Page 15

She bit her lip, her eyes downcast. But she kept quiet. I didn’t want this to become an issue between us, but I was putting my foot down on this one.

“Will you at least come to bed?”

I wanted to so badly, but I was too wired. I felt like I was on the edge, and if I went with her, I might snap or say something I didn’t mean.

“I’ll stay here.”

I had to look away as tears filled her eyes. But like the strong woman she was, she blinked them back and smiled brightly.

“Yeah, I get it. Don’t stay up too late. You have training in the morning.”

“Sure.”

I wanted to call out to her, to tell her to forgive me for being an ass. I didn’t mean to be so horrible to her, but it was like this time of year brought out the worst in me, pulling this terrible behavior from every cell of my body. And the more I tried to fight it, the worse I was.

So, I let her walk away. Slumping down on the couch, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to imagine what it would be like to just sing a Christmas carol or happily hang lights.

But those nasty images kept making their way into my brain. So, in the end, I grabbed some whiskey and drank until I passed out.

3

HARPER

Snuggling into Edu’s side, I stared up at our beautiful Christmas tree, filled with sparkling twinkle lights and the most beautiful homemade ornaments. We’d spent all day putting it up, listening to Christmas music as Eden and Gracie danced around, laughing as Edu put tinsel on his head and skipped around like an elf.

“Today was a good day.”

“Yeah, it was, baby,” Edu sighed, pressing a kiss to my head. “Hey, tomorrow, we should make gingerbread houses and sugar cookies.”

“Mmm, that sounds good.”

“You know, I had this idea today.”

“Yeah? What was it?”

His finger trailed down my side, brushing beneath the hem of my shirt. “Well, the kids are asleep, and it’s just us down here with the tree.”

Pushing off him, I grinned widely. “You want to do it under the tree?”

Chuckling, he pulled me back into him. “Actually, I was thinking that we had the couch to ourselves. The tree might be kind of scratchy.”

“Oh, right,” I chuckled. “Yeah, that might be kind of prickly.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

I relaxed into him as his fingers skimmed lazily over my exposed stomach. Butterflies shot off in my belly as his hand wandered further, slipping beneath my pajama pants, wandering down under my panties.

“Edu,” I gasped.

“That’s right, lass. I’m here ‘a make ya feel right pleasant.”

My head whipped to Edu, but he wasn’t there. A Highlander grinned at me, shooting me a wink before he nodded toward his groin.

His kilt was spread out over his thick thighs, and I realized then that if I got down on my knees, I would finally figure out what was beneath a kilt.

But as I moved to my knees, I wondered if I could actually go through with this. Not only was he not my husband, but he was kind of hairy. What if…everywhere was this hairy?

“Go ahead, lass. Give the ol’ prick a right tug.”