Page 296 of Screwged for Christmas

Even over the phone she heard the tightness in his laugh. He probably stood with his hand in his pocket while staring out over the grounds of his resort below.

“Mom talks too much and you like to daydream. Belle is a professional at her work and has a job to do to ensure the Vancouver deal goes through.”

“Well, you better get back here then and set Mom straight. She thinks she hears wedding bells and already has magazine subscriptions filling the mailbox. Has Dad all worked up.”

“Dear Lord,” he ground out. “That woman is a menace with her planning.”

Yeah. Ivy got that. She had the sameslighttendency. “So, what do you say?”

“No promises, but I’ll try. Just don’t get any funny ideas, okay.”

“Sounds like it’s the best answer I’ll get.” She flipped open the last cupboard and sighed heavily.

“But if you don’t make it at least I won’t be the only one calling home and telling Mom Christmas dinner at the house is a no-go again. Be warned though, this year she might go to you. Gives her an excuse to meet this Belle she’s hearing things about,” she teased to the tune of a heavy sigh from the other end.

“You’re exasperating.”

“I hope everything works out with your new resort. Hey, listen, call me if you need me to do anything for you on this side of the pond, okay. Don’t listen to what those stuffy business suits tell you. Alaska is the perfect spot for you.”

She disconnected and dragged herself upstairs to find something dry to wear. Preferably not striped, polka-dotted or otherwise splattered with holiday fluff. With her luck, and knowing Gran, she’d find her old leotards and the tutu Gran refused to toss out from her one attempt at a theatrical performance in high school. She still shuddered every time she saw the NutCracker.

Ivy bit her lip. The conversation with her brother brought back old memories and ones she’d rather keep buried.

She tossed open the closet in the spare bedroom meant for family only and rummaged through some old clothes one of her sisters or cousins must have left here on a visit. Aspen was a problem for her because the second she touched his hand earlier, and felt the goodness of his strong arms this morning, something happened.

The zap, tingle, parting of the skies…whatever. The truth was her high-school romance tumbled out of her neatly packed memory box, fully reinstated and settled like a swarm of butterflies in her stomach.

Ivy sighed. “Now what?”

CHAPTER 8

“You’ve got it bad, man.”

Aspen glared at his brother before refocusing on the daily checklist for the upkeep of the fire station. All he could see was Ivy in reindeer slippers and cute pajamas. Worse, seeing her out of them as he peeled every last stitch of clothing from her body. Those beautiful eyes of hers peeked out from under a mess of hair and nearly caused him to drop the ax on his own foot this morning.

He stood there a good minute, startled by the strange feeling in his chest the second he saw that damn frying pan raised. Amused and awestruck all at once was the best he could come up with.

His cock pulsed against his zipper. the fucker had been hard since he stole a kiss from her just as the sun hit the horizon.

“I’m serious. You’ve gone over that list three times and still don’t realize you already did it this morning too. That’s an A-class case of smitten. Listen to me, I know these things. There’s only so many times you need to check air tanks, suits, and compartment organization, bro.”

“You know these things, huh?” Aspen eyeballed his younger brother with a look that didn’t mean much confidence in what he offered.

“Okay, so I’m no love guru, but I know what I’m looking at and that, my friend, is you with your head so rattled you don’t know which way is north right now.”

He was right. For the last thirty minutes he’d lost track of what he was doing every five minutes and had to start all over. It infuriated and baffled him all at once. Seeing Ivy again rattled his head more than he anticipated. He’d spent the last two weeks mentally gearing up to seeing those sweet brown eyes and that beautiful smile of hers but he might as well have been doused with a cold bucket of water for all the help it did.

Aspen tossed the clipboard on the bumper of the fire engine and leaned an elbow on the rig to hear his brother out, if only partially. Otherwise, he would nag him until either an alarm went off or he clocked him a good one across the jaw.

“I’m just saying—” His younger brother raised his hands as if to wash his hands of the whole conversation.

Good.

“Let’s move on, shall we?”

“You’re not listening to reason.”

True. Reason would not have had him out at the B&B before dawn chopping wood. He’d had it on his route for later in the day, but couldn’t help steering his truck in her direction the second he turned the ignition over in his truck that morning.

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