Page 40 of Meet Me on Christmas Eve

I shook my head no. In truth, it would’ve been helpful to have assistance … from anyone but him. I couldn’t handle him touching me again, even for something so innocent as a helping hand up from the floor.

Fresh on my feet, I forced an optimistic smile. “All right, where was I?” Time to finish that damn tree and the others so Terry could go home and leave me alone.

I reached for the tree, but his back was to me and he reached for it too and swung it sideways, pushing me back against the wall a couple of feet.

The shock of the push knocked the wind out of my lungs for a moment, but I didn’t fall this time, at least, thanks to a last-minute decision to brace my feet strategically apart.

Terry, seeing that he’d accidentally caused the tree trunk to slam me against the wall, let out a string of curses and slammed the tree on the floor.

I watched in shock as some branches snapped off. The poor little thing. I’d already felt sorry for it, being the runt of the tree farm, most likely. My eyes swung cautiously back up to him, standing close enough that I could see the different shades of brown in his dark eyes, which seemed closer to black than usual.

“Dammit, woman, why are you so accident-prone?” he thundered. His brows furrowed, and anger laced his tone as he braced his hands on the wall.

I breathed. In and out. It was all I could do. I felt the wetness in my eyes and the pounding in my chest. Finally, I licked my parched lips and choked out, “I—I don’t know.” Why was I such a disaster around him? Maybe I didn’t want to know.

He looked into my eyes, and for a moment I thought he seemed closer somehow, though I’m pretty sure he hadn’t moved and I hadn’t moved. And then he looked past me, at the wall I suppose. His eyes returned to mine, dark and piercing as ever. His voice was quiet and deep. “And why, Mariana … why can’t I walk away?”

“Walk away?”

I barely got the words out, when suddenly he leaned in and his lips found mine as his fingers slid into my hair, and I quickly lost all ability to think. No tentative, tender kisses for us—we immediately went for deep, thorough, I-want-to-climb-you kisses. My fingers played with his hair, stroked his stubbly cheeks, and tested the solidness of those muscled arms. I pressed against him, needing to be as close as possible, our tongues tangling in a battle of who could go deeper, who could draw out the most passion from the other. Surely, I would win, but maybe it would be a tie—he was like a man starved as he kissed me like he hadn’t kissed in ages.

“From you.” He started a trail of kisses and nibbles along my jaw. “Why can’t I walk away from you?”

“Oh, I …” I couldn’t think. What was he even talking about? I had to get closer. I hitched my leg around his hip, and he groaned but then smiled before taking my lips again, his hand possessively gripping my hip.

But then he moved his hand back to my hair, my leg kicked out, and—

Crash.

He jerked his lips away, untangling our limbs a bit more slowly as we both turned confused faces toward the sound.

The tree.

Lying on the floor.

I must have kicked the tree over.

And…

We had been …

No.No. We couldn’t.

Oh my god, what had we done?

My eyes were huge as I stared at him with my chest heaving. His hair was disheveled, his shirt collar messed up, and he looked like he had no idea where he was.

Same, Terry, same.

Not thinking clearly, I put my finger on my lips, as if needing to feel the evidence … yep, I’d just been thoroughly kissed.

And he was staring at my mouth. Was he looking at the lipstick that was probably smeared on my chin? Or did he want to …

“Um.” I had to say something. But what?

It was enough. It seemed to break the spell, and his expression slowly shuttered as his eyes swept the scene around us and finally landed back on me.

His voice sounded a little hoarse, but his eyes betrayed none of his feelings. “Why’d you change your name?”

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