One More for Christmas(54)

“I love you.” She whispered the words against his mouth. “Love you. Love you.”

He held her gaze, and she squirmed at the sheer pleasure of it, urging him to please, please just—

He thrust deeper, and she would have cried out but his mouth was on hers, the erotic intimacy of his kiss stoking her pleasure. Sensation built and built until she felt herself tighten around him, her body beyond her control as she reached the peak and fell.

She felt him shudder, burying his face in her neck to muffle the sounds. Finally he lifted his head and cupped her face in his palm. “Love you, too.” He kissed her gently. “Very much.”

Her heart was full, but she gave him a teasing smile. “Of course you do. You’re a man of taste.”

Acknowledging her comeback with a smile, he rolled onto his back and pulled her against him. “Now go back to sleep.”

She did, and the next time she woke there was a pale streak of sunlight poking through the windows. Michael still had his arm locked around her, and she lay for a moment feeling utterly content.

“What time is it?” She reached for her phone and groaned. “It’s late. How could we oversleep?”

“Blame the incredible sex.” Michael tugged her back against him but she pulled away.

“I can’t believe Tab slept this late. She always crawls into bed with us at 5:00 a.m.”

“Remembering what we were doing at 5:00 a.m., I’d say it’s a good thing she overslept.”

Ella kissed him and slid out of bed. Her head felt as if it had been stuffed with down.

“I’ll just check on her.”

“Don’t. You’ll wake her up.”

“What if she woke early and wandered off? She could have been eaten by a reindeer—”

Michael rolled onto his back, giving up on sleep. “Reindeer are herbivores.”

“Stabbed by their antlers, then.”

“They always seem like pretty docile creatures in the movies. Would Santa really use them to pull his sleigh if they were so lethal?”

“I’m just going to check on her.” She tugged a sweater over her nightdress and tiptoed from the bedroom into the room next door.

She pushed gently at Tab’s door, opening it just enough for her to peep into the room.

The bed was empty.

She opened the door fully. “Tab?”

There was no sign of her daughter.

Panic knotted in her stomach.

“Michael! She’s gone!” She ran back into the bedroom and tripped over her shoes. “Get dressed. We have to search for her.” She grabbed her shoes from the floor and her jeans from the back of the chair. “How could I have slept so late? I never sleep late.”

“Ella—”

“Why didn’t I hear her? We should have stayed home and not come here for the holidays. I hope they lock the doors in this place.” She pulled off her nightdress and dragged on her jeans. “She could have wandered anywhere—”

“Calm down.” Michael forced himself out of bed. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

“Well, now you’re seeing me.” Her heart was thumping, her pulse racing. He was right that she had to calm down. “We need to find Brodie McIntyre. We need to—”

“Breathe.” Michael ran his hand over his face, waking himself up. “You need to breathe. Then we return to our usual parenting style, which favors logic over panic. She’s probably downstairs playing with the dog.”

“Or maybe she took the dog for a walk and she slipped into the loch and drowned.”

“Why would she do that? And why would you think that?” He grabbed a robe. “Okay, let’s go find our daughter.” He glanced out of the window and paused. “Ah—panic over.”

“What? Why?”

Ella joined him at the window and saw Tab in the distance, a tiny figure against a vast snowy landscape. Next to her was a larger figure. An adult, dressed in a bulky down jacket.

“Who is that she’s with?”

“Looks like your mother.”

“That’s not my mother. My mother only ever wears black. That jacket is—” she squinted “—peacock?”

“Well, maybe she fancied a change. It’s definitely your mother.”

“But black is her color. Still—” She flopped down onto the edge of the bed. “It’s a relief that Tab’s okay.”

Michael sat down next to her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m always like this around my mother. You know that.”

“I don’t know that. I’ve never seen you with your mother. And I don’t understand why you’d be any different in her company.”

“We all act differently around different people, Michael. Have you seen my gloves?”

Michael handed them to her. “I’m the same with everyone. There’s just the one version of me. Admittedly it’s an awesome version.”

She finished dressing. “You’re a different person at work than you are at home.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I’m still the smart, supersexy, good-humored guy you fell in love with.”

She threw her sock at him. “At least you didn’t include modest on the list. And this is the version of me when I’m around my mother, so I guess you’ll just have to get used to it. Are you coming, or am I doing this on my own?”