Christmas Ever After (Puffin Island 3)

“That, Alec, was a kiss with no agenda. You’re welcome.” Smiling, she stooped to pick up the branches she’d piled on the ground, and walked back down toward the cottage.

CHAPTER NINE

SO THAT MIGHT not have gone exactly the way she’d planned, Sky conceded, trying to calm the crazy rhythm of her heart. It had been intended as a bit of fun, to prove a point, to ease some of the tension she sensed in him and to indulge a restless, reckless part of her that wanted to crush caution under the toe of her boot. Instead it had felt as if she’d lit a fuse under a sexual time bomb. It was as if every one of her sensory receptors had connected perfectly with every one of his. And he hadn’t even kissed her back, not really. Just a brief brush of his mouth, a hint of something repressed, a suggestion of something dark and erotic that had sent heat spearing through her from head to toe.

Kissing him might have been a mistake, she decided, not only because she couldn’t walk without concentrating, but because now he wasn’t speaking to her. Far from encouraging him to open up and relax, it had had the opposite effect.

He’d closed down, as if she’d triggered an alarm protecting him from intruders.

After the unexpected exchange of confidences, she’d thought their relationship was comfortable enough to take a little fun. He was so bitter and damaged after his divorce, she’d thought he needed to be reminded that a kiss could be fun and flirty and his expression when she’d said the word mistletoe had made her wonder if he even remembered what fun was.

But fun and flirty had fast turned into something else.

Deciding that the wise move was to give him space, for her sake as well as his, she walked ahead of him into the house.

The delicious smell of turkey filled the hallway. Keeping her head down, she gave a sigh of appreciation as she removed her boots.

“I’d cross a continent for your mother’s cooking.” And your kiss, but let’s not talk about that right now.

“Your mother doesn’t cook?”

She took it as a positive that at least he was still speaking to her. “She doesn’t cook warm, cozy family meals where everyone pitches in and talks about their day.” She watched as he unzipped his jacket, keeping a safe distance from her. “Alec—”

“I’ll take your coat.”

His gaze met hers briefly, but long enough for her to see the raw heat in his eyes a fraction of a second before he masked it.

Her insides melted.

What exactly had she unleashed?

And did he really think that not mentioning it was going to make it go away?

She was pondering the implications of that as they walked into the kitchen. Liv was still wearing her pajamas and her feet were tucked into slippers that looked like a bear’s feet.

“I’m a teenager. I shouldn’t have to wake up at this hour,” she grumbled. “It’s inhuman.”

“The twins will be here soon and I want breakfast out of the way.” Suzanne Hunter bustled around the kitchen. “Thank you for taking the dogs out, Alec. Did the two of you have a nice walk?”

Alec kept his back to his mother as he dealt with the dogs and it was left to Sky to respond.

“It was wonderful. I picked a few things to make a table decoration.” And I kissed your son.

She felt as if the evidence should be emblazoned on her forehead.

Liv stared through the door at the pile of greenery on the flagstones of the hallway. “You’re going to make something with that?”

“It will be pretty. I was going to use holly and mistletoe but then I thought maybe you wouldn’t want berries around the twins.” And she was no longer sure that having mistletoe anywhere near Alec was entirely safe. Sky smiled her thanks as Suzanne put a cup of coffee in front of her. “I’ll improvise and use red ribbon instead.”

After breakfast and a quick change of clothes she spread the greenery over the scrubbed kitchen table. Then she took the twisted piece of wood she’d found and used it as the central feature, selecting different pieces of foliage, snipping, twisting, threading and using the ribbon

while Suzanne and Liv started on the food for lunch.

As usual the process of creating something distracted her.

There was no sign of Alec and she wondered if he was intentionally avoiding her or whether he was caught up with his father.

She’d just finished the table centerpiece when her phone rang.