Free Knight and Sleigh: An Erotic Lucien Knight Christmas Novella by Kitty French Page A

said, shooting a look towards the flaked-out puppy. ‘This place has suddenly become about my future, not my past. I never expected that.’  
    The words seemed to rush from his mouth, as if they needed to get out even though he’d commanded them to stay put inside his head. Sophie didn’t know whether to cry, or hug him, or kiss him. He frustrated the hell out of her and she loved him all the more for it.  
    She was distracted from replying by the stirring of the pup in his basket. He opened one blue eye and then the other, regarding them solemnly from the safety of his bed. Sophie went to get up, but Lucien stilled her with a hand on her knee.  
    ‘Let me.’  
    He crossed the room and dropped to his haunches beside the basket, stroking the dog’s pointed little ears.  
    ‘So, Heathcliff,’ he said. ‘We need a serious conversation about who’s going to be the boss around here.’  
    ‘Heathcliff?’ Sophie said, laughing.  
    Lucien came and sat down beside her again, the puppy curled happily into his chest.  
    ‘My dog, my rules.’  
    Sophie watched him with amused eyes, sensing that regardless of Lucien’s big talk, there was only going to be one boss in that particular relationship, and it was definitely the one with four legs and a cute pink tip to the end of his nose.  
     
    Lucien slid into bed just after midnight while Sophie turned out the tree lights. Something scratched his back as he settled on the pillows.  
    Reaching beneath him, he pulled out a bunch of envelopes, just as Sophie appeared in the doorway and then froze. She saw that Dan's Christmas card lay on the top of the pile and he flipped open, letting the other items fall. His manner was light-hearted. She knew he was not prepared for what lay inside.  
    Lucien scanned the message lazily at first, then sat up abruptly.  
    ‘What’s this doing here?’ he said, keeping his voice low and steady, even though finding a card from Sophie’s ex in his bed had made his heart pound unsteadily in his chest.  
    ‘God, I’m sorry,’ she said, her eyes contrite. ‘I didn’t mean to leave that there. It was in my bag, and I…’  
    Lucien held up his hand.  
    ‘Why would you bring this here of all places, Sophie? Help me out here, because all I can think is that you have it because it means something to you.’  
    Lucien’s tone was cool, belying the anger and hurt behind it. He felt winded. After everything they’d done together today. The confidences he’d shared. The physical intimacy. And yet she’d brought this… this thing with her. Into their bed. He feared what it meant.  
    She crossed to the bed and sat down. When she reached for the card he let her take it, offended enough by it to shove it towards her in quiet disgust. He was still as stone, staring at her.  
    ‘Don’t do that, Lucien. Please don’t turn away from me.’  
    ‘You miss him.’ Lucien stated flatly. He felt as if a million meteorites were crash landing inside his head, explosion after red fireball explosion, hitting their targets, making him flinch with almost physical pain. ‘You’re thinking of him.’  
    ‘No,’ Sophie said, suddenly forceful. ‘No, I don’t. I’m not. Look at me.’  
    When he didn’t, she touched his jaw, then grasped it and turned his face to hers.  
    ‘It was in amongst the forwarded mail. Remember that brown envelope from my parents’ house?’  
    She paused to reach down for the other letters he’d discarded beneath the card, then searched under the blankets before pulling out the envelope and another handful of junk mail and flyers.  
    ‘See? I’d stashed it in my bag at mum and dad’s and forgotten about it, and I opened it this afternoon to pass the time when you were outside with Henrik.’  
    She stared into his eyes, direct, clear and urgent.  
    ‘Do you honestly think that I could miss him after what he did to me? After everything we’ve shared?’ She broke off, lowering her hands to