The Christmas Dare Read online

  While returning from a hike in the forest, they’d gotten separated from the rest of the group and ended up in a meadow filled with fireflies. Thrilled by the sight, she’d spun around in circles, laughing.

  He’d told her he’d never seen anyone get so excited over lightning bugs. But he was a country kid raised on the Brazos River, and she was from the city. The sweet flickering lights of the insects had given her hope in that dark time after Chelsea’s death.

  Later that evening, he’d sneaked over to her cabin with a mason jar filled with fireflies and waited on the porch until she’d come out yawning at midnight, headed for the privies. He’d poked holes in the metal lid so that the bugs could get air.

  “For you,” he said, shyly toeing the porch boards with his sneaker.

  She cupped that mason jar in her hands, feeling awed and special by his thoughtful gift and that he’d been brave enough to risk getting caught for her.

  “You could get in big trouble for hanging around the girls’ cabins. Why did you do this?”

  “Because you liked the fireflies so much.”

  “It’s the nicest present anyone ever gave me.” She clutched the jar to her chest. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “You can use them for a nightlight but let them go in the morning, so they don’t die.”

  That’s when she’d kissed him. A quick press of her lips to his.

  Her first kiss.

  Their first kiss.

  His eyes had flown wide, and his mouth dropped open, and he scurried off to his cabin.

  Smiling, Kelsey had climbed back into bed, settled underneath the covers with the mason jar, and fallen asleep as the fireflies blinked their magic lullaby.

  Now, Noah was staring into her eyes again.

  She stared back.

  An odd sensation swept over her. A feeling that if she just stretched out her hand, time would fall away, and she could touch the past and the girl she used to be. And Noah would be the innocent boy that he once was.

  Silly, whispered her matter-of-fact voice. The past is the past. It’s over and done.

  Seize the day, prompted the wild part of her she never let loose. The secret part that had agreed to Tasha’s Christmas dare. Make a fresh start. Become a new you.

  In a nutshell, that was the push/pull that had defined her life since Chelsea had died. Safety and security on the one hand, versus taking a big, passionate bite out of life on the other. The internal battle had trapped her, arrested her development.

  Noah raked a long, measuring gaze over her body and she grew hot despite the cold wind blowing off the lake. The hungry expression in his dark eyes stripped her naked. It felt as if he could read her every thought and knew her inside and out.

  She shivered in her vulnerability, feared losing control. Feared what this man could do to her equilibrium.

  The muscle at the corner of her eye twitched. That annoying, involuntary tic that her doctor called blepharospasm. It cropped up whenever she felt overwhelmed.

  Or scared.

  Right now, she was both.

  If she’d known she was going to run into Noah, she would have taken a Xanax. While she didn’t like taking the stress-relieving medication, her doctor had prescribed it for whenever the twitching got severe.

  She’d hesitated to even get the prescription filled, but then her doctor pointed out, “It’s either an occasional Xanax or you stop working for your mother.”

  Yes, well, that was easier said than done.

  “It’s good to see you after all these years.” Noah’s eyes crinkled in a friendly, welcoming smile, and it seemed he meant it.

  “She’s happy to see you too.” Tasha shifted from foot to foot, thrust Kelsey toward Noah, and whispered low under her breath, “Kiss the first random willing guy you find attractive.” Louder she said, “She still has hot sexy fantasies about you—”

  Kelsey bumped Tasha with her hip, a light tap, a warning, shut up. But she smacked her harder than she intended, and the momentum knocked Tasha off-balance.

  Her friend wavered on the edge of the bridge, arms windmilling wildly.

  Mortified, Kelsey gasped and grabbed for her. “Oh, oh, I’m so sorry!”

  But Noah sprang into action. He dropped the suitcases and caught Tasha by the arm just before she tumbled into the water.

  Tasha righted herself. “Hey thanks, hero.”

  “You okay?” Noah asked, keeping his hand on Tasha’s shoulder until she was steady.

  “As you can see, Kelsey is still so crazy for you that she’d rather send me into the drink than let you know it.” Tasha winked.

  Kelsey groaned and pulled a palm down her face. Her eye twitched furiously.

  “Is that right?” Noah drawled, tipping his head back and assessing Kelsey from half-lowered lashes.

  “This whole setup was my friend’s doing,” Kelsey said, terrified that he thought she’d come here to Twilight to make a move on him. “I had no idea where she was taking me, or that you owned the boatel we’re staying at.” Realizing that she was starting to sound frantic, Kelsey caught her breath.

  “I believe you,” he said. “I saw your friend take the blindfold off.”

  “This was dirty pool.” She pointed at Tasha, who was practicing her innocent who me expression. “Blindsiding me with Twilight.”

  And Noah.

  “Still the same old Firefly.” Noah’s chuckle was tender, his eyes lively. “Terrified of your emotions.”

  “I’m not—”

  “It’s okay. I get it,” he said. “Emotions are hard things to process. Didn’t we hear enough about that at Camp Hope?”

  Without another word, he gathered her in his arms as if they were friends for life, wrapped her in a brunch-scented hug, picked her up off her feet, and spun her around.

  All the air seeped from Kelsey’s body and over his shoulder, she saw Tash mouthing again, Kiss him!

  Chapter 6

  Did she dare?

  His firm masculine chest smashed against her soft feminine breasts. Kelsey flew into a lather. Instantly, she was hot and sweaty and . . . God, but it felt so damn good in his arms.

  But scary at the same time.

  Incredibly scary.

  Anything she was feeling right now, she could not trust. It was adrenaline and hormones and the fact that her fiancé had stood her up at the altar. This was a crazy, surreal Twilight Zone—pun intended—and anything that happened here could not be real. A mind-bending paradigm shift.

  His muscles contracted as he tightened the hug. His chin brushed against her skin, his beard stubble sexy-scratchy. The contact roused every sleeping erogenous zone in her body.

  Kelsey’s head swam.

  In Noah’s embrace, that long-ago night came flooding back to her. And she was hit with the real reason she hadn’t resisted when her mother had dragged her off that dock at Camp Hope. Why she hadn’t tried to contact Noah afterward. Why she’d burned his picture and cried herself to sleep the night before she went off to Vassar College. Why she’d ended up with Clive.

  She was a coward.

  Noah was too much man for her—big and strong and powerful. Life-force oozed from every pore. He was everything she’d ever dreamed of and everything that scared her to death, all rolled into one.

  And she was emotionally stunted. All she wanted to do was squirm away, run away, just get out of here fast.

  “You can put me down now.”

  Noah laughed, a throaty sound that tugged something deep inside her solar plexus. He released her, but one arm still lingered at her waist as if it belonged there. His chocolate eyes sparkled with mirth. He’d always been so open and fun loving and passionate. It was good to see that he had not changed.

  Immobilized, she peered into his eyes, her mind bouncing around. Her body tingling from where he’d touched her, blood pumping hard through her veins.

  Energy pulsed from his palm into her waist. Supercharged and electric. If sensation were a color
, his aura would be flame blue—burning bright and beautiful.

  His touch, his stare.

  In a blink, she was transported back in time, and she was that girl again. Seventeen years old and so hot for him, but so very afraid that her feelings would take her down. He was right. She was terrified of her emotions, and he could break into them, and everything she’d been tamping down for years—all the feelings and fears—would come rolling out.

  What a mess!

  And if that happened, she felt like she would just dissolve. Disappear. Lose herself entirely. That was the attraction and the repulsion.

  “You look astonishing,” he said, eyeing her up and down.

  Her cheeks heated and unable to hold his appreciative gaze, she glanced away. Not so bad yourself, she longed to say but didn’t. Instead, she murmured, “That’s kind of you to say.”

  “How is your dad?” he asked. “I’m assuming your mom is on cloud nine since she just got elected mayor of Dallas.”

  “Dad’s fine. Filomena’s having a cow over the whole runaway groom thing,” Tasha piped up. “But she’ll get over it. Nothing keeps her down for long.”

  “Your friend is a pistol,” Noah said to Kelsey.

  Tasha was Tasha. Her friend didn’t care what anyone thought. Tasha’s devil-may-care attitude was one of the things that Kelsey admired most about her.

  “And you’re a hotshot.” Tasha used her fingers as pretend guns, pointed them at him, mimed shooting and then blowing invisible smoke from her fingers.

  Noah laughed and smiled at Kelsey. “I like her. She’s good for you.”

  “Day-am, Noah MacGregor. I dig you too.” Tasha winked.

  Tasha was a flirt, Kelsey knew that. Her best friend meant nothing by it, and yet a strange heat of jealousy spread up her lower back, into her spine and the nape of her neck.

  Noah directed a smile at Tasha, but he was still looking at Kelsey, waiting for her reply.

  “Dad has a girlfriend and I suspect they’ll marry soon. Mom . . . she’s too busy with her career for a love life.”

  “I can’t say I’m surprised. Your mother . . .” He paused as if trying to think of a diplomatic way to express himself. “Is a little high-maintenance.”

  “A little?” Tasha snorted. “That’s like saying that the Pope is a little bit Catholic.”

  “How are your sisters and Joel?” Kelsey asked him.

  His face lit. The MacGregors were a close-knit bunch. Kelsey was a teeny bit jealous of how well they got along. Okay, maybe not so teeny.

  “Flynn and Jesse got married,” he said. “They have two little ones now. Grace is six and Ian is three and a half. Those kids are adorable. I love being an uncle.”

  “Aww!” Kelsey pressed her palms together in front of her heart. “What about Carrie?”

  “Six years ago, Carrie married her high school sweetheart, Mark, and they moved to California. They don’t have any kids yet, but they have a house full of dogs.”

  “So Carrie succumbed to the town legend too?” Kelsey smiled. “I never thought she’d fall for it.”

  Local lore said the town of Twilight was founded on the spot where two teenage lovers—separated during the Civil War by competing loyalties—were reunited fifteen years later on the banks of the Brazos River. The town was known for bringing couples together, and capitalized on the story to stir tourism, with a Sweetheart Park, Sweetheart Tree, Sweetheart Fountain, and other romantic landmarks.

  “You know how it is,” Noah said, still eyeing her. “Anyway, it’s also a family tradition to find The One when you’re young. How could she resist? Mom and Dad were teenage sweethearts, Jesse and Flynn . . .”

  Noah and me.

  The thought popped into Kelsey’s head, but she squashed it. Thoughts like that were useless. The past was over. He hadn’t come for her as he said he would. Hadn’t fought for her. Although she couldn’t really blame him for that. Filomena was a formidable foe, and he’d been a seventeen-year-old kid.

  “That’s good to hear that your sisters are doing well. And Joel?”

  “Joel and I are in business together. He runs tours on the Brazos Queen, while I manage the Rockabye Boatel and Christmas Island.”

  “That’s great news. I can totally see you doing that. What about your dad?” she asked.

  “He remarried and moved to Stephenville last year. He’s still sober, going on twelve years now. We’re so proud of him.”

  “I am happy for you, Noah. It sounds like the MacGregors are thriving.”

  “We are.” He leaned in, his body language saying he wanted more contact with her. Or was it wishful thinking on her part? “Where are you living these days?”

  “With her moth-er.” Tasha arched her eyebrows and emphasized the last syllable.

  “It’s just temporary,” Kelsey rushed to add. “My lease was up, and I was already at Mom’s house night and day anyway as we worked on her mayoral campaign so—”

  “She’s Filomena’s campaign manager,” Tasha interrupted.

  Noah didn’t say anything else, just kept eyeing Kelsey like he couldn’t believe she was there.

  She looked at his sexy mouth, and something just came over her. Something impulsive and rash.

  If she had to keep her promise to Tasha and kiss a willing hot guy, why not Noah?

  Better than the alternative, right? Some random stranger.

  Then again, Tasha had pulled strings. This whole thing was a setup. Was she really going to walk right into her friend’s trap?

  Noah’s smile beguiled.

  Kelsey’s heart thumped. She was all mixed up inside.

  This was supposed to have been her honeymoon. Right now, she should have been on her way to Spain. Instead, she found herself in this surreal Sliding Doors reality where it seemed she was living an alternate life in a different dimension.

  How had she gotten here?

  Why didn’t she just leave?

  Was she trapped in some bizarre lucid dream?

  Oh, what the hell, who cares? Just kiss him and get the dare over with.

  She went up on tiptoes, cupped the sides of his face between her palms, and planted a quick kiss on his startled lips.

  There.

  Done.

  The first dare completed.

  Check it off the list. On to the next one.

  Except the kiss was not over.

  Not by a long shot.

  Kelsey dropped her heels to the wooden bridge planks and peered up.

  Noah looked down.

  Their eyes met.

  The moment was straight out of some romantic holiday movie. Mistletoe dangled in from the archway above them. Woodsmoke from someone’s fireplace scenting the dewy air. Holiday music drifting from the marina building. “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”

  Christmas, Christmas everywhere and not a Grinch in sight.

  Unless you counted Kelsey.

  Noah’s dark eyes offered something inevitable.

  Of what, she was not sure, but Kelsey couldn’t catch her breath. Her stomach knotted, and her body ached, literally ached, for another taste of him.

  The fairy-tale moment sucked her in—the water, the holiday, that infernal Twilight Sweethearts legend—yanking her down deep into a past she wasn’t certain she wanted to revisit.

  It felt as if she’d been asleep for a decade, locked away in her mother’s ivory tower. Unable to truly feel any emotions. Unable to live her own life. Unable to find out who she was if she was not merely Filomena James’s daughter.

  But now, here was Noah, and his tender smile untwisting the lid to her jar as if she were a bright trapped firefly he was releasing back into the wild.

  Get out, yelled the part of her that prized safety and security. He’s going to dismantle you, and then you’ll be in pieces all over again.

  “What,” he said, looking shocked, “was that all about?”

  She pointed overhead at the handy excuse. “You shouldn’t stand under mistletoe if you don’t
want to be kissed.”

  “Oh.” His eyes crinkled in a happy smile.

  Kelsey cleared her throat. “Noah.”

  “Firefly.”

  He caressed her cheek.

  She went up on tiptoes again.

  He dipped his head lower.

  She latched onto his gaze.

  His thumb stroked her bottom lip.

  She touched the tip of her tongue to his thumb.

  He pursed his lips.

  Her heart zoomed into her throat. Her comfort zone shoved into another dimension. Her eye twitched. Too bad the Xanax was in the bottom of her makeup bag inside her suitcase. She’d dry swallow one if she had it.

  Noah’s thumb moved from her mouth to her temple. He massaged her skin with soft, rhythmic strokes until the tic subsided. “How’s that?”

  “Huh?” She stared at him dazed.

  “No reason to be nervous with me.”

  “No?” Her knees knocked wildly.

  “I’m going to kiss you again,” Noah said. “If that’s okay with you. But this time, it’ll be a proper kiss.”

  Noah had no idea what he was doing. He was a guy who operated on instinct. Did what was fun, as long as it was fun, and right now, kissing Kelsey was fun, fun, fun.

  He knew well enough this wasn’t a smart move. She’d just gotten stood up at the altar, for crying out loud, and the last thing he wanted was to rekindle a relationship with the daughter of the woman who had almost ruined his life.

  But here he was, happy-go-lucky Noah, pushing his luck.

  In answer to his request, Kelsey threaded her arms around his neck and tugged his head down lower. She wasn’t short at five-foot-six, but he was still almost a foot taller. A gap to bridge.

  Noah captured her mouth and found himself capsized on the wave of Kelsey’s lips. He tasted her. He absorbed her. Her flavor. Her warmth. Her Kelsey-ness.

  Engulfed.

  He was engulfed in the intimate experience of her soft, delicious lips. It had been too long since he’d kissed this pretty woman and he devoured her.

  Or maybe she devoured him.

  It was hard to tell with so much moisture and heat.

  Mouths open and searching, they shared one quivering breath under a network of hot wet kisses. Whew-eee. They still had it!