Page 88 of Take Me Home for Christmas

“You promised not to get mad.”

“I lied.” He wasn’t mad. He was furious. And he was going to get dressed and go tear the asshole from limb to limb. “Is he still at the inn?”

“I have no idea. And I don’t care.” She reached beneath the towel and wrapped her fingers around him.

“Don’t try to distract me, Elinor. That jerk has no right to mess with you the way he has.”

“I knew he was lying. He practically admitted it when I confronted him.” She reached both hands beneath the towel. “Besides, even if it was true, I don’t love him. I realized today that I never loved him.” She looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Because he’s not you. And I’m your Belle,” she whispered as she pulled the towel from around his hips.

Her declaration didn’t do much to calm him down. The blood from his brain rushed to other parts of his body, and he wasn’t proud of the way he reacted. Tossing away his crutch, he bent Elle back on the bed and knelt between her legs.

“I’m your Belle,” she repeated as he made love to her with his tongue until she was screaming the words, her fingers fisted in his hair.

He didn’t bother waiting for her body to settle back down after her orgasm. Instead, he tossed her like a rag doll to the head of the bed. He rolled on a condom and covered her in an instant. Her eyes flew open when he thrust into her fully. They glazed over when he began to move.

Her fingernails dug into his shoulders as he pounded into her. He was behaving like an animal, taking out his anger at her ex on her. Except he couldn’t help himself.

“Say it again,” he growled next to her ear before sinking his teeth into her collarbone.

“I’m your Belle,” she gasped out.

“Again,” he ordered until the bedroom was filled with her chants of “I’m your Belle.”

He could feel her closing in on her pleasure again. “That’s right. You’re mine.” He wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or to Jeremy. But he was sure he should be ashamed of himself for using her this way.

Her back arched when she cried out beneath him. “Yes, Hayden. God, yes!”

He pressed up on his forearms and stared down at her. Her hair was a tangled mess on the pillows. He hadn’t even bothered to strip off the T-shirt of his she wore. It was rucked up beneath her armpits. She had every right to hate him for using her to soothe his anger.

Instead, she laughed. He hated that it sounded more manic than happy.

“Can you believe the jerk thought I’d marry him?”

Hayden froze above her. “Hewhat?” No wonder she’d seduced him. To keep him from killing Jeremy Keneally.

Her humorless laugh was loud in the room again. “His grandmother is cutting him off unless he becomes more respectable. Apparently,I’mrespectable. Not because he loves me though. That was just a lie. It’s because I’m a McAlister. A nepo baby with good connections but not deserving of his love and respect.”

He winced at the crack in her voice. A tear leaked out from her eye. He bent down to catch it with his lips.

“No, Elle,” he murmured against her skin. “He’s a jerk, and he’s wrong. He doesn’t deserve you. Don’t you dare let him get to you. You hear me?”

She heard him all right because she pressed her palms to his chest, swiftly reversing their positions until she straddled him.

“Damn right he doesn’t deserve me,” she panted out as she began to ride him.

He shoved his hands beneath the T-shirt to grip her waist. When she tossed her head back, her hair billowed through the air. She was a vision above him.

“He doesn’t know me like you know me, Hayden. And he never will.”

Her declaration had his orgasm swiftly surging through him. They both cried out, then she slumped into his arms. Their hearts raced, seeming to beat as one.

Hayden’s emotions were all over the place as he stroked her back and breathed in the musky sex smell from her skin. When her breaths began to even out, three things became crystal clear to him. One, she was taking the promotion atVantage. If for no other reason than to prove to that dickweed Jeremy—but mostly to herself—that she was more than just a McAlister. Two, Jeremy Keneally—or any other man, for that matter—wasn’t ever going to know Elle the way Hayden did, because three, he was leaving his protective cocoon of Chances Inlet and going to New York with her.

He loved her that much.

ChapterTwenty-Two

The beachin front of the city pier was crowded the following afternoon as observers came out to watch the snowman-in-sand-making contest. Fortunately for Elle, West was happy to let the professionals show off today. Wet sand on a chilly day wasn’t exactly her idea of fun.

---