Heating up the Holidays

again-well, normal for a long-neglected rat’s haven of a front yard.

The forecast was calling for clear weather through Christmas. Not that it mattered. She’d be spending the holiday alone, far as she could tell. Her mother had already planned a seniors’ cruise to Hawaii before she’d known Lorelei would be home for the holidays.

Well, at least she might give herself a little pre-Christmas revenge sex tonight. That would help make up for work being her only other thing to look forward to.

Ryan opened the passenger door, smiling down at Lorelei in a way that made her toes feel all tingly. “You look beautiful, as always.”

“Thanks,” she said as she slid into his truck, kicking aside a can of surf wax in the process.

The truck bore a bobbly dancing Hawaiian girl on the dash, and cracked vinyl seats that had seen better days. It felt familiar to her somehow.

When Ryan got in and started pulling out of the driveway, she asked, “Is this the same truck you drove in high school?”

“One and the same.” He grinned proudly and gave the dashboard an affectionate pat.

“Wow, I can’t believe it still runs.”

“Neither can I. I’ve made a hobby out of fixing the old girl-it’s become a labor of love.”

So this was the same truck Lorelei had ridden in to the hot springs with Ryan all those years ago…Weird. And oddly appropriate, too, she supposed.

“Most people would, you know, just buy a new car.”

“Believe me, I’ve been tempted, especially when I find myself broken down on the side of the road. But I like the things in my life to have some character, some history-you know?”

“Yeah. I guess it’s the same reason I’m fixing up my broken-down family house rather than living somewhere else. Well, that, and I can’t afford a mortgage anywhere in Ocean Harbor Beach.”

She liked that he still had his same old truck after all these years. It suggested things about his character that were all good. Except, of course, genuinely liking him would make the whole revenge thing a bit more difficult.

Lorelei bit her lip and pushed that thought out of her head as they turned off of her street and drove along the coast, with the ocean outside her window.

They traveled along the coastal road toward the hot springs, chatting about mutual acquaintances and who had done what or gone where or married whom since high school. Ryan, having stayed here in town, knew a lot more about such matters than Lorelei did.

When they reached the Linden Rock resort, he parked and turned to her. “I hope you don’t mind taking a little detour before we go for a soak.”

“Sure, what’s the detour?”

“It’s a secret.”

Lorelei was intrigued. And when she saw him get out of the truck, reach into the rear and pull out a guitar case, she was even more intrigued.

“There’s a little spot down this path I was hoping we could check out,” he said, nodding in the direction of the gardens.

Lorelei followed him, and a moment later, they were standing in a gazebo draped with bougainvillea.

“Have a seat,” Ryan said, as he removed the guitar from its case.

Her throat went dry. He wasn’t really going to play music, was he? Right here? Right now? The thought made her nauseous, because it was just too romantic to be real. Where was the callous jerk she’d known fifteen years ago?

He began strumming a slow, bluesy tune on the guitar, as Lorelei settled on the bench seat across from him and watched. She’d never had a guy play music for her personally before. Then he began humming along with the tune, his voice deliciously sexy and low, and the breath whooshed out of her lungs. By the time he was singing the first bar of the song, Lorelei could feel sweat trickling down her chest between her breasts in spite of the cold, damp night air.

She watched, mesmerized as he sang about lost chances and lonely nights, about broken hearts and longing for redemption. It took her well over a minute to realize what he was singing about and she could hardly believe her ears.

She strained to hear every word and make sense of it. Maybe she was mistaken. No way could he have composed this beautiful, soulful, melody in only one day.

But when he reached the lines about her virgin skin in hot water, heat rising around them, and being sorry for the silence, she knew.

This song…he had written it.

For her.

8

RYAN HELD the guitar until the final sound vibration had settled in it, and there was silence. Then he placed the instrument back in its case and looked up to see Lorelei staring at him, dumbstruck.

She tried to compose herself, perhaps arrange her features to suggest she wasn’t moved by the song, but he knew that look. She’d felt what he’d intended her to feel.

And he could not help being satisfied knowing it.

“Wow,” she said quietly. “You wrote that.”

“It’s a work in progress. That was my first time playing it through without any major screwups.”

“You wrote that,” she repeated, as if awestruck.

“Yesterday after I left your place.”

“I’m…stunned. And flattered. Thank you.”

He closed the distance between them and took her hand, pulling her up to a standing position in front of him. When he could see clearly into her eyes, he said, “I wanted you to understand how truly sorry I am for what happened the last time we were here together.”

She nodded, averting her gaze for a moment, then looking back at him with an expression that seemed like determination.

“I accept,” she said. “Now how about we go for a dip?”

“You don’t have to twist my arm.”

After he’d put the guitar back in its case and taken it to the truck, they went to the spa registration desk and checked in. They were given a map of the grounds and facilities, and they followed a path outside toward the ocean, to the hot springs, which were now dimly lit for the evening and equipped with chairs and meditation platforms nearby.

The place was, miraculously, deserted. Ryan said a silent thank-you to the universe. He had no preconceived notions of how he wanted the night to go-okay, maybe he had a few, and he’d reserved a room at the spa hotel just in case-but he did at least want them to be alone the way they had been fifteen years ago. It wouldn’t have been the same with other people there to spoil the mood.

“Looks like we have the springs all to ourselves,” Lorelei said, echoing his thoughts. “Nice, huh?”

“I don’t suppose a cold Wednesday night five days before Christmas is all that popular a time to go spa- hopping.”

“Have you been here…since, um…?”

“No,” Ryan said quickly, which was true. “I think I’d lose some of my cred as a firefighter if I was caught contemplating my navel at a place as frou-frou as this.”

She laughed. “I forgot you have to consider such things.”

Ryan tried not to stare as she casually began taking off her clothes without even turning away. This he remembered from their first time here together, as well. He’d been awestruck by her lack of inhibition, especially when his experience with teenage girls had been dominated by awkwardness and self-conciousness.