Opening the door, she cracked a smile. “Need to borrow an egg or maybe a cup of sugar?”
He didn’t respond to her attempt at levity. He was standing on the porch, his thumbs hooked in his pockets. It was difficult to make out his expression in the shadow of his hat and the dark, murky porch—so difficult she considered turning on the light. But she was afraid that would reveal the excitement she felt at seeing him. “Is something wrong?”
“Why did you tell me you were leaving town for the holidays?”
“Because I was. Until I decided at the last minute that maybe it’d be nice to…”
“To what?” he demanded when she couldn’t seem to find the words she wanted.
“You know, to spend a quiet Christmas at home.”
“Alone.”
Lucky lifted her chin defiantly. “Sure, why not?”
Mike stepped closer but resumed the same challenging stance. “You were never going to Washington in the first place, were you?”
Letting her breath seep out between her teeth, she leaned against the lintel. “What do you want from me, Mike?”
He gave her a speculative look but no answer.
“Do you want to hear me say that I don’t really have anywhere to go? That I’m not close to my brothers the way you’re close to your family? Okay, it’s true. But it doesn’t bother me.”
“Bullshit.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re as human as the rest of us.”
His eyes glittered in the darkness, making her feel as though he could see into her soul. Scrambling to rescue what she could of her pride, she jerked her head toward his truck parked in her driveway. “Okay, so I’m human. Now, you’d better go home before someone sees you here. They might not believe you stopped by just to gloat over my lonely Christmas.”
“I’m not here to gloat.”
“Why are you here?”
He stared at her for several seconds. Finally he said, “Because I want to be.”
Their eyes met, and a powerful yearning swept through Lucky. “I won’t be around in a couple of months,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she felt the need to remind him of that, except she thought it might make things easier.
He stepped closer still, hovering only centimeters away. “Then maybe we should stop wasting time.”
Lucky’s heart skipped a beat at the promise in his voice. “Mike—”
He ran a finger along her jaw, then lowered his head to press his lips against hers, silencing her with his kiss. She let her eyelids flutter shut at the sweet, gentle contact and felt his hand come up to support the back of her head. “I want to stay the night,” he said softly.
Lucky’s breath caught in her throat, but she opened her eyes and said what she knew was best for both of them. “You should probably go home.”
He must have recognized the lack of conviction in those words because his arms tightened around her. “If I went home, I’d only come back.”
She let her lips curve in a seductive smile. “What if I didn’t let you in?”
“I’d beg,” he whispered, trailing kisses down her neck.
Lucky couldn’t help chuckling at the thought of Mike Hill begging at her door. “No, you wouldn’t.”
“I would, on my knees.” More kisses, lightly grazing her skin, sending goose bumps down her spine. “Would you still turn me away?”
“If I knew what was good for me, I would.”
His hand curled possessively around her bottom. “We’ll worry later about what’s good for us.”
The little sanity Lucky had left acknowledged the temporary nature of what he proposed, admonished her to pull away and demand he leave. What was the point of falling even more deeply in love with a man she couldn’t have?
But it was Christmas, a magical night when anything could happen.
Knocking his hat off, she threaded her fingers through his short straight hair and her tongue met his in a passionate kiss, a kiss that held nothing back, that said everything she couldn’t.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he told her, his teeth glinting in a devilish grin. Then he swung her up, cradling her against his chest, kicked the door open wider and carried her into the house.
“What about your truck?” she asked when he paused to close the door behind them.
“I don’t know. Ask me again when I can think of something besides you.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“WHY AREN’T YOU CLOSER to your brothers?”
Reluctantly, Lucky roused herself from dozing contentedly on Mike’s bare chest. The room was cool because she liked it that way at night. Typically, she burrowed beneath her down comforter and a couple of old quilts to create a warm cocoon. But her bed had never been more comfortable or warmer than it was now, with Mike in it. “I admire my brothers, but—” she hesitated, searching for a diplomatic way to state the situation “—they understand each other better than they understand me.”
“What’s not to understand?” His fingers skimmed her hair lightly.
“Don’t you find me wildly complex?” She was teasing, hoping to distract him from his serious tone as well as the bent of his questions, but it didn’t work.
“You are wildly complex. I’ve never met anyone like you. You’d cut off your nose to spite your face if you thought it might salvage your precious pride—something I’m too practical to understand.” He pulled the blankets higher. “But I already know that. What I don’t understand is why your brothers aren’t taking better care of you.”
She rolled her eyes, even though she was still lying on his chest and knew he couldn’t see her do it. “Would you quit it? I’ve been taking care of myself since I was eighteen. Actually, I was taking care of myself long before that.”
“Still, they’ve let you down.”
“It’s late. Aren’t you tired?”
“You don’t want to talk about this?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Our families are our families. I don’t want to discuss yours, either.”
His hands climbed up her back, kneading the muscles that had tensed in the last few minutes, willing her to relax. “I can see not wanting to talk about mine,” he said. “But I don’t understand why Sean and Kyle left you here alone on Christmas. It makes me angry.”