She was helping him. And that was okay because he was helping her, too. But when this...thing—whatever it was—between them ended, what then?
And it would end. That had been the agreement from the start.
Shoving the moment of apprehension to the back of her mind, Kat tugged the tutu over her running shorts and rammed the hat on her head, just as she heard Jamie’s shout.
‘Nana! Gramps!’
Embarrassment burned through Kat even as she lifted her head to Zula, and Logan’s father, smiling as widely as she could as the greetings were made.
Of course they would head over just as she looked a fool. Well, she could be embarrassed or she could own it, and the fact was that it shouldn’t matter to her what they thought of her. It wasn’t as though she and Logan were...anything. Right?
‘There.’ She bounced her head comically, making Jamie and even Logan’s parents laugh. ‘How’s that?’
‘Very festive.’ The older couple smiled an
d Jamie clapped his hands in approval.
‘Pretty Kat.’
And then Logan stepped forward between the three of them and her, making a show of adjusting the headband, the expression on his face making heat pool low, between her legs.
‘Very pretty Kat,’ he murmured, too quietly for anyone but her to hear.
The moment stretched out and, in that instant, Kat thought he was going to kiss her, right there in front of everyone.
Worse, she was standing there unable to move, unable even to breathe, waiting for him to. Willing him to.
And then he turned away sharply.
‘Okay, the race will be starting soon so we’d better get going.’ He stopped and dropped a kiss on his son’s head. ‘I want to hear you cheering, champ. The louder you shout, the faster I run—got it?’
‘Got it,’ Jamie parroted back happily.
‘See you shortly.’
Then Logan was grabbing her hand and heading off. Almost as if they were a proper couple after all.
* * *
‘What do you think, champ, will it do?’
Jamie eyed his father’s first-place trophy with awe.
‘It’s ’mazing,’ he breathed.
‘Want to hold it?’
Jamie held out his hands reverently, sucking in air through his tongue and his teeth as he concentrated on not dropping it.
‘Hardly fair competition, really, was it?’ Kat chuckled quietly. ‘You’re a bodyguard and former soldier.’
‘And Christmas fairy, let’s not forget.’
He flicked his tutu and Kat wondered how on earth it was possible for it to make him look even more masculine, rather than less.
Possibly it was the all-too-broad, muscled shoulders and the chest that she kept dreaming about licking. Every hard ridge and every defined curve.
‘So where’s a fairy godmother when you need one?’ she grumbled, only loud enough for him to hear, and certainly not expecting a response.