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  “You can be my Mrs. Claus,” he blurted.

  She froze, the smile fading on her face, replaced by concern in her brown eyes. “Case…”

  He could cover the blunder with a joke, but that wasn’t what he was feeling in that minute.

  Cupping her face, he said, “Don’t leave Paradise Valley. Stay on.”

  “I can’t just leave my life at home.”

  “What do you have there?” He searched her eyes.

  She pulled free of his arms. “What do I have here?”

  In this second, he knew what he wanted, and that was Annabelle. What did he have to lose?

  “Me,” he rasped. “You have me.”

  * * * * *

  Charlotte’s gaze was filled with a mixture of surprise, excitement and worry. “And you just walked away from him? After he said that to you?”

  Annabelle’s heart broke all over again. “What choice do I have? I thought I could have some fun with Case, keep it light-hearted, but that isn’t me. And apparently that isn’t him either.”

  After his statement, she’d excused herself from him and gone up to her room to think all night long about what she felt and how she was going to live with herself if she continued to toy with him this way.

  Charlotte gave a shake of her head. “No, Case is like his cousins. Loyal as a male goose once he finds his partner. And I hate to say this, but you’re the female goose.”

  With a groan of despair, Annabelle dropped her head onto her arms on Charlotte’s kitchen table. The house was silent, giving them a chance to talk, and it couldn’t be better timing. Annabelle needed an ear.

  Her friend rested a hand on her shoulder. “Oh, Annabelle, I wish I could make this easy on you, but you’re right—it’s a tangle. But you know that I love you—we’ve all grown to love you. Even Hank Jr. calls you Aunty Annabelle.”

  She raised her head, not knowing if she should laugh or cry. “That doesn’t just mean I can move here and be with Case!”

  “Why not?”

  She threw her hands into the air. If her friend didn’t see that this was too soon, that they hardly knew each other…

  But Charlotte had fallen for Hank in a very short time too, and how could she ever understand Annabelle’s feelings on the topic of love at first sight?

  “It’s too quick. It can’t be real—it’s only the holiday magic around us. The kids, the cookies, the damn eggnog.”

  “You left the party and didn’t come back.” Charlotte smiled.

  Annabelle groaned and dropped her head to her arms again. “I’m so screwed.”

  “Sounds like you were.”

  “Not helping,” she muttered, and Charlotte gave a rueful laugh. Her friend stroked her hair.

  “Oh sweetie, I’d like to tell you that you can resist a Dalton boy when he’s made up his mind, but look where it landed me.” She waved at her kitchen where she had lunch simmering on the stove for her three kids.

  She sat up straight again. She had to think like an adult. “It’s worked out for you, and I’m so happy that you have this life you love.”

  Charlotte nodded. “What about what you want in life?”

  “That’s the question of the year. Or rather, the season. I didn’t question my place in the world until coming to Paradise Valley.”

  “Maybe you really belong here. You know there are teaching positions in the area. People come and go every year.”

  “That doesn’t mean they’d take me on.”

  “You never know.”

  Annabelle ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it off her hot face. “It has to be some sort of spell you’ve all put on me. The coming, going, the plays. I have a feeling Christmas Day is going to be so much harder, and then all those days leading to the new year. Maybe…” She bit her lip and met her friend’s eyes. “Maybe I should go now.”

  A quiet noise brought her and Charlotte’s attention to the kitchen doorway, where Case stood holding a metal tin probably filled with cookies from his aunt. His expression cut her to the heart.

  She pushed back her chair and stood. “Case—”

  “Just brought some cookies up from the house for Aunt Maggie. I won’t interrupt your talk.”

  She took a step forward, feeling how her words had sliced him. “Wait.”

  “I’ll just check on the kids.” Charlotte tactfully bailed out and ran for the other room.

  Leaving Annabelle and Case staring at each other.

  “You’re gonna go early? Before Christmas?” His voice sounded strangled.

  She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “I don’t know, Case. Things are getting so complicated.”

  “Because of me,” he said flatly.

  She twisted away from the devastated look on his face to stare out the window at the ranch sprawling for what seemed miles. She wrapped her arms around her middle to hold in her guts. If she didn’t, they’d spill out and she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to put herself back together again.

  “Annabelle, look at me.”

  Reluctantly, she turned and met his intense stare.

  “I can see I’m hurting you, and I never want to do that. I’ll just go and keep my distance.” With that, he set the tin down on the table and walked out. She listened to his bootsteps echo through the house—wondering if she could live without a cowboy in her life.

  * * * * *

  A big family dinner was in full swing when Case finally roused himself to come to the table. Even the scents of pulled pork and garlic potatoes didn’t hold the allure they would before Annabelle had come to the ranch.

  He flashed a look in her direction. Her hair was pulled off her face in a ponytail and her head was bowed, eyes on the untouched plate in front of her.

  His heart tumbled, but he managed to take his own seat across from her.

  The adults grew silent, and in turn, the kids did too, looking to their parents as to why they were suddenly so serious. Case ignored it all and reached for the potatoes first. He filled his plate. Eventually, talk resumed, but he felt a pall over the entire group. Great—his falling for the wrong woman was affecting everyone’s mood now.

  He stared at Annabelle as she moved food around her plate with her fork, not taking a bite. Under the table, a boot caught him in the shin. Pain stabbed up his leg and he glared at Hank, ready to ask what the hell his problem was.

  Then his cousin tipped his jaw toward Annabelle.

  Case sat there for a full minute, thinking about what he should do. What Hank was telling him to do—go talk to Annabelle. For his entire life, he’d looked up to his older cousin, for guidance on everything from shoeing a horse to fixing a tractor engine.

  Why not now? After all, his cousin had experience with women and ways of the heart.

  He cleared his throat. “Annabelle, can I speak with you alone?”

  Silence dropped over the group again as she met his gaze and slowly nodded. As they left the house, Case’s brain whirled over what to say, how to act with her when all he wanted was to grab her up and never let go.

  “You look tired,” he said quietly, observing the pale blue half-moons under her beautiful eyes.

  “So do you.”

  “Guess neither of us slept all that well.”

  “I feel terrible you’ve been avoiding the house. I’d catch a flight home, but Charlotte would be heartbroken if I leave early.”

  She’s not the only one.

  He clamped off his words. “Look, I just don’t want to make your third Christmas in a row shitty.”

  Her eyes flared wide. “You aren’t!”

  “Clearly, you’re unhappy.”

  “That’s not you. Well, it is, but…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “You’ve made this holiday so special.”

  His heart gave a rallying flip. Maybe this wasn’t over yet.

  “We have days left. Let’s use them. Tonight we’ll do some Christmas fireworks, Texas style.”

  She gave a faltering giggle. “Fireworks?”r />
  “You’ve never seen fireworks like these. Will you come, Annabelle?” He ached to call her sweetheart, but there was only so far he could push her.

  Biting into her plump lower lip, she nodded. Then her glasses slipped on her nose and she pushed them up, and Case was completely helpless to stop what he did next.

  He wrapped his arms around her, pulled her onto tiptoe and captured her lips in a long, deep, passionate kiss that he hoped spelled out just exactly how he felt about her without all the words that would frighten her off.

  When he released her, setting her back on her heels, she looked dazed. With a private smile, he walked back to the house and devoured his entire plate of food. Annabelle drifted in after a minute and picked up her fork, throwing him a nervous smile.

  * * * * *

  “Kabooooom!” one child screamed as the rocket arced off the ground, headed into the sky, where it bloomed in an array of golden flower petals.

  They were set up in a field that wasn’t used for grazing, and the cattle were far down the valley, where they wouldn’t be scared by the explosions of fireworks.

  Three more burst overhead, and Annabelle held her breath, afraid something would blow on the ground and one of the guys would be injured. Shooting off fireworks was dangerous, and she didn’t want any injuries, especially where Case was involved.

  But the guys seemed confidant in handling the mission, and that was to outdo last year’s show.

  She couldn’t imagine what that would have looked like, because this year’s was spectacular. They were so close, practically sitting beneath the display.

  She held Carter in her lap, and his hat kept falling off because he was jerking his head back watching each firework sail across the sky. She finally put the small hat aside on the blanket she was sitting on.

  The warmth of the child in her lap wasn’t helping her pull away from Paradise Valley. Leaving was going to kill her—she’d come to love each and every person here.

  All during the resounding booms and bright flashes of light in the sky, Annabelle thought about what her life would be like as part of this family. Living on the ranch, in a home of her own with Case, with their little boy in her lap watching Christmas fireworks…

  Her throat closed off every time she thought of it. And that was the most telling of her feelings.

  She was in love with Case.

  How it had happened, she had no idea. The cowboy had picked her up at the airport and somewhere between smacking him over the head with a wrapping paper tube and tumbling with him in the back of a truck, she’d fallen completely, madly in love.

  When Witt tapped her arm, she looked up, surprised to find the fireworks finished and Carter asleep on her lap. “I’ll take him off you,” he said quietly, his voice so much like Case’s that she drew in a quick breath.

  She relinquished the sleeping child to his father and stood. She folded the blanket she’d been sitting on and slung it over her arm as she started with the others back to the wagon that would take them to the house, this time hitched to the tractor, as horses would have spooked at the fireworks.

  In the wagon, she listened to the others chatter about Christmas Eve and the play at church. She wouldn’t miss it for anything, but it was a little sad too, thinking that soon she’d be returning home.

  Case drove the tractor, his shoulders broad and solid, her pillow every time he held her.

  A flurry of butterflies in her stomach urged her to go to him tonight, to have more moments like they’d shared during her stay.

  After they returned to the ranch, everybody slipped away home. And while Case parked the tractor, Annabelle waited, chewing her lip as she tried to think of what to say to him that wouldn’t make her sound like a confused idiot. She didn’t want him to believe she was a tease.

  But when he emerged from the darkness, the outline of hat and man made her heart leap. He walked right up to her, enveloped her hand in his big rough one and kept on walking, towing her in his wake.

  * * * * *

  “Where are we going?” Annabelle’s whisper shouldn’t give him a bad case of blue-balls, but it did. Too well he recalled her throaty moans that night in the truck.

  Four more steps and they’d be clear of the barn, out of sight of any stray Dalton who might see.

  Three steps. He tightened his grip, prepared to whip her against his body and kiss her like she’d never been kissed before.

  As soon as they rounded the corner, he plucked her off her feet and pinned her to the barn wood. Need slashed through him when she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him first.

  Soft whimpers escaped her with each maddening flip of her tongue. Right now, he wouldn’t entertain another thought of Annabelle leaving Paradise Valley—she was his, stayin’ right here.

  When she broke the kiss, he hovered over her, breathing heavily. Her chest rose and fell frantically against his.

  “So you’re not immune to me,” he rasped out.

  Her brows pulled together. “What would ever make you think I am? The other times you’ve kissed me or our time together in the truck?”

  Desire was a sweet flavor on the back of his tongue. He dropped his head and nuzzled her throat, inhaling her delicious fragrance of perfume and hay from the wagon ride.

  “I won’t deny I want you, Annabelle—bad. But it comes with terms this time.”

  That crease between her dark brows deepened. “Terms?”

  “Yeah, I want more of what’s going on between us… even after the holidays end.”

  She pushed away enough to look him fully in the eyes. “Case, I thought you understood. I can’t stay on. I have a classroom of kids to teach in the new term. I can’t just—”

  He claimed her mouth again, sinking his tongue past her protestations. By the third stroke of his tongue, she was clinging to him. Dark heat grew in his groin, making it damn uncomfortable. But as much as he wanted her naked and screaming for him, he needed her to understand it was more than sex.

  Tearing her mouth free, she dragged in several breaths before formulating words. “Can’t we just enjoy this time together—here and now? Why do we need to make promises and plans for the future we might not be able to—”

  He crushed his mouth over hers, cutting off the rest of her sentence. Yeah, it made him seem like one of the kids, refusing to hear that it was bedtime or he had to eat his vegetables. Right now, he didn’t care. If kissing convinced her, then he wouldn’t let up.

  She pulled away. “Case, listen to me.” She bracketed his face with her hands and searched his eyes. “We’re caught up in new feelings of excitement and attraction. There’s too many twinkle lights and too much rum to make good de—”

  Capturing her lips under his, he pinned her more firmly to the barn. Passion was a roaring fire in his body, and judging by the way she was kissing him back, hers too.

  When they tore away, they stared at each other for a long heartbeat.

  “God, you’re so beautiful. I can’t imagine not seeing you at breakfast, lunch, supper and every chance I get in between. I’m crazy about you, Annabelle. I—”

  She went on tiptoe and planted her lips over his, silencing him. “Just stop talking, cowboy. I need you, and I need you now.”

  No more words were needed. He lifted her, and she wrapped her thighs around his back. With her levered against the barn wall, he ground his hips into the V of her legs in a slow, tormenting dance. She moaned into his mouth, and he gave an answering growl.

  “Take me back to your truck,” she said, tugging at his shirt buttons.

  He gave a hard shake of his head. “I took the blanket and pillows out.” He cradled her round ass in his palms as he set off around the barn to the other outbuilding that wasn’t used very often except during haying season. The ranch hands the Daltons employed lived nearby and arrived daily to offer help, which left the bunkhouse empty.

  When he opened the door, the interior was as silent as a church. Through the small windows marchin
g down the long side, moonlight streamed in. The perfect lighting to watch Annabelle come apart for him.

  “What is this place?” she whispered.

  “Bunkhouse. Nobody comes here, but…” He carried her to the bed he’d made earlier in hopes of getting her alone again. The quilts and pillows from the truck weren’t nearly what a woman like her deserved, but he’d have to make do.

  When he lay her down, she gazed up at him, eyes burning. “I want you, Case.”

  He blanketed her with his body and as they stripped each other with urgent hands, he fed her kiss after kiss. Poised at the root of her, he grated, “I’m just getting started, sweetheart. I’ll never get enough of you.”

  “Come to me, Case.”

  He didn’t need to be asked twice—in one long glide, he filled her pussy. She threw her head back on a cry, completely stealing his heart once and for all.

  He leaned in to suck her nipples, his hips working with a rhythm of their own. The bud tightened under his mouth, and he grazed the tip with his teeth.

  “Oh God,” she panted.

  Slipping his hand under her ass, he angled her up to meet his thrusts. Their mingled noises grew louder as they raced toward an end each wanted beyond anything, even if she wasn’t ready to admit it yet.

  She dug her nails into his shoulders as her orgasm hit. Her inner walls tightening around his cock and wringing his own release from him.

  For long minutes, he breathed in her sweet scents and listened to his hammering heart slow. He buried his face against her throat and tasted the salt on her skin from their passionate coupling.

  “Stay the night here with me,” he rumbled.

  He felt her nod and she tightened her arms around him.

  Chapter Eight

  Annabelle barely could focus all during the children’s Christmas Eve play. She felt bad when she missed a line delivered by one of the Daltons that had the audience giggling. Or when everyone got on their feet to sing “Silent Night” and Case nudged her leg with his to prompt her to stand.

  She really felt bad when she missed the entire part where Witt and Shelby’s son was swaddled and placed into the manger. If the child hadn’t let out a piercing shriek of protest, she would have kept on daydreaming.