Page 7 of Everything Christmas

Two months before BlackFriday...

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Jarred awake, Merry sat straight up in bed. Still groggy from sleep, she looked around, trying to identify the noise. When the loud, insistent banging came again, she pinpointed it to her front door.

“Just a minute,” she called to her persistent early morning visitor as she moved sluggishly down the stairs while fumbling with the tie on her robe.

The pounding reverberated down the hall—the loud jarring noise making her cringe.

“I’m coming,” she said impatiently, shouting to be heard before whoever it was began pounding again.

In her rush, she tripped, stubbing her toe on the corner of a heavy cardboard box sticking into the narrow path of her crowded front hallway. Cursing under her breath, she hopped in pain but limped on, eyeing the other half dozen moving boxes that, after several weeks, still sat collecting dust, waiting to be unpacked. Her muscles, sore from gardening the day before, cramped in protest at even the idea of more work.

Merry’s usually bright disposition was nonexistent as she hobbled painfully toward the door. She twisted the lock and released the chain then threw open the door. The less than polite greeting she planned evaporated on her tongue because before her stood a wall of muscle wrapped in a dark-blue police uniform.

Her gazed traveled over bulging forearms where his arms crossed his chest. Looking up, way up, she encountered a familiar pair of steely gray eyes set in a sinfully handsome face. As if he’d run his fingers through his thick brown hair, it had furrows in it and from the way his full lips were downturned, his glower aimed at her, he either wasn’t a morning person or was pissed at her for some reason.

“Good morning, officer.” Merry’s cheerful greeting made those lips turn down more, and she noticed a muscle twitch in his set jaw.

Again, he offered no greeting. “Do you always open your door without checking to see who it is?”

“Oh no. I didn’t notice that I had. I usually do.”

“What makes this morning special?”

“You seemed rather, uh... insistent with your knocking. I thought something might be wrong.”

“If I were a would-be thief, rapist, or murderer looking for my next victim, something would definitely be wrong. And it’s sergeant.”

“Sorry, Sergeant Morgan.” Sheesh, what a grump. “Was there anything else?”

“Yeah, I came to remind you I live in the condo directly across the way.”

“I know. Having a policeman in the neighborhood is very reassuring.”

“Well, this policeman is going to charge you with indecency if you don’t get some curtains for your bedroom window. If I’d wanted to live across from a peep show, I would have moved to the city.”

Merry gasped and instinctively pulled her robe closer. “But I have curtains.”

“Not that I could tell. Also, you need to get dead bolts for your doors. This might be a friendly neighborhood and a quiet street, but we still have crime. A woman living alone has to be extra cautious about security. That chain and flimsy lock won’t keep anyone out who really wants in. Understand?”

She could only gape at him as she nodded, still struck by the thought of him seeing through her bedroom window. Had she been undressing, or worse, buck naked?

Then it occurred to her, most healthy, red-blooded American males wouldn’t complain about seeing a little skin. Unless their girlfriend griped about it or they were gay, which from the hot-chick parade she’d witnessed, he wasn’t. Either way, the man wanted her to get sturdier curtains and was clearly unimpressed.

Merry’s already low self-esteem took another hit. What did she expect? He was gorgeous and all his perfect girlfriends were six feet tall, with legs up to their armpits and 2 percent body fat. The view from his condo was obviously not up to his standard.

“Get in the habit of checking who it is before you throw open your door to just anybody. I don’t want to respond to a 240 in progress in my own neighborhood.”

“A 240?”

The muscle jumped in his cheek again. “Just get new locks, Merry.”

She assumed he was finished issuing orders when he turned and walked away. But after about six steps, he swung back to her and his gaze swept her body slowly from head to toe. “And put on decent clothes before you answer the door from now on. That skimpy thing may be good for date night with your boyfriend, but you’re asking for trouble answering the door in it.”

With that last order issued, he stomped down her sidewalk and across the street. Merry watched until he was out of sight before she closed and lock her door. Reese Morgan was drool-worthy every day and as big as he was, rather intimidating. In his police uniform, with his badge and weapon in full view, he oozed authority. If the tightening of her nipples and the tingling between her legs weren’t enough of a clue, the plunging of her mental functioning whenever he spoke made it clear. She had the hots for her cantankerous neighbor.

But wait...

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