Joanna Sims: A Baby For Christmas

Nothing in his face read humor, but she saw a glint of mirth that lurked behind the intense depth of his light blue eyes. She leaned back a bit and resisted the urge to bury her nose in his neck. That’s what she used to do with Daniel. It used to be one of her favorite things to do.

“There you go, little man. All done.” Luke easily turned the kitten upright and let him down on the ground. Ranger hopped forward a couple of steps before he stopped and licked his shoulder to release some of his irritation.

Sophia watched Ranger, glad for the distraction that pulled attention away from the way Luke’s nearness made her heart race. “I was actually starting to think that you were going to sleep through the night.”

“I’m surprised I got any shut-eye at all, to tell you the truth.” Luke leaned back in the chair and stretched out his left leg. He rubbed his hands across his cropped hair. Daniel had always worn his light brown hair shaggy and long. Sophia couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Luke without what she termed “Marine hair.” Looking at him now, she was reminded of the first time she had seen Daniel after he had enlisted in the army; he had looked just like Luke in that moment. When they had made love, conceived the child she was carrying, for a split second, she had thought of Luke.

“What?” Luke asked her, an eyebrow raised in question. She must have been giving him an odd look.

“Just thinking.”

“Anything interesting?”

“No.”

Just remembering that I had thought of you when Daniel and I conceived this child...

Luke was growing a goatee; there was a faint outline of stubble that encircled his mouth. Her fingers had the strangest urge to reach out and follow the goatee trail around his lips, of all the stupid things!

“I think we should put Ranger in the hall bathroom upstairs. What do you think?”

“What?” She hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation; she had been distracted by his lips.

“The hall bathroom. Ranger. The kitty box. What do you think?”

“Oh. Yeah. Makes sense.” Those words were followed by a wide yawn. “I think it’s time for me to start thinking about bed. It’s been a long day.”

It took several slow trips, but between the two of them, they managed to get Ranger, his food and the kitty box upstairs into the hall bathroom. Sophia molded a bed out of towels and turned on a low nightlight before she shut the door. Ranger was hooked up.

Luke and Sophia faced each other outside of their respective bedroom doors. There was an awkward moment of silence before they both finally said good-night. Once inside their rooms, they ran back into each other on their sides of the adjoining bathroom.

Luke held on to his door. “Ladies first.”

Sophia agreed. She stepped into the bathroom. She added, “Make sure you knock, mister. Let’s not have any unfortunate moments.”

He knew what she was getting at. She didn’t want him to accidentally walk in on her while she was naked in the head.

“Understood,” he said before he closed the door firmly shut. He heard the lock click, and that made him smile a bit.

Fifteen minutes later, she knocked on his door. “Okay. Your turn.”

He got himself in and out of the bathroom as fast as possible. He popped a couple of painkillers into his mouth and then waited impatiently for them to knock him out. He tossed and turned; he tried to find a comfortable way to position his leg, but he never found it. Instead, he lay on his back with his hands folded behind his head, and imagined Sophia in her bed. It took all of his willpower not to cross to her room and pull her into his arms.

God, he loved her.

God, he wanted her.

But she loved Dan. In her eyes, he would always be second best to his twin. He knew that. Had always known it. Now, he would just have to continue to live with it.

Sophia wasn’t having any better luck sleeping than Luke. It was almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep at this stage of the pregnancy game. She had three pillows jammed along her back for support, and one pillow jammed between her legs to keep her knees from digging into each other. Little Danny had decided, for some unknown reason, to change his position the minute she lay down to go to sleep. He had seemed perfectly content in his original position the entire night, but once she closed her eyes, he stuffed his feet up under her rib cage and started to spin around. It felt as if he was trying to make a break for it!

So, when Ranger started crying at the top of his lungs, she was awake to hear it. She sighed heavily and rolled herself out of bed. The wood floor was cold on her bare feet as she quietly made her way to the door. She opened the door, stepped outside of her room and bumped right into a nearly naked Luke. The only thing the man had on was tight white boxer briefs. She hoped that her expression didn’t change as her eyes flitted up and down the length of him.

The frame was the same as Daniel’s, yes. But this build was all Luke. His body was lean and muscular from years of fighting and surviving. Her eyes settled on the bandage that encircled Luke’s sculpted thigh before she swung them back up to Luke’s face. At that moment, she was genuinely grateful for the dim light in the hall. She had no doubt that her face was stained bright red with a blush.

“I’ll get him,” Luke said. “You go back to bed.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I got it.”

Sophia removed herself quickly back to her room. The racing of her heart, she suspected, had absolutely nothing to do with her husband and everything to do with Luke. And she hated it. What kind of woman would bury her husband, carry his child and then respond physically to another man?

“A seriously disturbed one,” Sophia scolded herself as she pounded the pillows behind her, squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to fall asleep.

Luke was having his own issues. Ranger was curled up in a ball next to his ear on the pillow, happily purring his fool head off. Luke, on the other hand, was wide awake and fully aroused. Seeing Sophia in her nightgown, her long silky hair spilling over her shoulders and onto her breasts, made blood flow rapidly into parts of his body that had no business waking up. But she had just looked so damned sexy in her modest cotton nightgown with the light from the stairs revealing the outline of her shapely legs. Even the bulge of her pregnant belly was a turn-on.

“God... You’re sick, man,” Luke said to himself. He balled his hands into a fist and waited for the arousal to ebb. He had no business horn-dogging after Sophia. No business at all! Luke felt like hitting something, so he pounded the mattress with his fists. Why hadn’t the pills kicked in? Only sleep would annihilate the vulnerable, sensual image of Sophia fresh out of bed that was now scorched into his brain. Sleep couldn’t get here soon enough. Not by a long shot.

Chapter Three

Luke woke up the next morning feeling hungover from the meds. He had managed to sleep off and on, but for the most part, he had tossed and turned all night. He couldn’t get his leg comfortable and he couldn’t get Sophia out of his mind. Being so close to her, without Dan as a buffer, was not something he had been prepared to handle. She made him feel out of control. He didn’t like it.

“Square yourself away, marine. Real quick,” Luke said to his reflection before he flipped open the hinged bathroom mirror and looked for a razor in the medicine cabinet. He knew he’d find one; his mom was always prepared. What he wasn’t expecting to find was a neatly organized row of Sophia’s favorite fragrances.

The first time he had ever laid eyes on Sophia, she was working behind a fragrance counter in a local department store. She had been talking with a customer, a perfume bottle loosely held in her hand. Her hair was swept up into a haphazard twist and her lovely face was completely devoid of makeup. The sight of her throwing her head back as she laughed stopped him in his tracks. She laughed without reservation; her positive energy sucked him in. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. In an instant, he was crazy, head over heels for her, and he had been ever since.