Free Stockings and Suspenders by 10 Author Anthology

nothing
but more snow and lots of trees.
    “That's my granny's house.” He pointed
to a well maintained rock house on the left. “My grandpa did all that stonework
himself.”
    “It's really pretty.”
    “That's my parent's place, but they're
on vacation.” He nodded toward a huge wooden house just a little further down
the road. “I won a Christmas cruise by being the lucky caller at that country
station in Knoxville and since I didn't have anyone to go with I gave it to
them.”
    He made a left, turning on to a road
that would have been even darker if not for a mobile home lit up with Christmas
lights.
    Seeing the tow truck in the the drive
way, she said, “Let me guess, that's your sister's house.”
    “Yeah, and as you can tell, they're
home.”
    “I bet they're going to have a huge
electric bill,” Minerva had to fight back a laugh over the outlandish display
of lights.
    “She's gone overboard with the
decorating ever since she was a little girl. I wouldn't have my own tree if she
hadn't come over and set it up for me.”
    “You must be close.”
    “Like two peas in a pod.” He pulled
the car in front of a barn, instead of another trailer. “How does Marvey do
around horses?”
    “She's never see a horse before.”
    He got out of the truck and opened the
door to the barn before hopping back behind the wheel to drive right into the
building.
    Leaving the motor running, he got out
again. “Y'all wait right here while rig up the sleigh to take us up to my
place.”
     

Chapter Two
     
    Brian hooked his favorite and
strongest Stallion to the sleigh he'd in found in the barn a couple of months
after his grandpa's death. He'd painted it up a candy apple red and greased the
runners. To please his sister he'd even gotten some jingly bells from The
Dollar Tree and found a huge fake fur throw at the Goodwill over in Newport.
    He still couldn't get over his luck.
The first snow of the season and he finds a cute little blond sitting on the
side of the road like she was just put there waiting there for him. Sarah had
kept telling him if he'd stop pining for Leah that the right girl came along.
And now for the life of him, he couldn't even remember face, and he didn't care
one bit that she'd given him the ring back two weeks before their June wedding.
    “Your chariot awaits my lady,” he
said, opening the passenger door of his truck.
    Minerva's pretty green eyes widened
and her mouth formed the cutest ‘O’ that made him want to pull her into his
arms and kiss her breathless.
    “I can't believe it. You have a real
life one horse open sleigh.”
    “Well, it is Christmas Eve.”
    He helped her into the sleigh and
Marvey hopped in right behind her not paying any attention to the horse.
    After grapping her bags, shutting off
his truck and getting the sleigh maneuvered out of the barn he got in beside
her. She'd changed into her winter boots, bundled up in the parka and added a
cute pink toboggan that looked like something his granny might have knitted.
    It gave her a fresh faced innocence
that made her look younger and way hotter than that glamour shot photo on the
book jacket. He wasn't about to admit it, but he'd actually read Bleeding
Hearts after admiring her photo. He'd gotten home from making the gift run
to Knoxville to find that his satellite dish had gone wonky for the night. With
no TV and nothing else to do he'd sat down in front of his fireplace and
started reading her book. Two nights later with the TV working just fine he'd
finished it and actually enjoyed the steamy story.
    After reading all those hot sex scenes
he couldn't help but wonder about the beautiful woman who'd written such a
juicy story. Now here she was, their knees almost touching, on their way to his
cabin. He couldn't help but wonder if she was as good with her body as she was
with those words.
    “I feel like I've stepped into a
Hallmark movie.”
    Her accompanying grin made him have to
adjust the blanket over his lap to keep her from