Chapter 2

chapter

two

Eli

I pay for my niece's fudge, then force myself to turn away from the sexy elf. I have had instant attraction to women before, but nothing this intense.

Abby had wanted to go into the candy shoppe and I'd relented because I'm a cool uncle like that. But I caught one glance of the elf's long brown curls and that curvy as fuck ass in that ridiculous costume and I'd had to slyly adjust myself. That hard-on had come out of nowhere. Like when I was in middle school and I'd just discovered out what my dick did.

Then she'd spoken and that soft southern accent made the situation in my pants even worse. It was then that I was a total ass to her. It's not completely out of my personality to behave that way. I'm not a friendly guy.

"She was cute," my sister, Hannah says, casually bumping by shoulder as we walk.

I don't reply, I just stare up at the sky. "It's going to snow."

Hannah sighs. "It's time to move on, Eli, and I saw how you were looking at that woman. You should have asked her out."

There are at least a dozen reasons why that shit would never happen, starting with the fact that she's adorable and sexy and as cheerful as a ray of sunshine and ending with the fact that I'm a grumpy asshole who's too mean to look for love and too stubborn to grab hold of it even if it is staring me in the face.

And Hannah knows of this.

I would happily tell her to mind her own fucking business if Abby wasn't still holding my hand.

Thankfully at that moment our phones both sound a notification. I pull mine out of my pocket and see the weather alert. Blizzard. I look up at my sister. "You need to get home. The weather is going to get bad."

She nods. "Do you need to stay at our place in town? Or can you make it up your mountain?"

"I'm good." I lean down and kiss her cheek, then do the same to Abby. "You be good for Mommy, Abbygirl. Don't eat all your fudge or you'll get a tummy ache."

Hannah grabs me for a quick hug. "It's been long enough, Eli. You can still find happiness."

"Let me know if you need anything," I say, ignoring her advice. Happiness isn't meant for everyone. At least not romantic happiness. Everything else in my life is pretty decent. I have a job that I love and I make plenty of money doing it. And I get to do it at home where I don't have to deal with people and their stupidity. So really I can't complain too much.

It's snowing by the time I reach my Range Rover. By the time I clear the packed parking lot, it's coming down in a thick sheet. Big, fat snowflakes fall rapidly, one after another. I switch on the wipers and head out of town.

I'm only a few miles outside of town when a car on the side of the road snags my attention. It's a beat-up compact car with tiny tires. The hood is open and I'm cursing as I slow my own car.

If the driver is stranded, in this storm, then I have to stop and offer a ride. Even a misanthropic asshole like me knows that.

But maybe I'll be lucky. Maybe someone else already gave a ride to the driver and the car's been abandoned. Maybe …

Nope. I'm not lucky. Not only is the driver still at the car, leaning over the open hood as I slow to stop, but the driver is wearing a familiar pair of candy-cane striped tights and a micro skirt that does things for her deliciously plump ass that should be illegal.

I pull over and roll down my window. "Get in," I yell.

She straightens, turning those wide brown eyes to me and her mouth opens in a gasp. "I don't even know you. You could dismember me and feed me to bears."

That accent caresses against my cock. Christ, this woman is going to kill me. "You'll have to take your chances. Otherwise you're going to freeze to death. Do you need help getting anything out of your car?"

She shakes her head and I can see her teeth chattering from here. I flip on the seat warmer for her as she slams the hood and opens my door.

"Where the fuck is your coat?"

She looks down at the flimsy thing she's got on over her elf costume. "This is my coat."

"That might have worked for wherever you're from down south. But up here we have real winter and that is a spring jacket."

The snow has soaked her and she's shivering. I grab my wool pea coat from the back and toss it over her shaking body.

I up the heat, and then we're off. I'm not even going to ask her where she lives or where she's staying because we're running out of time. If I don't get up to my cabin, I'll be stuck in this damn Christmas town until this blizzard clears, and that is unacceptable.

"Ohmygod," she moans.

And now my dick is hard as a pipe which is not comfortable behind my jean zipper. I shift myself to try and alleviate some pressure, then sneak a glance at her.

"These seats are heated," she says. "I thought my ass was gonna freeze clean off. Not that I couldn't use to lose a little back there." She bites down on her lip, then offers me a smile. "Thanks for rescuing me. I'm Joy."

"Of course you are," I grumble because I'm an asshole.

"And you are?" she asks, her voice lined with that forced patience that elementary school teachers use when trying to teach kids manners.

"Eli."

"Well, it's nice to meet you." She glances in the backseat, then frowns at me. "Where's your wife?"

My heart pounds. "I don't have a wife." Anymore.

"Oh y'all are divorced? But you seemed so civil."

How could she possibly know I'm divorced. Who is this woman?

Before I can ask, she keeps talking.

"That's really good of y'all to work hard at being friendly. For the sake of your daughter."

Ah. So the town gossip mill hasn't filled her in on all the details of my life. Yet.

"That was my niece and my sister."

"Oh. I just assumed."

She's quiet for several minutes as we drive in silence. Except for the sound of the windshield wipers and the snow on the road.

She turns around and looks behind us, then back out the front. "Where are we?"

"Almost home."

"What home?" her voice comes out in a squeak. She did that in the candy shop after she blurted the word 'nipples' at me which I still don't understand.

Now doesn't seem like the right time to bring it up though.

"My home. The way the snow is coming down, I couldn't risk taking you wherever it is you're staying and not being able to get back to my cabin."

"So you just kidnapped me?"

"You just thanked me for rescuing you."

"That was when I thought you were bringing me home."

"You never even told me where you live."

"Shoot," she murmurs. "I'm renting the garage apartment over at the McClure's."

"Does that apartment even have heat?" Angus McClure was a good man, hard working and decent. But when he died his son just let everything go to hell. Now, he drinks too much. "Has he hit on you?"

"What now?"

"McClure."

She sucks in a breath. "He's not made any untoward advances on me, but he has also made it clear that his bed is open should I find myself in the mood."

"He's a pig."

"Gee, thanks," she says quietly.

We finally get to the turn off for my cabin and we start the winding road up to my drive. It's dark out here because we're far enough away from any cities that you can actually see the stars at night. Not tonight though. The heavy snowfall is making it nearly impossible to see anything.

My cabin comes into view, but I know immediately that the power is blown.

"Fuck," I say.

"What's the matter?"

"Power is out. I have a generator, but I won't be able to get to it tonight."

"Fireplace?" she asks hopefully.

"More than one." I put the car in park, then shut it off. She makes no move to follow me. "Come on, Joy, I can't very well murder you and feed you to the bears if you sit in my car all night.

"That's not funny," she says, but follows me to the front door.

I flash her a smile because I think it's pretty damn funny especially in light of my job because I do actually kill people for a living. But I do it with my computer instead of any actual weapons and the people are all fictional.

I open the flashlight app on my phone and hand it to her. "Hold this for a sec."

While she does, I unlock the door and move us inside. She's still shivering. The heat from the car helped, but her clothes are probably still wet if she'd been standing out in the snow for very long.

"I'll get the fire started then find my lanterns." I grab the throw blanket off the big sectional sofa and toss it to her. "You should probably strip out of those wet clothes so you don't get hypothermia. I can get you some clothes after the fire is going."

"Just strip? Right here?" She's looking around the room, then back at me, utter disbelieve etched in every feature.

"I'm going to be busy with the fire. You won't be able to see anywhere else because I need my flashlight." I turn to the massive stone hearth. "I'm not looking." Not because I don't want to because fuck me if I don't want to watch her peel off that ridiculous elf dress. Those red and white striped tights. She's all softness and curves.

But she's still staring at me, lip between her teeth, eyes wide. Her curls have tightened up since some of them have gotten wet. And she looks like a beautiful mess. Big brown eyes, freckles across her nose and cheeks. No make-up that I can see, she's just naturally pretty. Wholesome looking.

What I want to do to her though is anything but wholesome. I have got to get my dick under control before she notices and thinks I'm some kind of pervert.

"Look, I can give you my sister's name and number. You can call her and tell her you're with me. If anything happens to you, she'll know you were with me."

The look she gives me is no less skeptical. "So I'm supposed to just trust the opinion of someone you claim is your sister?" She makes air quotes around the word "sister," and adds in an eye roll for good measure.

If she was a character I was writing—which, obviously I know she isn't—but if she was, there's no way I would have her just trust some random guy who picked her up by the side of the road. I hate that she's right, but I hate more that she's still in wet clothes and shivering.

"Okay, how about this? I've lived in this town my entire life. Literally anyone you call could vouch for me."

"Mr. McClure?" she asks, arms over her chest, toe tapping in a way that is either an indication of her disbelief or her rapidly dropping core body temperature.

"Absolutely. I went to school with both his kids."

"Mrs. Burns."

She offers the name of the woman who has run the Candy Shoppe on the square for decades.

I nod. "Yes. But she hasn't liked me since I was ten when I told her my mom's fudge was better than hers."

"Hmm." Joy arches an eyebrow. "Well, before I came, her fudge was on the grainy side."

"Exactly."

Her offense at the idea of grainy fudge is cute enough to make even me smile. Except she's clearly freezing and having me grin at her like a lunatic is unlikely to convince her that I'm not … well, a lunatic.

She doesn't offer up anymore names, which makes me think McClure and Josephine Burns just might be the only two people in town that Joy, the sexy elf, knows. Which wipes my grin away entirely.

Because what is she doing in this town? So alone and so unprepared for the cold? Shaking my head, I return my attention to loading wood into the fireplace, because it's not my business and worrying about strangers is not my MO.

She swallows. "What's your full name?" She notches her chin up a tad and the small movement fills me with pride. Which is inexplicable.

"Elijah Payne. I am a bestselling horror writer. I live here alone. I have one sister and a niece. Our parents are dead. Oh and I'm left handed. Anything else you need to know?"

"Horror writer? Really?"

"Yes. Seventeen number one bestsellers."

She releases a low breath. "That explains the house. And the car. Not that I can see much, but just the sheer size is impressive. And it might actually be warmer in here even without power than it is in my apartment."

"Good insulation." I squat by the fireplace and get to work. I focus on the task at hand so I don't hear the rustling of fabric as she takes off her clothes not too far behind me.

My dick is definitely interested and is strongly encouraging me to turn around and take a peek, but I'm not that guy.

"So are you going to tell me where you're from?" I ask.

"Small town in Texas."

"And you traded that for a small town in upstate New York?"

"Long story. I make candy. The long-time candy shop downtown was looking for a new candy maker to take over for the current lady. She's tired and wants to quit, but doesn't want just anyone to take over. And evidently none of her kids want it."

About this time the fire comes to life. I close the glass doors and pause. In the glass is a faint reflection of Joy behind me. She's standing sideways and pulls the offensive dress up and over her head. So I'm met with the outline of her body.

I want to memorize every slope and curve. I want to map out her skin with my tongue and commit every part of her to memory. I've never been so drawn to a woman. Not even Beth.

I wait until I see her wrap the blanket around her shoulders before I turn around.

She comes forward, all cocooned in the plaid throw. "This is amazing." She runs her hand along the rough stone that surrounds the fireplace.

This close to me I can smell her. She smells like candy. Sweet and a little spicy and, fuck, I want to nuzzle her neck. I am not a neck nuzzler.

I clear my throat and step away from her. "Let me go find you something warm to put on."

I can't help but wonder if I have time to jack off before I have to be in the room with her again. It's going to be a long fucking night.