The Bad Boy’s Secret Santa (Christmas in Alpine Valley #9)

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

ELI

The last time I visited the Alpine Valley Public Library, I had my hand up Piper’s sweater and my thigh pressed between her legs. We damn near got banned for life when the head librarian caught us making out, but Piper sweet-talked the old codger into giving us a one-time warning instead.

“You sure we’re welcome here?” I ask Piper as I hold the door for her.

“Nervous?” Her devilish grin tempts me to repeat history. To grab her by the hand, yank her back to the biographies section, and recreate one of the many memories that’ll forever be burned in my brain.

In the eleven years I’ve been gone, I’ve yet to find a woman who comes close to comparing to Piper Stanton. She’s always been it for me.

“Frank retired two years ago,” she adds when I don’t answer her. I realize I’m still holding the door open and step inside the cramped breezeway so it can shut behind me.

“Did he?”

“He still stops by for the occasional story hour, though.”

How is it that every little thing Piper says today sounds flirty? Is it her or am I just reading into things? She did relax around me last night as we handed out pizza at the fire station. My first official Roy-funded donation. Or maybe it was because I promised to eventually explain my disappearance eleven years ago and that took the pressure off? Whatever it was, the minute we finished at the fire station, she made an excuse to stop by the bakery and disappeared before I could offer her a ride.

“There might be one happening right now,” she adds, a devious grin spreading across those kissable lips. “Maybe you can say hello.”

I swear the blood drains from my face. “What?”

“Oh, come on. You’re not afraid of a harmless old man, are you?” she teases, her voice pitched low in just the right way to turn me on. Definitely flirting .

“Piper, hey!” A familiar woman waves from the front desk. With each step closer, I try hard to place how I know her. “Looking for anything in particular today?”

“Actually, Eli would like to talk to you about something.”

The woman’s gaze lands on me, recognition dawning. “Eli Winchester?”

“Wanda Perkins?”

“You came back.” She moves around the desk to get a closer look at me but hesitates. As if she’d like to give me a hug but isn’t sure if I’ll be receptive. Alpine Valley is a small town. It’s going to be impossible not to encounter a few familiar faces. But seeing Wanda, Roy’s next door neighbor, is oddly comforting.

I move in for the hug, feeling her sigh of relief in the quick embrace.

“I always knew you’d come back,” she says against my cheek before pulling back to look me over. “I’d just hoped it’d be under better circumstances. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Because it seems crass to say don’t be to someone Roy considered akin to a friend, I simply thank her instead.

“Heard you’re an accountant now. A pretty high profile one at a big firm.”

Piper’s head snaps at me, her shocked expression not surprising. I’ve always been good with numbers, but I went out of my way to make sure no one knew about it when I was growing up. I’d purposely flunk a math test here and there just to keep everyone guessing. Not even Piper knew how effortlessly math came to me. “It’s boring,” I say dismissively wondering how that piece of information ended up in circulation. When I left town, I cut ties with everyone. “I wanted to make a donation to the library—on Roy’s behalf.”

Wanda lights up like the Christmas tree in town square used to. “Oh, Eli! That’s so kind of you!”

The twinkle in Piper’s blue eyes warns me we’ll be revisiting the topic of my career choice later, but for now, I’m off the hook as Wanda launches into her elaborate plans for a super-charged summer reading program.

“We have the funding to do the bare minimum, but these kids deserve something special.”

I pull out my checkbook. There’s the slightest bit of malicious satisfaction that Roy’s probably pissed from beyond the grave at the majority of his cash box being deposited into a neglected checking account I’d kept. But I wasn’t about to lug a box full of money all over town. “How much do you need?”

“Well, look what the cat dragged in.” Frank Wilbur appears, holding a children’s book. Something about reindeer from the look of the cover. I try to catch Piper’s eye, wondering if she set me up on purpose. But she refuses to meet my gaze as she gives Frank a hug. A fucking hug . The old man softens right up.

“Mr. Wilbur,” I say, extending a hand.

He looks at it for a beat before giving it a good shake. “Never thought I’d see you in here again.” He glances at Piper. “At least not together.”

“Eli’s donating to our summer reading program,” Wanda gushes, making me wish I’d made this an anonymous donation.

“On Roy’s behalf,” I quickly add.

“Really now?”

“Really,” Piper chimes in, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. The graze of her fingers sends a jolt of electricity up my arm. I suspect she felt the shock too, or she wouldn’t have yanked her hand away like she’d just touched a live wire.

“Well, what do you know about that.” Frank looks down at the book he’s holding. “Say, you any good at funny voices? I need someone to narrate the part of a rowdy reindeer.”

“Eli’s allergic to children,” Piper says, that playful look challenging me to prove her wrong. At eighteen, the last thing I could think about was starting a family. I was too angry at the world. Too selfish. But now that I’ve had some time to grow the fuck up, the idea of children appeals to me. Especially with Piper.

“I love children.”

“Then meet me over there in five,” Frank says, waving his book toward the children’s section. A dozen colorful bean bags are circled around a single chair, half of them occupied by four- and five-year-olds.

I finish filling out the check and hand it over to Wanda.

“He was proud of you, you know,” Wanda says. “Your uncle.”

“I doubt that.” I don’t mean to say it out loud, but the words slip out of their own accord.

“He talked about you all the time.”

The admission causes a squeezing in my chest, but I can’t pin the emotion. I don’t want to figure it out. So, I focus instead on the reading corner. “I better get my best reindeer voice prepared. Keep me posted on that summer reading program. I’d love to hear how it goes.”

“You’re good,” Piper says, her words a smooth accusation as she follows me across the library.

Halfway to the reading corner, I reach for her hand and tug her into a row of fantasy novels. It’s not the secluded corner we used to make out in, but it’ll give us a minute or two of privacy. Maybe she’s pulled back in time with me, or maybe she’s been flirting today for a reason. Either way, she doesn’t flinch when I cage her in against a bookshelf. “What makes you think any of this is an act, Pipes?”

“It’s not?” Her voice is raspy, her eyes hooded.

I drop my gaze to her lips, wanting nothing more than to capture them with my own. I trace my thumb along her jaw, dipping it beneath her chin to tilt her face up. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“Like you’ve hung up your bad boy leather jacket and switched it out for a nerdy blazer instead?” she teases, staring at my mouth. Daring me to prove her wrong.

“Is that what you think, Pipes?” I lean closer, lowering my mouth a feather’s width from hers. Our breaths mingle, and I catch the familiar scent of peppermint. My dick twitches, the primal side of me roaring to life in a heartbeat. She parts her lips, darting her tongue out to wet them. Her breathing is heavy, causing her tits to rise and fall rapidly. Another inch closer and they’d be pressed against me. It takes every ounce of restraint to keep myself under control as I say, “Because you’re wrong.”

I push off the bookshelf, leaving her breathless in the fantasy aisle. The truth I hide from her is that I’m breathless too.