Free The Bite Before Christmas by Lynsay Sands, Jeaniene Frost Page B

talks than he’d laughed with any woman ever.
    She was also sexy as sin. He hadn’t been kidding in the dream when he’d said he’d been half-erect all day. Every time he’d looked at her, little Teddy had perked up like a happy dog’s ears. And he wouldn’t have been surprised to hear his tongue had been hanging out half the day like that same happy dog’s tongue. He’d never encountered a female who affected him like she did. Even Elvi.
    The admission was a big one for Teddy. He’d been half in love with Ellen “Elvi” Black since he was a boy. No other woman had been able to compare, in his mind. Until now . . . and that was why he’d brought such an abrupt end to their conversation when Katricia had asked if he meant he’d never found anyone he loved, or anyone he’d loved as much as Elvi. Because he’d almost admitted, “Until now.”
    That thought in his head had startled the hell out of Teddy in that moment. But he now realized that, as much as he’d loved Elvi, it seemed to him it had been a young boy’s love, a sort of adoration, but without the gritty lust he felt for Katricia. If he’d felt half as hot for Elvi as he did for Katricia, he wouldn’t have simply stood by and watched her marry her mortal husband, and then he wouldn’t have set out to find her a vampire mate. He’d have been desperate to claim her for his own. Teddy had always thought he’d stood aside for Elvi’s sake, that he’d not wanted to stand in the way of her happiness. But the fact of the matter was, he suspected she’d just been an ideal to him. The perfect, untouchable female. He didn’t even think he’d wanted her for real. Not like he wanted Katricia, because while he’d stood aside for Elvi, he already knew he couldn’t do that with Katricia. He couldn’t and wouldn’t stand aside for her to find happiness with someone else . . . which would be a problem if they weren’t really life mates and it had really all just been wishful dreaming on his part.
    Sighing, Teddy ran one hand wearily through his hair, then turned and moved into the kitchen to grab his coat and boots. Rather than risk waking Katricia, he took them with him and slid out into the icy vestibule. He pulled the door silently closed before quickly donning them, and then grabbed one of the flashlights and slipped outside.
    It had been cold that day, but it was even worse in the dead of night. The snow crunched under foot, the wind hit his face like icy sandpaper, and the moisture in his nose froze before he’d taken half a dozen steps. They definitely needed the wood, he thought grimly, and once he got back inside, he should probably set his watch alarm to go off every couple of hours so he could feed the fire again. In this kind of weather, they could freeze to death if the fire went out. Chances were the cold would wake him, but if it didn’t . . . well, he didn’t even want to think about that.
    The tarp crinkled stiffly when he pulled it back to get to the wood it protected. Teddy quickly scooped up as many logs as he could carry and started back toward the cottage. He was nearly to the deck when he spotted light through the leafless trees between the cottage and the lakeshore in front of it. Pausing, he eyed it for a minute, then changed direction and walked around in front of the deck, traveling several feet down the gentle incline to get a better look without the trees in the way.
    A slow smile curved Teddy’s lips when he was able to see it clearly. A cottage across the lake was lit up like a Christmas tree, light shining from every window. It wasn’t the fact that they had power that made him smile, but that there was someone else on the lake. Tomorrow morning he could walk across the frozen lake and ask to use the phone to take care of the power problem if it wasn’t already taken care of by