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  “I’m going to run back and grab your suitcase. You might be stuck in town in a motel overnight before they can tow your car.” Seeing her about to protest, Christian argued, “And before you say you can do it, just let me do it. I’m wearing boots.”

  She sighed, but she nodded. “Thanks.” She handed him her keys. “The suitcase is in the trunk. I guess there goes my cruise. I’ll never make it to Miami in time to board. This sucks.”

  “I can’t believe a cruise leaves on Christmas day.” The last thing in the world Christian would want to do on Christmas would be to spend it in the airport or boarding a cruise ship. Christmas day was for eating way too much food with family and chasing his nieces and nephews around. It was the one day a year the outside world completely disappeared and the only thing that mattered was family.

  “I’m not big on Christmas. I’d rather just skip the whole thing.”

  Christian tried not to gape at her, but man, it was like she was speaking in tongues. Who the hell didn’t like Christmas?

  The gorgeous woman sitting next to him apparently.

  Not sure what to say that wasn’t being intrusive and pushy, Christian just settled for nodding. “Well, I’m sorry that you might miss the boat. We’ll see what we can do to get you south as soon as possible.”

  “Thanks.” She smiled, but it was a little forced.

  Christian opened the door and hustled to her car. In the trunk was a hot pink suitcase with a pink and black plaid scarf tied to the handle. He grabbed it and ran through the snow, hoping he didn’t wipe out and fall on his ass. But if there was any possibility of getting her to Lexington and on a flight to Miami, he wanted to help her. It occurred to him he could just drive her to Lexington himself once the tow was on the way and that would save her a hell of a lot of time. She could deal with retrieving her car on the way home after her cruise.

  He tossed her suitcase in her trunk and jumped in his car, shaking the snow off his hair. Blue laughed and reached out and dusted the shoulder of his jacket off. “Sorry, I should have gone and gotten it.”

  “Which again, would make me a total jerk.” Christian knew he couldn’t actually feel her fingers through the fabric of his coat and his sweatshirt, but he certainly appreciated her closeness. When she pulled back, he was disappointed. There was something so dynamic about her, so sensual, that he was suddenly thinking about unwrapping her instead of any presents, which made him a total goofball jackass. Just because he carried her suitcase through the snow did not mean she was going to fall into his arms.

  Damn, he needed to start dating again. A few months dry spell, and he was getting weird.

  Putting his car into drive, he glanced back at the empty highway and pulled out. “It’s almost eerie how no one is on the road.”

  “I know. I guess I should be less worried about my cruise and more grateful for the fact that you were out here too. Otherwise, I’d be totally stranded.”

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw her shudder. Then she shook it off and grinned. “No food and a constant barrage of Christmas songs. Talk about a nightmare.”

  He actually didn’t even want to think about what might have happened if she had been out there alone with a nonfunctioning cell phone. He suspected she would have tried to walk and that would have been a disaster. “Not having my Blackberry working would drive me insane.”

  “Where are you heading, by the way?”

  “To Lexington, to my parents’ house. My whole family is in Lexington and I grew up there. I moved to Cincinnati for college and I’m still there. Guess they’ll be carving the turkey without me tonight.”

  “I live in Cincinnati too. In Clifton.”

  “I’m in Hyde Park. We’re practically neighbors.” Though they weren’t exactly the same kind of zip code. Not surprisingly, Blue lived in a city neighborhood where a lot of college kids and coffee shops were. Christian lived in an upper middle-class family area, with some young professionals thrown in. It was safe and he was close to work, but sometimes he glanced around at all the strollers and wondered if he was missing out on the nightlife of a hipper neighborhood. Then he realized what he really wanted was a family, not the opportunity to hit the bars every night.

  “Is your family going to worry?”

  “Definitely. My mom is probably freaking out already. Hopefully I can call her when we get to a gas station. She panics, but hell, that’s what moms do, right?”

  “Not mine.”

  The tone was so matter of fact that Christian risked taking his eyes off the road and glanced over at her. Blue didn’t look upset, just resigned. “What do you mean?”

  “My mom doesn’t worry about anything. She prides herself on being zen.”

  “Is she going on the cruise with you?”

  Blue snorted. “Oh, please. I had to endure a lecture on the frivolity and social irresponsibility of cruise ships. My mother is actually in South America with an indigenous tribe. She wanted me to go, but eating bugs isn’t my idea of a good time.”

  Yikes. “And I thought eggnog was disgusting.”

  Blue laughed. “Yeah, well, all I wanted was a mai tai or two but it’s starting to look doubtful.”

  “Cookies. That’s what I want. My sister bakes these cookies that are basically just sugar and lard. I can eat about a hundred in two days.”

  “Somehow I don’t think you’re exaggerating,” she told him in a teasing tone of voice.

  “You calling me fat?” Christian grinned as he eased down the exit ramp and stopped at the light and turned to look at her.

  Her eyes rolled up and down the length of him. “Hardly.”

  Oh, he knew that tone.

  And he liked it.

  “It’s my one weakness,” he told her, his whole body registering the fact that despite the cold outside it was suddenly very hot inside his car.

  “The only one?” she asked, her tongue slipping out to wet her lips.

  Christian wanted to groan. There was something about the way she held his gaze, the way she moved, so sensual and erotic, yet there was nothing in-your-face or tacky about her. It was like she just had an inherent sexuality and he found that really smoking hot.

  “No. I can definitely think of one more.”

  And if he could get it, he wouldn’t even miss the cookies.

  Chapter Three

  Blue was flirting. She was stranded in the middle of nowhere Kentucky with a broken down car and a cruise ship pulling out of port the next day most likely without her and she was flirting with Christian, her knight in a white SUV.

  She supposed she could tell herself it was her amazingly sunny disposition finding the silver lining, but the truth was it wasn’t her cheerful self calling the shots right now, but her undersexed one. It had been months since she had dated and Christian was cute with a capital C. He had dimples and a grin that made her want to grab his cheeks and kiss the hell out of him. He was sweet and funny and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt there were some serious muscles hiding beneath his many layers of clothing.

  So she was flirting. What of it? She deserved to after nearly dying in this bitch of a snowstorm.

  “What weakness is that? Fast cars or loose women?”

  Christian pulled into a gas station right off the exit. “Neither. I like beautiful women, not loose ones.”

  At the moment, Blue thought she was probably out of the running then, because she felt pretty damn easy sharing this small space with him.

  “Beautiful women like you.”

  She almost blurted out a very middle school, ‘you think I’m beautiful?’ but she managed to contain it and be cool. “Thanks. Though I prefer gorgeous.”

  Laughing he put the car in park in front of the gas station. “Okay, gorgeous, let’s go in and see if we can make contact with the outside world.”

  There was only one truck in the parking lot and the gas station looked like it had seen better days. As they entered, the bell tinkled over the door, the smell of stale cigarette smo
ke smacked them in the face. A thin guy in his forties with two full-arm tattoo sleeves glanced up from the magazine he was reading. He scratched his scraggly beard. “Hey, what’s up? I didn’t expect to see anyone tonight.”

  “Hi,” Blue said, coming up to the counter, her feet feeling weird and overstuffed in Christian’s wool socks and her ballet flats. “We had a car accident on the highway and I can’t get cell phone reception. Can we use your phone to call a tow?”

  “Sure.” He shoved a chunky cordless phone over to her. “But I doubt you’re going to have much luck. It’s snowing and it’s Christmas Eve.”

  Well, thanks, Captain Obvious. Blue fought the urge to roll her eyes. Fortunately, Christian stepped in, preventing her from saying something seriously sarcastic.

  “Yeah, I know, bad luck, huh?” Christian said with an affable smile. “We have two cars. We were thinking of just leaving the one here and heading on to Lexington.”

  They were? That was news to her.

  “Do you think that’s our best bet? You know the towing companies around here and you know the roads. What’s the word?”

  “You can’t drive to Lexington,” he said, shaking his head. “The highway south of this exit is closed. Guess it iced over bad at the curve and they declared a snow emergency. Only emergency vehicles allowed on the road. It was on the news.”

  “Are you serious?” Blue asked, slightly stunned. Did they really just close roads? Was that allowed? “Is there another way to go south?”

  “Well, there’s always Route 43, but I wouldn’t recommend that. It won’t be plowed and if you get in trouble, there’s nowhere to go for help. I suggest you sit this one out tonight and start over again in the morning.”

  “But . . .” she was speechless. Absolutely speechless. This sucked. Really bad. Like if there were the definition of suck in the dictionary this would be it.

  Christian put a hand on the small of her back and rubbed gently. It was an unexpected reassurance. Thank God she’d hit him and wasn’t doing this on her own. Not that he would probably appreciate that fact, but she was damn grateful.

  “Is there a motel hereabouts?” Christian asked. “I’m not digging the idea of sleeping in my car tonight. I’ve stopped at this exit before and I seem to remember there’s a motel just on down the road.”

  Noticing that the longer they stood there the more Christian’s Kentucky roots surfaced, Blue was amused. “On down the road?” she asked, grinning.

  “What?” He looked bewildered.

  “Nothing.” Blue squeezed her lips together as she glanced at the gas station attendant. He looked equally confused.

  “Well, yeah, there’s old Roy’s place, but I’m not sure if he’ll be open tonight. It’s called the No-Tell Motel.”

  Fabulous. They might as well call it Serial Killers and Hookers Sleep Here. Blue tried not to make a face, but given the grin Christian shot her she wasn’t successful. What could she say? All her thoughts were always splashed across her face, an unfortunate gift her emotional mother had given her.

  “It’s about a half mile east.”

  “Is that right or left?” Blue asked. Men always spoke in terms of north-south-east-west and it just made it more complicated than it needed to be.

  They both raised an eyebrow like this was the dumbest thing they’d ever heard.

  “I got it,” Christian said. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “O-kay then,” Blue said, the eye roll slipping out before she could stop it. “But shouldn’t I call for my tow first?”

  Ten minutes later she was gritting her teeth and glaring at the yellow pages in front of her. “I’ve called every tow service in the county and not a single one has answered their phone.”

  Gas station man shrugged. “Told ya.”

  “Don’t people need to work? Aren’t we in a recession?”

  Another shrug. “It’s Christmas Eve.”

  Whatever. Blue slapped the book closed and turned to Christian. “What are you doing?” she asked, irritated beyond belief with the whole situation. Even Christian’s cuteness couldn’t make up for the fact that everyone else’s obsession with Christmas was ruining her vacation.

  Christian had a shopping basket loaded with bottled water, soft drinks, and a surely illegal quantity of snack foods.

  “We have to eat. And I doubt this particular motel has room service.”

  The guy behind the counter snorted. “You’ll be lucky if you get clean sheets.”

  Lovely.

  “Do they rent by the hour?” Christian asked, his tone joking.

  “Oh yeah, definitely.” The guy cleared his throat. “Not that I’d know anything about that. Though be careful, if you go over even a minute, Roy charges for a whole ’nother hour.”

  Eew. “Anyway,” Blue said, determined to steer this conversation away from the gas station guy’s fond memories of sixty-one minute hook-ups. “What snacks did you get?”

  “Chips. Peanuts. Ho ho’s. You know, in honor of Christmas. And a pre-made margarita mix and a bottle of tequila so you can close your eyes and pretend you’re on the cruise.”

  That was sweet. Really sweet. Even though all the tequila in the world couldn’t fix the fact that she was freezing her ass off with swollen feet from cramming them into her shoes with socks in the middle of the boonies of Kentucky in a motel that probably had Magic Fingers beds.

  But she was willing to give it a shot. “Thanks. Let’s get some cups and napkins then too. And could you please change the radio station in here?” she demanded, whirling to the gas station guy as the fifth Christmas song assaulted her ears and took her over the edge.

  “To what? It’s Christmas Eve. I like Christmas songs.”

  “Well, I don’t.”

  His eyebrow shot up. “That’s un-American.”

  Blue debated using her scarf to strangle him. “What does being an American have to do with Christmas?”

  “We invented Santa.”

  “We did not!” Blue opened her mouth to launch into a recap of all the cultures who had a Santa figure in their lore, but Christian shoved in front of her and dropped the basket on the counter.

  “Go on and get the napkins, gorgeous. We should head out before the roads get worse.” He nodded at the gas station attendant. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  Was she really being dismissed? To go get napkins? Blue narrowed her eyes. Okay, she realized Christian was just trying to prevent a confrontation between her and the guy behind the counter, but she still didn’t like it. She was cold and tired and now that Christian mentioned it, she was hungry. The fact that it was extremely likely she was going to miss her cruise had her suddenly feeling like she wanted to cry.

  This was all just further proof that she and Christmas didn’t mesh.

  “Did you change your mind about napkins?” he asked when she didn’t move. “And hey, look what I got for you.”

  Christian felt reindeer antlers slide onto her head and grinned. “Now that’s adorable.”

  She stood there, seething just a little. A lot. She was wearing reindeer antlers. With jingle bells. “Are you fucking kidding me?” she demanded.

  “Not in the least.” Then he leaned forward and kissed the tip of her nose.

  Just like that.

  All familiar and comfortable and sexy and cute.

  Blue was so caught off guard that by the time they left the gas station five minutes later, Christian whistling a Christmas song as he carried the bags, she hadn’t managed to spit out a single word.

  And she was still wearing the antlers.

  Christian beeped his car open and tossed the bags in the backseat, pleased that he had managed to catch Blue off guard. She had clearly been on the verge of losing it big time, and he knew she had good reason to. But hell, it was Christmas Eve, and they might as well make the best of it, so he had wanted to snap her out of her bad mood. Plus she’d looked so cute and pissed off in the antlers, he hadn’t
been able to resist kissing her.

  He wasn’t sure he’d cheered her up, but he had definitely silenced her. That was a start. She had just stood there dumbstruck while he’d paid for everything in his basket, plus two travel mugs for their makeshift margaritas.

  When they got in the car, she finally spoke. “Where are your antlers? If I have to wear these dumb things you should be wearing them too.”

  “Mine’s even better.” Christian dug around the bags on the backseat and pulled out a headband with a giant felt Christmas tree on top and shoved it on his head. “See?”

  Her mouth twitched, but she held back her laugh. “Very nice. How long do we have to wear these?”

  “Until midnight on Christmas Day.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “I don’t need luck. I have charm.” Christian shot her a grin and made his Christmas tree bounce.

  “Is that what you call it?” But she did smile at him, even if her arms were still crossed over her chest. “What do you do for a living, by the way?”

  “I’m a toy engineer.”

  “Are you serious? Now why does that not surprise me?”

  “I admit it. I’m a big kid at heart. Or a total nerd. Whatever you want to call it. But I like my job. I work mostly in sports themed toys for the toddler and preschool set.” As he headed east, he glanced at her. “What do you do?”

  “I’m a hairstylist.”

  “That seems like a natural fit.” It did. She had that funky, edgy vibe that women in the salon always had. They were always on top of the current trends and changed their hair color constantly. Not that he could picture her with anything other than black hair. It suited her, as did the way the cut framed her striking face.

  “Yeah, I like it. It’s a creative outlet and I like working with people. I didn’t have the patience to go to a four-year college. My mom hates it, though. She has issues with all the chemicals we use.”

  “It sounds like your mom has some issues in general.” Then he realized that sounded totally rude. “No offense or anything, I’m sure she’s a great person.”

  But Blue just snorted. “She’s unique, that’s for sure. And totally disappointed in her hedonistic chemically processed daughter.”