Free Undeniable Demands by Andrea Laurence Page A

door as forcefully as he could without audibly slamming it. He turned to her with venom in his dark eyes. “I told you my family is the most important thing in the world to me. It’s the reason I’m willing to pay you more than anyone in their right mind would pay for that land. To preserve my family. You can come here and have dinner. But you’d damn well better know that I won’t sit back and let you toy with any of them.”
    “I’m not out to manipulate people like you are, Wade. I have no intention of doing anything to your family.”
    “You’d better hope you’re right.”
    “Or what?” Tori challenged.
    Wade opened his mouth to answer, but his gaze moved over her shoulder to someone behind her. His defensive posture melted away, his expression softening.
    Then Tori heard Heath’s amusement-laced voice behind her. “Hey, you guys are standing under the mistletoe.”
    * * *
    “Mistletoe?” Molly came running from the kitchen, a gleam of excitement in her eyes.
    Wade and Tori both looked above their heads and back at each other with a touch of dismay. Dangling from the ceiling was a small sprig of green leaves tied with a festive red ribbon. What the hell was mistletoe doing in the house? Everyone here was related. If not by blood, by circumstance. His mother never hung mistletoe.…
    Then it hit him. She’d invited Tori to dinner. She’d hung mistletoe. Molly was plotting. The woman had five children in their late twenties or early thirties and not the slightest forecast of weddings and grandbabies in her future. She must have gotten it in her head that Tori would be perfect for one of her boys. Maybe even him. What was she thinking?
    By now, the entire family had piled back into the living room to watch.
    “Mama,” Wade complained. “Why did you hang this stuff? It’s silly.”
    “It’s tradition,” Molly countered. “This is the first year I’ve been able to hang it, so you bet your sweet bippy you’re going to play along and make me happy.”
    Wade swallowed the lump in his throat and turned from his family to look at Tori. She looked even more anxious than he felt. She was stiff, her light blue eyes wide with shock from the unexpected declaration. Her cheeks were slightly flushed. He didn’t know if it was from their argument or the embarrassment of kissing him like this.
    Two seconds earlier they’d been fighting, and now he had to kiss her in front of his entire family. Several times over the past few days he’d fantasized about doing just that. Running his hands through the silken fire of her hair. Halting the flow of poisonous words from her mouth by kissing her into silence.
    But not now. Not like this. Not in front of everyone.
    “If you don’t do it, I will,” Heath offered from the back. Julianne threw an irritated elbow into his ribs, doubling him over. “Ow, Jules!”
    That made Wade frown. He sure as hell wouldn’t let Heath anywhere near Tori or the mistletoe. He’d punch his brother in the jaw for even thinking about kissing Tori.
    He’d worry about what that meant later.
    “Just hurry up and get it over with.”
    Tori’s voice distracted him from his brother’s taunt. He frowned at the redhead. Even though the sensible thing to do would be to give her a quick peck and move on, he didn’t like her attitude. Never in his life had a woman asked him to “hurry up and get it over with.” It made him want to pull her into his arms and kiss her breathless. He wanted her to eat her words.
    But doing that in front of his family was dangerous. Brody would worry that he’d let sex distract him from their goal. Molly would start knitting booties. He needed to just kiss her so they could have dinner and send Tori on her way.
    “Kiss her!” someone shouted. He wasn’t sure who.
    Wade took a step forward, Tori’s whole body tensing as he did. Leaning in to her, he didn’t hesitate to bring his lips to hers. He had every intention of giving her the kind of kiss