Harlequin American Romance November 2014 Box Set: The SEAL's Holiday Babies\The Texan's Christmas\Cowboy for Hire\The Cowboy's Christmas Gift (4 page)

“Don't ‘little sister' me.” Even with the wild hair, the piercings and the discreet tats, Suz was beautiful in her own way—and her expressive eyes right now stabbed him with guilt. “Daisy and her father tried to kill off the haunted house before it ever got started. If you're so interested in saving Bridesmaids Creek, you'll know that you can't show up with the enemy. Or be sucking face with her, either.”

Suz shot the men a last look of disgust and departed. Ty's friends checked him for his reaction.

“She has a point,” Squint said. “I'll save you. I'll suck face with Daisy.”

“She's a fireball. Won't ever glance your way unless there's something she wants from you.” Ty looked at his boots, which he'd propped on the coffee table, in direct violation of the house rules he had engraved on his mind from years of living under Jade and Betty's roof. “In fact, I think I got snookered.”

“What were you thinking?” Frog peered out the window after Suz. “That is some fine little lady, by the way.”

“And that's not going to happen, either.” Ty got to his feet. “Not at the pace you three are moving.” He felt distinctly glum about his dilemma. “Do you knuckleheads understand I'm leaving town soon? I won't be here to guide the reins of romance for you.”

Sam laughed. “There's no such thing, bro. Romance isn't guided. It's a whirlwind of passion, joy, misunderstanding and longing.”

They all gazed at Sam, who shrugged.

“I'm just saying,” he told them. “If you really want romance, you have to let the whirlwind suck you into its vortex.”

“I've had enough of sucking faces and whirlwind vortexes. One of you is going to have to escort Daisy to the opening. You must go in my stead, as my representative. It'll be a poor substitute,” Ty said grandly, “but a man doesn't go back on his promise.” He pulled a quarter from his pocket. “Here's how we'll decide which of you will—”

“Lash himself to the mast of misfortune,” Frog butted in. “None of us wants to be saddled with the mistress of mayhem.”

“You're all so poetic today. This is how this works.” Ty put the quarter on the top of his fist. “Each of you will call heads or tails. The one who calls wrong wins the prize.”

“Some prize,” Sam said. “I don't see why we should have to clean up your mess, dude.”

“Because I brought you here.”

“In other words, no gain without pain. I call heads,” Sam said.

“Is it a two-headed coin?” Squint asked. “It'd be like you to have a two-headed coin.”

Ty gawked at his friend's lack of trust in him. “Would a SEAL candidate scam his best buddies?”

“I'll call heads, too,” Frog sighed.

“I'll take tails,” Squint said, “just to liven things up.”

Ty tossed the coin, let it land on the Southwestern-style loomed rug. The quarter stared at them.

“That's it, then,” Squint said, “I'm your fall guy.”

Frog and Sam leaned back on the leather sofas, oozing relief. Ty picked up his quarter.

“I thought you said you wanted to kiss Daisy,” Ty said to Squint.

“I thought I did. I think I just got really cold feet.” He looked suddenly apprehensive. “It was one thing to have the fantasy. It's another to have the fantasy sprung on you in all its—”

“Soft, delicate flesh.” Sam hopped up, clapped Ty on the shoulder. “Thanks for the good flip. I'm off to hunt up trouble at the big house.”

“Big house?” Ty watched Frog shoot to his feet, following Sam to the door. “You mean the Hanging H? Are you going to see Suz?”

“I am,” Sam said. “Frog's not.” He glared at his buddy. “You stay here with them. I don't need any deadweight.”

Frog hurried out the door in front of Sam, in a rush to get to Suz first. Sam glanced back at Squint and Ty with a grin. “He's so easy to work. A little spark of jealousy and watch those boots fly.”

He closed the door. Ty sighed. “Thanks for taking Daisy on for me. I just can't afford any drama right now. Not when I'm leaving.” He sank into the sofa. Of course, his relief had nothing to do with his departure; it was all about Jade. Once he'd realized he had stepped in a huge pile of cosmic poo, he knew he had to back out on Daisy no matter what it took. There was no way he wanted Jade upset with him.

“You're crazy about that little lady, aren't you?”

Of course he wasn't crazy about Jade. What a dumb thing to say. “Don't try to make romance bloom in a desert, Squint.”

Jade blew in on a flurry of cold wind and a gust of snow that slithered from the bunkhouse roof. Ty straightened, stunned that she was here, glad as heck to see her.

“I think I'll join the fellows and see what trouble we can conjure up,” Squint said, disappearing.

Some friend, taking off when it was clear there was going to be a sonic boom leveled at him. Ty looked at Jade, appreciating the tall redhead's sass as she put her hands on her slender hips and gazed at him with disgust.

“Daisy Donovan,” she said.

“I felt sorry for her.”

“You did not.” Jade glared at him. “Daisy tried to ruin my business. She's trying to ruin the Hawthornes' haunted house, which, may I remind you, is something that could bring Bridesmaids Creek back to life. As I recall, that was your stated purpose in returning with three bachelors, wasn't it? New blood to breathe new life into the moribund shell that is Bridesmaids Creek?”

He loved looking at this woman. He loved hearing her talk, even when she was railing at him. When she said words like
moribund,
her lips pursed so cutely it was all he could do not to jump up and take those lips with his mouth, hungrily diving into the sweet sex appeal that was Jade.

Hell, he wasn't 100 percent certain what
moribund
meant—although it sounded distinctly dire—but maybe if he let her talk long enough, she'd say something else that started with
m-o-r.
He decided not to confess that he'd already dumped Daisy off on Squint, and to let the little lady fuss at him.

“Don't you have anything to say for yourself?” Jade demanded.

“I'm content to let you do all the talking.” He settled himself comfortably, watching her face. “You have something on your mind, and I'm happy to let you clear the deck.”

She sat next to him, so she could look closely at him to press her case, he supposed. But the shock of having her so near to him—almost in his space—was enough to brain-wipe what little sense he had. Damn, she smelled good, like spring flowers breaking through a long, cold winter. He shook his head to clear the sudden madness diluting his gray matter. “You're beautiful,” he said, the words popping out before he could put on the Dumb-ass Brake.

The Dumb-ass Brake had saved him many a time, but today, it seemed to have gotten stuck.

“What?” Jade said. Her mesmerizing green eyes stared at him, stunned.

He was half drowning, might as well go for full immersion. “You're beautiful,” he repeated.

She looked at him for a long moment, then scoffed. “Ty Spurlock, don't you dare try to sweet-talk me. If there's one thing I know about you, it's that sugar flows out of your mouth like a river of honey when you're making a mess. The bigger the jam, the sweeter and deeper the talk.” She got up, putting several feet of safety between them, and Ty cursed the disappearance of the brake that had deserted him just when he'd needed it most.

“Okay, so if sweet talk won't save me,” he said, reverting to cavalier, since that's what she seemed to be expecting, “all I can say is that Daisy asked me to take her to the grand opening, and you didn't.”

“I didn't want to ask you!”

“Then why are we having this conversation? Good old-fashioned green-eyed monster, maybe?” He got up, took her in his arms. “I'll talk sweet to you if you want me to, beautiful.”

She stomped on his toe and moved out of his arms. He bent over, his toe impressed by the sudden squelching it had cruelly received.

“What I want you to do is tell Daisy Donovan you wouldn't be caught dead escorting her to the haunted house. No smart remarks about puns.” Jade glared at him. “And from now on, I suggest you remember who your real friends are.”

He fell onto the sofa, wondering if she'd broken his toe. Definitely he was going to donate a toenail to the cause. Not a good thing to have happen right before he left for BUD/S. “I know who my friends are. They're the ones who don't try to damage me right before I leave for SEAL training.”

“I don't care about that,” Jade said sweetly. “I care that you don't fall into one of Daisy's many traps, and leave drama back here in BC for me to clean up. You're just lucky I got to you before Suz did.”

“She's already been here. Only she didn't wound me.” Ty glanced at his secret sweetie's boots with respect. Square-toed and sturdy, they could have been registered weapons.

“She didn't? Maybe she's going soft. But I'm not. I know who my friends are.” Jade walked over, tugged his boot off. “I also know how commerce works in this town, and I understand Daisy's tricky little mind. Oh, you big baby,” she said, staring at the toe she'd rescued from his boot and sock. “It's just going to be a little black-and-blue. You'd better toughen up if you're going to make it through training.”

He smelled that sweet perfume again, was riveted by the soft red sweater covering her delicate breasts. Wondered if playing the pitiful card would get him attached to her lips—and decided he probably didn't want to do anything to upset the grudging sympathy he finally saw in her eyes. “My toe is fine. My life is fine. Everything is fine.”

“It's not fine yet.” She smiled, leaned over and gave him a long, sweet, not-sisterly-at-all smooch on the lips. Shocked, he sat as still as a concrete gargoyle, frozen and immobilized, too scared to move and frighten her off.

She pulled away far too soon. “
Now
it's fine.”

Indeed it was. He couldn't stop staring at her mouth, which had worked such magic on him, stolen his breath, stolen his heart. He gazed into her eyes, completely lost in the script.

“What was that for?”

Jade got up, went to the door, opening it. Cold air rushed in and a supersized sheet of snow fell from the overhang, but he couldn't take his eyes off her.

“Because I felt like it,” Jade said, then left.

Damn. His toe still throbbed, but his lips were practically sizzling from her kiss, far outweighing the complaining from his phalange bone. Ty had no idea what the hell had just happened here—but it dawned on him through his shell-shocked, sex-driven, Jade-desiring brain that if he were a smart man, he'd better decline Daisy's invitation on the double, let her know he was sending a stand-in.

If he ever wanted to be kissed like that again.

Chapter Four

The night of the grand opening of the refurbished, reborn Haunted H was glorious, by anyone's standards. Ty felt a real sense of satisfaction as he looked at the new lights his buddies had put up in an elegant arch over the long drive-up to the ranch. Lights were everywhere, twinkling and beautiful, highlighting the butt-freezing weather and somehow making it romantic.

Maybe his three bachelor candidates weren't totally useless, after all. They could at least decorate, apparently, if not appropriately seduce the women he'd brought them here to romance.

Ty hurried after Jade when he saw her moving with long strides toward the jump house, which was teeming with kiddies. Parents with strollers watched, smiling, as their kids bounced inside the huge, inflatable pink-and-purple castle.

“Hi, Raggedy Ann,” he said, and Jade turned to look at him. He thought she was amazing with her red curls springing out everywhere, completely negating the need for a Raggedy Ann wig. The red-and-white stockings were killer, clinging to dynamite legs Raggedy Ann never dreamed of having in her cloth-stuffed world. He nearly had a coronary over the cute painted freckles speckled across Jade's nose and cheeks, never mind the white apron over the blue dress, which for some reason made him very horny. He supposed the truth was that everything about Jade caught him between a coronary and an erection, a delicious in-between hell of longing and teeth-grinding lust.

She gave him a once-over. “What are you dressed up as?”

He was pretty proud of his efforts, and drew himself up to showcase the black cape, boots and swashbuckling ebony hat he thought he wore so stylishly. “Zorro. You couldn't tell?”

“You look silly.” She offered him the tray she held. “Cupcake?”

“What do you mean, I look silly?” Ty demanded. “Ladies love Zorro. They think he's a dashing hero. And sexy.”

“Guy Williams was sexy. Antonio Banderas was a sexy Zorro.” She gave Ty another once-over. “Please take a cupcake so I'll feel better about deflating your monstrous ego.”

Ty ignored the cupcake, wishing he could have a kiss instead. “Where did I go wrong?”

“I don't have time to tell you all the ways that costume is wrong.” She laughed and started to move away. “Where's your date?”

Ah. The little lady was prickly because she was expecting Daisy to land on his arm any moment. He felt better now that he knew her lack of charmed respect for his costume was thanks to jealousy. “Squint's escorting her.”

Jade moved away. “By now you have to wonder where you're going wrong, Ty. When Daisy Donovan throws you over, and you only put on half your mustache, something's not working for you.”

She disappeared into the crowd. He felt his upper lip. Frog and Sam banged him on the back. Ty coughed, thinking he could easily survive BUD/S, since he could survive the camaraderie of his so-called friends in BC. “Easy on the lungs and rib cage, fellows.”

“Where's your 'stache?” Frog demanded.

Ty looked at Frog, dressed as a fairly convincing Robin Hood, and Sam, who was masquerading as a pirate. Both of them had their mustaches firmly in place. Ty felt around in his pocket for the left side of his. “Thought I had it on.”

They smirked. “Smart-asses,” he said, realizing his friends had let him walk out of the bunkhouse missing half his facial prop. “Friends don't let friends go out missing the most important part of their costume. The mustache is the sex-magnet angle for Zorro.”

They seemed to think that was hilarious. “Look,” Frog said, “Sam snapped a photo when you weren't looking. It's pretty much gone viral on the internet.”

The photo showed Ty trying to get his hat just right in the mirror, really working hard for Zorro-mysterious, completely missing the fact that one side of his upper lip was traumatically bare. “You guys are such a riot.”

“Yeah.” Frog wiped tears of laughter from his eyes and put his phone away. “That we are.”

“So, was Jade bowled over by your sex appeal?” Sam asked, loudly enough that half the county could hear the question, even over the whirring of air keeping the bounce house inflated, and the squeals from delighted kids.

“Not really,” Ty admitted. “She seemed to be under the impression that I was here with Daisy. Every piece of gossip transmits itself at warp speed in BC, but for some reason not the one bit of info that really mattered reached her ears.” He glared at his buddies. “You two are useless.”

“You gotta talk your own book, brother,” Frog said. “We can't do all your heavy lifting for you.”

“Yeah, don't expect us to sell the steak if it ain't sizzling on its own,” Sam said, and they drifted off, vastly amused with themselves.

Ty sighed and went to man the dunk booth as he'd promised Jade's mother, Betty, that he would.

“Don't you look hot,” Daisy said at his elbow. She was dressed like a princess, of course. What else would anyone have expected? “Hot as a pistol!”

Ty perked up at the rather corny appreciation of his efforts. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” She traced his upper lip where there should have been a sweet Zorro-inspired clump of faux bristles. “I have my face paints with me, since I'm in charge of face painting. I can fix that in a jiff.”

He was pretty relieved to hear it, even though he was surprised Daisy had been given any assignment at all, up until the point she began slowly, sensually painting on his upper lip with a brush. A crowd gathered around the princess and Zorro, and he wondered desperately where Squint was.

Ty could have predicted with the accuracy of seven oracles that Jade would catch him with his chin firmly clutched in Daisy's, well, clutches, her face inches from his.

“Well, at least it's a mustache now,” Jade said, “instead of half a confused black caterpillar.”

“I think he looks sexy as hell,” Daisy said, and planted one right on his cheek. Ty's eyes went wide. His body recognized hot sex appeal and his inner guide reacted urgently, screaming
Fire! Fire! Danger!

He leaped away from Daisy, just in time to see Jade heading off toward the ice cream booth her mother ran, a very popular spot surrounded by anxious kids wanting sprinkles on their ice cream and parents wanting hot chocolate.

“I heard a rumor,” Daisy said, “that Jade Harper made you dump me tonight.”

“Ah...” Ty tried to glimpse Raggedy Ann's hot red curls in the crowd near the ice-cream stand. “She didn't approve,” he said, his brain belatedly registering that he probably should have censored that remark.

“I see,” Daisy said. She leaned up against his chest. “You don't know what you're missing.”

He stared down at the determined, dynamite bundle of feminine firepower his buddy Squint seemed to think he could handle.
Hell, no, Squint can't handle this. I can't handle this
. It would take the real Zorro to tame this tiger.

“You tell Jade Harper that nobody dumps Daisy Donovan. Nobody that doesn't end up regretting it. And it goes double for her. She and Suz and Mackenzie Hawthorne aren't the queen bees of BC, even if they think they are. And for some odd reason, I get distinctly brotherly vibes whenever I'm near you. It's really tragic. All kinds of man, and something about you makes me want to pat your head like a puppy. I just don't get it.”

She sauntered off, sexy in a white Cinderella ball gown that bordered on safe-for-kiddies-and-somehow-unsafe-for-bachelors. Ty wiped his brow under the gallant black Zorro hat.

“You're smearing the 'stache,” Squint told him, suddenly appearing through the crowd.

“Crap!” Ty quit trying to wipe off Daisy's kiss and the sweat on his brow. “Where the hell have you been? And why haven't you got a hold on the princess of peril?” He stared at his pal. “And what is that you're wearing?”

Squint laughed. “
Where
the hell I've been is helping Justin Morant put up another six tables and accompanying chairs. The Haunted H has a much bigger turnout than expected. They also needed about another six dozen wienies for the wienie roast.”

“That's nice. Glad you're making yourself useful,” Ty growled.

“Why I'm not holding my hot princess is the simplest part of your question. I believe in keeping the lasso loose, brother. But not too loose. I'll be catching up with the Cinderella in question momentarily. Believe me, I'll teach her all about magic pumpkins and wands that do a different kind of magic.”

“That's nice,” Ty said, still staring at Squint's outrageous getup. “Anyway, what the hell are you?”

“Can't you tell? I'm you.” He pointed to the camo bandanna, boots, camo pants, black Kevlar vest and helmet equipped with night-vision goggles. “I'm you going into BUD/S.”

“That's so funny I forgot to laugh,” Ty said sourly. “It's all fine for you to mock my efforts, since you and Frog are already SEALs. I sense a little rivalry, or perhaps the essence floating through that you don't think I can make it, so mock away. But you're scaring the kiddies and, I might add, their parents. People are looking at you like sharpshooters, assassins and military-grade security were hired for this shindig,” he said, keeping his voice low. “At least take off the goggles and hide the artillery, okay?”

“It's a toy,” Squint said, shifting the long gun on his back, letting the strap hang over his shoulder. “It's a water cannon, doofus.”

“It doesn't matter. Don't you remember what happened? We don't want anyone recalling that someone died here at the last haunted house.”

“He wasn't shot,” Squint said.

“We don't want any dangerous vibes. Go put it in your truck! And find Daisy before she starts any more trouble!”

“All right, dude.
Cálmate
. Keep your 'stache on. Damn.” Squint went off, obviously a bit insulted.

“Hey, mister,” a little boy said. “Are you running the dunking booth?”

“Yes. No.” Ty grabbed Sam as he meandered by, and shoved him into his place. “The pirate is tending to the water exhibit. Have fun.”

Ty trotted off to locate Raggedy Ann, finding her spinning cotton candy onto paper cones. “Can we talk?”

“Talk away. Want some?”

“Uh, no. Thanks.” He handed the fluffy stick of puffed pink sugar she gave him to the first kid in line. “From Zorro to you, kid.”

“Thanks, mister!”

The boy hurried off.

“That's not how we make profits here. Weren't you the one who believed that the haunted house and bachelors were all BC needed to get back in the black?” Jade said.

He slapped a hundred dollar bill on the wooden ledge of the ice-cream-and-sweets stand. “Can we talk?”

“We're talking now,” Jade said, oozing darling and too-sweet-for-tea.

“I want to talk to you alone.”

She gazed at him, her green eyes wide. “Will Daisy allow you to? She just came by here with a—”

“That's it.” Ty went into the crowd, grabbed Frog, propelled him to the stand. “Robin Hood's robbing the gremlins and warlocks and giving to the kiddies right here. I mean, the ninjas and pint-size ghosts. Make yourself useful and give these tiny customers a good show,” he told Frog, tugging Jade out from the booth. He pulled her into the bunkhouse a little unceremoniously, but he was running out of days to break through the ice with this little gal. “There are way too many urchins around here. It's enough to make a single guy nervous as hell.”

He dropped onto a sofa, pulled off the Zorro hat and the mask and the one side of the mustache that wasn't painted on. There was just no help for it; he had to do something before he went mad. So he swept Jade into his lap. “Now you listen to me and you listen good. I want nothing to do with Daisy Donovan, and you know it. You're just having a helluva good time teeing me up about it.”

“Yes, I am. You deserve every moment of it.”

He stared into Jade's dangerously green eyes, which reminded him of a hidden forest, and wished he knew of a forest somewhere to drag her off to. The closest one was near Bridesmaids Creek's creek, and it was far too cold to drag her there. She didn't fight—or even move—to get out of his lap, so he decided she liked being with him more than she was saying.

“You smell good. Like cotton candy.”

“And peach ice cream and sprinkles and hot cocoa and popcorn. Sexy stuff.” Jade looked at him. “I wasn't being honest. You're a really hunky Zorro.”

He looked at her, suspicious. “Now you tell me.”

“Couldn't tell you with Daisy hanging on to your face.”

That sounded like an opening he couldn't pass up. “Okay, you hang on to my lips, and I'll probably get the message.”

To his astonishment, Jade kissed him, long and slow and sweet, taking a tantalizingly hot tour of his mouth. Ty's brain blew a short circuit that fried The Plan and all his good sense and intentions in one fiery explosion.

“Get the message?” she asked, pulling back to study him.

He certainly had gotten something. “I'm not quite sure. If you do that again, I can probably—”

She put a finger against his lips. “You're leaving in, what, eight days? Nine?”

“Yeah. Wanna give me a private going-away party?” He wrapped his arms around her, mashing her closer to him, sighing against her neck. Wondered if he dared unzip the Raggedy Ann dress. “God, you taste better than cotton candy. Do it again.”

“My point was, you're leaving. And according to The Plan I've heard so much about, the last thing you need are entanglements and issues back home when you go. That's straight from the BUD/S training bible, or the code you live by, or something, isn't it?”

The heat she was causing by sitting on him was just about unbearable. Even his eyeballs were heating and his brain was smoking, fogging his heretofore perfect reserve around Jade. “I can handle any issue you throw at me, doll face.”