And she responded.
Drew was a good-looking guy. And he had not only swept in and helped her with the goats—which maybe on a good day would've seemed like a small thing, but today was not a good day—but he’d also made her laugh. And that was something that hadn't happened in too many days.
Everything about the Santa's Village project had been a mess. But now Drew Ryan was here and she not only had real reindeer, but she had a hot guy helping out without even being asked. And kissing her.
Kissing her very well.
Yeah, there was just nothing wrong with any of this.
His lips were demanding yet gentle and after a few seconds, he reached up to cup the back of her head with one hand in a sexy move that made her stomach swoop. His fingers slid into her hair and he tipped her head to fit their mouths together more fully.
Her lips opened on a swoony sigh, and he deepened the kiss, pressing closer and bringing her body up against his so they were thigh to thigh and belly to belly. The denim of his jeans against the bare skin between the tops of her boots and the bottom of her skirt was soft in that way only well-worn denim could be, and her palms itched to run over it. And the hard muscles under it.
And then there was the other hardness behind that denim that was a bit higher and more toward the front of his jeans. And made her palms even itchier.
Well, hello Iowa farm boy.
Rory went up on tiptoe to get closer, her breasts pressing into his chest. Her nipples beaded and she was very aware her girls were encased in only a black bra and the bit of red velvet she’d managed to tug up and over them when she’d pulled the dress on. She’d sacrificed coverage of her thighs to make her top half more kid-friendly. But she needed a new dress ASAP.
Though she might not toss this one out right away. Maybe Drew would want to play Santa’s-hot-nephew-and-the-naughty-elf sometime while he was in town…
Drew lifted his head just then.
Rory stood staring up at him, breathing hard.
He stared back. His breathing was a little fast too.
She pressed her lips together, wanting to seal in the heat and tingles that he'd evoked.
“They both headed off toward where Jordan and everyone is,” Drew said, his voice a little rough.
Rory frowned. Then a second later, it all came back to her. Oh, yeah. There had been a reason for the kiss.
Beau Hebert and her father—what the fuck was he doing here?—had been coming toward the barn.
Drew let go of her and they stepped apart. Rory ran a hand through her hair and pried her hot, tingly lips apart. “How do you know?”
“I waved them in that direction,” Drew said.
He must have done that behind her back—literally—while she’d been totally absorbed in the kiss.
Were they going to talk about the kissing? She’d like to.
Then she frowned. Beau Hebert, possibly the most perfect man for her, had seen her kissing Drew.
That might complicate her plans to marry the guy. Beau, that was. Not Drew.
Not the guy from Iowa. Which was somewhere way north of here. North enough that she didn’t even know exactly how far it was.
“They both went?” she asked.
He nodded.
So he’d gotten rid of her father too. That was a good thing at least.
Roger Robins was the last person on earth she wanted to see. She could say that with confidence. And that included Camille Jackson, her nemesis from high school, and Susan what’s-her-name, the one of her father’s mistresses who’d thought it might be a good idea for her to get to know Roger’s eighteen-year-old daughter. Stupid didn’t even begin to cover that.
“He must not have recognized me from behind with my hair green,” she said, wincing. This may be the first time she was happy about the mishap with her hair dye.
“Sorry. I was trying to think fast and give him a reason to definitely not ask you out.”
She focused on Drew's face again and thought about what he’d just said. She frowned. “What?”
“You said that he was coming to ask you out and you didn’t want him to. I figured the fastest way to get that message across was for you to be kissing another guy when he came in.”
Right. She had said that. Kind of.
She shook her head. “I was actually talking about not wanting to see my dad. I definitely wanted Beau to ask me out. Although it was in the same sentence, and I can see why that was confusing.”
“Um…huh?”
“The older guy is my dad. I do not want to see him. But Beau, the younger guy who is here to drop off the donated toys for Santa's Village, is the one I thought might ask me out. Something I've been hoping he would do for a while now.” She watched Drew's face as she made that confession.
There was just a flicker that crossed his face, first of understanding, then maybe just a hint of jealousy.
She liked that more than she should.
Beau Hebert was one of the few guys in Autre, Louisiana who wasn’t already taken, who also checked off all of the boxes on her checklist. And being from Autre, Louisiana was one of those boxes. The first one, incidentally.
Drew took a second to process that. “Oh. Shit. Um…sorry.” He gave a little shrug.
She gave him a grin. “Did I act like I was upset while you were kissing me?”
He looked at her for a few beats. “As a matter of fact, you did not.”
She nodded. “Because I wasn't. I mean, it's not ideal for the guy I want to ask me out to see me kissing another guy,” she said. “But Beau and I aren't actually dating. And you just got to town, so it's not like he can think anything too serious is going on with us.”
Drew nodded. “Absolutely. I'll tell him so, if you'd like.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Well, I mean, you don't have to rush out and tell everybody that now that we've kissed, you can't wait to not be associated with me.”
He gave her a grin. “Not what I meant. It was a good kiss.”
She agreed. Wholeheartedly. In fact, it was too good of a kiss.
The number one thing on her list of things she was looking for in a guy was that he be from Autre. Drew Ryan was very much not that. He was from…far away. She didn’t even know how far away. She might Google it later out of curiosity now, but it still wouldn’t matter.
Him being a good kisser did not matter to her at all. And knowing it for sure was kind of like knowing there was a layered carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting in the pantry and having had a small taste of it, but knowing it was now off limits.
“So you’re mad at your dad?” Drew asked.
Rory appreciated the change of topic. She figured it was going to be hard enough to forget about the kiss. Especially if she kept comparing it to favorite desserts. Delicious, decadent, addictive desserts…
“Rory?”
Was she staring at his mouth? Oh, God, she was.
“Oh well, no. I mean yes. Definitely. I’ve been mad at him for about…” She did the math quickly. “Nine years. We're… estranged,” she told him.
Estranged was a nice word for it. Her dad was a con man who had always been in and out of her life, but since she was sixteen and she’d found out just what a scumbag he really was, he’d been mostly out.
“He was an over-the-road-trucker all my life. When I was sixteen I found out that he'd been having affairs with women all over the country for years. For some reason, he’d finally decided to confess. It shattered my mother. She’s still not over it. They divorced. And I cut him out of my life. As much as I could anyway. Fortunately for me, he really didn’t want to be around me either. Until I got old enough to have money. Now he shows up every once in awhile when he needs some quick cash. He really liked it when I was dating a guy whose daddy owned a jewelry store. Of course, that ended when my dad tried to rob them.”