Marriage Under the Mistletoe. Helen Lacey

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СКАЧАТЬ looked sideways. “I work for the Los Angeles Fire Department.”

      Evie’s heart stilled. A firefighter? A hazardous occupation. Exactly what she needed to throw a bucket of cold water over her resurfacing libido. “That’s a dangerous job?”

      “It can be.”

      Evie’s curiosity soared. Ask the question. “So why do you do it?”

      “Someone has to, don’t you think?”

      “I guess.” He had a point. But it didn’t stop her thinking about the risks. She’d had years of practice thinking about risks, about dangers. A decade of thinking. Since the rainy night Gordon had donned his Volunteer Emergency Services jacket and left her with the promise to return, but never did. An awful night long ago. The night she’d shut down. She wondered about Scott’s motives. “But why do you do it? Are you an adrenaline junkie?”

      He chuckled. It was such an incredibly sexy sound that Evie’s cheeks flamed.

      “I’m sure my mom and sister think so.”

      “But you don’t?”

      “I do it because it’s my job. Because it’s what I’m trained to do. I don’t think about the reasons why. Do you sit down and analyze why you’re doing what you do?”

      No. Because a shut-down person didn’t question herself. A shut-down person was all about control, the now. But she didn’t admit that. It was better to sound like everyone else. “Sometimes.”

      “What exactly do you do?”

      “I run a bed-and-breakfast.”

      He nodded. “Yeah, I think Callie told me that. And you’ve got a kid?”

      “Trevor,” she replied. “He’s fifteen.”

      Although she remained focused on the road, Evie felt his surprised stare.

      “You must have married young.”

      Evie pushed her hair from her face. “By some standards, I suppose. I was nineteen.”

      She could almost hear him do the math in his head and felt about one hundred years old. While he, she knew, was just twenty-seven.

      She pushed the CD button on, waited for music to fill the cab and resisted the urge to sing along.

      “Do you want to share the driving?”

      Evie looked sideways. “We drive on the other side of the road.”

      “I have an international license.”

      Of course he did. He was young, gorgeous, fearless and accomplished. “I’ll let you know.”

      He didn’t say anything for a while and relief pitched in her chest, although she felt the nearness of him through to her blood. What was it about men who looked like Scott Jones that made some women discard their usual good sense and want to jump their bones? But not her. Evie wasn’t about to make a fool of herself over a great body and an incredible smile.

      She cast a quick look in his direction. His eyes were shut. Good. If he slept she wouldn’t have to talk. Besides, they had three weeks to get through, including the wedding, Christmas and New Year’s.

      And she could bet, right down to the soles of her feet, that they’d turn out to be three of the longest weeks in history.

      * * *

      Scott wanted to sleep. He longed for it. But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d caught more than a couple of hours without being bombarded by dreams.

      Yes, I can...

      Eight months, he thought. Give or take a day. It had been eight months since his colleague and friend Mike O’Shea had been killed. And he’d lived under a cloud of guilt and blame and regret ever since.

      Because despite being acquitted of any negligence involving the incident that had taken Mike’s life, Scott felt responsible. He should have been able to save his friend. He should have tried harder, moved faster, relied on instinct rather than adhering to protocol. Mike had deserved that. So did the two young daughters and grieving wife he’d left behind.

      It proved to Scott that a man with his profession couldn’t have it all. The job he had, the job he loved...that job and family didn’t mix. The wife-and-kids kind of family that meant commitment on a big scale. He’d been in love once, a few years back. He’d thought being involved with another firefighter would work, that she would understand the job, the pressures and the dangers involved. It lasted eighteen months before she’d bailed on him, their apartment and their plans for a future.

      He should have expected it. Love hadn’t figured in his life since. Lust...well, that was different. Since Belinda had walked out he’d dated half a dozen different women. He’d slept with a few of them but had no inclination to pursue anything serious. Because serious wasn’t for him. Not while he was a firefighter.

      Scott inhaled a deep breath and got a whiff of perfume. Something sweet...vanilla. He smiled when his brain registered how much he liked it. The woman beside him was extremely attractive; although she was so uptight he could feel the vibrations coming off her skin. But he liked the way she looked. He’d always been a sucker for long, dark, sexy hair. She had a nice mouth and big green eyes beneath slanting, provocative eyebrows. The type of woman he’d notice. Lush, he thought. And touchable in a way that could make a man’s palms itch.

      Maybe I should talk to her and break the ice a bit? Talking with women had never been a problem. He liked women. They usually liked him. But she didn’t seem interested in conversation, so Scott kept his eyes closed and concentrated on the soft music beating between them.

      Sleep...yeah...I can do that.

      * * *

      Evie had a headache. Probably from the tightly clenched jaw she couldn’t relax. Acutely conscious of the sleeping man beside her, she gripped the wheel and looked directly ahead. An hour and a half into the journey and she felt the need to stop for a fix of caffeine. She pulled into a truck stop twenty minutes later and maneuvered the pickup into a vacant space outside the diner. Her passenger didn’t stir as she turned off the engine and unclipped her belt. She looked him over and experienced a strange dip low in her belly. Really low.

      Okay...so my body’s not quite the museum I thought it was.

      Evie wasn’t sure how this sudden attraction made her feel. She wasn’t sure she wanted to feel anything. She wasn’t sure she even knew how anymore. Oh, she knew how to love her son, and her parents and her siblings and her nieces and nephews. And she was a good, loyal friend.

      But a man? A flesh-and-blood man like the one in front of her—that was a different kind of feeling altogether. Memories of those kinds of feelings swam around in her head, like ghosts of a life once lived, a life that belonged to someone else.

      The life of a woman who’d had a husband, a lover, a soul mate. When Gordon was alive she’d had those things. They’d laughed and loved. She felt passion and heat and sweat.

      But Evie wasn’t that woman anymore.

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