Page 13 of HoHoHo for You

Her lips tightened. “And we both know how wet I get.”

I struggled not to laugh, just nodded. “Exactly.”

Her eyes widened. “You said we could use it now?!”

“I mean, if you want t—”

She squealed and leaped off my lap. “I’m going stir-crazy in here. This is perfect, Sam. You’re amazing.”

She leaned down once to kiss me briefly, but deeply. And just as I was grabbing for her hips, she pulled away, laughing. “I’m going to change, and you have to give me at least alittle bitof a head start.”

I arched one brow. “The prey does not get to choose when the hunter hunts.”

She propped one hand on her hip. “Samuel Priestley, you’re supposed to be agentleman.You told me—”

“I will be a gentleman for my wife any day of the week. But do you really want megentlewhen I’m hunting, Bridge?” I murmured, letting my voice drop low and gruff.

Her breath huffed and her eyes sparked—then dropped to look at me sitting there in nothing but my Krampus pants.

“I don’t think those are made for a Pacific Northwest winter, do you Sam?” she asked slyly, already yanking the tags off her new clothes and pulling them on in front of me.

I frowned. Fuck. She was right.

Cursing, I shoved out of the couch and ran for the hallway, Bridget cackling in my wake. But she didn’t know I’d been prepared for this all along. It would take me thirty seconds to get dressed. Hopefully she wouldn’t get too far ahead.

Smiling to myself because she was brighter than I’d seen her in weeks, I thanked God for this idea, and grabbed my clothes and my phone which I’d left in the walk-in closet. Chuckling as I hurriedly dressed—and cursing when I heard the back door slam because she’d already run outside—I tapped the phone and pulled up the tracker that she didn’t know was in the waistband of those pants. Smiling when I saw the little circle that was her, outside in the yard, I shoved the phone into my back pocket and ran for the door, imagining taking her down somewhere in the neighbor’s yard—or further away. I knew in a pinch she’d try to reach one of the neighborhood parks where there were thickets of trees and deep shadows and no one around at this time of night. But I was hoping to find her sooner than that.

If she didn’t hide. She’d become sneaky in recent months, figuring out that she couldn’t outrun me, so she used her smaller stature and weight to her advantage and tried to find crevices and shadows to hide in.

That was why I used the tracker. I’d play along for a short time so she felt like it wasn’t too easy. But I’d take her down as quickly as I could.

Yanking on my shoes in the garage, I threw myself out the side door, figuring she would have headed to the darker side of the house—and stopped dead.

Bridget hadn’t run.

Despite the darkness, I could see her form clearly—tiny and lithe… and silhouetted by the massive display of Christmas lights from our neighbor across the road.

Shit.

She heard my feet pounding out of the garage even though I drew up short when I saw her, and her body turned like she’d come to me. But her eyes stayed fixed on those flashing lights and I wanted to scream.

I hurried to her, pulling her to me. “Bridget—”

“I forgot,” she breathed, and I wanted to punch the dark because that playful breathlessness had turned into fear. “I forgot they… I should have thought—”

“No, Bridget,Ishould have thought. I’m sorry.”

I took her hand and pulled her around to face me, keeping her back to the lights and looking down at her, as she stared up at me, her eyes welling with tears.

“Focus on me,” I said quietly, gruffly.

Her throat bobbed and she nodded, blinking back the tears. But she was already trembling. Then her head turned. I grabbed her chin and pulled her back.

“Bridget,eyes on me.”

Her breath whooshed out of her, and she nodded, still blinking rapidly.

With a growl, I picked her up and darted across the driveway, behind the line of trees, to the spot where the fence ran into the northern neighbor’s garage and there was a flat wall—and those fucking lights were hidden by the trees. I pinned her up against it and tipped her chin up again.

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