Unexpected Angel: Unexpected Angel / Undercover Elf

“Nothing I show you is going to be perfect,” Alex replied. “It’s not supposed to be perfect. The reason we’re cutting our own tree is that we always cut our own tree. It’s family tradition.”

“You don’t have to get mad,” Holly shouted. “I’ll find a tree. It will just take time. Sometimes my father and I would search for days for just the perfect tree.”

Alex stopped and slowly turned to Holly. “Days? We’ve been out here four hours and that’s three hours longer than you deserve. It’s getting dark, you’ve seen hundreds of trees. Balsam, white pine, Scotch pine. Ten-feet tall, twelve-feet tall, thick and thin, short needles, long needles. Just tell me what you want!”

“I want something special,” Holly said. She crossed her arms over her breasts and stared at him, her nose rosy, her eyes bright. “Perfect.”

“Perfect. The only perfect thing you’re going to find in this woods is a perfect lunatic with a perfectly honed ax and a perfectly sharpened saw, and a perfectly reasonable reason to murder you if you don’t pick out a tree right now!”

She gave him a haughty look, refusing to back down. “If you’re going to be so belligerent, why don’t you just go back to the house?”

“Belligerent?” Alex asked. “You think this is belligerent?” He reached down and picked up a handful of snow, packing it with his gloved hands.

Holly held out her hand to warn him off. “Don’t even think of throwing that at me.”

Alex ignored the warning, taking her words as a challenge. When he refused to put the snowball down, Holly scrambled to make her own ammunition, enlisting Eric’s help. Alex released a tightly held breath. Though he’d derive great pleasure in giving her a faceful of snow, it wasn’t going to get them out of the woods any faster. “All right,” he said, tossing his snowball aside. “Truce. But you’ve got thirty minutes to find a decent trio of trees or I’m going to leave you out here to freeze.”

“Hey, Dad, you’re a poet and you don’t even know it!”

Alex turned on his heel and started down the trail once again. But the shock of cold snow on his bare neck stopped him short. With a low growl, he slowly faced them. They both looked guilty as sin, satisfied smiles pasted on their rosy-cheeked faces. He raised his brow at Eric and his son tipped his head toward Holly.

In one smooth motion, he scooped up a handful of snow, packed it tight and took a step toward her. He was about to show her exactly who wore the pants around Stony Creek Farm. Holly let out a tiny shriek, then spun around and headed for the safety of a small tree.

Eric grabbed up a snowball and threw it at Alex, hitting him on the thigh. Alex scowled at his son. “So that’s the way it is. You’re going to side with the girl?”

“She’s my angel and I have to protect her.” He thumped his chest with his fist. “And this is war!” Eric let out a piercing battle cry, then scampered over to Holly’s hiding place.

A full-scale battle erupted with Alex taking the brunt of the assault. He tore through the trees, looking for Holly only to get ambushed by another snowball from Eric. And when he took off after Eric, Holly would come to the boy’s rescue with a barrage of snowballs meant to lay him low.

Breathless and wet with water running down his neck and settling near the small of his back, Alex decided to employ a new strategy—stealth. He gathered up a handful of snow and tiptoed through the trees, stopping to listen every few seconds. His efforts paid off, for a few moments later, he came up behind Holly.

Slowly he crept toward her as she peered out from behind a squat little fir tree. At the last minute, she heard him and, with a loud yell, Alex grabbed her from behind and playfully wrestled her down into the snow. He caught her wrists in one hand and pinned them above her head. She didn’t have time to scream before he washed her face with the snowball. Coughing and sputtering, she looked up at him, her lashes covered with ice crystals.

But the battle between them quickly faded as Alex stared down at her. She lay perfectly still, her slender body stretched beneath his, their hips pressed together. Her breath came in quick, deep gasps, visible in the cold air. And though he refused to let her go, she didn’t attempt to shout for Eric’s help.

He gently wiped the snow from her eyes. “Do you surrender?” Alex asked, keenly aware of the deeper meaning to his question.

She nodded, her gaze fixed on his, her lips parted. He brushed a strand of hair from her cheek and, to his surprise, she turned her face into his palm, tempting him with a subtle sign of her desire, closing her eyes to await his kiss. Groaning softly, Alex bent nearer, already anticipating the warm sweetness of her mouth, the flood of need that promised to rush through his bloodstream.

But a moment before their lips met, Alex heard a rustling in the nearby trees. He released her wrists and pushed up, bracing his arms on either side of her head. When Eric’s scream split the cold, silent air, Holly stiffened beneath him, then began to wriggle.

Alex groaned. “The kid has impeccable timing.”

“Let me up!” she cried.

The electricity between them died instantly, doused by a healthy dose of reality. When Alex saw Eric’s boots beneath the trees, he rolled to the side. Holly scrambled to her feet and frantically began to brush the snow from her clothes. “You shouldn’t have done that,” she murmured, refusing to meet his gaze. “I—I’m here to do a job and nothing more. I trust you’ll remember that from now on?”

Alex smiled as he struggled to his feet, evidence of his desire pressing against the snow-dampened fabric of his jeans. “Hey, all’s fair in love and war,” he replied. “Isn’t that what they say?”

She opened her mouth to snap out a reply, but just then Eric appeared from behind the tree. He took in his father’s appearance, then grinned. “Holly got you good!” he cried. “We win, we win!”

Alex cleared his throat, then nodded. “Yeah, Scout, Holly got me good.”

The “victor” pasted a bright smile on her face and held out her hand to Eric. “We better get going,” she said. “We still have three trees to find.” Without looking at Alex, she brushed by him and trudged off on her quest for perfection.

When Alex caught up to them, a full five minutes later, he’d managed to quell his physical reaction to their encounter, but couldn’t banish the sense of regret he felt. What might have happened if they’d been alone in the woods, without interruption? Would they have given in to their attraction, finally and fully? She’d wanted him to kiss her. He’d seen it in her eyes, in the way her mouth quivered slightly, in the soft clouds of frozen breath that betrayed her excitement. But how much longer could they both deny what was so blatantly obvious? They wanted each other, in the simplest, most primal way.

“Come on, Dad!” Eric called. “Holly found a tree she likes.”

She stood beside a balsam that resembled every other balsam she’d rejected, her hands clutched in front of her, her attention firmly on the tree. “This is the one,” she murmured, again refusing to look at him.

Alex circled the tree, knowing full well that she’d chosen the first thing she’d come upon. It was clear she’d do anything to escape his presence, including settling for a substandard tree. “What about this bare spot?” he asked.

“We can put it against the wall,” she said, her earlier enthusiasm diminished, her expression uneasy. “And that little one, over there, will be fine for the library. And the one over there for the family room. If you’ll just cut them down, we can be on our way.”

She was upset, but Alex wasn’t sure why. Could he have misread her reactions? Had he been so long without a woman that he couldn’t tell the difference between desire and distaste? He cursed inwardly, cursed his runaway urges and his unbidden reaction to them. “Eric, why don’t you take Miss Bennett back to the house. She looks a little…cold.”

That brought a response, narrowed eyes and cheeks stained red from more than just the frigid air. “I can find my way back on my own,” she said defensively.

“I’m sure you can. But I’d feel better if Eric showed you the way. He knows this land as well as I do.”

Alex watched them go, standing in the same spot until they disappeared behind a low rise in the landscape. Then with a soft groan, he sat down in the snow. Though he’d tried his best to resist her, there was no denying the truth. He wasn’t going to be satisfied until he kissed Holly Bennett, long and hard and deep. Maybe then, he’d be able to put this strange fascination behind him. That was the answer, then. At the next available opportunity, he’d pull her into his arms and kiss her. And finally, that would be the end of it.

Or maybe, it would just be a beginning.

4

THE FLAMES IN THE fireplace had ebbed to glowing embers by the time Holly finished decorating Eric’s tree in the family room. He’d grown bored with hanging ornaments and was now fast asleep on the sofa, his head nestled against Thurston’s stomach. Though Alex appeared to be absorbed in the newspaper, Holly felt his gaze on her every time she turned her back, making the hairs on her arms prickle and tingle.

How had things moved so quickly between them? Just three nights ago, she was standing on his front porch, a complete stranger, and now they were lusting after each other like love-starved teenagers. Though she’d tried to control her impulses in his presence, she always seemed to forget herself, to ignore the woman she was supposed to be.

Holly had never put much stock in passion. She and Stephan had shared a satisfying relationship in bed, but it had never been fireworks and angel choirs. But then, she’d never expected that, so how could she have known what she was missing?

Now she did. That little flutter that leaped in her stomach every time she looked at Alex. The ache she felt deep in her core every time he brushed against her. The look she saw in his eyes when he meant to kiss her. She’d come to crave them all.

Her head warned her to keep her relationship with Alex strictly business. But her heart said there was more than just business between them. After their tumble in the snow, she could think of nothing more than finishing what they’d started, giving in to the kiss that hadn’t happened. But where would a simple kiss lead? The only path Holly could see was the path to a broken heart and she was determined to avoid that route.

She placed the last ornament on the tree, then stepped back. Though she hadn’t been completely sold on the idea of a “bug” tree, she had to admit the nature theme worked well. They’d added bird ornaments to the lady-bugs and butterflies and bees, along with Eric’s dragonfly lights. Holly had found natural garland made of tiny pine-cones and dried wildflowers to emphasize the backyard garden theme. Though it wasn’t her most sophisticated tree, it had its charms. “What do you think?” she murmured, staring up at the birdhouse that topped the tree.

“Pardon?”

Holly tweaked one of Eric’s dragonfly lights, then turned around. “What do you think?”

Alex glanced down at Eric. “I think I’d better put this guy to bed.” He set his newspaper down, then reached out to slip his arm beneath his son. The little boy opened his eyes and yawned.

When he caught sight of the tree, ablaze with the twinkling dragonflies, he smiled sleepily. “Cool,” he murmured. He pushed up from the sofa and crossed the room. Wrapping his arms around Holly’s waist, he gave her a hug, warming Holly’s heart. “See you in the morning, Holly.”

She patted his head, then watched as he returned to his father’s side. They both walked out of the room, leaving her with a tiny smile on her lips. The love between father and son was so apparent, so assured that she felt the power of it just being near them. She’d shared the same security with her own father, the unfaltering bond between parent and child. Someday, she’d have that for herself, a child to love her unconditionally.