Page 199 of Screwged for Christmas

“It’s the whiskey. You don’t seem like the drinking type. It must be getting to you. When is the last time you ate, sweetheart?”

“I’m gonna kill my sister.”

Steel bands wrapped around her middle, and she was staring into the sexiest set of amber eyes before she could protest. With little effort, he had his other arm beneath her legs.

“Wouldn’t want you to pass out in the street half naked.”

She pinned him with a hard look as his rigid body flexed under her touch. She ignored the flare of heat in his eyes and looped her arms around his neck.

“Come here, I’ve got you.”

“Bad for business, right,” she clattered out, but her words drowned in the joyous cheers and merriment of the whole town pushing through the doors of the Savage Fire, Damon’s bar and what seemed like the go-to spot for a night out. Her sister spent the better part of the last year working in the bar as a second job to help her pay for med school. Countless phone calls and late-night girl talk began and ended here. So much so that she felt she knew the place—and its owner—without even stepping a foot past the wide wooden double doors.

Guilt rushed her head-on.

As they entered Damon’s bar, she noticed several tables clustered in the center of the bar and the scent of thick smoke mixed with alcohol wafted over her.

Garland wound around the entire place with tiny white lights, and she couldn’t hold back the smile at such a burly man worrying over holiday decorations.

Opposite the door, a group of girls with pulled back hair and too little clothing for the dead of winter pounded double shooters with red peppers sticking out of the tops. She whipped her head around and the room tipped sideways while her body hit reverse. Her buzz waned and an annoying throb started up between her eyes.

Loud rumbling crunched her midsection, and she splayed a hand across her treacherous stomach to squelch the sounds.

“Tell me, when is the last time you ate?” he asked again softly.

“Don’t know.” Which was the truth. “The second my rotation at the hospital ended I grabbed a cab for the airport. here I am. I think I might have had a stale bag of peanuts.”

The crease between his brows told her he didn’t like her answer. “Let’s get you settled.”

Sounded good to her. “Thank you.”

Ethan came up beside them and planted a big kiss on her cheek. “Until next year, little sis.”

He retrieved a thick, colorful scarf from a nearby chair and passed it to a woman huddled inside her own cocoon before disappearing under the Savage Fire’s red and blue sign hanging above the door. Bright fingers of color bled into the rapidly dimming daylight to cast a colorful glow over the unsullied snow.

Her heart softened and she struggled to make sense of the emotions that swelled inside. Ivy knew it was lame to take any kind of comfort from the tender gesture of inclusion into the fold.

She shoved it aside like she did everything else and dealt with what she could control. The here and now.

More and more people flooded by, but Damon cut through the throng with ease and made a beeline around tables butted up against each other, stools dotting every space a chair didn’t occupy and aimed for a door that had the sign Manager stamped on it in stencil-styled white lettering.

Damon slipped his hand to the small of her back as he eased her to the floor, and though common sense said she shouldn’t feel the heat of his touch through the inches of cloth, she did. Her imagination could summon a lot, but not that. It melded through the coarse cotton-wool blend and soothed away the cold that took root deep in her bones.

“Thank you.” She spoke softly as though anything stronger would break the small bubble cast over them as she huddled in her blanket, his back blocking everyone from view.

He smiled gently; an elbow braced above her head on the wooden doorjamb.

“Thanks goes to you, actually. I haven’t had so much fun in... a while,” he added cautiously, his gaze swinging back over the growing crowd before finding hers again.

She brushed a finger over her cheek as she secured the blanket around her shoulders with her other. “I won’t take long and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

His expression softened and the hard edge that had taken hold faded. “Take as long as you like. No one will bother you. Drake put your bags by the back window. You can warm up in the shower and join us when you’re ready.”

He paused before he continued as if considering what to say next.

“There are clean towels on the back of the chest in the bathroom. Soap and a variety of shampoos, too. My sister swears by a few in there so I’m sure you’ll find something. And afterward, we’ll get you something to eat from the kitchen. And maybe you’d like a Savage Fire to chase away the last of the Alaskan hello from your bones.”

His normally bright eyes swirled with a golden tinge. He wore wild energy like she wore perfume and it made her feel dizzy.

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