Free A Bad Boy for Christmas by Kelly Hunter Page A

and you chew him out for not telling you where he was going, can I watch?”
    “Always wanting the fireworks,” he said with the glimmer of a smile.
    “Yes.” And Cutter was good at providing them. “Nash doesn’t want to cause trouble,” she offered. “So is there anything he can do to make this easier on your parents? Set a time for everyone to meet? Doesn’t have to be the minute they set foot back in Australia. Nash wants to meet his father, of course he does, but he’s not expecting instant acceptance and he sure as hell doesn’t expect anything from your mother. Well, except rejection. That’s just how he’s wired.”
    Cutter winced. Mia shrugged.
    “Hey, mothers aren’t his area of expertise. They’re not my area of expertise either. We can be guided.”
    Cutter said nothing.
    “Maybe me and Nash should just pack up and go,” she said next. “Catch up next year some time. Give your parents time to adjust.”
    “Or we could make a family decision now and ask you and Nash to stay for Christmas. It’d work. Zoey’s sister will be there. Bree’s parents. There’s room. It’ll be here before we blink and it’s a time for family. My mother could get to know you both without the specter of Liza in her mind. Problem solved.”
    “Christmas with family only works if family want you there. Trust me on this.”
    “ I want you there,” he said gruffly, and her heart all but rolled over and begged him to keep talking. “You and Nash both.” His gaze skittered to her lips and held. “Although possibly for different reasons.”
    Oh. Elephant in the room. “You’re still having trouble with our unfortunate mutual attraction?”
    He nodded.
    “Me too.” She sighed gustily and let the sentiment hang in the air between them. Never let it be said that she was subtle in her wooing. And she was wooing him, wanting him to think the best of her, wanting him to pay attention. He was right about her not being able to stay away from fireworks.
    “So.” Cutter looked around the customer-free emporium, possibly for some kind of distraction. There weren’t any. Mia had been looking for one all week. “How’s business?”
    “Booming. If you count all the bored teenagers holidaying here with their parents, coming in and talking big about the ink they’re going to get when they’re old enough. Otherwise, it’s been a little slow.”
    Silence fell again as he looked around the shop, at Beryl’s designs that covered the best part of one wall.
    “Do you have a favorite?” she asked.
    “Yeah, but Beryl took it down years ago.”
    “What was it?”
    “Popeye.”
    Right.
    “I was twelve, Popeye was big.” He cast his eye over the designs again. “Popeye’s hard to beat.”
    “Have you seen the 3D ones? Here.” She turned to her laptop, currently open on the counter beside her, and started scrolling through one of her photo albums.
    He leaned in, his shoulder brushing hers, and suddenly the strong cut of his jaw was within kissing range. The cartoon tattoo held his attention for all of five seconds and then he turned her way.
    Fireworks. Right there waiting.
    His gaze slipped to her mouth and she rocked forward on her elbows, drawn, in spite of everything they’d already said about not doing this.
    “We could,” she whispered, and while he didn’t move away he didn’t exactly take her up on her offer either. “Just a little taste.”
    “Can’t do it,” he muttered finally.
    “Why not?”
    “I wouldn’t stop.”
    “So we don’t tell anybody.”
    He reached up to trace a calloused thumb across her bottom lip and she closed her eyes the better to savor the experience. “I don’t keep secrets like that,” he muttered. “Never ends well.”
    “Honorable,” she whimpered.
    “Experienced,” he corrected and, given the way his fingers gently moved to track the curve of her cheek, he undoubtedly was.
    Wondering what this man would bring to a kiss was driving her nuts.
    One kiss—in search