Home for the Holidays: A Contemporary Romance Anthology Read online

  One thing was for damned sure.

  Little Kitty Pepper was all woman now.

  She sucked in a shuddering breath and her full, firm breasts threatened to spill over the top.

  God, give me strength.

  He clenched his fists at his side and called on every ounce of self-discipline in his notoriously undisciplined mind.

  “Ah, shit. Kitty, look--”

  “No!” She wet her lips and stepped closer, the flush on her cheeks giving her that freshly-fucked look that made his already iron-hard erection even harder. “Please don’t say anything. Just let me…”

  Her husky voice trailed off as she straightened her shoulders and rolled up onto her toes. The scent of cookies washed over him and he swallowed a groan.

  Leave it to Kitty to pick the one scent no man in the world would find sexy as the frontrunner for her big seduction.

  Only—damn it to hell—it was sexy.

  On her.

  And why was that? She was like an annoying kid sister to him.

  Was being the operative word. But in the past few weeks, he’d started to realize she wasn’t a kid anymore. Now here she was, twenty-five and half-naked, bent on seduction.

  She pressed against him harder, peppering his jaw with awkward but enthusiastic kisses and pushing him farther into the house. He put his hands on her shoulders, but couldn’t bring himself to push her away. With a flick of her foot, she slammed the door behind them.

  She pushed him all the way to the living room, and shoved him down on the couch. Her eyes burned with lust through the dark, overwhelming him with desire.

  “I want you.”

  She jammed her knee into the cushion next to him and swung the other silky-smooth leg over, straddling his lap. Her tongue dragged across his neck, tasting his essence. Her breasts pressed into his firm chest, and she grabbed fistfuls of his hair and tugged.

  He couldn’t help himself. Like a man possessed, he placed his hands on the small of her back, pulling her even closer. She moaned with delight and began nibbling at his earlobe. With every grind, every bump of their hips, his grip grew stronger and his mind grew weaker.

  “This is better than I ever imagined.” Her husky words sent a warm puff of air into his ear. “I was so nervous.”

  He kissed her from her cleavage to her lips, reveling in the softness of her skin. “I gotta be honest,” he nipped sharply at her full bottom lip, “I never guessed.”

  “Mmmhmm,” she hummed. “I should’ve told you a long time ago. Seemed like it was now or never.”

  His mind was racing, his cock throbbing, his heart pounding against her breasts.

  “I’m not trying to stop you from going,” she murmured, “but I needed you to know how I felt before you left.”

  Mike twisted his face into a frown. “Left?”

  A thousand alarm bells went off in his head, echoing in his lust-clouded brain and sending a blast of unreasonable anger and frustration coursing through him.

  “Rick? Is everything okay?”

  Until she’d said the name, a kernel of hope had lingered that maybe he had it wrong. Maybe she knew it was him and had finally decided to get real with herself and acknowledge the chemistry he’d felt boiling between them since she’d gotten into town.

  But she didn’t want him at all.

  Not the troubled youth turned real bastard with a chip on his shoulder.

  Not the guy who couldn’t stick with a woman for longer than a season.

  Not the idiot who was currently being turned upside down by the girl next door.

  She was here for his twin.

  It all made perfect sense now. This morning, she’d caught sight of him getting his mail and came storming out of her house, twin flags of fury blazing high on her cheeks. She’d proceeded to rip him a new one about waking her up. And then he’d told her he’d be out all night. Apparently, she’d thought it was the perfect time to make her move on Dr. Rick Blade. Too bad for her, Rick had opted to take an earlier flight that afternoon to avoid an ice storm delay in New York city.

  Now, she was tongue-dueling with the wrong brother and had no idea.

  Which meant, as irritated as he was, he had to stop her before she did something she’d regret. This had already gone further than it should have.

  “What is it? What’s the matter?” she asked, wetting her lips nervously.

  “Kitty,” he paused and raked his hand through his hair in frustration. “I don’t know how to tell you this--”

  “Tell me what?” she demanded. Her voice flipped from sultry to apprehensive in an instant.

  Better to yank it off, like a bandage.

  “I’m not Rick. It’s me. Mike.”

  The horror on her face as his words hit home was like a sucker punch to the ego. She shot up from his lap in an instant, covering her cleavage and panties with trembling hands.

  “Wait, wh--what?”

  “Rick left this afternoon. I thought you knew.”

  She began frantically searching around the dimly lit room for her coat and he stood up and flipped on the lamp to help.

  She froze like a deer in the headlights, on the verge of tears, trembling in her sexy lingerie. “Turn the light off!”

  Her gaze flicked to his stubborn still-very-obvious erection clearly visible through his jogging pants.

  “Oh my god, do you seriously still have a boner at a time like this?” she demanded.

  Mike turned the lamp back off. “Well shit, Kitty, what did you expect?”

  Great. Now he felt like a heel and a perv.

  “You could have told me,” she hissed, fumbling around still searching for her coat.

  “I didn’t know,” he returned, his sympathy for her evaporating under the heat of his own annoyance now. He’d just been sitting here drinking a beer minding his own business when she strolled in and took her tits out. She had a lot of nerve being pissed at him.

  “I have to be dreaming.” She shook her head. “Th--this can’t be happening.”

  She looked so miserable, he blew out a sigh and bent low to retrieve the trench coat he spotted next to the coffee table.

  “Look, I’m sorry, Kitty.”

  “Just. Don’t.” She snatched the coat from his grasp and wrapped it around her shoulders before scurrying towards the front door. “And stop calling me that!”

  “Come on, K--” He caught himself. No point in poking an angry wasp’s nest. “Kaitlin. It’s okay. It was a couple of kisses. No big--”

  But the door slammed shut between them and he found himself talking to the other side of it.

  For the first time in a long time, Mike felt a stab of jealousy towards his brother. Of course she thought he was Rick – she was constantly fawning over him since she rolled in.

  He went to the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face, hoping to wake up from this half-dream half-nightmare, or at least to wash her heavenly scent from his body.

  It didn’t work.

  The scent of cookies and lip gloss clung to his skin like static. She was gone but her gentle touch was still there. Her lips were still wandering his neck. Her fingers still gripped his hair. Her heart was still pounding against his chest, matching the pace of his own. Her soft voice still echoed deep in his thoughts.

  No matter how hard he tried to wash away what happened, it was too late.

  He’d had a real taste of Kitty Pepper and he wanted more.

  3

  Kaitlin stared at the ceiling in the morning light, unblinking. The paltry three hours of sleep she’d managed hadn’t erased the previous night’s events from her mind. Hell, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it.

  About him, was more like it.

  Her face flamed and she covered her mouth with the pillow and let out what she swore would be her last muffled scream of humiliation.

  How could she have gotten it all so wrong?

  She tossed the pillow on the floor and threw back the covers. Putting off the inevitable
wasn’t going to change a thing. She’d get up, and get on with her day and just hope that, with time, she could face herself in the mirror again.

  Facing Michael? That was a whole other story.

  She rubbed her eyes and shuffled out of bed and to the bathroom. A hot shower usually did the trick to clear her head. After shutting the door and waiting for the steam to completely fill the room, she stepped in and let the water sluice over her, heating her weary muscles.

  Michael Blade.

  His name floated into her thoughts and she tried to force it out.

  How could she not recognize that hard body? Sure, Rick took care of himself, but Mike was ripped to shreds. His hands, so rough, but so strong. Definitely not the hands of a doctor. And the voice? Rick’s was smooth, silky, with an air of intelligence. But Michael’s – his was lower, gravelly.

  She closed her eyes and it all came back to her in a rush. The faint scent of gasoline on his skin. The stubble on his chiseled cheeks tickling her neck.

  A hot stab of lust shot through her, settling low in her belly and she gasped.

  Nope. No way. She needed an intervention, and fast.

  She shut the shower off, wrapped her red locks in a towel and threw on a robe. Half-jogging, she made her way to her cell phone by the bed. She picked it up and pounded at the screen until the phone cooperated, dialing Cheri.

  “C’mon, pick up, Cher…”

  She needed to speak to someone she could trust.

  “Mm…hello?” a sleepy voice finally answered on the other side.

  “Cheri, it’s me – Kaitlin.”

  A long pause followed by an elongated yawn floated through the phone. “No shit, Kitty. I have caller I.D. It’s the 21st century. Anyways, who else would I pick up for at eight in the morning?”

  “Right. Sorry,” Kaitlin mumbled.

  “So what’s up? I worked a double yesterday, so this better be something good. How did it go last night? I want details.”

  “Blerg…yeah. No. Not good. In fact, a total shit-show.”

  That woke Cheri up, and Kaitlin could hear her friend’s mattress springs squealing as she bolted upright. “Crap, what happened? No action from Dr. Studmuffin? I find that hard to believe after seeing how sexy you looked in that bustier.”

  “Oh, I got some action,” Kaitlin murmured miserably. “But not from Dr. Studmuffin.”

  She paused to think of how to say it, but couldn’t pull the trigger. It was just too humiliating for words.

  Cheri finally deadpanned, “You’re killing me, kiddo. I’m literally dying here.”

  Kaitlin took a breath for courage and let the words bubble from her lips in a rush. “I seduced the wrong brother.”

  A moment of silence lingered on the line for what felt like an eternity before laughter roared through the receiver.

  “You--” Cheri struggled to catch her breath, “you slept with Michael Blade? You can’t stand Michael Blade, remember?”

  “I didn’t sleep with him.” Kaitlin was beginning to lose her patience. “And it’s not funny. I was mortified. I mean, how could I be so stupid?”

  Being true blue like she was, Cheri stopped laughing and flipped into bestie mode.

  “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Throw on a pot of coffee and get dressed. I’m coming over and I don’t want to show up to a mopey mess wearing sweatpants and weeping into a tub of cookie dough.”

  Kaitlin reluctantly agreed and hung up the phone. She slid into a pair of jeans and threw on a light green blouse.

  In the kitchen, she dumped the last of her coffee grounds into the basket of the coffeemaker and flipped it on. Even though the strong Colombian brew filled the house with an aroma that could wake someone from the deepest of slumbers, she swore she could still catch the faint scent of skin that haunted her dreams last night.

  The thought of him triggered another dreadful realization – she had to go back over there. Technically, she was still getting paid to work for them, even if it was just enough to cover her own cost for materials.

  Who could’ve known a month ago when Rick had asked her to help with the rehab of their gran’s house that something like this would happen? She’d loved Honey and had been broken up when she’d passed away last year. The Blade brothers had finally decided to sell their childhood home, and it had seemed like a fitting gift to sweet Honey to help her beloved boys get the house back in shape. Now though?

  She wished like hell she’d never even come back.

  Stirring sugar into a cup of coffee, she wondered if Mike was just as distraught as she was.

  Highly unlikely. His cocky ass was probably laughing it up at her expense.

  “Kill me now,” she muttered and slumped forward to rest her head on the cool, walnut cabinet.

  She was still in that same position when Cheri sailed in a few minutes later, a bouquet of flowers in tow.

  “Awww. Thanks, Cher,” Kaitlin said, wrapping her arms around her friend for a quick hug before taking the sunflowers from her.

  Cheri nodded and yawned. “Yeah, yeah, no problem. Now where’s the coffee? This is wayyyy too early for me.”

  Kait made her friend a mug of joe and the childhood friends sat across from each other in Kaitlin’s mom’s tiny breakfast nook, two steaming cups creating a haze between them. Kaitlin braced for the inevitable barrage of questions that she knew was coming.

  “So tell me,” she started, “how exactly did you end up fucking the grease monkey instead of the doctor?”

  “First off,” Kaitlin retorted, “I told you before, I didn’t--” she peered around and then irrationally lowered her voice to a whisper, “fuck him. We just kinda…made out a bit. I mean, nothing too crazy. And he’s not a grease monkey.”

  “Innnnteresting. So you’re defending him now?”

  Kaitlin’s eyes grew wide at the accusation. “Oh shut up. You just make him sound sleazy--”

  “Well, I’m not one to judge, but he did sleep with half our high school and God knows who else since then. And hey, I’m here for you. I was just trying to be supportive. I actually think he’s dead sexy, so if you decide you don’t want him…”

  “I don’t!” She knew it was a lie the second she said it, and judging by the smirk on Cheri’s face, so did she. Kaitlyn cut her hand through the air with a groan. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Point is, I humiliated myself. So now what?”

  Cheri cocked a suspicious eyebrow and took a long draw of coffee.

  “So you went over there in nothing but lingerie and didn’t bang the guy? Okay. I’m going to believe that – but only because you’re my best friend and I know you wouldn’t lie to me. But how the hell did you mix him up with Rick? I know they’re supposedly identical, but c’mon. You’ve known them for what, fifteen years? And Mike is so much more masculine than Rick.”

  “I don’t know,” Kaitlin wailed, rubbing at her now-throbbing temples. “Once I knocked on the door my adrenaline took over. Then he opened the door looking all good and the hormones just kicked in. It was dark and…” she buried her face in her palms and shook her head, “I guess looking back, there were some pretty dead giveaways.”

  “Yeah, like?”

  “Well, first of all, his stubble. It’s, I don’t know. Like you said, manly. And the body. He’s absolutely rock hard.”

  Sweat began to bead up on her forehead. She wasn’t sure if it was from the warm air and too much coffee or reminiscing the night before.

  “Okay, okay,” Cheri cut in, “I think I get it now.”

  “Good. Now tell me what to do from here. Do I ignore him and quit? Do I confront him and tell him I’m sorry?”

  “God, no,” Cheri said with a snort. “You don’t do any of that. You offered to work on the yard as a favor because you cared about Honey. You can’t take it back now.”

  Her friend was right. Kaitlin thought back to the day the Blade brothers had moved in. From what she’d pieced together through the years, Honey’s daughter had basically dumped them off when s
he decided that scoring meth took precedence over raising two young boys. But sweet Honey, bless her heart, had taken her grandsons in and raised them like her own. In fact, Honey treated all the kids in the neighborhood like her own.

  A pang of sadness ran through Kaitlin as she recalled knocking at the door each Sunday morning. Honey would swing it open with a smile, the smell of cooking butter and maple syrup wafting past her.

  “Hi, babe. Come on in, the pancakes are almost ready.”

  Tears stung the back of her lids and she blinked them back.

  Nope. No way was she going to back out on her offer. She’d told Rick that she would help get the house back in shape because that’s what Honey would want. To give her beloved boys the best inheritance she could. It was the least Kaitlin could do for the woman who had been a safe-haven of stability when her own house was like a war zone.

  The sound of hammering from next door broke into her thoughts and she shot a glance out the front window. Nerves bubbled up in her stomach.

  Great. Speak of the devil. He was awake and already working. And whistling, no less. Clearly he was far less affected by the night before than she was.

  Kaitlin turned her attention back to Cheri, more desperate for answers than ever.

  “So what, then? What do I do?”

  “Nothing.” Cheri smiled. “Since I’ve walked in, all you’ve talked about is how hot Mike is. You haven’t once mentioned how this would affect your chances with Rick, and you even considered going over there and apologizing to him. Seems to me like he was more than willing to accept your sexual advances.”

  Kaitlin realized with a start that she was right. Through all of it, she hadn’t even considered the fact that she might have blown her chances with Rick. Even now, when she thought about him, it was with warm affection. Nothing at all like what she’d felt in Mike’s arms.

  Wild.

  Bold.

  Sexy.

  In other words, nothing at all like the real Kaitlin.

  Which was exactly why she had to nip this in the bud, and fast. Wild was the exact opposite of what she wanted. After years of watching her parents’ screaming fights after her father cheated.