LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Thaddeus Knight. That is an ornament for the tree. It is not for you.”

      He bit down on the hard candy, snapping it in two, and offered the other half to Jolie. “It was all Ms. Jolie’s fault.” He winked.

      She smiled up at him. It was impossible not to beam in delight when Thad was around. Except his grin froze when Gloria caught his eye. She scowled at him. It was only when she met Jo’s gaze that her smile reappeared.

      Apparently she was very serious about these ornaments.

      “Why don’t you go give Dillon a hand with the garland.” Gloria waved toward the other room.

      “I’m thinking this candy operation looks like more fun.”

      “Thad...” There was a warning note in Gloria’s voice.

      What was that about?

      Whatever it was, Thad ignored it. He propped his arm across Jo’s shoulders and said in a conspiratorial voice, “Now, ladies, did y’all know that the barn out there is haunted?”

      “Haunted?” Kaylee asked, intrigued.

      “Oh, yeah.” He winked at Gloria. “You remember, Ms. Gloria? There was that one time I was heading for the barn, needing to get something from the tack room at the back...” Thad scratched his jaw, all serious now. “This must have been a year ago now? Maybe a year and a half? Anyway, there was this awful strange sound coming from that room.”

      “What kind of sounds?” Jo leaned closer.

      “Scratching. Panting. A woman’s scream...or sigh. It was hard to tell.”

      “No way,” Kaylee said, eyes wide.

      “Yes, ma’am. I been careful going in there ever since. Never know what a body will find.” His grin was pure wickedness as he smiled at Gloria.

      “Thank you for that, Thaddeus,” Gloria said, giving him a shove toward the great room. When she returned to the table, her cheeks and neck were flushed bright red. “Now, let’s make some ornaments.”

      Jo had just started filling up her molds with candies when Gloria came to stand beside her. “I apologize for Thad.”

      “What do you mean?”

      She crinkled her nose. “He’s a flirt.”

      “No need to apologize for that.”

      “Just be careful.”

      “Careful?”

      “I...” Gloria frowned. “You know, even though he’s worked here awhile, we still don’t know all that much about him.”

      “What are you saying? Don’t you trust him?”

      She opened her mouth to reply, but Dillon appeared at her side at that moment, carrying an open box of ornaments. “Hey, Red. Curtis found these in the Quonset. They must be from Kenny’s family.” He picked out an ornament wrapped in tissue paper and passed it to Gloria, who unwrapped a pretty colored glass ball.

      “Oh, this one’s beautiful.”

      “What should we do with them?”

      “Let me sort through them. I’m sure we can use some.”

      Jo frowned after Gloria’s retreating back. Why would Gloria warn her about Thad? Was there something dark and dangerous in his past? The very idea got Jolie’s creative juices flowing and she considered all sorts of possibilities.

      If Gloria’s intention had been to warn her off Thad, it was having the opposite effect, because all Jo could think about was ways to seduce him.

      She smiled as a vivid image of how she could get him into her bed came to mind.

      This was going to be the best Christmas ever.

      * * *

      THE FITTED RED turtleneck and black skirt Jolie wore suited her, probably because they fit so well. The turtleneck reminded him of all her lovely curves; the skirt looked feminine and showed off her long, shapely legs. She was a sight, that was for sure, her eyes shining brightly in the candlelight as everyone sat around the fireplace in the great room. Now that the tree was done, they ate and drank and chatted as if they’d all known each other forever. It’d been a long time since Thad had spent the holidays with other folks. Not that he didn’t like people. He liked them just fine; he just had to be careful of strangers.

      Funny how they’d all just met, but there was something about the holidays that made people more open, made this setting more familial.

      More intimate.

      He glanced Jo’s way and caught her watching him. Her cheeks flushed. Was that due to him or was it the combination of the fire and mulled wine?

      Maybe both. Either way, he liked it.

      He had wanted to heed Ms. Gloria’s warnings, but there was something about this woman that he couldn’t seem to shake. He just had to be near her. His fingers twitched with wanting to touch; his nostrils flared with wanting to sniff—did she always smell like peppermint?—and he found himself constantly wetting his lips, longing for another taste.

      He hadn’t meant to tease Ms. Gloria about overhearing her and Dillon in the tack room that time, but he couldn’t resist. Kind of like he couldn’t seem to help himself around Jolie.

      Of course he should stay away from her. He never got too close to anyone, couldn’t afford to, but...

      He met her eyes again. Beautiful doe eyes. Sweet. Innocent. Yet he knew from the kiss out in the yard that she had a fire burning inside of her. That and her innocent passion was an intoxicating combination.

      “So,” Jo said, holding his gaze. “What is Tip’s Eve?”

      “Well now, it comes from some of my Cajun, Catholic roots.”

      “You’re Cajun?”

      “I’m a little of this and a little of that.” He changed the subject from his family back to the tradition. “Catholics are all about abstinence followed by overindulging.” He lifted his rum and eggnog. “It’s the pre-Christmas party for all of us who can’t wait for the twenty-fourth.”

      “Cheers to that,” Zak’s dad said.

      “Cheers.” Zak ran around the room clinking his glass of punch with all of the adults’ glasses.

      It’d been a long time since Thad had been around a kid. Something about that brought back memories, stuff he hadn’t thought about in years. “Now, Zak,” Thad said, “have you heard of Père Noël?”

      Sitting back down on the rug in front of the fire, Zak shook his head, eyes wide. “What’s a pear Noel?”

      “Père Noël is French for ‘Papa Christmas.’ You know about Santa Claus, right?”

      His head bobbed up and down real quick.

      “Well, lots of kids are curious how Santa can get all around the world in one night, leaving presents for all those kids. You ever wonder ’bout that?”

      “Yeah, I wonder that sometimes.” Zak glanced at his dad. “But, he’s magic, right?”

      “Oh, yeah. Most definitely. But that’s not all.” Thad leaned down, as if he was talking only to the kid, but out of the corner of his eye, he watched Jolie, aware of her more than anyone else in the room. “I’ll tell you a secret about how Santa does it, but you’ve got to promise not to tell anyone else.”

      Zak scooted closer, coming to sit right down at his feet. “I promise,” he whispered excitedly.

      “Okay, well...the secret is, there’s more than one Santa.”

      “What?”

      Thad turned to Jolie because she was the one who’d uttered the question, not

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