You Had Me At Christmas: A Holiday Anthology(23)

And no sex in the meantime. I want you hungry.

She sent it before she chickened out.

Feeling oddly shy, she re-entered the living room. Jared was positioning the tree in one corner.

“Do you like where we’re putting it, Mommy?” Maddie was taking her supervisory role very seriously.

“It looks great, honey.”

Jared looked up, and Kayla got a little breathless at the heat in his eyes. “Are you hungry?” she said, hearing the innuendo too late. “I mean, I can fix us a snack.”

His gaze traveled very slowly from her face to her feet and up again. “Ravenous,” he said. “But I can wait.”

Smiling, she continued to the kitchen.





Chapter Ten





The day of Kayla’s date with Bob started well.

The embargo on sex had paid off in ways she couldn’t have imagined. After seven years of marriage, enforced abstinence was an erotic novelty, adding a delicious tension to their daily interactions. She’d catch Jared watching her brush her hair and applying lipstick. There were endless opportunities to tease each other.

And remember how it used to be between them.

This morning, before he’d left for his final round of interviews as a Grammy nominee, he’d called for a towel from the shower.

Packing her overnight bag a couple of hours later, Kayla still got hot and bothered recalling how the water sluiced over his naked body and his biceps tightened as he innocently raised his arms to rinse shampoo from his hair—clean towels on the rail beside him. Devil.

On impulse, she snapped a photo of her open suitcase—the corset lying next to garters, a G-string and stockings—and texted it to him.

His response came as she was preparing the kids’ lunch.

You’re killing me.

Oh, yeah.

“Mommy, I need a hanky.”

Absently, Kayla passed her daughter a tissue. While Rocco emptied the pots from the kitchen cupboards, she helped Maddie finish her tree ornaments—her daughter wouldn’t let them hang any until hers were all made, so the tree had stood bare for the past three days.

At least the house smelled like Christmas. They’d decorate the tree as a family before the babysitter arrived at six. Then she and Jared would leave for the mystery destination Kayla had booked, a luxury cabin in a secluded canyon setting an hour’s drive away. Emphasis on secluded.

Leaving glitter-sprayed pasta bows to dry on the kitchen counter, they drove to the Christmas store for their last ornament. It was a tradition to buy a special one every year, and Maddie was choosing for the first time, a responsibility she took very seriously.

Kayla tried to keep Rocco entertained as Maddie wavered between a rock star dragon and a plastic cookie. “Honey, don’t wipe your nose on your sleeve. Use a tissue.”

By the time they left the store with the dragon, she’d passed Maddie another three tissues. Kayla eyed her daughter anxiously in the rear-view mirror on the way home. If Maddie was going to catch Rocco’s cold, surely it would have happened earlier?

The little girl only sneezed twice as they dug the other boxes of ornaments from storage, but when Kayla finished untangling the lights, Maddie was lying on the couch. “I’m hot, Mommy.”

Kayla took her temperature. High.

She thought of the luxury four-poster bed, the stone fireplace in the bedroom, and the spa under the stars. Then calmly canceled the booking, woke Rocco from his afternoon nap, and took Maddie to the doctor. In the waiting room, she texted Jared the news and got an Okay in return. The doctor recommended fluids and rest.

It was dusk when they pulled into the driveway.

Jared came out to meet them, opening Maddie’s door. “How’s my girl?”

“I’m sick, Daddy.” Full of sniffles now, Maddie started to cry. “I don’t wanna be sick.”

“Aww, baby girl, it’s okay.” Unbuckling her seat, he picked her up for a cuddle.

“A cold, not the flu, thank goodness,” Kayla reported. “Probably picked up from Rocco.”

Hearing his name, Rocco grinned, supremely indifferent to the plans he’d disrupted.

“I have a surprise inside,” Jared told Maddie. “This is to make you feel better, too, Mommy.”

He led them through the dark hall and toward the living room where green, gold and red lights flickered on the walls. Turning the corner, they saw the Christmas tree all lit up.

Maddie oohed. “It’s so pretty.”

Jared looped his arm through Kayla’s. “We’ll hang the ornaments together, but I figured putting on the lights would cheer you up.”

“It does.” Kayla kissed him. Not for a second did she begrudge staying home for their sick child, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t disappointed.

“Come into the kitchen. I picked up chicken soup and rolls. Made lemonade for the patient and bought wine.”

Her spirits lifted even higher. “Thank you,” she said softly, and he touched her cheek.

“Hey, it’s my job.”

They decorated the tree after dinner, while Maddie watched from the couch, huddled under a blanket, occasionally getting up to help. Jared lifted her to add the star on the top. Rocco crawled in and out of the empty boxes Kayla had wrapped in Christmas paper for him and fell asleep in one, curled up like an opossum. Jared carried him to bed, while Kayla settled Maddie, who’d decided she only wanted Mommy.