Holiday Sparks

She’d been doing grids for displays for years. This would be easy. She hoped.

She pushed back her sleeves and wished for a t-shirt like Ben. Of course the entire store was clothes. It wouldn’t hurt her budget too much to buy a t-shirt. “Let me just run and get something I can move in.”

Hurrying through the store to the women’s department, she snagged a shirt and, on impulse, her favorite brand of jeans. She needed a new pair anyway. After checking out and a quick change she headed back to the front end. Jaime met her at the jewelry counter.

“Look at you. All sexy and sassy.”

Darcy frowned. “Jeans and a t-shirt is sexy and sassy?”

“They are when you have legs like that. How is it that you have legs up to your ears anyway?”

“Don’t pout, you get to be tiny and dainty. I’m the Amazon.”

“Yeah, well Wonder Woman was an amazon and that worked out for her.”

She pulled her ponytail over her shoulder and smoothed the pin-straight strands. “Yeah, that’s me.” Nine hours of work left her hair limp and lifeless. No matter what product she put in it, it still ended up lying like a limp dishrag by the end of her shift. And she still had another six to eight hours to go.

“You are, mija. It’s going to be a long day. Are you sure you’re going to be okay with him after closing. All alone?”

“Yes. I’m not worried about that.”

Jaime’s eyebrow lifted. “Oh?”

“He’s perfectly safe.”

“Safe enough for stubble burn and lips that look like they were chewed on?”

“Jaime,” she said with a groan.

“What? I know the look of a woman well loved. Just be careful, love. That boy has the kind of grin that will make a woman forget how to keep her panties on.”

“I thought you wanted me to live a little? Didn’t you just tell me to enjoy him a few hours ago?”

“I did. I’m sort of shocked that you actually took my advice.”

She was too. But nothing about the last day and a half had been normal. Ben was right, it felt good to be a little bad. When had she ever kissed a man impulsively? Heck, she usually had to go out with someone at least a few times before she even entertained the idea of a kiss, let alone crawled in a man’s lap.

“I’ve been with men like him. Fun is what you need.”

Darcy could feel her face flaming. “I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“I want you to do something stupid. Something fun and stupid with lots of orgasms,” Jaime said on a whisper. “But I also know how overwhelming a sexy guy can be. My Michael got me into tons of trouble.”

“Ben’s…” Well, she had certainly taken a chance kissing the stuffing out of him under the tree, but that was it. She wouldn’t be careless. She didn’t know how to be careless. “Ben’s here to do a job.”

“He’s going to do a job on you. Enjoy it and I want details.”

Darcy sighed. “I’ve got to get back.”

“Go.”

She quickened her step, faltering when she caught sight of him on the ladder, his upper half buried in the tree. She could do this. He was just a guy. Even if he was a guy who loved Christmas.

Chapter Six

They worked together well. Darcy took direction and had an innate ability to find the most efficient way to do things. He could see why she’d been promoted through the ranks. By the time the store was preparing for closing they had the tree wired up and he had a tentative circuit to try out.

Next to her boss, Darcy seemed positively friendly and warm. When Miriam had come out to check on them the laughing Darcy had disappeared. Within two minutes she was back to the remote woman he was used to. The woman he hoped to banish again before the night was over.