Chapter 9 #2
“Midnight it is.” Nick opened the door and waved her toward it. He’d had enough temptation in the room for now. “If you plan to shower, I suggest you do it. I’m next.”
“Ah, here’s my room key.” Kat stepped out in the hallway to greet Nancy Petri, the owner, operator and number one housecleaner of the B and B.
Mary ducked back into her room and closed the door, mulling over what Kat and Nick had said about Ed and Silas.
If these were the only two suspects they could come up with, they were in trouble.
Mary just couldn’t see either one as threatening to her father.
Santa had dealt firmly and fairly with everyone in this town for years.
Mary wasn’t familiar with the strong-arm tactics of Las Vegas bookmakers.
Had Silas gotten himself into a pinch over his gambling?
Everyone knew he made frequent trips south.
Mary hadn’t known where, until today. Was a gambling debt enough to drive a man over the edge?
Would her father have run from Silas, a man he’d known for years?
Mary grabbed a towel, her shampoo and clean underwear and dashed down the hall for her shower, determined not to run into Nick until the appointed hour of midnight.
She stood under the hot spray, letting the water jet over her skin, beating away the stress of the day.
The heat and steam eased the bruising from the tumble down the hillside and drained away the tension and what was left of her energy, leaving her tired and sleepy.
She wondered how she’d ever wake up enough to perform the next mission.
All her sleepiness disappeared the moment she stepped out of the bathroom.
Nick leaned against the hallway wall in only his jeans, having tossed his shirt again. A towel draped over his shoulder and a small smile tugged at his lips. “Did you leave me any hot water?”
It wasn’t so much the words as the way they rolled off Nick’s lips so effortlessly and with such a deep, resonant tone that made Mary’s bones turn to soup.
“Uh, yeah.” She stood transfixed and tongue-tied, unable to drag her gaze from the mat of hair sprinkled across his chest. What would it feel like to run her fingers through the springy curls?
Mary licked her bottom lip which had gone suddenly dry.
Nick’s eyebrows rose into the dark hair drooping over his forehead. “Mary?”
“What?” She shifted her gaze from his chest back up to his face and fell into twinkling dark eyes.
The smile at the corners of his lips spread across his face. He nodded to the door behind her. “The shower?”
Her face flamed and she scooted out of the bathroom door, hurrying down the hallway as fast as she could go without running.
A low chuckle followed her, echoing off the walls.
Mary slammed her door behind her. “Jerk.” She pressed a hand to her heated cheeks, ignoring the way her breasts felt ultrasensitive against the abrasion of the soft terry cloth.
She yanked the bathrobe off and strode across the room in her panties, searching for dark, concealing clothes, her heart hammering in her chest and not from sprinting down the hall.
The man infuriated her.
She paused with her hand on a black turtleneck sweater.
“Why?” she wondered aloud. Why did he infuriate her? All he’d done was stand in front of her without a shirt.
It was the smile. That freakin’ sexy smile of his had completely thrown her for a loop.
Mary smacked her hand against her forehead. “Get over it. The man isn’t going to be around once we find Dad.” Even if he was, he’d never tell her what she wanted to know about him. She couldn’t trust Nick any more than she could trust her ex-boyfriend, Bradley.
She tugged the sweater over her head and slipped into a pair of black, lined leggings and thick socks. Completely covered, her body still tingled with awareness for Nick.
Damn. Why did she do this to herself? Why did she let her emotions get the better of her when she knew nothing would come of it? Was that it? Was she always going after the unavailable men to save her from ever committing to one?
She lifted the photo frame on her nightstand. It was the one picture she’d carried with her everywhere. The last family photo of her mother, father and herself together.
Mary had inherited her blond hair from her mother and her blue eyes from her father.
They stood in the snow outside the Christmas Towne store, her father in his full Santa outfit, his long white beard the real deal.
Her mother wore a full-length dress trimmed around the collar and hems in faux fur, her long blond hair pinned on the top of her head in a neat bun.
Mary wore a miniature version of her mother’s dress. They were all smiling.
Had that been the last time she and her father had been happy?
Olivia Claus’s death had been a blow to everyone in North Pole.
She’d been the driving force behind Christmas Towne’s involvement in Operation Santa.
If someone had a need, her gentle smile and humble presence brought peace and blessings to all.
Tears welled in Mary’s eyes. She missed having a mother. Missed her at her senior prom and high school graduation. Missed being tucked in at night. Mary’s father did the best he could to make her teen years tolerable, loving her and providing the support she needed.
Now he was gone.
A knock startled her out of her memories. The clock on the nightstand glared a bright green 12:00.
She shot from morose depression to jagged nerves in two seconds flat.
Tucking her blond hair into a black knit hat, she shrugged into her powder-blue jacket and snowpants, cursing its brightness when she needed a dark coat to move through the night unseen.
With the temperature outside somewhere in the negative digits, she couldn’t just walk two blocks without one.
Another knock sounded.
Her hand on the doorknob, Mary inhaled and let it out slowly. She could handle this. Nick was just a man. They were going to her home, the place she’d grown up. Jasmine wasn’t there. No big deal.
With a calm she didn’t feel, she opened the door.
“Ready?” His shoulders, clad in a black leather jacket, filled the doorway, sending a shiver across Mary’s senses. He hadn’t bothered to shave, a shadow of beard making him look like a real badass instead of the good guys he alleged to be.
Black gloves, black pants and a black hat enhanced his black eyes. The man oozed danger from every pore.
As she stepped through the door, a thrill of excitement filled her. “I’m ready.”