Holding Out For A Holiday Hero

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“When bells ring at Christmas, I make wishes. Is it silly? Yes. Do I still do it? Yes.

Will anyone ever stop me? No.” – True Blakely

This wasn’t happening.

Okay, well, clearly it was happening. She was going home with the one and only Jake Hale. Sexy. Dangerous. Trouble…Jake Hale.

Get a grip, woman. Do not freak out.

She’d already made one serious mistake with him. Letting out that bit about being disappointed in him for behaving like a gentleman. Total slipup. But when she was nervous, she often said the wrong thing. And she was super, super nervous.

And afraid.

Not of Jake. Never him. The guy was a hero, after all. All the people in town said so. As soon as she’d gotten back to Rosewood, everyone had been raving about Jake and his outstanding military service. She’d greedily absorbed every tale because… maybe she’d once had a thing for him.

What girl hadn’t been half in love with Jake back in the day? That bad boy appeal had wrecked plenty of hearts. Hers included.

But he wasn’t a bad boy. He was a man now. A man who hunted bad guys. And he was helping her and?—

“Home sweet home,” Jake murmured as he opened the door to his condo. He flipped on the lights and waved for her to cross the threshold.

I am spending the night with Jake.

She hurried inside because she was truly curious to see what Jake’s home would be like. Honestly, she was curious about everything when it came to him.

True made her way to the middle of his den, then she slowly did a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn. The place was immaculate. Really. Super clean. Very high-end. Very masculine.

And just a little cold.

Not the temperature. That was more than fine. But there were no personal touches in his condo. No soft touches. Zero decorations, even though they were only days from Christmas. Not even one twinkling light.

“You looking for something?” A polite inquiry from Jake.

Ah… “Who picked out the tree at your office?”

“Perry.” A long-suffering sigh. “I swear, I think he pulled the thing out of the trash. Said the tree had plenty of life left in it.”

Well, it had some life. Not necessarily plenty. And she’d watered it before they left so…

“Told him we didn’t need that nonsense.” Jake pressed a button on a nearby remote, and his gas fireplace immediately flared to life. “But the kid is young, and he was so excited. Then he started playing his damn music.” A disgusted shake of his head. “If I’d had to listen to Jingle Bells one more time, I think I would have lost my mind.”

“You don’t like Christmas music or, um, Christmas?”

He turned toward her with a half-grin. “Just call me Ebenezer, but I stopped believing in the magic of Christmas a lifetime ago.”

That made her chest feel funny. She tugged his jacket closer even though she should probably be taking it off, and True inched toward him. “Why?”

“Why?” He blinked his intense, I-can-see-straight-into-your-soul eyes. “You really don’t know a lot about my life, do you?”

No, she didn’t. Just the gossip she’d greedily absorbed. “You were always a private person.” Back in school, no one had known his secrets. “But now people know that you were in the military?—”

“Sweets, I was in special ops. No one in this town knows what I actually did while I served because those missions are classified and probably always will be.” His powerful arms folded over his chest. His head cocked, and the light hit his dark brown hair. His eyes—so dark and deep—held her stare. “Growing up, my life was no picket-fence dream.” Flat. Cold. “My dad cut out on us when I was five. My mom had to work two jobs in order to provide for me and my brother. There was barely any money when the holidays came around. If we were lucky, we’d score a tree that looked far too much like that piece of crap Perry hauled into the office. Hell, maybe that’s why I don’t like the thing. Reminds me too much of my past.”

She wasn’t inching toward him any longer. Instead, she nearly ran for him. True stopped right in front of Jake.

“My clothes were filled with holes and they were faded as hell not because I was trying to be cool and rebellious, but because we were dirt poor. We had nothing. Holidays were a painful reminder of that fact. So, no, I’m not particularly fond of Christmas and its so-called magic. It’s just another holiday to make people who are struggling feel like shit.”

Her lower lip trembled.

“What. Are. You. Doing?” Jake seemed utterly horrified as his hands dropped to his sides. “And why the hell did I just tell you all of that?”

What was she doing? Nearly crying. And she was also throwing her arms around him and holding on tight.

“True.” He didn’t hug her back.

She just hugged him harder.

His hands rose to pat her awkwardly. “True, my family is okay now. Tommy is a lawyer. I’ve got my own business. We take care of our mom. Right now, she’s gone on a cruise we bought for her and her new husband. She is good. ” Another awkward pat. Just his right hand patted her this time. “I shouldn’t have told you any of that. I go from telling you nothing to telling you everything. That is not normal.”

She pulled back and peered up at him. “I’m sorry Christmas was so difficult for you.”

“Forget it. It’s in the past. Dead and buried.” He hurriedly stepped back. Like three steps. “Even if the Ghost of Christmas Past had to turn up in my office tonight.”

True frowned at him.

“Forget it,” Jake said again as he turned away. “Long day. You want a beer? Wine? Some food? I’m starving, and I can whip us up some steaks.”

“You don’t have to cook for me.” She trailed after him as Jake made his way into the kitchen. Her gaze took in every detail. White cabinets. White granite countertops. Gourmet kitchen. Like something straight out of a magazine.

“Well, I’m cooking for myself. Doing it for two won’t be hard.”

A sudden, horrific thought struck her. “Is your girlfriend going to have a problem with me staying with you?” Of course, Jake would have a girlfriend. She should go to the motel. One hundred percent.

“Nope.” Fast. Very fast. “No girlfriend, so no problem.” He held a bottle of wine in his hands. “You got a boyfriend who will have a problem with you staying here?”

“No boyfriend.” Just an ex-husband she’d like to forget, thank you very much.

A half-smile teased Jake’s lips as he pulled out two glasses and filled them with red wine. He offered one glass to her. “Then I guess it’s just us.”

Her fingers took the glass. “Just us.” The glass trembled in her hand, and some of the wine slid over the edge.

He steadied her hand. “You’re safe with me.”

She stared into his eyes. Such a deep, compelling gaze.

Such a handsome, dangerous man.

Strong cheekbones. Sharp nose. High forehead. Lips that were sinful. A jaw made of granite. A six-foot-three powerhouse of strength. He’d been impressive as a kid, but with a few laugh lines on his face and with muscles packing his body, Jake Hale was absolutely drop-dead gorgeous now.

“You hired me to protect you, True.” He kept holding her hand. Warmth spiraled through her body. “That’s exactly what I’ll do. You never need to be afraid of me.”

“I hired you to find out who is after me.” She hadn’t hired him to protect her. He was just…doing that.

“Same thing.”

Was it?

He let go of her hand. He lifted his glass. “To keeping you safe and stopping the bastard out there.”

“I can drink to that.” She tapped his glass with her own.

Then she gulped down the wine as fast as she could.

“Who would want to hurt you?”

Hours had passed. Hours when True had actually felt safe and…dare she say it? Happy. Because being with Jake was actually surprisingly easy. He’d prepared what had to be the best steaks in the world. He’d chatted. He’d joked. He’d been… charming. And her guard had lowered. She’d found herself smiling and the tension that had ridden her for days had slowly vanished.

So now she was curled up on his couch, minus her boots and his jacket, with her feet tucked beneath her, and a half-empty wine glass gripped in her hand. She’d been staring into the tempting darkness of his eyes and maybe wondering a bit too much about what his mouth might feel like against hers when the dark rumble of his question had emerged.

Who would want to hurt you? She’d asked herself the same thing so many times lately. And the answer was always the same. “I-I don’t know.”

“No enemies? No exes who just didn’t want to let go?” He didn’t hold a wine glass. One arm was stretched along the back of the couch. The other rested near his side. His watchful gaze never left her face.

She put down her glass. “I’m divorced, but my ex is hardly the kind of man who would try to kill me.”

“You sure about that? Sometimes, you think you know someone…” His words trailed away. She could have sworn his gaze heated. Then he finished, “And you discover you never really knew the person at all.”

“Richard is a prosecutor in Atlanta. He puts criminals away. He isn’t one.” Though there were plenty of sins that he did choose to commit, killing wasn’t one of them.

“You sure about that?”

“We divorced. He didn’t—didn’t put some kind of hit on me!”

“Why did you divorce?”

She blinked. “Irreconcilable differences.”

He just waited.

“He wanted to fuck his legal secretary, and I had a problem with that. An irreconcilable problem.” Her mouth dropped open after the stark confession. Oh, wow. She had not meant to share one of the most humiliating moments of her life. I found them together when I took him dinner because Richard was working a late-night shift on a big case. They were kissing on his desk. She’d dropped the food. Chinese. It had spilled all across the floor as she’d stared at him and felt every single one of her dreams crash around her. And it had hurt extra hard because…

No, do not go there. Don’t think about it right now.

“He was married to you.” Jake cocked his head to the right. “And he wanted to fuck someone else?”

Pain burned through her.

“What a fucking idiot.” A pause. “Want me to go beat the hell out of him?”

A shocked laugh sputtered out of her. “No!”

“The offer will always be on the table.” He leaned toward her. His hand reached out and curled under her chin. “He hurt you. I can hurt him back. You say the word.”

True found she couldn’t say any word. She could only look into the darkness of his eyes and then…Her gaze dropped to his mouth.

“You went back to your maiden name,” Jake noted.

“I wanted my old life back. My name. My town.” So she’d turned away from everything in Atlanta and moved back to Rosewood. Rosewood was home. Safety. Or, it had been. Until the incidents had started.

His thumb brushed along her lower lip.

Her breath stuttered out.

“You’ve been here a year,” Jake noted.

Her eyes widened. “How do you know that?” Oh, no. Had her tongue just accidentally brushed along the tip of his thumb? It had. And why was she letting him touch her this way? She should get up. Move away. Put some space between them. She would have, too. If his touch hadn’t felt so good.

“People talk. The town princess coming home was a big deal.”

“I’m hardly the town princess.”

His gaze fell to her mouth.

Is Jake Hale about to kiss me?

Her heart slammed into her chest.

“What about the men you’ve been with since your divorce?”

“What men?”

He frowned at her.

Oh, crap. Hello, more embarrassment. “I, um, my social life hasn’t been very active. Been busy with the move.” Lie. She’d unpacked immediately after her move. “I’ve been busy with the new job.” Another lie. The job at the museum kept her busy, yes, but there would have been time to date. And… “I suck at dating.” A dismal truth. “I’m just not very good at it. Trust is hard for me, and I don’t…I haven’t.” He watched her with a faint furrow between his eyes, as if he still didn’t understand, so she rushed out, “I haven’t been with anyone since my divorce, so there is definitely no jealous ex out there who is thinking if he can’t have me, then no one can.”

Silence.

“I mean,” she cleared her throat and ignored the burn she could feel in her cheeks, “if that was your suspicion, it’s wrong.” She pulled away from him and rose. That had been way too awkward.

“You haven’t fucked anyone in a year?” Disbelief filled the rumble that was his voice.

True winced. “I haven’t dated anyone since my divorce became final. The divorce itself took about six months. So, technically, I haven’t, um, had sex with anyone in a year and a half.”

“Sonofabitch.”

Yes, indeed. It had rather been a sonofabitch. “I should get to bed. It’s late.” And she’d revealed enough painful personal information for one night. True glanced around. “If you could just point me in the direction of your guest room…?”

“Don’t have one.”

Her stare flew back to him.

He shrugged. “It’s a one-bedroom condo. Got a king bed in my room.”

An image of him in that king bed immediately flooded through her mind. And in that image, she was with him. Tangled in black sheets with him. Breaking that year and a half streak.

Once more, True cleared her throat. “The couch will be great. I can sleep here tonight.”

Lazily, he rose. And stood beside her. When Jake was right next to her, True was vividly conscious of just how big he was. It wasn’t just that he was tall. It was that he was muscled. Powerful. And he seemed to absolutely surround her.

“Sweets,” he murmured. “If I let a lady sleep on the couch while my happy ass stretched out in a king-size bed, then I damn well wouldn’t be a gentleman, would I?”

Her head tipped back as she stared up at him.

“And I think I told you before that I would play the gentleman.”

And I think that I told you before…That’s disappointing. But she would not say those words to him. Mostly because she could not. True wasn’t the bold one. Wasn’t particularly brave. And making the first move with a man like Jake? A guy who oozed sex appeal and testosterone?

He was way out of her league. She would not know how to handle him.

But I’d certainly like to try.

True bit her lower lip. “I can really take the couch. It will fit me better. You’re too big for it.”

“I’ll be fine. You’re sleeping in the bed.” An order.

“You’ve already done so much for me! You took my case, you gave me a safe place to stay, and you made dinner for me!” A desperate shake of her head. “I can’t take your bed, too.”

His eyes gleamed at her. “It’s a done deal, True. Go to bed. We’ll start our investigation in the morning.”

“Arguing with you isn’t going to work?”

“Nope.”

She took a step back. “Then…thank you. For taking my case. For the place to stay. For dinner. And for your bed.”

His head inclined.

True retreated one more step. “Are you always this kind?”

“Absolutely not. Typically, I’m a straight-up bastard.” He pointed to the right. “First room is the bathroom. Second room is the bedroom.”

She edged toward the right. “If you’re usually a bastard, why are you being so nice to me?” True turned away from him.

“Because it’s you.”

His low words stopped her.

“Want to hear a secret, sweets?”

She looked back over her shoulder. “Why do you call me that?”

“Because you’ve always smelled so sweet.”

Her shampoo. He must be talking about her strawberry-scented shampoo. She’d used the stuff forever.

“And I bet you’d taste even sweeter.”

Her eyes widened.

“That secret I just mentioned? Well, what you might not have known was that I had quite the crush on you in high school.”

He had not just said that to her. Not about how she might taste and certainly not about having a crush on her. Casually, she reached down and gave her thigh a little pinch.

Not dreaming. This is real.

“You’ll need something to sleep in.”

Actually, yes, she did. The only clothing she had with her—it was the dress she currently wore. She’d spontaneously made the decision to stay at the motel after arriving at his office. The fear had been too much, and True just hadn’t been able to stand the thought of going back to her house. I know someone is watching me. So she had no extra clothes. Zero toiletries.

“Feel free to borrow one of my t-shirts. Top drawer of the dresser.” Then he reached down and pulled off the shirt he was wearing.

Muscles. Abs. A ten-pack, at least.

His hand went to the buckle of his jeans. “Just gonna get comfortable,” he murmured.

He was aroused. Very aroused. Because her eyes had dropped to the front of his jeans automatically—when his hands moved, her eyes had moved, too. There was no missing the long, thick cock that pushed forward.

“If you need me, True, I’ll be right out here.”

He undid the buckle. She bolted for the bedroom. True shut the door—more like slammed it—even as her heart raced in her chest. Jake Hale had just said that he’d had a crush on her. Jake Hale wondered what it would be like to kiss her.

Jake Hale had an insane body.

And I want to know what it’s like to kiss him, too.

Only, instead of giving in to the need that had been inside True since her teenage years, she’d just run from him.

Story of her life. Always being too afraid to reach out for what she really wanted. Even when he was right there.

Well, he’d certainly fucked that up.

Jake sprawled on the couch—with his legs dangling off the left armrest and over the edge because the freaking thing was too small for him—and he glared at the ceiling. He had True in his home. She’d been smiling and chatting with him.

Then he’d fucked things to hell and back. Just confessing about the old crush had sent her running at double-time speed away from him. Fine. Message received. Despite the cues that he’d thought he might be picking up on, True was not interested in him.

One hundred percent, not.

He lifted his wrist and glared at the glow-in-the-dark watch screen. Midnight. It was gonna be one long night. He hauled off the watch and dropped it on the floor beside him. His dick was hard and aching, and no relief would be in sight.

Way to send her running. He should have kept his stupid mouth shut.

Creak.

Jake tensed. Had that just been the bedroom door opening?

The floor squeaked. He knew that squeaky spot. It was three steps in front of his bedroom.

He did not move. Maybe True was just heading to the kitchen for a glass of water or something. Just because he heard her tiptoeing around, it did not mean that the woman was coming to talk to him. Definitely did not mean that she’d suddenly decided she couldn’t live without him for another moment and that she planned to jump him.

“Jake?” A hushed whisper. The living room was dark, but he could make out her shadowy form as she stood near the side of the sofa. “Are you asleep?”

Hell, no. He was awake and in frustrated, sexual agony.

“Bad idea,” she murmured. True began to turn away.

His hand flew out and locked around her wrist. “I like bad ideas.” Loved them, in fact. His favorite ideas were bad. “You got something you need to say?”

“I…” A soft sigh. “I have a confession.”

Go on. He squinted as he tried to see her better in the dark. Was she wearing his t-shirt? Oh, yes, he thought that she was. Sexy as hell.

“You weren’t the only one with a crush in high school.” A husky reveal. “I watched you, far more than I should have. And I might’ve had some fantasies about you.”

Fantasies? His dick saluted extra hard.

“I had a crush on you. And I have often wondered…just how you would taste, too.”

How was a man supposed to resist a confession like that one?

“Just wanted you to know,” she added, a little breathless. True tried to tug her wrist from his grip. “Uh, good night.”

Uh, no .

In a flash, Jake shot to his feet. He’d ditched his belt and shoes after shedding his shirt, but he still had on his jeans. He didn’t let go of her wrist. Instead, Jake hauled her closer. “Let’s settle this mystery,” he said against her mouth.

Then he kissed her.

And lost his mind.