Kiss Me, Katie! & Hug Me, Holly!

hurt, but she realized as she said it out loud, nothing happened. No little pang in her heart, no resentment twisted her nerves.

Nothing.

“Well it took more than just a little cleavage-” Holly broke off at Katie’s frown and cleared her throat. “The point is, I was just saving you some heartache down the road.”

“And what about the Barbie vacation house? When we were six? You told my mother I didn’t want it, that I hated it, when it was all I really, really wanted. She gave it to you instead.” God, she couldn’t believe that popped out of her mouth.

Holly couldn’t believe it, either. “You’ve been holding a grudge for nearly twenty years? Over a-a Barbie house?”

Apparently so. How pathetic. “Never mind.”

“No,” Holly said slowly. “I think we should talk about this. What else is going on in that mind of yours?”

“The Christmas party.”

“Oh, jeez…are you going to harp on that? Get over it, would you? You ended up in the right man’s arms.”

“How can you say that?”

“Bryan Morgan is hot, hunky, smart and funny-not to mention in-your-face magnificent-and he can’t keep his eyes or his hands or his mouth off you. I have no idea what you’re complaining about.”

Funny thing was, suddenly neither did Katie. But this confrontation needed to be handled, and now that she’d started, she might as well take it to the end and make a total jerk out of herself. “You didn’t know it would work out this way. Why did you encourage me to kiss the wrong Santa? I’ve been over it and over it, and it doesn’t make any sense. Why would you willingly let me kiss Bryan, when you want him for yourself?”

“But I don’t want Bryan, I want-” She broke off, looked down at her roll, then took a large bite.

“You want…who, Holly?”

In a surprisingly open moment, Holly looked at her, her gaze guileless for once. “Mmhphmm,” she said around her mouthful.

“Who?”

But Holly just took another large bite, then suddenly tipped her head into flirty mode as her eyes focused on someone coming down the hallway behind Katie.

Katie glanced over her shoulder, saw Matt, and winced. He’d been avoiding her, ever since The Incident, as the staff lovingly referred to it.

She whipped around to tell Holly she needed to hightail it back to work, mostly because she was a chicken, but Holly had flattened herself next to the soda machine so that Matt couldn’t see her.

Katie’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but before she could speak, Matt saw her.

The expression of pure terror on his face as he realized he was alone in the room with her might have been comical, if Katie had any sense of humor left about the situation.

“Oh,” he said, stopping abruptly. “Hello,” he added, polite to the very end.

Katie wished just once he’d say what was on his mind, but then again, since what was on his mind undoubtedly involved her early demise, maybe his political correctness was good thing.

Katie took a step forward, intending to go around him and back to her office where she would once again willingly drown herself in work.

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,”