Davies, Corinne - Wrapped in Fur [3xtasy Lake 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (7 page)

“Don’t use one.”

“How can you go through life without one?”

“There is only one of me. What more do you need but Holly?”

“A last name so that if you con anyone, I know who to have charged.”

“Brand!
Enough.
You’re being rude.” Aniela waved her spatula threateningly at him.

“It’s all right.” Holly walked over to where he sat. She reached out to touch his cheek but pulled her hand back as if she changed her mind. “I swear to you, I would never do anything to your Auntie. She is a kind soul who just wants to help. She’s teaching me how to help out in the shop so I can repay her kindness.”

Brand’s mouth went dry as she drew near. Her trim figure had him gripping the arms of the chair under the table. If he let go, he feared he might actually grab her. There wasn’t a shred of malice in her tone or the look on her face, but a loneliness in her eyes he could feel echo between them. Either she told the truth or she was a hell of an actress. He found himself nodding at her.

“I’ll go open up your shop, okay, Aniela?” Holly snatched a warm pancake off the pile, munching it as she stepped out into the hallway.

Brand watched the soft sway of her hips as she walked.
Please, God, let me be wrong about her. Because I want to take her to bed, for at least a couple of months.
He stabbed at a pancake but his fork hit the table. His aunt stood next to him, his full plate in hand, pinning him with a furious look.

“I’m going to need some firewood,” she said. That was a sure sign that he’d pissed her off. It had been her favorite punishment when he was a teenager. The summer he and Colwyn had met, he’d chopped at least two winters’ worth of kindling. He and Colwyn had been a terrible influence on each other, and often he’d ended up coming home past his curfew. Right now, he wasn’t about to argue. A good workout would burn off some of this sexual tension that had built up within him.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t want you taken advantage of.”

“She is a nice girl, Brand, and isn’t going to hurt me. You need to be nicer to her.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He eyed his plate in her hand. If she was going to make him chop wood, then she could at least let him finish eating.

“In fact, I think you should spend a bit of time getting to know her better.”

Whoa! Warning!
He recognized that calculating look in her face. Forget breakfast, he would work on an empty stomach.

“Perhaps after I’ve finished the wood.” Brand quickly pushed his chair back and got to his feet. Backing quickly toward the door might be cowardly, but necessary, given the unnerving look in his aunt’s eyes. If he didn’t get out quick…

“Why don’t you two go for a walk downtown?” She got him before he could make good his escape. “It’s a gorgeous day. The sun is shining and some fresh air
should
improve your manners. I’ll go tell Holly and have her meet you out front.”

Crap.
Brand clenched his back teeth together so tight he felt a headache starting. The last thing he wanted to do was spend any extra time with this mystery woman.
Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that and maybe you’ll start to believe it.

He wanted to make certain she wasn’t going to fleece his aunt, have a nice, big Christmas dinner, and then head back to his apartment in Vancouver.

He hoped to avoid any trips into town. Ecstasy Lake didn’t change much as the years passed and there were far too many memories for his comfort. He didn’t want to see the dislike in everyone’s gaze. He knew most of the town believed that Britt died because he broke up with her, and that was fine, because it diverted any blame from Colwyn.

Brand’s heart pounded wildly against his chest. Even thinking about Colwyn led to images of Holly sandwiched between the two of them.

“Brand, are you coming?”

He heard his aunt calling from the shop and put on his boots, hoping to get it over as quickly as possible. It wasn’t that he found Holly repulsive, more the opposite, really. She was a complete enigma to him, and truthfully, he was afraid to get to know her better.
Although I wouldn’t mind getting her naked.
Shallow as it sounded, she made every nerve in his body spark as soon as she got near him.

Walking outside, he spotted her leaning against his truck, her manner of dress as intriguing as her painted toenails had been. Her feet were tucked into a pair of white, shaggy boots, and she wore a poncho that he was sure he would see in an off-off-Broadway drag show. Made of bright, Christmas-red wool that clashed with the incredible shade of red of her hair, her poncho also sported a Christmas tree on the front, tiny gold charms sewn on to it to look like decorations. Flamboyant, to say the least, and not something he would expect a con-artist to wear. Didn’t they try to stay inconspicuous? Blend in? Because she had it all wrong.

The drive into town didn’t take long, especially since the plows had been out to clear the roads. The sunshine glinted off the fresh, new snow, turning everything into a beautiful winter landscape. The stores were all open, and brightly decorated for the holidays. He trailed after her as she darted in and out of shops. Her enchanted attitude and open sense of wonder and enjoyment of the simple things made him smile. He bumped into a few people who recognized him and stopped to chat. As time passed, he found his grifter theory fading. She was so eager to see everything but never actually bought anything. Nor did she try to play any games to get him to pay.

“I haven’t bought my aunt a gift yet. Think you can help me find something?”

Her eyes lit with excitement. “Oh, I’d love to help. This is so much fun. Christmas should happen at least once a month. Too bad you have such a small family. I’d want tons of people to buy for.”

“You don’t have anyone to shop for?”

“No. They were gone a long time ago. I’m sure there are some extended family members here and there, but I have no idea how to find them. I’d feel them if they were near.”

He was going to ask her to clarify that last comment, but his question lodged in his throat when she grabbed his hand. Her chilled fingers slipped within his larger ones and tugged him in another shop. It felt so right that he intertwined his fingers with hers so their palms pressed together. He let go only when they stopped for a cup of hot chocolate. She had extra whipped cream.

Cupping the paper mug between her fingers, the two of them stood in the chocolate shop picking out truffles for Aniela. In an uncharacteristic, spontaneous move, he leaned close and kissed some whipped cream off her upper lip. Her shocked look had him grinning. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in years. When he moved to stand straighter, she quickly took another sip of her cocoa, coating her upper lip again. He chuckled at her antics and speared his fingers through her hair at the back of her neck. Holding her still, he leaned close and flicked his tongue over her lip first before kissing her. Her lips felt like silk beneath his and his awareness of his surroundings quickly vanished. This time it was the man behind the counter clearing his throat that broke them apart. Shocked at his own behavior, Brand was about to apologize to the shopkeeper when the old man commented.

“That’s not the first time my Katie’s cocoa has had that effect on people. Besides, you’re under the mistletoe and all.”

Brand looked up and sure enough, there were about four dozen balls of the dangerous plant hanging from his ceiling over the shop. You couldn’t stand anywhere in here and not be under some. He looked down at Holly, who leaned against him, a bright smile on her face as she gazed at the ceiling.

“It’s nice to know the best traditions have lasted.”

Looking down into her innocent expression of happiness, Brand felt a bit more of his suspicions toward her fall away. He almost enjoyed the way she kept him guessing. An accountant’s life was black and white, numbers only, and no matter how he added things, the answer remained the same. Holly was like one of those numeric anomalies. You think you know the answer, but work the question a different way and you get a different answer.

He knew there was more to her story than she or his aunt were admitting to. He suspected that Colwyn knew more than he’d let on as well, but then Colwyn had his own secrets. He remembered the night that Colwyn confessed the truth of his parents and that he wasn’t exactly human. It was the night that Brand confessed that he wanted to share his girlfriend. Colwyn had said they should be honest with her. Colwyn’s insistence on the truth is what led to their telling his girlfriend what he’d really wanted. He’d never expected Brittany to act the way she did. Hell, it wasn’t like ménage relationships were uncommon in this town, even back then someone had vandalized the welcome sign every spring. Gordon would repaint the welcome sign every April, and within a week or two, someone would spray-paint a
3x
over the
Ecs
of Ecstasy

He and Colwyn had never stopped to consider the fact that other small towns had very different views on relationships. In their own naive way, they’d expected that Brittany would happily accept Colwyn into bed with them and they would live happily ever after.

* * * *

Holly wrapped both her hands around the paper cup, but the warmth coming off the vessel couldn’t compare with the heat inside her, or the heat that seemed to radiate off of Brand. He laid his hand on the small of her back as they left the store. She waved at the couple behind the counter and then glanced up at him again. Her lips still tingled from his kiss, but he became very distant afterward. She knew he didn’t trust her, but this was different.

“I like this town. I don’t know why you ever left,” she commented. A shadow passed over Brand’s expression and she stopped to look up into his face. “Did something bad happen here?”

“You could say that.”

It wasn’t Brand who spoke. Holly looked next to them and saw Colwyn standing there. “Oh, my other favorite person.” She hopped into Colwyn’s arms and gave him a hug. “Have you had this stuff?” She held up the cup. “It’s so good!" His hands wrapped around her bottom and caressed her, but when she turned her face up for a kiss she noticed that his attention was completely on Brand.
Oh, dear
. She forgot for a moment what her plan was. Seeing Colwyn after such an intense kiss from Brand had her craving more contact for a moment. She’d wanted to feel caught between the two of them and acted on that impulse before thinking.

Brand stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. His face looked angular and strained because his teeth were clenched together so tightly. He looked furious. She patted Colwyn on the chest and tried to push him away. Colwyn let her drop to her feet but kept an arm around her shoulders. Brand’s expression was colder than the air around them, effectively dousing the heat both he and Colwyn triggered inside her. She knew she’d made a huge mistake, from Brand’s point of view, anyway.

“I’ll leave you both to visit.”

Holly reached out and grabbed him by the arm before he could go anywhere. “Brand, no, please. I apologise for that. It was rude of me, especially after your kiss. I needed more touching and you didn’t, and I knew that Colwyn wouldn’t mind because we already…I mean, well, that was wrong of me.”

“Your kiss?” Colwyn’s gaze slid from her to Brand. “You kissed her, too? Well, that is interesting. You got to that pretty quickly considering you think she’s a fraud.”

“I asked you to check in on my aunt and make certain she wasn’t being taken advantage of. I didn’t ask you to try and seduce the answers out of her.”

Holly was confident their words weren’t said to hurt her, as the two of them seemed to be out to hurt each other. She saw enough of this type of behaviour in the castle lists of Medieval England, in what she was beginning to think of as her pervious life. Knights often provoked each other into violence because they weren't willing to speak of the matter that really bothered them.

Both men seemed intent on trading insults and apparently forget her presence. Just as well, because that moment, Holly smelled something warm and spicy and fresh from an oven. She knew enough to stay out of their way before they turned any vicious comments her direction. Following the delicious smell, she left the two men glaring at each other and headed toward another store. Inside, the aromas wrapped around her like a family hug. Not that she’d ever had one of those, but she liked to think that Aniela’s hugs were given to her with such goodwill behind them. An older woman stood behind a counter, placing pastries onto a wire rack.

“Hello, there. What can I help you with?”

“I don’t know. I smelled something incredible and wanted to know what it was.” She jabbed a thumb in the air, toward the window. “They’re too busy fighting, so I came in on my own."

“Really? Who’s that?” The woman glanced out the large front window. Her eyes widened and her jaw slackened a bit. “I don’t believe it.”

“Why is it so shocking to see them speaking to each other?” Holly asked, eyeing the pastries on the wire rack.
They smell so good.
Despite the pancakes she ate this morning, her stomach made a strange growling noise.

“That, my dear, is a long story, and one that
they
should share. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll put together some rolls for you. They’re fresh from the oven.”