Jill Shalvis: Small Town Christmas

Sandy,

Enjoy.

Love, Logan.

Love? He wouldn’t know love if it bit him on his very fine ass. But then again, she admitted with a soft sigh, she wasn’t sure she would know love either. Mostly she preferred books or work over men, not that they were beating down her door.

All she knew was that Logan was back in town-for how long she had no idea. She couldn’t imagine it would be more than a few days-and she couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, couldn’t do anything but think of him.

She eyed the sushi, and her mouth watered. Okay, maybe she could eat, just a little…

Jax Cullen, town mayor and longtime friend, walked by her office and stopped, brows up. “You went out for sushi and didn’t ask me?”

Jax was leanly muscled and broad shouldered and… well, gorgeous. They’d almost had a thing once, a very long time ago, but they’d settled for a friendship, a comfortable one. “I didn’t go out,” she said. “This was delivered.”

“You have a secret admirer?”

“Not so secret. Logan’s back in town.”

Jax leaned against the doorway, settling in. “You going to admit to him that you’ve been pouting since he left?”

“Hell, no,” Sandy said.

“You going to admit to him that you’ve always wanted to stop being a small-town homebody and travel the world?”

“Hell, no.”

Jax shook his head. “Are you going to admit anything?”

“Would you?”

Jax smiled at that. “You suggesting I out-stubborn you?”

“I’m not suggesting,” she said. “I’m flat out saying it.”

“Yeah.” Jax nodded with a laugh. “Maybe. But I’ve changed my ways, and now I’ve got the woman I want in my bed every night. Change your ways, Sandy. He might surprise you.”

She wasn’t ready to go there. “Don’t let the door hit you on your very fine ass,” she said.

He laughed again and left, and Sandy spent the afternoon at her desk, with one ear glued for Kali’s footsteps to come down the hall and tell her that she’d located a Santa replacement.

“Nothing,” Kali said at the end of the day.

Sandy put her pen down. “Are you telling me that there’s not one man in this entire county willing to be Santa for the kids of Lucky Harbor?”

Kali rolled her lips together. “Um. Yes. No. I mean, not exactly.”

Sandy narrowed her eyes. “Then, what exactly?”

Kali covered her face. “Okay, so there was something else he paid me to do.” She said “he” like he was the second coming. “He paid me not to find you a Santa.”

This took a full moment to compute. “So… you didn’t make the calls.”

Kali bit her lip. “He said-”

“He who?” she asked, knowing damn well who.

“Logan. The one in my People magazine.”

“I know who he is, thank you.”

“Right.” Kali giggled.

Sandy worked on not completely losing her ever-loving mind. “So what was it?”

“What was what?”

“Why weren’t you supposed to find me a Santa?” Sandy asked with what she felt was remarkable calm, even though she wasn’t calm. Not even close to calm.

“It’s a secret,” Kali said; then with a softly uttered apology, she whirled and ran off. “See you at the parade in an hour!” she yelled back.

Sandy turned and stared at the costume in the corner chair. She was wearing her favorite emerald-green wraparound dress, but that was about to change. “Great. I’m going to be merry and fat for Christmas.”

“I think we can do better than that.”

With a startled gasp, Sandy whirled to find Logan lounging in her doorway, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. “ Logan. ”

His eyes heated. “You look like a Christmas treat. Good enough to eat.”

She pointed at him. “No. No charming me, remember?”

“You said no talking, touching, kissing.” He pushed off the doorjamb and stalked her across the office. “You didn’t say anything about charming.”

Well, shit. She was in big trouble.

Logan didn’t have to get any closer to Sandy to see that she was stressed, anxious, and exhausted. Poor baby needed some TLC, and he was just the man to give it to her.

“This isn’t going to work,” Sandy told him, backing away as he advanced. When she nearly tripped over her own office chair, he put his hands on her hips to hold her steady. Surprised to find her quivering beneath his touch, he softened his hold. “Sandy,” he murmured softly while brushing a stray strand of hair from her cheek.

“You can’t charm me.” She shook her head from side to side. “You can’t.” She fisted her hands in his shirt and glared up at him, her eyes huge and wide. “I don’t have time to be charmed, Logan!”

“I know.” He ran his hands up and down her arms. “I know.”

“I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing, but having Kali not get me a Santa… There are kids out there. Kids , Logan, and they came to see Santa. So no matter what the hell you think you’re doing here playing with me, I can’t have it, not now. You’re not what I need right now.”

“I’m exactly what you need.”

She stared up at him, then dropped her head to his chest with a little moan. Because he couldn’t help himself, he stroked a hand down her slim back and brushed his cheek along her hair, loving the scent of her, the feel of her against him. “I’ll prove it,” he said.

“What?” She lifted her head and leveled him with her pretty eyes.

He slid his fingers into her hair and stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. God, he’d missed the feel of her skin. The way she looked at him. How she challenged him at every turn, treating him like…

A regular guy. “I’ll prove it,” he said again. “That I’m exactly what you need.” He gestured to the Santa suit lying lifeless in her spare chair.

She stared at it, then at him. “You? But you’re a national celebrity, and you’re… gorgeous , and you have a lot of really good qualities, but sweet isn’t one of them, and-”

He yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it to her desk.

She abruptly stopped talking and stared at him.

Nice to know that he had that power. He kicked off his shoes, unbuckled his belt and slid it out, tossing it down on his shirt.

Sandy’s mouth was open, as if maybe she needed it that way to breathe. “Um…”

He unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and shoved them down, kicking them off. She took in his only item of clothing left-black knit boxers-and drew in a shaky breath. She seemed to like what she saw. Ditto. Maybe he did have a few good qualities as she’d pointed out, but if that was true, she was his best quality.

The very best.

And he couldn’t lose her.

“Logan?” she whispered, her eyes glued to his body in a way that was working for him. So was her new breathlessness.

“Toss me the Santa suit, babe.”

She didn’t move.

“Sandy?”

She nibbled on her lower lip, worrying it between her teeth, making it all plump, her eyes locked on his abs-which wasn’t even his best part. “Hmm?”

“The Santa suit.”

She blinked, then jerked her eyes to his. “You’re actually going to wear the Santa suit. For me.”

She sounded bowled over at this, so utterly shocked that he felt a tightening in his chest. Hadn’t anyone ever offered to do something nice for her? “Yeah. I’m going to wear the Santa suit.”

“It’s going to be cold on the pier. Don’t you think you should leave your clothes on?”

Yeah, he probably should have. “I was trying to make a statement.”

She shook her head, still looking bowled over. Because she wasn’t moving, he walked by her and grabbed the suit, pulling it on.