Page 41 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

“Sounds like a sensible precaution.”

She relaxed. “I’m glad you think so. Food is always good. Toffee. If their teeth are stuck together, they can’t ask horribly invasive questions.”

*They’re not shifters?*Toffee-jammed teeth wouldn’t stop a shifter from asking questions.

Peony’s face fell. “Oh. I didn’t think about that.” She rallied quickly but seemed unusually shaken. “Toffee for the mind, then. What would that be? Alcohol? If they’re too sloshed to think straight, they can’t ask too many questions, right?”

“Let me see the map. Hmm. I don’t see a listing for the festive vodka stall.”

“No? Usually it’s right next to the duck wells.” Peony’s nose wrinkled as she grinned. “What about your family? Should I be loading up on artillery gifts for them as well?”

“God, no. There’s only one thing my grandmother wants, and I’ve already organized it.” He didn’t realize how bitter the words would come out until he’d already spoken them.

“Um. Okay. Point taken.” She winced. “There’s nothing I can get her? Not even a good book? My budget isn’t exactly endless, but…”

“It’s not a case of you not being able to afford something appropriate.”Well done, Mr. Smooth.“We don’t normally do gifts.”

“And… it’s only your grandmother?”

“She’s my only family, yes.” Should he say more?Yes,his dragon nudged him.Explain. How else is she going to understand?

Mordecai imagined a future in which he told Peony everything, about his victory and why she was paying the price for it, and she treated him exactly as he deserved.

I’m too much of a coward.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“Don’t be. My life is hardly a tragedy.”

“All right.” She squeezed his arm. It was barely a touch—a moment of pressure through layers of thick fabric—but it left him warm and strange-feeling. “You’re welcome to borrow as many of my relatives as you like, if you ever feel you’re running low. I have cousins and aunts and uncles and this and that how many times removed coming out my ears.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said dryly.

Peony laughed. “Good. Okay. I think I’ve figured out the best route.” She dragged her finger along the map. “Stuff ourselves with food here. Roll around the game stalls and lose all our money throwing balls at giant advent calendars and wobbling around on ice-skates. Shopping at the end, because first, that means less distance to carry everything back to the car, and second, we already lost all our money on the games, so we’ll be stealing everything and running away.”

“No doubt using the duck wells as our escape route.”

“How’d you guess?”

She dragged him deeper into the market. He did his best to pay for everything, but every time he turned around, Peony was passing him a new winter treat to try or handing him a ball to throw at a knock-’em-down game. They gorged on donuts and chocolates and fried cheese and sausages, and pored over trinkets.

He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was all too good to be true.She must be putting it on, he told himself when she hooted with laughter as her ball almost hit the stallholder instead of the toy on the shelf she’d aimed it at.It must be an act, as she snorted into her mug of mulled wine.

She can’t really be this happy.

She put her arm around his again and pulled him towards the next stall.

It can’t be me that’s making her this happy.

He didn’t deserve it. He didn’t deserve her.

When the second shoe dropped, he was ready for it. They were near the end of the market, according to the map, only a few twisted corners away from the exit nearest where he had parked.

Peony was clutching bags around herself like armor. She turned to him. “Thereissomething I’d like to talk to you about,” she said and tilted her chin up to look him in the eye.

“Here?”In public? In the middle of the most confusingly and overwhelmingly Christmas experience of my life?

“Close.” She reached out for him, hesitated, then took his arm. “At the ice-skating rink.”

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