The Heart of Christmas Read online

  “You’re not talking about one of the biggest movie stars in America?”

  “Actually, I am.”

  “That’s like casually mentioning that you’re friends with Brad Pitt.”

  Cheyenne laughed. “We’re all friends with Simon, because of Gail. We grew up with her. After college, she moved down south to open a publicity firm and that’s how she met him. She used to represent him.”

  “Gail flies our whole group of friends out to stay with her when she has the time,” Eve said.

  “This summer she’s taking us all to Italy,” Cheyenne put in. “Simon will be filming a movie there—although I don’t know if I’ll get to go. My baby might be too young to travel that extensively and I’m not sure I’ll want to leave him. Or her.”

  Rex wondered if Eve would be too pregnant to go. He hoped not, for both their sakes.

  “Your baby’s father could probably manage without you for a week,” Dylan said. “Not that it’ll be easy.”

  Fortunately, from there the conversation revolved around Simon, how Gail coped with the crazy antics of his ex-wife, how happy they were together and how cute their children were. Eve promised to take him to see the mansionlike cabin they owned, overlooking the Stanislaus River near New Melones Lake.

  Rex couldn’t tell if she was sincere about that invitation or just playing the role of cordial host, but before long he began to relax and enjoy her friends and family far more than he’d anticipated. He even stayed to play cards with them. It wasn’t until eleven, when Cheyenne and Dylan were preparing to leave, that he said he had to go, too.

  “Can you walk me home first?” Eve asked as she pulled on her coat.

  “Of course.”

  Her mother was in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher, since she’d put that off to play cards with them. Her father had brought in all the dishes for her, but was now changing the channels on the TV, eager to find Sports Center.

  “It was very nice to meet you both. Thank you for dinner,” he told Eve’s parents when her father stood up and her mother came out to say goodbye.

  “You are such a nice young man,” Adele said.

  Not many people would describe him so favorably. The people who knew him well usually said he was his own worst enemy. He’d presented them with good reasons for that assessment. But time seemed to be healing those old wounds, to a certain extent, making it easier for him to behave well.

  Her father shook his hand. “I’m glad Eve has a new friend.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Don’t call me ‘sir,’” he said with a laugh. “We’re too casual in Whiskey Creek for that.”

  “Since you won’t be joining your own family, we’d love to have you and your sister here for Christmas dinner, if you’re available,” her mother told him.

  He shouldn’t have deepened his relationship with them, especially since that invitation was much more appealing than he wanted it to be. “I appreciate that,” he said. “I’ll check with Scarlet and let you know.”

  “You do that.”

  Her parents stood on the steps and waved as they walked away, and Eve slipped her arm through his.

  “You have nice folks,” he said.

  “I do.”

  The door closed behind them and the porch light snapped off, but there was a full moon to light their way and a black velvet sky filled with stars. “I can see why you like it here.”

  “In Whiskey Creek?” She gave him an impish grin. “Be careful. If you hang out with me much longer, you might not want to leave when the time comes.”

  In some ways, he was already reluctant. But he couldn’t stay indefinitely. Because his past would follow him wherever he went.

  * * *

  When they reached her doorstep, Eve told herself to let him go on his way. But she wasn’t ready, despite Dylan’s warnings. And Dylan didn’t even know about that moment of panic when Brent had suddenly pinned her to the bed. Or that Brent had initially told her his name was Jared. Or that he hadn’t mentioned having a sister when he told her parents he had two brothers. She guessed he’d say Scarlet was adopted if she asked, but...would it be true?

  Eve didn’t know what to believe. Brent Taylor might not even be his real name. Tonight, he’d identified his brother in Los Angeles as Dennis, which had immediately jumped out at her. When she’d called the number Brent had left in Noelle’s car, she’d heard what sounded like Dennis’s wife pleading with her brother-in-law, whom she called Rex. So if Brent’s second brother wasn’t named Rex, Brent could easily be him. The fact that he was rambling around with that number in his pocket and seemed to be estranged from his family certainly suggested it was possible.

  And yet, as true and frightening as all of that was, he still held a real fascination for her. Whenever their eyes had met at her parents’ house, she’d felt a zing of pleasure—and the way his gaze had followed her, she sensed that he was experiencing the same giddy attraction.

  Was it only because she reminded him of that other woman?

  Eve hated the thought....

  “Lust is an interesting thing,” she told him.

  Taking hold of the lapels of her coat, he turned her and pressed her up against the door. “Now there’s something we didn’t discuss at dinner.” His teeth flashed in a grin. “Why don’t you tell me about it?”

  Studying his perfectly shaped lips, she moistened her own. “It’s far more powerful than I ever dreamed it could be.”

  His grin slanted to one side. “Is it?”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever really felt it before, not like now.”

  He nipped at her lips. “I like where this is going.”

  “The thought of you, of what you can do to me, is driving me crazy,” she admitted.

  His hands slid inside her coat, curled around her bottom and brought her up against him as if he had every right to do whatever he pleased. “Does that mean what I think it means?”

  She felt like someone else, someone far more daring, when she lifted her mouth to his ear and dropped her voice. “It means I want to feel you inside me again...and again,” she whispered. “All night long.”

  He groaned. “If you’re trying to make me hard, I’m already at rock level.”

  Giving him a seductive smile, she stared into his eyes while lowering her hand to feel the evidence. “I just have one question.”

  He sucked in his breath as she touched him. “What?”

  “Is this for me...or for that other woman?”

  “What other woman?” he asked.

  “The woman who married someone else. The woman you wanted. Last night, you said I reminded you of her.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Only at first.”

  She eyed him, looking for deception. “You mean it?”

  He nodded.

  “That’s nice to hear,” she said. Then his mouth came down on hers, warm and wet and demanding, and she slipped her arms around his neck. If they weren’t careful, they wouldn’t even make it inside, she thought as the passion built. But he pulled back.

  “What about your parents?”

  “I don’t think they’ll find it surprising if you stay over, seeing as they nearly walked in on us this morning.”

  He didn’t seem convinced.

  “What?” she said when he scowled.

  “That seems too...disrespectful on my part.”

  His response surprised her. He cared about the impression her parents had of him? No matter who or what he was, he couldn’t be all bad. “I’d say we could go to the B and B, but we have no vacancy this weekend,” she told him.

  “Jackson’s not far.”

  “You want to go to the next town? You’re kidding, right?”

  “Not at all.”

  “But we can stay here for free.”

  “And feel self-conscious the whole time? No, thanks. I don’t want anything holding me back.” After another hungry kiss, he grabbed her elbow and propelled her along with him as, muff
ling their laughter, they carefully skirted her parents’ windows and hurried to his SUV.

  * * *

  When Eve woke it was pitch-black, she was in a strange room—and she was alone. Had Brent abandoned her after they’d made love? Had he walked out and driven away, left her in an unfamiliar B and B in another town and without a car?

  She sat up and stared into nothingness, her heart pounding in her ears as all her doubts about him, all the things she’d shoved into the back of her mind, bombarded her.

  He said he lived in Bakersfield and owned a landscaping company, but she wasn’t sure she believed it. He’d never mentioned the name of his business.

  She didn’t have any details on his background. Was he a high school graduate? A college graduate? If so, what was his degree?

  She’d always had the cell phone number of any man she’d been intimate with. But the one she’d found on his luggage tag had been disconnected and he’d never given her any number. Other than knowing that he was staying temporarily with Mrs. Higgins, she had no way of contacting him.

  And—she’d recognized this before but it was probably the most salient point—did she even have his real name? Was it Jared or Brent or Rex?

  The only thing she had that she guessed might be accurate was a number for his brother in Los Angeles. And he hadn’t provided that. She was pretty sure he wouldn’t want her to have it if he knew, so she hadn’t brought it up. She’d been afraid that would scare him off. But her own hesitancy to end whatever they had worried her as much as anything else. Why would she ignore so many danger signals?

  Because she wanted to be with “Brent” more than she’d ever wanted to be with any other man. And it had surprisingly little to do with the fact that, with him, she’d experienced the best sex of her life. He couldn’t fulfill her physically if there wasn’t more to it. She wasn’t someone who could be satisfied with an encounter that held no meaning. In the dark, when it was just the two of them and he was caught up in what he was feeling, he was surprisingly vulnerable and she couldn’t help responding to that.

  She might have thought she was crazy for reading such sensitivity into a remote man like Brent, a man who could rebuff the very kindness he craved. But the reverent way he’d touched her, especially the last time they’d made love, convinced her that there was more depth to him than her fear urged her to believe. He needed human contact—needed love—and it was that emotional element that undermined her caution. He made her feel close to him, in all the ways that really mattered, despite the many things she didn’t know.

  Even now, thinking about him evoked yearning. But if he couldn’t be there for her during the day, not just at night in the privacy of a bedroom, she’d never ultimately be happy having a relationship with him. If he even permitted anything approximating a relationship. He’d already rejected the possibility in no uncertain terms.

  And yet she was beginning to hope. Damn it! She knew better than to get involved with a man like Brent. But she’d tried his opposite when she dated Ted—someone steady, successful and reliable whom she’d known her whole life—and that hadn’t worked out, either.

  She was just throwing back the covers to climb out of bed and get dressed, reclaim her cell phone and ask someone to pick her up—that wasn’t going to be a fun call to make—when she heard the doorknob turn. She froze as Brent quietly let himself in. She would’ve assumed he’d gone to the bathroom, but this was a B and B like hers, where each room had been remodeled to include the modern conveniences most people preferred when they traveled.

  That meant he’d been outside. Doing what, she couldn’t fathom. It had to be three or four in the morning. But she could see in the dim light of his cell phone that he was fully dressed.

  “Where’d you go?” she asked.

  “I got a call.”

  “From...”

  “My sister.”

  “In the middle of the night?”

  “She’s having trouble with an ex.”

  “She’s okay, though, isn’t she?”

  “Shh...yeah, she’s fine. I’ve got it handled. You don’t have to worry.”

  When he stripped off his clothes and climbed back into bed, she rolled away from him, onto her stomach. She didn’t like the way her arms ached to hold him. It was too much, too soon. If she let herself fall in love with the wrong guy yet again, maybe she’d miss the right guy when he came along.

  Problem was...she couldn’t imagine anyone appealing to her more. The only thing she didn’t like was his reluctance to love her in return—and his secrets.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to level out her breathing. She’d sleep until morning, and then she’d get away from him for good, she told herself, like she should have done from the beginning. But it wasn’t ten seconds later that she felt his hands move over her body.

  He started by massaging her back. She ignored that, thinking he’d eventually go to sleep. But he didn’t seem to require her participation. He acted as if he was content just to touch her, and that slowly broke down her resistance, made her glad when he began to stroke her in other places.

  By the time she felt his mouth close over her earlobe and his hand slide between her thighs, she’d lost all desire to refuse him. And before long he was whispering that she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen while cupping her breasts and taking her from behind.

  12

  When Rex opened his eyes, he found Eve lying on her side, studying him in the sunlight streaming through the crack in the blind. “Morning,” he murmured.

  “Morning.”

  He reached over to move a strand of hair away from her face. “You sleep okay?”

  “I did. You?”

  “I feel great.” He’d slept deeply for the first time in...he couldn’t remember when. He’d just completely sacked out, and being able to do that had felt almost as good as making love to Eve beforehand.

  “What about your sister?” she asked.

  He stretched, wondering if he’d ever been so relaxed. Not in recent memory. But he generally didn’t allow himself the kind of intimacy he was enjoying with Eve. “What about her?”

  “You said something happened during the night.”

  “She’s fine,” he told her, but that missed call, when he forced himself to get up and check, just in case, had frightened him. He’d thought Scarlet might be in trouble. But he’d awakened her when he called back, and she’d apologized for not leaving a message. She’d said that she’d needed her phone for navigation just when his voice mail came on and had planned to call back. But once she arrived at her girlfriend’s house, she forgot until she was going to bed, and then she figured it was too late. “She wanted to let me know she was staying at a friend’s.” Which he felt was wise.

  Eve nodded solemnly and they continued to stare at each other for several long seconds.

  “No smile this morning?” he asked.

  “I’m thinking.”

  “About...?” He was almost afraid to ask. He could tell it was something he’d rather not address.

  “Last night was even more incredible than the night before,” she said.

  He hadn’t expected a compliment. He would’ve been relieved—except that she didn’t sound remotely pleased.

  Hoping to lighten her mood, he grinned. “You nearly woke the whole inn when you cried out. Most people would be happy to come so hard.”

  She hadn’t been that loud. He was teasing her, hoping to avoid where this was, in all likelihood, going. But she didn’t take the hint. “Maybe I would be happy if I wasn’t so confused,” she said.

  The sense of well-being he’d awakened with dissipated, and the old restlessness returned. “You shouldn’t be confused. I’ve told you what to expect,” he said.

  “Essentially nothing.”

  He shifted. “Last night was nothing?”

  She propped herself up against the headboard. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

  He supposed this was inevitable.
He couldn’t expect someone like Eve to sleep with him, again and again, no questions asked. “Then what do you mean?”

  She folded her arms, keeping the sheet in place over her breasts. “Why didn’t you say you had a sister when you told my parents about your brothers?”

  That was an oversight. “Because she wasn’t part of the original picture.”

  “You’re saying she was adopted?”

  He hated lying to Eve, especially when so much of what had happened between them felt so...refreshingly honest. His desire for her was real. And her response to him? It was unmistakably innocent and unguarded. Although he felt moments of regret, when she reminded him of the man he could’ve been had his life taken a different course, she also brought him a great deal of comfort.

  But the truth could get him killed—and her, too. He had to do what he could to protect them both. “She was a foster sister, at first. My parents adopted her later.”

  She didn’t seem entirely convinced, but let it go. “And all the other stuff you’ve told me? That you live in Bakersfield? That you own a landscaping company? Is that true?”

  He grimaced. He hadn’t covered very well because he hadn’t really wanted to mislead her. Now that reluctance and the half-assed lies he’d told were coming back to haunt him. “What does it matter?”

  Her eyes widened in outrage. “I hope you’re kidding!”

  He sat up. “We’re not getting married, Eve. I was clear about that from the beginning.”

  “And that rules out honesty? If we’re not being honest with each other, what’s the point?”

  He got up and pulled on his pants. “We’re just enjoying the fun as long as it lasts.”

  “And that’s enough for you?”

  It had to be enough. It was all he could have. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s better than nothing. But I’ll take you home, if you don’t agree.”

  His terse words had hurt her. He could tell when she got up and started yanking on her own clothes. But she had to understand his limitations or she could be hurt much worse later on. “Fine. Take me home,” she said. “It’s got to end some time.”