Matt jerked back.
“I’m just going around you.”
“Oh.” He let out a shaky smile. “Sorry.”
At that moment, Holly peeked out and sent Matt a sultry smile. “Hey there, stranger.”
Matt looked at Holly. Holly looked at Matt.
The air seemed to thicken.
“Well, this is fun,” Katie muttered.
But Matt didn’t so much as glance at her. Instead, every ounce of his concentration was on Holly, and how she ate her roll as she slowly walked toward him, making a big production out of licking her fingers clean. “Mmm,” she said with a secret smile. “Mmm, good.”
Matt’s eyes widened, and when Holly did it again, sucking her first finger into her mouth, the poor man nearly fell over in his haste to get closer. He recovered his balance, then walked directly into the wall.
The calm, restrained, quiet Matt blushed wildly, straightened and jammed his hands into his pockets, all the while staring at Holly’s mouth.
“You okay?” Holly asked him, her eyes half-closed, smiling sexily. “You hit pretty hard there, maybe I should…kiss it and make it better?”
“I- You- Well.” Matt closed his stuttering mouth and blushed some more. “If you’d like,” he finally said, his voice a little husky.
Holly’s smile spread across her face as she moved toward him. “Where should I start, Mr. Vice President? Where does it hurt the most?”
“Everywhere,” Matt said fervently.
Katie couldn’t believe it! She knew for a darn fact she’d never come close to making Matt lose his composure, and she’d pulled out all the stops! She’d certainly never, ever, seen him flirt, and he was most definitely flirting now. “What’s going on?”
Katie didn’t realize she’d asked the question out loud until Holly, her gaze still on Matt, said lightly, “You had your Christmas wish, and I have mine.”
Holly wanted Matt.
Holly had always wanted Matt.
It had never been about Bryan at all, but making sure Matt had been free for Holly. “Oh,” she said, but neither Holly nor Matt spared a glance for her. The two silly fools were staring at each other with stars twinkling in their eyes.
Well…good. They deserved each other. Disgusted, Katie turned away from them and went back to her office, trying to get her mind back on her job, but it was difficult. Seeing the way Matt looked at Holly, and seeing the way Holly looked back, had caused an odd ache inside her.
She still wanted what she’d always wanted, a nice, happy, cozy future. Only there wasn’t one coming.
Given her luck and aptitude for scaring men with mistletoe, there might never be one coming.
Bryan came into her thoughts. Bright, funny and most vexing Bryan. And because she was very human, she wished that she could…that he would…that they might…
She had no idea what was happening to her. They were completely unsuited, she knew this. And yet, she wanted to see him, darn it, irrational as it was. She wanted to see his crooked grin, hear that bone-melting voice. She even wanted to kiss him again.
But-and this might be a blessing in disguise-she had no idea what his itinerary was. Good. To go into the control room and actually check would require her facing how far-gone she was.
She went anyway.
Chet, one of the maintenance crew, was sweeping the empty control room. Casually, she flipped through the flight records searching for Bryan’s entry… Ah, there it was-
“Whatcha looking for?”
What was she looking for? “Um…just checking.”
“For…?”
For what? Good question. Her sanity, maybe.
“Bryan is already back,” Chet said helpfully.
“Sure am,” came that deep voice she couldn’t stop thinking about.
She whirled and faced him. He wore his pilot’s uniform. His aviator sunglasses hung off his collar, and his mouth curved in that welcoming just-for-her smile. “Want to greet me properly?”
“Uh…” Just like that, every single thought flew right out of her head.
Why had she needed to see him? For the life of her, she couldn’t remember. She could hardly remember her name.
Bryan laughed softly, and mindless of their audience, tugged her close. Instead of the heated, passionate, wild, out-of-control kiss Katie half expected, he tucked her in tight to his body and simply hugged her. “Missed you, too,” he whispered, and nodding to Chet, he led her out of the room.
“I did not miss you,” she said, stiffly.
“Okay.”
“I didn’t.”
He turned her to face him. He was grinning, the jerk. “You were looking for my flight plan.”
“So?”
“So…you want me.” His eyes went hot. “I want you back.”
Her resistance deserted her. “Look, Bryan, it’s not that simple.”
“Yes, it is. Spend tonight with me, Katie. Let’s ring in Christmas Day together.”
“That’s for New Year’s. The ringing.”
“Okay, we can do it again next week. Say yes. Let’s banish your Christmas curse and have a great time while doing it.”
“You mean sleep together.”
“I didn’t say anything about sleeping,” he said wickedly.
“Bryan.”
His fingers lifted to caress her cheek, his gaze softened. “You’re nervous. I won’t hurt you, Katie.”
But he would. He could. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Come on, it’ll make Christmas morning special.”
“I…don’t have a present for you,” she said lamely. As if that was her only concern! She had a million of them! “I can’t think of anything in the world you could want that you don’t already have.”
His eyes darkened, and for a moment she thought he was going to say you.
How silly that would be. This man could have anyone, anyone at all.
“No presents,” he said quietly. “No pressure. Just you and me.”
“Bryan-”
The intercom buzzed. Katie was needed at the front desk for a “disturbance.”
Saved by the bell from her own hormones.
Bryan followed her.
Two of their biggest clients waited for her, Rocky and Teddy. They’d been both best friends and enemies for nearly sixty years. Short, chunky and balding, with matching deep squint lines from long days in the cockpit, not to mention identical perpetual scowls, they could have been twins separated at birth, except for the fact that Rocky had lily-white skin and Teddy was African American.
They never agreed on anything, unless it was how much they detested everyone else. Both of them held envelopes and glared at her as she came closer.
“Merry Christmas Eve, gentlemen,” she said. “Is there a problem?”
“You betcha, little girl,” Rocky grumbled, waving his envelope, which Katie recognized as the monthly statement she’d recently sent out in the mail. “You charged me the going rate for fuel last month.”
She didn’t understand the problem until Teddy grinned. “I got the favored customer discount.” His amusement dissolved as he, too, waved his bill. “But I got charged full price for tie-down fees, and missy, I never get charged full price.”
“I didn’t get charged full price there.” Rocky beamed. “Because I got your preferred customer discount.”
“You-” Teddy’s face turned beet red as he grabbed for Rocky’s bill, but Rocky lifted it high over his head, chortling as the portly Teddy leaped up and down like a bullfrog, trying to grab it. Rocky wheezed with amusement, coughing from his forty year old cigar habit as if he intended to lose a lung.
Bryan grinned at the spectacle, and when Katie glared at him, he only laughed. “They’ll get it out of their systems in a minute,” he told her. “Once they get in a good punch or two. Happens all the time.”
“Well, I can’t let them duke it out here,” she said firmly, thinking of insurance premiums and lawsuits.
“Katie-”
“I can handle this.”