Page 48 of Yuletide Guard

The children’s whys kept running through her head, and right now, she actually couldn’t think of a reason why she shouldn’t make her house look Christmassy too.

“What are you thinking about?” Michael asked as he wrapped an arm around her waist and drew her to him.

“About what Asher asked,” she replied as they both waved to Hannah and the kids as they drove off down the street.

“Why you don’t have a Christmas tree?” he asked as he led her inside and closed and locked the door behind them. “You don’t have to have a tree just because your nephew asked about it. It’s okay that you don’t like Christmas and it’s okay if you never do. He’s just curious because he’s a toddler and they notice everything and they want to learn. His house has a tree and most other people’s he’s been to do as well, so he just wonders why you don’t.”

“I know.” She nodded. She knew how kids’ minds worked. “But I want to.”

“You want to what?” Michael’s hands rested on her shoulders and kneaded gently.

“I want to have a Christmas tree. I can't pretend that I can instantly start loving Christmas, but I think I could start out with a tree and then go from there. One day if we have kids, I want them to love Christmas. Oh,” she stammered when she realized what she had said. “I … uh … sorry … that slipped out … I don’t … I mean … uh … we never talked about that … actually, we never talked about anything … and I … uh … I don’t even know …”

Michael finally took mercy on her and broke off her embarrassed rambling by curling a hand around the back of her neck and drawing her mouth to his, kissing her like he never wanted to let her go. “I want to have kids with you too,” he murmured against her lips when he finished kissing her.

“Good.” She smiled, glad they were on the same page. “Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Is it too late to go and get a tree?”Since she had never had a Christmas tree before she really had no idea how or when you were supposed to get one.

“It’s not too late.” Michael grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her through the foyer to the sunroom.

“Don’t we need to go out to get a tree?” she asked.

“Nope.” He opened her backdoor and went to the Colorado Blue Spruce, picking it up and bringing it to her. “This is perfect.”

Samara laughed. “You did say it looked like a Christmas tree.”

“We can put some of the popcorn strings on it, they're bright and colorful and will make it look all Christmassy.”

“What about a star for the top?” she asked as they both went back inside.

“We could make one out of foil,” Michael suggested, taking a string of popcorn and winding it around and around the little Christmas tree until it was spaced out evenly from top to bottom.

“You have an idea for everything.”

“I have an idea of what we could be doing right now.” He wiggled her eyebrows at her suggestively.

“Oh?” she feigned confusion. “Yeah? What?”

“Something upstairs.” He set the bonsai tree down and dragged her up against his chest, kissing her again. This time the kiss was full of heat and passion. “I think I remember someone being a little impatient last night and not taking to the slow and tender approach too kindly. Maybe we can have a do-over.”

“I like the sound of that,” Samara said, her body already burning to have Michael inside it.

He took her hand and was just dragging her toward the stairs when her phone beeped with a message.

They both froze.

In an effort to try and prevent the stalker from getting hold of her current phone number only a handful of people had it. Michael had it, so did Fin, and her bosses Brady, Ryan, andPaige.

But that was it.

None of them would be calling her right now because any activity on their phones that was connected to her phone would be like breadcrumbs leading the stalker right to her.

Although it seemed like those precautions had been unnecessary.

She yanked herself out of Michael’s grip and ran toward the counter where her phone sat.

“Don’t look at it, Samara,” Michael said, but she had already snatched up the phone and seen what was on the screen.

On it was a message much like the one Michael had received the day before.

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