FALLNG IN LOVE AT CHRISTMAS
Hannah Jackson, and her sister Sarah, lost their parents when they were in college and now spent every Christmas in some new and exciting location. This year, they were vacationing at the Blackstone Lodge in Vermont. The place was charming, and the scenery spectacular. It was an ordinary vacation until the owners, Hawk and Ethan Blackstone, took an immediate liking to the two sisters.
Hawk Blackstone had been having an off-year. Something in his life was missing. He had everything a man could ask for—money, family—and snow bunnies flocking around him day and night. So, what was it? Maybe, someone to call his own? Someone to love?
Something inside him came to life the moment he saw the curvy, dark-haired woman step from her vehicle. Always a man of action, he didn’t waste any time starting to convince this woman that her Christmas vacation needed to be extended well into the new year.
Hannah’s year hadn’t been horrible, but she’d had some bumps along the way. Including an unexpected break up with a man, she’d thought loved her. She’d been wrong. As usual. His harsh words about her and her curvy assets had bruised her ego, and now, she was doubting if there really was someone out there just for her.
But Santa has plans for the couple this Christmas. In fact, he’s about to give them the greatest gift of all—love.
Taking a seat on the couch, she eased her shoes off, placing them to the side. A low fire was burning in the fireplace, and the Christmas lights that seemed to fill the room glowed softly. A huge pine tree stood in the corner of the room at the end of the large windows. It was a real tree, Hannah could tell; its branches covered in red ribbon and multicolored lights. Ornaments of every size, shape, and color hung from the tips. This was no decorator generated tree. It looked like a tree that belonged to a family, not a bachelor like Hawk.
Hannah felt herself almost drifting off to sleep before Hawk came out of the kitchen, even though it hadn’t been that long. It was more a feeling of contentment. A sense of being home. She smiled up at him as he joined her on the couch. He sat right next to her, hardly any room between them.
“Do you want anything to drink?”
“No,” she shook her head. Too lazy to even lift it from the back of the couch. “I’m fine.”
“Good.” With a growl of desire, he tipped her face up, and his stubble covered chin came down to pin her with a kiss that clearly understood all she yearned for. He held her to him with a hand behind her head and explored her mouth with a debilitating thoroughness. It was as if he drew out every negative thought she had ever had about herself, her body, her ability to attract a man, and tossed them into the wind.
His kiss and his touch replaced those with feelings of tenderness. With hopes, dreams, and longings that she’d always wanted to explore.
Wanted to explore with the right man.
A man who made her feel desirable with just a look. A goddess with just a touch.
A man like Hawk.
A man, she thought with clarity and honesty, that she was beginning to fall in love with.
If she hadn’t already.
She pulled away slightly. She’d known what he wanted when she’d agreed to come here tonight. And now she knew what she wanted.
Him. For, however, long this thing between them lasted. An hour, a night. A Christmas holiday.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
He pulled her closer, half on, half off his lap. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”