LITMIR.BIZ

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come more times than I could count.”

      “So now you’re calling me a slut?” Her face went ghostly pale, and then angry splotches colored her cheeks.

      “You’re about as far from a slut as possible.” He shook his head, wanting to shake her and then take her over his lap and spank her. The thought of spanking her brought vivid memories of the night before roaring back, and his cock hardened in an instant. Shit. “You’re so uptight, I’m amazed you unwound long enough to get off, let alone that many times.”

      She shoved the passenger door open. “Gee, if your morning-after routine is always this sweet, it’s no wonder you end up dropping so many of the women you’re always juggling.”

      “That isn’t true, and you know it.” Sam had always done the one-night-stand thing, but Jake was more of a serial monogamist. Dayna knew about his parents, knew why he’d never been one to sleep around on a woman. So now it was his turn to glare, and before she slammed the door, he spat, “Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining last night.”

      No, she’d screamed, clawed at his back, and begged for more. He watched her disappear into Rainbow’s cabin as he backed out of the driveway. Damn, this morning had started out with such promise and gone to hell the moment Dayna had gotten out of his bed. It made him want to snarl. He’d been waiting for years to peel back the layers of the good girl, knowing underneath the cool exterior he’d find fire hot enough to incinerate. Even then, she’d blown his expectations out of the water last night. He wanted more. Everything inside him craved it.

      Crave. He paused, his insides tightening. His father had craved his mother, and look where that had landed him. No, Jake would never love or need a woman like that. He jerked his chin to the side. He wasn’t his father, and he knew Dayna was leaving. He knew exactly what he was doing. This wasn’t about needing her, it was about sex, pure and simple. Great sex with the sexiest woman he’d ever had the pleasure of fucking.

      Now that he’d had her, he wanted more. She thought it was a mistake? Too damn bad. He knew exactly how good it was with her, and he was determined to get back in her pants as often as possible until she left. He grinned, rolling his shoulders as he turned down Main Street. Every storefront in the downtown area was decked out in twinkling white Christmas lights, including the shop he’d opened four years ago—Taylor Ink. He drove past, glancing in at the darkened interior. It was closed right now. He would open again for shortened hours a few days after Christmas but wouldn’t go back to regular hours until New Year’s Day.

      So, until Dayna left, he had nothing better to do than her. Plenty of time to focus on loosening her up. It would be good for her to let go a little, and amazing for him to slide his hands over that smooth, creamy skin. And as a tattooist, he knew world-class skin when he saw it.

      He also had a few very intriguing ideas on how to strip her of a little bit more of that control of hers. He stroked his fingers down the steering wheel, imagining her curves under his palms. Hell, he could do whatever he wanted with Dayna, and there was no danger of things getting deeper. He wasn’t her type, and she sure as hell wasn’t his. There was plenty of chemistry, but she wanted a nice guy. Hopefully not a dickhead like Nathan, but a nice, established guy. If possessive jealousy fisted in his gut, he ignored it. That just wasn’t how things could go with Dayna. No, it was just some carefree fun. She needed some of that, and he was more than willing to help her out.

      This was the safest risk he’d ever taken.

      It had to be because he knew exactly what loving a woman could do to a man. It could eat him alive. Jake’s shoulders stiffened, the muscles tightening as ugly memories he didn’t want came rushing in. He shook his head. No woman was worth what his mother had done to his father. She’d left his dad, left them both, when Jake was six—Toby’s age. When she’d skipped town with another man, Jake’s father had crawled into a bottle and never managed to drag himself out again. Jake had watched his old man get drunk and stay drunk every single day until the day he’d wrapped his truck around a telephone pole. Jake had been eighteen and two weeks out of high school.

      Yeah, his dear old dad had been a great example of what not to be. Jake never wanted to let a woman close enough to hurt him like that, but he also didn’t wanted to be like his mother—a cheater. When he was with a woman, he was with her. After seeing what his father had gone through, he didn’t believe in infidelity. He might not want forever with one woman, but while his affairs lasted, he didn’t stray. He had fun, they had fun, but Jake was always the one to walk away. Always.

      It wasn’t that he didn’t let anyone in. He had the Sharps. They’d been his family since he was twelve years old. He’d do damn near anything for them, but he could love them without risking his soul. That suited him just fine. He had the best of all worlds.

      Sucking in a breath, he shoved the old ghosts aside and focused on how amazing his life was now and how mind-blowing the next week was going to be. A smile formed on his lips as the image of Dayna’s slim body arching in pleasure came to his mind. He was one lucky bastard, and he knew it. Whistling tunelessly, he made the turn that would take him out to the lake…and his house.

      4

      “I like this one! No, this one!” Toby ran in a frantic zigzag pattern through the Christmas tree farm. Tugging her notebook out of her bag, Dayna checked the tree farm off her to-do list for the day. Toby had insisted they couldn’t get a tree until Dayna was there to help pick it out. She grinned, footsteps crunching through the snow as Jake, Sam, and she followed the boy. She filed away little bits and pieces of the day to go in her next book. Maybe she’d talk to her editor about a holiday story.

      She drew in a deep lungful of cold, crisp air, looking out over the little town spread across the mountainside below her. Snow blanketed the ground, fat flakes drifted in lazy swirls from the sky, and icicles decorated the edge of every roof. It was picturesque. She’d forgotten how pretty this area could be—she’d always focused on how much she wanted to get away and start her own life. She rolled her eyes at herself. She’d done such a stellar job with her life lately.

      All her efforts had been focused on not thinking about breaking up with Nathan yesterday and not thinking about what she’d done with Jake last night, but it was all crashing in on her now. The pain of losing something she’d wanted so much. The self-loathing for losing control. The guilt. Her stomach heaved, and she swallowed hard to keep down the lunch she’d had at Rainbow’s. God, she really was worse than her mother. At least her mother was thoughtless; Dayna knew what she was doing and did it anyway. Self-disgust crawled through her.

      “Dad, look at this one!” Toby poked his little head out from behind a Douglas fir and then disappeared again.

      Sam laughed. “Hey, rugrat. Wait up!”

      Dayna tucked her scarf tighter around her neck as she watched her brother slog through the ankle-deep slush after her nephew. Toby looked just like Sam had at that age. Same eyes, same smile, same endless energy. She chuckled. Her brother deserved to have to deal with it from someone else.

      Their footsteps had faded before she realized they’d left her alone with Jake. Rainbow had eschewed the delights of wading through the snow looking for a tree to stay home and cook dinner. Dayna tensed when she felt the heat of Jake’s muscular body envelop her from behind. “Just the two of us.”

      She swallowed, but her mouth had dried, and she couldn’t make a sound emerge from her tight throat. Goose bumps rippled down her limbs, heat flooding her body. The sensation was a sharp contrast to the chill of snowflakes catching on her eyelashes and kissing her bare cheeks and lips. She shivered.

      A loud crack followed by a dismayed shout sounded to their left as a tree trunk snapped and an evergreen went down. A red-faced man emerged from the branches shaking his fist at a woman standing beside the tree. His voice slurred the way only copious amounts of alcohol could manage. “You stupid cunt!”

      Jake growled and shifted in their direction when the woman planted her palms on her ample hips and snapped back. “Well, if you’d let me call for some help, it would have been fine. You can just do

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