Free Cole's Christmas Wish by Tracy Madison Page A

came this-close to teasing her about the various methods he
could use to warm her up, but kept the words to himself. Unfortunately, ridding
the mental images of those methods proved substantially more difficult. So, for
the moment, he settled for a nod. They started down the sidewalk in
companionable silence, hand in hand. It felt...natural. Easy.
    The way it should be.
    Excepting, of course, for the pretend girlfriend they were
supposedly shopping for and the very real man waiting at home for Rachel.
    “What’s Andrew up to today?” Cole asked, feeling guilty he
hadn’t before. “He’s okay with all of this, isn’t he?”
    “Andrew is working. Apparently, he’s the only person at his
company capable of handling any and all issues that arise, the second they
arise.” She stopped and shook her head. “That wasn’t fair. Andrew told me in
advance that this would be a working vacation. And yes, he is fine with our
arrangement. Even said he’s relieved that I have ‘something to occupy’ my time
while he’s busy fixing the latest crisis.”
    “Ah. I take it you were right, then, about his jealousy
fading?”
    “It would seem so.”
    “Well, I suppose that’s good news.”
    “I suppose so. It’s just...irritating after the way he behaved
toward you at the Beanery.”
    “Irritating as in you would prefer for Andrew to remain jealous
of our relationship?”
    She tugged his hand and began walking again. “Yes. No. I mean,
not our relationship specifically, but the fact I’m spending an entire day with
a handsome, sexy man. That should bother him on some
level. Shouldn’t it?”
    “You think I’m handsome? And sexy?”
    She looked at him and rolled her eyes. “As if that’s a surprise
to you. Do you not remember the fan-girls who used to slip their panties into
your pockets at bars? Or the ones who knocked on your hotel doors wearing
nothing but a coat? Yes, you’re handsome.”
    “Hey, the panties thing only happened once.”
    “Three times. It happened here, once in Vail and once in Aspen.
That’s three.”
    Hell. Her memory was better than his. “The hotel thing, that
only happened...never mind.” Without even trying, he could recall a half dozen
or so instances, so he shut up on that topic. Though, he couldn’t resist adding,
“You didn’t say sexy that time. Only handsome.”
    She mumbled something about men and their egos under her
breath. “Yes, sexy, too. Geez. Happy now?”
    “Extremely. Mostly, though, I’m glad you’re not getting
friction from Andrew.” They’d reached the corner of the street. He gestured
toward a gift store that carried handcrafted items made by local artists. “This
looks as good a place to start as any,” he said, leading her inside.
    The bell on the door jangled when they entered and Christmas
music—naturally—met their ears. While the store was not overly busy, there were
a handful of customers milling about, none of whom Cole recognized. Yep,
definitely a good place to start.
    “I love this store,” Rachel said as she faced him. Her cheeks
were pink from the cold, her lips a delicious ruby-red that damn near begged to
be kissed, and the wind had tousled her hair so that the strands fell in a wispy
disarray of gold. Beautiful .
    So beautiful that the very look of her blocked every last thing
out of his head. This, he realized, was just how she’d appear after sex. Rumpled
and... His groin instantly tightened and his earlier images returned, further
clouding his ability to think, speak or...hell, breathe.
    “Is she an artist?” Rachel asked curiously.
    “Ah...is who an artist?” If he took one minuscule step toward
her, he’d be within kissing distance. The want—no, the need —to do just that became overpowering. He almost gave in to it,
almost took that step and claimed her mouth with his. But his mind chose that
second to replay her question, logic kicked in, and he remembered what they were
doing here, in a gift store.
    Even more to the