"Wherever I'm going, you're going with me," he said into her ear. "Hold on tight!"
The machine hit the ridge and jumped out into the air, flying across the space between the crest and the hill below them. It came down with a thud in the snow and took off again toward the next hill.
"Wow!" She'd left her stomach on the top of the ridge, but the thrill was awesome. "Could I learn to do that?"
"With practice." He smiled into her rosy face and sparkling eyes. "I think we should head back now."
She was disappointed, but agreed. "Whatever made Aunt Joda volunteer to make cocoa could just as easily die away."
They stayed as close together as they went back up the crest. Emilie didn't try to move away from him, letting him work the machine around her. She liked the feeling of strength in his hands and arms. She was warmer, even though the wind was cold, as they rounded the maze toward the house.
They parked the snowmobile near the door and she turned off the engine. “Thanks. That was great! I think I know what I want for Christmas!”
Nick got off of the machine from behind her and offered her his hand. "They're a lot of work, but they're fun. You can take it out again later, if you like."
"As long as I promise not to jump any hills?" She took his hand and got off.
"Would you sneak and jump it anyway?" he asked. "Even if you promised not to? How trustworthy is Emilie Ferrier?"
"I'd be too scared," she replied slowly. "I'd probably get to the edge of the ridge then back up."
He laughed "So, what you're saying is that you might sneak if you thought you wouldn't kill yourself?"
"Exactly," she answered pertly. "Cocoa?"
They went into the house to find Aunt Joda with the children in the foyer. They were looking at the tree, exclaiming over its size and perfection.
"We have enough ornaments and trappings to cover two trees this size," Joda grumbled about Emilie's buying spree.
"Maybe we should go out and get another tree," Emilie replied with a grin.
"All right!" Adam yelled. "Let's go get another tree!"
"She's just kidding," Nick assured him. "We'll have to make do with this one."
Amber clapped her hands and looked up at the tree with wide eyes.
"Do you have a stand big enough to put it in?" Nick asked Emilie.
Each member of the group turned to look at her.
She shrugged. "I guess that was something I forgot."
"Let me take care of that," Nick volunteered. "Now, what's this about a party?"
Adam and Emilie rushed in to explain it at the same time. Amber tripped and fell headfirst into the side of the tree, crying loudly as the wet, sticky branches touched her face.
Aunt Joda ran forward to grab the child. Emilie stopped speaking to watch her aunt croon and comfort the little girl. She petted her head and kissed her cheek, her eyes never leaving Amber's face.
Emilie was surprised and pleased. Everything had to fall into place, she determined,
for all their sakes.
They agreed on a small party under Nick's thunderous dark scowl. Nick and Adam were going to go out and get the tree holder and Amber, Joda, and Emilie would provide the feast.
"Feast?" Nick demanded. "You mean like some cheese crackers and chips, right?"
"Exactly," Emilie agreed somberly.
He eyed her questioningly. "Nothing elaborate. Nothing overwhelming. No truckloads of food or anything. Right?"
"Right," she agreed again. "No truckloads of food."
After Nick and Adam left, Emilie called the caterers. It took some doing but she managed to get them to come on short notice because they thought she might throw some further business their way in the future. Also, because they charged her double what they would anyone else.
Emilie hummed as she called for entertainment, knowing just what she had in mind. Adam would be thrilled! And Nick—she sighed. Well, Nick would be surprised.
She was looking through Amber's clothes for the right outfit when Adam came home to tell her that Nick had dropped him off with the tree holder, but had to go back out for an emergency call.
"He said he'll be back soon," he assured her. "Where's the food?"
"You'll have to wait until it gets here," she told him. "In the meantime, you have to get dressed for the party."
Adam groaned. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, Jake, you do,” she answered.
"Okay." The boy trudged into his room with her. "I think my suit is in Uncle Nick's room."
They went through the connecting door. Adam went to the closet, looking for his only suit to show Emilie.
Emilie, in the meantime, saw the thick stack of typewritten pages on the bed. She glanced through them before she realized that she was snooping.
"That's okay," Adam told her. "You can look at it. Uncle Nick writes all the time. Someday, he's gonna get a book published. We've talked about it. He has to find the right publisher and make the book perfect."
Emilie looked at the manuscript again. It was poetry, what appeared to be hundreds of poems. Nick was a poet. Who would have guessed?
Adam was looking in the closet again. Amber was trying to take the laces out of a shoe. Emilie read some of the poems to herself.
The room was quiet. Emilie felt her face get hot. She looked up at the children, and seeing them still occupied, looked down and read another poem.
They seemed very good to her. Of course, she wasn't an authority, but she knew someone who was. She could give him a call later. There might be something she could get for Nick for Christmas after all, something to help make one of his dreams come true.
"Here it is!" Adam brought his blue suit out of the closet.
"What about this?" Emilie carefully set down the poems. She reached for a bright red Christmas sweater that Nick must have put out for Adam.
"You like that?" Adam asked her.
"I like this. Try it on and let's see how the pictures will look."
"Pictures?" he asked brightly. "Okay!"
They dressed him in the red sweater and blue jeans and Amber in a pretty green party dress.
They went to Emilie’s bedroom where she had them both sit in chairs while she fretted over what she was going to wear. She finally decided on a floor-length burgundy velvet gown with a round neck that dipped low across her breasts. She changed her clothes behind an antique screen.
It was simple, very elegant, and basic. Maybe not the perfect party dress for decorating a tree, she considered, but she was going to wear it anyway. She piled her hair up on her head, letting a few curls dangle down on her cheeks. She looked at her jewelry and decided on an old cameo that had belonged to her great-grandmother.
"Hurry!" Adam hissed, looking through a crack in the door. "Uncle Nick's here and somebody's bringing in food!"
Nick went upstairs to change his clothes. He didn’t bother looking for Adam and Amber. He knew where they were.
He descended the long stairway again a few minutes later. The lights were low in the foyer. Twinkling Christmas fairy lights graced the walls like enchanted ropes against the patterned wallpaper. There was music swelling sweetly past him. The smell of some spicy food tantalized his nose.
When he reached the ground floor, his mouth dropped open. A long, low table was set against the far wall. There were two servers standing behind it, dressed in white. A three-piece string group was playing music from an alcove near the curve of the stairs.
Was this her idea of a joke? He frowned as he searched for Emilie. If she was trying to make him angry, she'd succeeded. This wasn’t his idea of some snacks and a small party. Did she have to go to such extravagances? Was she trying to show them how much money she had?
He saw the children, waiting patiently, angelic looks on their clean faces. He found Joda, dressed resplendently in gold and red, sipping hot punch, and ignoring him. Then he saw Emilie, peeking out from behind the big tree.
Scathing words had already formed on his lips. They were blistering words that were going to flay the skin from her delicate back.
When she stepped forward into the dim light and smiled at him tremulously, whatever he'd been going to say fled his mind. All he could think about was how beautiful she looked.
She looked like a queen in her dark velvet. Her eyes were very green, more worried than usual. Her hands fluttered like white ghosts from her side to her mouth—that ripe pink mouth that promised more riches than she had stored in her bank.
For a long moment, he lost the sense of anyone else being around them. It was as though time was suspended. The world had narrowed down to only the two of them. He could see more than her beauty and the slender line of her body. Her soul shone out and around her, like a glow that rivaled the fairy lights on the walls.
Emilie felt herself drawn to him as his gaze persisted on her. Nothing else mattered in that moment. He was tall and dark, wearing a creamy cable sweater and black slacks. He could have been wearing anything. They could have been anywhere.
She took a step forward, feeling compelled by the strength and power of his gaze that both excited and filled her. She stretched out her arms without hesitation. She didn't look away from his face. She wasn't aware of anything except that he wanted her, that he needed her.
Nick took her hands and looked down at her. Her lips were slightly parted. He wanted to crush her mouth beneath his and feel her gentle strength in his arms. He wanted to slowly peel that long lovely gown from her body. He wanted to watch her eyes darken with passion and need.
Instead, he closed his hands around her smaller, cooler fingers. He wondered as he saw their slightness, how they could hold so much magic, and so much power.
"I feel like I should have worn my armor," he said, smiling at her. "You look like a medieval princess."
She pulled her gaze from his and stared instead at their hands joined in front of her. "A hungry medieval princess. Waiting for her handsome escort."
"Hungry, my princess?" he queried in a deep whisper that reached her ears only. A wicked, dark brow arched over one eye. He bent his head and kissed her hand. His mouth lingered over the soft scent of roses that caressed it. "I can only tantalize myself with wondering what would appease your appetite."
Emilie felt a flush steal up her face and throat. Her heart beat doubled over their play and her knees were shaking. Like a white-hot arrow, the feeling from his mouth on her hand shot straight through her. Desire, which had only whispered to her before, engulfed her.
"Can we eat now?" Adam questioned, squirming. “I don’t like this sweater.”
Suspended time became the continuous playing of the trio in the alcove. Amber tripped over to Joda with a chuckle, and looked at the food.
"I think we're all hungry. If the two of you are finished . . .?" Joda picked up the toddler. “Perhaps we can eat,
non
?”
"If this is your idea of snacks," Nick told Emilie, "from now on, you get the tree stand and I get the food. At least the worst that could happen then is you get a gold and diamond-encrusted tree stand, handmade from a jeweler in Saudi Arabia."
"You mean going to get it in my private jet?" she questioned as they moved towards the long table loaded with food.
He cast a jaundiced look at her. "Do you have a private jet?"
She looked back at him. "Yes. But I don't use it very often, if that makes you feel better."
"Much better," he muttered, picking up a china plate and putting food on it for Adam.
Emilie made a plate for Amber. Joda sat at the white linen-covered table with the child, talking to her and trying to distract her until the food arrived.
Despite the quantity of food and the wonderful aromas emanating from it, Emilie had no appetite. She watched the children eat, but pushed food around on her own plate. How could she eat with the sensation Nick had caused in her?
"Not hungry after all?" Joda asked, nudging her as she filled her plate again.
"No. I guess not."
"At least not for food, eh,
petite
?"
"Can I go back for more?" Adam asked. "I want some more of those brown things and that sauce."
Joda chuckled richly. "The child has excellent taste. The truffles are wonderful tonight."
Truffles?
Nick looked at the truffles on his plate and swallowed hard on the piece in his mouth. It wouldn't do to get used to eating that way. It wouldn't be wise to get used to the taste of something so far beyond his touch.
The taste and texture of Emilie remained on his lips, despite the excellent wine and the delicious food. All that seemed to matter to him was that he wanted to touch her again. It burned within him until it threatened to consume everything else. He found himself plotting ways he could manage it without causing suspicion.
When Adam and Amber were done eating, Emilie turned to Adam and handed him his battered flute case. "You know Aunt Joda didn't hear your Christmas concert at the school. Do you think you could play something with these other musicians?"
Adam's eyes grew wide. "Do you think they'd let me?"
"I think so," Emile said. "Tell that man right over there what you want to play and he'll tell you how you can do it."
They arranged their chairs to face the musicians. Nick claimed a spot beside Emilie. Aunt Joda and Amber sat on the other side.
Adam spoke with the violin player that Emilie had pointed out to him. Adam smiled at Emilie and his uncle. He took up his flute to play
'Silent Night'
with the backing of his new musician friends.
Nick looked at Emilie’s hand where it lay on the velvet in her lap. He spread his hand slowly over hers, entwining their fingers, hoping the craving to touch her would be satisfied.
Emilie's hand squeezed his gently.
He closed his eyes as the sweet music wafted around them in the elegant foyer. Desire was like the music surging through him. He realized that just holding Emilie’s hand wasn’t enough—and it terrified him.
Chapter Twelve
They had to decorate the top of the tree from the stairs. The tree spiraled up until Emilie wondered if it would touch the ceiling, but there was room for the huge silver star she'd bought. Nick held Amber up to put the star on the top. They all applauded when it was finished.