Jingle Spells Read Online Free Page A

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”
    â€œI’m doing it as a friend, though. I’ll be insulted if you try to pay me.”
    â€œThat’s not right. You should be paid your going rate. In fact, because I’m hauling you away during the holidays, you should get more than your going rate.”
    She folded her arms. “Then you’re willing to insult me?”
    â€œNo! But let me pay you. Please.”
    â€œNope. Either I do it because I’m your friend or I don’t do it at all.”
    He opened his mouth as if to offer another objection. Then he closed it again. “All right. I’ll take you any way I can get you.”
    Her traitorous pulse leaped at that comment, damn it. She’d have to ride herd on her emotions and not allow them to get the best of her. Agreeing to this might have been a mistake, after all.

Chapter 3
    C ole had what he’d come for, and now he wondered how in hell he’d survive the next few days in close contact with Taryn without doing something stupid. Like kissing her. She’d been dynamite at twenty. At almost thirty, her sexuality had gone nuclear. The men in Seattle must have been blind. They should have been lined up outside her door.
    She was still tall, still slender, but her curves had a lushness that hadn’t been there before. How he longed to pull her into his arms and explore those curves. She moved with more grace and assurance than she had when they’d been in college. He knew, just
knew
that she’d be an even better lover now, and she’d been terrific back then.
    They had to get out of her apartment and on that plane, where they’d be properly chaperoned. He glanced around her living space. Her computer was turned off and he didn’t smell dinner cooking. “How soon can you be ready to leave?”
    â€œWhat time is the flight?”
    â€œWhenever I tell them.”
    She blinked. “Oh. You came in your own plane. I didn’t realize that. Is it tiny?”
    â€œIt’s the Evergreen corporate jet, which is a decent size.”
    â€œEvergreen has a corporate jet? The Christmas ornament business must be booming.”
    â€œWe do okay. Can you be packed in about fifteen minutes?”
    â€œUh, I guess so. But aren’t you hungry? It’s dinnertime, and I could make us something.”
    That wasn’t going to happen. Even if he didn’t have the jet waiting at SeaTac, he wouldn’t dare sit through an intimate dinner in this apartment. He’d noticed the wineglass she’d left on an end table. Wine, a little candlelight, the glow from the Christmas tree, and he’d be done for. They’d be stretched out on her pricey rug in no time.
    The thought of that scene had a predictable effect. He walked toward the window and pretended to take in the view so she wouldn’t notice the state of his crotch. He had a spell for controlling an inconvenient arousal, but it involved muttering an incantation, which would make him sound crazy as a loon.
    He was feeling sort of crazy, but he didn’t want her to know that. “The galley’s stocked and we can eat on the way,” he said. “It’s getting late. By the time we fly into Denver and make the drive to Gingerbread, it’ll be after midnight. We should get going.”
    â€œI suppose you’re right.” She turned and started down a hallway. “Give me ten minutes to throw some things into a suitcase,” she said over her shoulder.
    He watched her walk away and swallowed a moan of frustration. A pair of old jeans and a faded sweatshirt shouldn’t be the sexiest outfit in the world, but on Taryn, it was. Her cap of milk-chocolate curls made her look sassy and down-to-earth.
    You could mess around with a woman like Taryn, because she wasn’t coifed and tailored. He’d always loved that about her. She could roll in the snow, run home to have sex, and never give a thought to