Page 7 of A Mountain Man Christmas

The crunch of snow beneath booted feet snapped him back to attention. The woman was drawing nearer, her stick raised as if to strike him again. The large coat she had on fluttered lightly around her slender frame as she advanced.

“Theophilus Hill,” he heard her say. “Did you really think you could get away from me?”

Ignoring the pain that reverberated through his skull with the effort, Tristan sprang to his feet and braced himself, prepared to fight her if he needed to. No sooner had he raised his fists than she dropped the stick and withdrew a pair of gleaming shackles from underneath her coat. Before he could figure out what wasgoing on, she slapped one shackle onto his wrist, slipping the other bracelet onto hers.

His eyes widened. “What the—?”

“It’s over, buster,” she told him. “You’re coming with me.”

Chapter Three

Or…You Could Just Kick Him in the Jingle Balls

The problem with handcuffing yourself to a supernatural mass murderer twice your size was that if you realized it was a terrible idea while you were already cuffed, it was probably too late.

It took Lyla all of three seconds to realize she didn’t have a key to unlock the handcuffs. It took her twice as long to figure out what that spelled for her.

Holy crap.

In retrospect, cuffing his wrists to hers had seemed like the only sensible plan. If she’d cuffed both his wrists, he could easily have overpowered her and taken off again. While he was secured to her, he couldn’t get anywhere without taking her along. But her plan wasn’t exactly foolproof. A man like Theophilus Hill wouldn’t care about having to drag her corpse with him all the way down the mountain.

Yeah, I really should have thought this through.

He gazed down at the handcuffs, then at her. In the semi-darkness, she saw his eyes widen with fury and knew what was coming next. Before she could brace herself, he gave her a hard shove, knocking her off balance. The titanium cuffs held, leaving her dangling in midair by her wrist.

“Christ!” Lyla cursed.

“Get this…thing off me!” he snarled.

With that, he yanked her back toward him. She’d expected him to put up a fight, but she wasn’t going to let him overpower her. Years of hunting down men like him had taught her to defend herself. Planting one foot into the ground, she launched a kick at him, hitting him between the legs.

The unmanly shriek that followed was music to her ears.

I just kicked Theophilus Hill in the nutsack, she thought almost giddily.

She expected him to double over and slam his jaw into her upraised knee, but he recovered quickly and grabbed her, pulling her close to him.

“You don’t know who you’re messing with,” he growled, his breath hot against her chin.

“Could’ve fooled me.” She struck out at him. “You’re not going anywhere, Hill.”

It was too dark to make out his features easily, but she could’ve sworn she saw confusion flicker in his eyes. Before she could dwell on it, he gave her another shove and made to take off.

“Titanium handcuffs, genius,” Lyla snapped just before she got a mouthful of snow. Instinctively, she stuck out her leg and was pleased when it connected with his shin. With a groan, the man went down in the snow. Unfortunately, he took her along with him, and they tumbled downhill together in a series of grunts and curses, kicking and punching at each other until they came to a stop in the snow.

She was vaguely aware of her body being flipped. The next thing she knew, she was flat on her back, his large torso hovering above her. The sound of a heart pounding filled her ears, but she couldn’t tell whether it belonged to her or the man who now had her pinned beneath him.

Panting, she glowered up at him. “Let go of me.”

“You’re the one who attacked me,” he retorted.

A tremor traveled up from the base of her spine. This man was much bigger than she was. Not only that, but he was a supernatural. She really hadn’t thought this through. What had she been expecting, cuffing herself to a man who hadn’t hesitated to murder several geriatricsandlaw enforcement?

“So…what?” she breathed. “Are you going to kill me, too?”

She felt him stiffen. His grip on her shoulders relaxed a little. “You’re mistaken.”

“What, you expect me to believe it wasn’t you who murdered those people?” No doubt, she was right about him sabotaging the plane and dooming all those passengers. At this point, there wasn’t much she could put past this scumbag. “I’ve been following you ever since you took off. If you were innocent, you would’ve stayed put and—”

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