christmas-romance

You're pretty low maintenance, as women go.""I am, am I?" She sounded amused."Yeah. Like a cactus.

Nate wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Let's get you back and I'll build you a fire."She liked the way he said it. He'd build HER a fire.

Nate wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. "Let's get you back and I'll build you a fire."She liked the way he said it. He'd build HER a fire._ ...As they walked toward the house, he reached out and took her hand. The gloves blocked the skin on skin feel, but a jolt still went through him.Speaking of fire, he was pretty sure he was playing with it right now.

He dipped his head to kiss her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he slowly lowered her back to the floor. He took his time tasting her lips, her tongue, memorizing the feel of her curves against him. He pulled back and looked into her eyes.She gripped the front of his shirt, holding him in place. "Don't stop." "No, no more stopping." He kissed her again, getting lost in the blur of clothes being tossed off, her skin under his fingertips, and the hum of his heart as he fully let himself fall.

I'm named after my father, Rudolph," he said, then shot her a stern look. "But if you connect that with my red nose --

She pulled her arm free from his grasp and stood back, her arms crossed. "So, what then? You're holding me hostage? Are you even really a sheriff?""I am," he said, highly amused at her attempt at bravado. "You wanna see my badge?

It's nothing fancy, I opened a jar of sauce and cooked the linguine. But there's fresh Parmesan and I even found a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.""You found wine." Earlier he'd been thinking about microwaved Who Hash, solitude and if he was very lucky, beer.But a hot, fresh-cooked meal? Candles? Wine? And a chatty yoga-elf chef? With a body like a Las Vegas showgirl?

Consider me your rescuer, not your jailer," he said to Frankie, without looking at her. His gut told him that, on the criminal mastermind scale, this one landed closer to Tinker Bell than Lizzie Borden.

Rory's big labradoodle made a snap judgement that Frankie was everything her life had been missing up until now. She flung herself into the girl's arms, wiggling and whining, a shaggy mass of chocolate-colored enthusiasm."Mistral likes you, I see." While he, the one who filled the dog's food dish, had gotten nothing but suspicious glances since he arrived two days earlier."of course you like me" she said, baby-talking into the dog's fur, "I'm extremely likeable."If the dog's expression was any indication, Frankie was about to get nominated for sainthood....She glanced at him. "Maybe she'd like you more if you weren't so... testosterone-y.""But then you might like me less

I hope you brought your handcuffs," she added. "I won't go quietly.""I might use them anyway, for fun," he answered, remembering the sensation of her warm lips against his.

Bending the law is different from breaking, my lovely, strategically-challenged Francesca.

I'm resourceful," she called after him.Resourceful, he thought, rinsing his hands with the ladle she'd left in the bucket. "A euphemism commonly used by successful criminals," he called out to her."If I were so successful," she called back, "I wouldn't be talking to you.

If you could travel anywhere in the US for a vacation, where would you go?"He reached up with his free hand and rubbed his jaw, two creases forming between his eyebrows. She wanted to take over for him, brush her fingers across his whiskers, make him groan the way she had earlier. But she decided to behave herself.For now."I've always wanted to go to Yellowstone," he said. "See all the wildlife. Maybe go fishing."...."I'd pick a beach, Florida or California. Where I could be in my bikini more than not, rarely wear shoes, and wake up to the sound of the ocean.""Well, if you're gonna be wearing a bikini, I'm switching to a beach vacation with you."...."Okay, so foreign vacation," she said, snuggling against him. "Then where would you go?"...."Let's just cut to the chase and say wherever you'd go.

Great. He had a ranch with no power, a burgeoning blizzard, animals depending on him and now, a frightened, felonious elf to look after.

Once in rur-al Flathead coun-tyStood a cru-wel Christmas sceneDumped for slaugh-ter were the rein-deerWhen an elf did intervene.

Consider yourself warned, Frankie. Something about these mountains convinces previously sane women to give up Starbucks for saddle sores.

She tossed a handful of snow at his face, then shrieked as the wind whipped it back into her own.Red hooted. "Karma's a boomerang, sweetheart. Don't forget it.

She closed her eyes, soaking in the feel of his hand, then opened them and stared at his perfect face as longing wrapped itself around her heart. "If this is a mistake, it's one I'll gladly keep making.""I don't think it's a mistake, I just want to do things the right way.""Not everything's always black and white. And you don't always have to put what you want on hold for everyone else.