Her Secret Santa Read online

  And she’d vanished into the night, leaving him uncertain as to whether he’d just been denied, or if she was truly thinking about it.

  He knew her. She was a careful, methodical, precise sort of woman who tended to live in a world where things could be solved by sheer tenacity and hard will. Once she’d made up her mind about something, it would take hell and high water to change it back. Unfortunately, he was fairly certain she’d made up her mind about him long ago.

  “See you tomorrow night,” Sam said, making Eddie realize that they were still just standing there in front of the beach, too tired to move.

  “Tomorrow…”

  “The game,” Sam reminded him.

  They played in a basketball league made up of cops, paramedics and firefighters, and they were in first place. “I’ll be there.”

  “Bring your A game.”

  Eddie laughed. He was their A game and he knew it. He moved toward his truck and drove home on autopilot. Once there, he showered until he was out of hot water, dried off and fell into his big, comfy bed bare-ass naked.

  He came awake to the sound of a doorbell, and lifted his head, blinking. It was six o’clock. His stomach said way past time to eat, pal. He rolled out of bed, grabbed up a pair of basketball shorts and headed to the front hall, thinking he felt a damn sight closer to human now.

  He pulled open the door and blinked at Ally. She’d clearly come straight from work. Black trousers, pale blue fitted button-down shirt, dark sunglasses and an unreadable expression on her beautiful face. She held her Secret Santa file, clearing up any question as to whether she was there for business or pleasure.

  “I’m sorry,” she said immediately, her gaze dipping to take him in. “I woke you…up.” She seemed to get snagged on the waistband of his shorts, so he looked down at himself.

  They were low, probably indecently so because he hadn’t bothered to tie them. He corrected that while she looked away. The tips of her ears reddened, and when she once again looked at him, her eyes didn’t rise past his chest. “I didn’t mean to, um.” She rolled her bottom lip into her mouth. “I just wanted to…” She looked at his body, then tipped her head up and stared at the sky. “Toys. You hadn’t brought the last shipment of toys so I went by the station. They told me you’d be here.”

  He leaned against the doorjamb. “Everything okay? You seem…flustered.”

  “You’re not wearing a shirt. Or shoes.” She swallowed hard and turned away. “And I’m intruding. I didn’t mean to get you out of bed, I’m sorry, I gotta go, I—”

  “Chicken,” he said softly to her back. She straightened.

  She whirled around. “What did you just call me?”

  “You heard me.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Well, that’s just rude.”

  Pushing away from the doorjamb, he took the two steps down to her and pulled off her sunglasses. “There. That’s a little better,” he murmured. “Now look me in the eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me. That you’re perfectly willing to just walk away and never know.”

  “Know what?” she whispered.

  “What happens next.”

  She just stared at him, a mixture of yearning and confusion chasing each other across her pretty face, and he took mercy on her. “If I put on a shirt, will you be able to string together a full sentence?”

  She went beet red, then covered her cheeks. After a moment, she let out a jerky nod. “Maybe.”

  He laughed, took her hand, and pulled her into his house. “Be right back.” Moving into his bedroom, he grabbed a T-shirt, then shrugged into it before joining her. She’d waited for him in the living room and was standing next to the box of toys on his coffee table.

  She didn’t look at him as he came back into the room, but her ears were no long flaming. “I figured I’d come to you this time,” she said. “We could paw through the box right here on your turf.”

  “In order to scratch me off your list of suspects once and for all, right?”

  She was silent so long, he didn’t expect an answer. But then she lifted her head and met his gaze straight on. “Actually, I don’t think it’s you.”

  He opened his mouth, then shut it again. “Thanks,” he finally said as she lifted a shiny silver-wrapped, naked Santa covered package the size of a DVD. “Damn,” she whispered.

  “You have got to be kidding.” Eddie strode over to her just as she pulled off the paper.

  A little squeak escaped her as she looked at the porno flick. He took it from her. “Here Cums Santa Claus,” he read. “Interesting.” He sank to the couch, opened his laptop and stuck the DVD in.

  Ally stared at him. “What are you doing?”

  “Checking out the evidence.”

  “Oh my God.” She sounded like she couldn’t decide whether she should be horrified or morbidly curious as his DVD player booted up the disk and went to the menu.

  Eddie hit Play, and almost immediately, in tune to some really badly orchestrated music, two stacked women walked into an office wearing red, fur-lined bikinis. They were arguing over who was going to shack up with the Jolly Old Elf this year, and then a guy in red swim trunks and a Santa hat strolled in and declared that whoever gave him the best blow job could help him ensure quality control over the “toys.”

  Ally sank to the couch beside Eddie as if her knees had given out.

  “Should we see who wins?” he asked her.

  Before she could answer, both women were on their knees, peeling back Santa’s suit, freeing his—

  “Oh my God,” Ally said again. There were two spots of high color on her cheeks, her eyes were glossy, her mouth open. If he wasn’t mistaken, she was definitely leaning more toward being morbidly curious than horrified.

  And maybe even a little turned on.

  They watched for a moment, but when “Santa” started barking like a dog, Eddie hit Stop.

  Slowly Ally turned to him. “Men really like that?”

  Was she referring to the blow job or the two women at the same time thing? “Some,” he said carefully.

  She chewed on that for a minute. “I just don’t get the whole making animal noises,” she finally said, causing him to choke out a laugh and sling an arm around her, tugging her in for a hug. God, she was something.

  “What do you think these presents mean?” she asked him.

  He’d been trying to figure that out himself. “Maybe someone’s just messing with you. Have you tried to link these pranks with one of your cases?”

  “Yes.” She opened her file to a page where she’d documented all her ongoing cases, and any possible links she’d found. She’d listed two, both extremely long shots according to her. Thanks to her very new arson investigative/criminal profiling software, she’d been able to put their chances at being connected at less than five percent.

  He flipped the pages to see what else she had and at the very back, found something that caught his attention.

  His name.

  Then hers.

  And then a little penciled in note that said ‘also less than five percent’. He looked at her.

  “It’s our chances at being connected. To each other,” she clarified.

  “Less than five percent? Really?”

  “I don’t like getting hurt.”

  “Ally.” He shook his head. “I never meant to hurt you the first time.”

  She nodded, chewed on her lips, and then let out a low breath. “I know that now.”

  He entwined their fingers together and looked at her for a long moment. “You’re still thinking?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, but her eyes were very solemn. “But less than five percent, Eddie? Those are some pretty rough odds.”

  Yeah, they were. “But it’s better than zero.” And when she just stared at him, he smiled. “And it’s not impossible.”

  CHAPTER 6

  NOT IMPOSSIBLE.

  Ally got to her feet. “I need to go.” She moved to the door, put her hand on the handle, then hesitated