here. “He never said a word.”

Travis shook his head. “Not his style but he wouldn’t do it if he didn’t want to.”

“Who would want to work like that?”

Travis closed one eye and with only one left managed to stare her down. “I think it’s more that
you
matter, so he makes it work.”

The words left an echoing thud in her ears. They wound around her, warmed her. The shield she held in front of her body to block any potential blows lowered a bit. “He’s not easy to understand.”

“Despite the big brain, he’s not nearly as complex as he thinks he is. People rarely are, but you’re good for him.”

She blocked the sentiment. If she let her mind wander down that path...well, a woman needed some self-preservation. “Not for his sleep patterns.”

Travis wiped a hand over his mouth. Spent another second clearing his throat. “I’m thinking sleep is the last thing on his mind as far as you’re concerned.”

And with that she realized she was talking to the wrong man. “Good night, Travis.”

“Good night, ma’am.”

“Lila.”

He smiled. “Lila it is.” He pushed off the railing and treated her to a wink before he lumbered down the stairs, whistling as he went.

Five minutes later she still stood on the porch. When the light didn’t blink out in the farmhouse on the hill, she made a decision. The life-altering kind. She was done with their mutual game of hard-to-get. It was time for her to take control.

* * *

The black lines on the report in front of Spence blurred together into one long smudge. He closed his eyes, hoping they’d focus again when he reopened them. He’d reached the point of them being dry and scratchy as if pebbles swam around in there. Much more of this shit and he’d sign his name to anything.

Not that he had another choice. Seeing Lila every day, reveling in the pure joy she took from completing each task, kept him coming back. That and the pretty face, hot ass and memories of her naked. The same memories that kept him perpetually hard. He hadn’t been this on edge and ready for action since he was a teen and nailed anything that let him.

He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. The office was unusually quiet, having closed hours before. The Christmas tree in the corner by the entrance glowed with a mix of white and red lights as the soft notes of a carol he didn’t quite recognize played on the radio.

The room usually buzzed with activity—phones ringing, printers humming, people in and out and a steady run of chatter about what was happening in town. More than once he’d heard reference to his name and The Last One, and he tried to pretend the tag didn’t apply to Lila. The town’s matchmaking had bloomed out of control and he wasn’t even in the nursery all day to feed it.

When he wasn’t at the campground, he worked up here. He wanted to be one step removed from the greenhouse floor and the constant gossip that raced around over there, but it wasn’t as if he had an abundance of privacy at the farmhouse either. Elaine and Karen sat in desks across from each other. The kids from the high school who did the filing and the guys who made the delivery runs came in and out, asking all sorts of questions.

His area stretched across the far wall, separated from the rest by two chairs and right in the traffic area between the ladies’ desks in front of him and the bathroom and printer room behind him. More than once he’d toyed with the idea of building a closed-in office where he could hide, but he’d never liked the whole boss-as-separate-entity thing. His dad hadn’t done it and Spence was content to follow Dad’s lead on this.

When a floorboard creaked, his eyes popped open. The old house came with a hundred years of groans but this sounded like an intrusion of the human kind.

Lila stood there with a death grip on the front of her jacket and her hair in a ponytail. Man, just thinking about her now had the power to conjure her up. She played a powerful role in his dreams and those dreams now bled over to his waking hours.

He blinked a few times, but the fantasy, this one pretty G-rated, didn’t budge. “Lila?”

She didn’t move from the double-wide doorway between the office suite and the central hall of the farmhouse. She scanned the room, smiling when her gaze fell on the wall of Christmas cards Elaine created with a slab of corkboard and a box of tacks.

“Why are you still up?” Lila asked.

Not the question he expected. “What?”

“It’s late.” Her voice wobbled as she glanced over her shoulder toward the center staircase to the second floor. “Are we alone?”

The question bounced around his head. She couldn’t possibly think he had another woman in here. She was way too smart for that kind of crap.

He let the front legs of his chair hit against the floor. The snap of metal against wood added an extra beat to the loud ticks of the wall clock. “It’s just me.”

“It’s after one.”

Which sucked because the pile on his desk next to his right hand hadn’t been touched yet. The idea of working another hour or two made that last cup of coffee solidify into a big tumbling ball in his hollow stomach. “I lost track of time.”

“Is that the truth?” She slipped into the room. Just inside. One careful step that put her back against the far wall and her body next to the blinking tree.

“Yes. What are you doing here?” He’d fantasized more than once about having her up here, but not on this floor. Upstairs, bent over his couch or draped naked across his sheets.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He could barely remember it. There was nothing overtly sexy about her sweatpants, but they kept grabbing his attention. This look, comfortable and warm, face scrubbed clean of make-up and all pink and shiny, tugged at him more than any fancy dress could do. This was real, genuine. The look fit her.

He knew without getting closer she’d smell like almonds. She always did. “I had some paperwork.”

“Every night since I got to town?” She took another few steps, walking down the pathway that broke through the center of the room and stopped right in front of his desk.

“It stacks up.”

She dropped her hands from her jacket, balancing them against the opposite side of his desk instead. “Why are you really here?”

The zipper only went as far as the tops of her breasts and all he could see was miles of creamy skin. The discovery had his brain sputtering and blood whooshing through his body in an all-out race to his erection.

He tried to focus on the conversation. Wondered if he could spell his name if someone made him right that second. “I live upstairs.”

“I mean in the office.” She bent over and that jacket dipped. “Why are you really here at this hour?”

He tried to drag his gaze back to her face but the shadowed valley between her breasts and the soft curves of flesh he saw there had him in a power lock and wouldn’t let go. “I’m not getting your question.”

“We’re going to play a game.” She walked around his desk until she stood less than a foot from the side of his chair.

“Sounds dangerous.” Hell, the chances of him swallowing his tongue increased by the second.

“I’ll ask a question and you’ll answer.”

“So, I was right. Dangerous.”

“Are you working late at the nursery because you have to spend all your time during the day working with me?”

He forced his brain to keep working. Even when she ran her fingers down his arm, he kept spitting words out, hoping they weren’t random nonsense. “It’s not like that.”

“Spence.”

He looked up at her, because he couldn’t look anywhere else right then. “Yeah?”

“You’re supposed to be a very smart man. If that’s true, you’ll answer me.”

“Book smart. Not all that people smart.” And he felt pretty stupid right now. Couldn’t call up a brain cell no matter how hard he tried.

“I want the truth about your late hours.” She slipped her hand under his elbow.

Then he was on his feet, right beside her, facing her, and he had no memory of standing. “I got a little behind. It’s Christmas, so that’s to be expected. No big deal.”

“Let’s try again.” She spread her hands over his chest.

In three seconds he was going to put her on that desk and live out one of his favorite fantasies about her. His hands covered hers. “What does this matter?”

“Spence?”

“Yes, okay. Yes. That’s what I’m doing, all the stuff I would have done during the day if I had time.”

“That’s what I thought.”

One second they looked at each other and the next she was all over him. She crushed his mouth under hers as her hands went to his hair, his shoulder, his back. Energy whipped around them, alive and wild. She moaned into his mouth as her tongue swept inside. She was everywhere, holding him, filling his arms, answering every need before he knew he had it.

As the thunderstorm crashed over them, he took over. Spinning, he backed her against the wall. Fingers tugged at the zipper, relieved when the ripping sound tore through the room. He pushed the material aside and saw the lacy bra and the way her breasts pushed over the top.