“Knock it off, Grinch,” I told her. “You’re raining bitterness all over my Merry freakin’ Christmas.”
While I understood the pain of rejection, Natalie needed to move on with her life and focus on the here and now—such as how in the hell we were going to make it to my kids down in Rapid City.
She harrumphed. “Fine. If you need me, my sour puss will be in the kitchen scarfing down a plateful of cookies.”
As she followed in Cornelius’s wake, I looked around. “Where’s Doc?”
Harvey thumbed toward the stairs. “He told me to send ya up when ya got here.”
I checked to make sure my boots were clear of snow and started up the stairs.
“Hold up, Sparky. Coop wanted me to give you something.”
“Coop?” I hesitated. “Is it an orange jumpsuit and a set of chained ankle cuffs?”
Harvey rooted around in the closet beneath the stairs. He came out with a Christmas present the size of a large clothing box and handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“Coop said ya wanted it fer yer stallion.”
“Ohhhh.” I smiled, knowing what was in the box now. Cooper had come through on one of my gifts for Doc. “Did your nephew actually wrap this?” The box even had a pretty bow and ribbon curls.
“ ’Course not. I did.”
I kissed Harvey’s cheek. “You’re the best bodyguard around. Save me some cookies before Natalie and Cornelius hog them all.”
I hurried up the stairs, knocking lightly on the bedroom door before opening it. “Doc?”
He stood on the other side of his bed at his desk, wearing black jeans and the brown sweater that turned his eyes into dark chocolate bliss. One smolder from him while wearing that sweater would rocket my head to the North Pole, no reindeer needed.
Doc’s focus remained on his laptop screen as I shut the door. “Come take a look at this, Killer.”
I crossed to his desk, setting the present down on his bed before joining him. I touched his back as I leaned down to look at the screen. The urge to slide my cold fingers under his soft sweater and let him warm me up in more ways than one made me lean toward him and breathe him in. He smelled tempting, a mixture of Harvey’s cookies and spicy cologne. The combination had part of me wanting to nibble on his neck and the other wanting to jump his bones.
I settled for a kiss on his beard-stubbled jaw before zeroing in on the weather radar map displayed on his laptop. As I watched, the image on the screen shifted through the past twenty minutes, showing the storm move in five-minute intervals over the northern Black Hills.
“I take it you heard about Interstate 90,” I said, scowling at all of the snow-inspired blues and purples on the screen.
“Yep.” Doc pointed at US Highway 385 on the screen. “The thick of the storm hasn’t shifted too far south yet, but it’s heading in that direction. We need to leave soon. According to the latest weather report, it will engulf all of the northern hills in the next few hours.”
“Crud.” I blew out a breath. “We should probably grab a shovel and pack some food along to be safe.”
He took a step back from his desk. “You still have that box of litter in the back of your Honda? We might need it to help with traction.”
I nodded, pulling my gaze away from the screen to find him down staring at me with an expression I couldn’t quite read. I stood upright. “What? Do I have something on my face?”
He tugged on one of my curls. “You look cute with your pink nose and matching cheeks.” His gaze drifted south. “I really like those purple snow boots.”
So he’d mentioned several times since I bought them a few days ago. “You have purple boots on the brain.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “Always.”
“It’s freezing out there.”
“I know how to heat you up, cara mia.” He slid his hand around to the back of my neck and bent down, warming my lips for starters.
“There’s no time,” I whispered and went up on my toes, wrapping my arms around his neck. I kissed a path along his stubble-covered jaw to his earlobe. “I have a present for you, mon cher.”
“Ah, Tish.” He gripped my hips, pulling me closer. “If it’s you naked in my bed with another red ribbon and more sweet torture in your plans, then I must be on Santa’s Nice list this year.”
“Oh, you’ve been nice.” I tugged playfully on his earlobe with my teeth. “Really nice, and extra good, too. But that present comes later, after we make it through the storm and are under the covers in my old bedroom.”
“Your parents are going to let me sleep in the same bed with you?”
I laughed, pulling back to look up at him. “Are you serious?”
“Sure.” His gaze dipped to my lips. “They might worry that I’ll ravish their daughter in her childhood boudoir.”
“Ravish? That’s all you’re planning to do? And here I was hoping to be scandalously seduced and led sinfully astray, my innocence plucked and plundered.”
“Really?” He kissed me again. I swayed toward him, taking the reins, my tongue teasing his. After several pulse-pounding seconds, he pulled back, a smirk on his mouth. “Innocence, you say? You don’t kiss like a maiden, milady.”
“A maiden?” I gave a bawdy tavern-wench laugh while picking up the present I’d brought upstairs with me. “Mister, I’d take up with a snake if it promised me a good time.” I held out the gift.
He chuckled. “You’ve been hanging around Harvey too much, saucy wench.” He took the present. “What’s this?”
“Open it and see.”
“It’s not Christmas yet.”
“This is a private gift for our eyes only.”
One dark eyebrow cocked. “If it’s a skin-tight leather getup with a ball gag, I’m not wearing it unless you have a matching one.”
I grinned. “Just open it.”
He peeled off the ribbon and
