“Hmm…as smart as you are sexy.” His melted chocolate eyes wrinkled at the edges as he smiled, making Lula’s heart feel like it was still spinning in circles. “I’ve missed you since yesterday.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” she said, brushing his soft brown curls from his forehead. God, he was wonderful. He was everything she wanted in a man—handsome, intelligent, funny, unpredictable, taller than her own lanky five-ten, and so sexy her knees still went weak every time they kissed.
"You ready for a night of adventure?” He hugged her closer, setting her nerves to fizzing. “Because I’ve got plans for you, L.J. I’m going to make all your secret Christmas wishes come true.”
Lula bit back a squeal of excitement. “I can’t wait. But before we go, I need you to take advantage of the situation I’ve arranged right here.” She pointed one finger to the air above their heads, making a little circle with her arm as she arched one brow.
Carter looked up, a slow, sinful smile spreading across his face as he spotted the mistletoe. “I love the way you think.”
“And I love you,” Lula whispered as his mouth dropped to hers, and he kissed her the way Carter always kissed her—with a focused intensity that left no doubt she was the only woman in his heart.
Until the day Carter swept into her quiet, ordered world, Lula hadn’t believed she was destined for an epic romance. She was pretty in the willowy way of the women of her family, with short blond hair and pale green eyes, but she had never garnered much male attention. She was attractive, not beautiful, but that had never bothered her. She was happy to spend her time running her tea shop and collectible store, knitting lace with the tiny needles she’d inherited from her grandmother, and crafting porcelain dolls that had been her secret obsession since she was a little girl. She was a nerdy homebody who had preferred chocolate kisses to the real ones, and that had been just fine with her.
And then Carter happened. Sweet, sexy, unstoppable Carter who looked at her like she was the most beautiful woman in the world, had turned a homebody into a bona fide sex fiend, and insisted she was more fascinating than ancient Mayan tombs and dinosaur bones combined.
“Let’s go,” he said in a husky voice when they came up for air, long minutes later. “I’ve got a big night planned. But if we keep kissing, all I’ll want to do is take you back to your apartment and make you scream so loud everyone on Main Street will know what we’re doing.”
Lula’s body sparked to life at the thought, but getting naked under the Christmas tree would have to wait until the parade was over. “Considering half my family is at the carnival right now, and the other half is in the parade in an hour, I’ll pass on that. But run it by me later,” she added with a wink. “I have a feeling you might get lucky.”
“I’m already lucky.” Carter took her hand, giving it a squeeze that she felt from the tip of her chilled nose to the ends of her freshly-painted toes.
Only Carter could say I love you in the way he held her hand or brushed her hair from her face. Only Carter could make her feel like the town she’d lived in all her life was a place filled with fascinating secrets and untapped magic, instead of a dusty, though adorable, hamlet, barely clinging to its spot on the map.
Since the day Carter had arrived in Lonesome Point two years ago in his wide-brimmed fedora and battered blue jeans and set up camp in her tea shop, guzzling Earl Grey as he chatted her up about the ghost town, he had been making her fall in love with her hometown all over again. He found the treasures other people overlooked and embraced experiences many in sleepy Lonesome Point would call flat out crazy.
So Lula shouldn’t have been surprised to round the corner onto the Old Town Highway to see a sleigh on wheels and a team of four reindeer tied at the hitching post near the copy store.
But she was surprised and so thrilled that she couldn’t keep from clapping her hands in excitement. “They’re adorable!” she said, laughing. “Where did you find reindeer in the middle of the desert?”
“I borrowed them from the Santa’s village up the highway about half an hour,” Carter said, pride in his voice. “I figured it was past time for you to have your first sleigh ride. May I help you into your carriage, m’lady?”
By the time she and Carter were settled on the padded leather seat of the sleigh, Lula was grinning so hard her face hurt. Carter set the reindeer in motion with a soft “whup now,” and the sleigh moved smoothly down the two-lane highway leading toward the edge of town. The bells on the harnesses tinkled softly and the cool wind stung Lula’s cheeks, making her feel like she was in the middle of one of the Christmas movies she loved so much.