Holiday Bound

When had Alex put the angel in her bag? More importantly…why had he done it, especially after he’d made a point of reconsidering the wisdom of getting involved with her?

Angeline wished he wouldn’t have done it. Being able to dismiss Alex so wholly in her mind was only possible if she felt one hundred percent certain that he’d entirely rejected her.

Something caught her eye out of the corner of her vision.

“Wait,” she called out on an impulse to the cab driver. “I’ve changed my mind. Drop me off here, will you?”

A few seconds later, she stepped out on the curb, her eyes glued to the vision of the enormous, brightly lit Christmas tree in Daley Plaza. The air held the promise of snow, but the impending storm hadn’t kept people from traveling to the city during their Christmas holidays. Kids shouted with laughter as they flew down the makeshift slide on the Picasso sculpture. The shops in the little German village were doing a good business. Angeline caught the scent of hot chocolate and roasting chestnuts on the air.

She smiled a little wistfully before she wrapped her red scarf more tightly around her and headed toward the huge Christmas tree. What in the world had made her stop? Everyone looked so happy as they celebrated their holiday with family and friends. Was she some kind of masochist, intent on emphasizing the fact that she was alone and, yeah…a little heartbroken at Christmastime?

A tall man with dark hair wearing a black hip-length ski jacket turned from where he’d been standing gazing up at the Christmas tree. Angeline gasped in recognition.

As she stared open-mouthed at Alex Carradine, she admitted to herself she’d been kidding herself by saying she was a little heartbroken. One look into his familiar blue eyes and all the feelings he’d brought to life in her came flooding to the surface of her awareness.

Once she got past her initial shock at seeing him in Daley Plaza, she realized she had one small consolation to her mixed joy and anguish at running into him.

He looked every bit as surprised to see her as she did him.

“Angeline,” he said blankly before he took a step toward her.

“Alex. I…I didn’t know you’d be here.”

His brow furrowed in confusion. “I didn’t know you would be here, either.”

She swallowed what felt like grains of gravel in her throat and glanced unseeingly at the big Christmas tree. “You said it was your favorite place in the city at Christmastime.”

She sensed his smile rather than saw it. He came closer, stepping into the corners of her vision.

“You said it was your favorite place too.”

She shivered at the sound of his low, husky voice. “I guess it makes sense then. Why we’re both here,” she said, although in reality she didn’t think any of it made much sense at all.

“You left work early. Your administrative assistant told me you’d be at work until around five. I was just wasting time here until you left.”

She blinked and glanced up at him in surprise. He stood even closer than she’d thought he did. She wondered if his gaze on her was really so intent…so hot, or if it was an illusion cast from the thousands of lights on the Christmas tree.

“I was planning on waiting for you outside the offices of Littleton, Marks and Carradine.” He must have read the confusion and wonder on her face. “I don’t have your private phone number, Angeline. I don’t even know where you live. It was the only way I could find you. But instead…you came here.”

She was so dumbfounded by the message in his eyes—how was it that he always managed to broadcast his need so blatantly to her?—she found she didn’t know what to say for a few seconds. But the bitter memory of Christmas Day returned in a rush.

“So, am I to assume that you’ve had enough time to think about the misfortune of having seduced me?” she asked coldly.

He grimaced slightly and glanced away. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for saying that, Angeline. Not because it wasn’t true,” he said suddenly when she opened her mouth to say something sarcastic. “I did need a little time to think about what had happened. I know I can’t expect you to understand the complexities of my father’s and my relationship.” He sighed heavily, causing a cloud of mist to form in front of his face. “I’m not even sure I care about the complexit

ies anymore. See…the thing of it is, Angeline, when I told you that nothing between us had anything to do with Mitchell, I was wrong.”

She stiffened her spine and glared at him. “Astonish me.”

He gave her a dark glance. “What I mean is, in that moment when Mitchell implied…no when he flat out said he’d contrived for us to get together, I was so furious I couldn’t see straight. It was somehow even worse than considering that he’d asked you up there to flaunt that you were his in my face. Here I’d found this thing that felt like mine and mine alone, and he was claiming he’d been the one responsible for it. If you only knew…it was so like him. For a little bit, all I could feel was the insult of it.”

“Is that what it all comes down to, Alex? That when all is said and done, all I was to you was an embodiment of an insult from your father?”

“I don’t think you’re an insult. I think what Mitchell did was an insult. But that’s where his involvement in this ends. What’s done is done. The only thing I’m considering at this moment is you and me, Angel, you and me and what happened between us. Between us.”

Her heart seemed to forget its purpose for a moment as she stared into his determined face. As usual, his personal charisma, his sheer power when he became single-minded about something overwhelmed her. The realization made her glance away from his compelling visage.

“How do I know you won’t change your mind again?” she asked flatly.