Holiday in a Stetson: The Sheriff Who Found Christmas\A Rancho Diablo Christmas (12 page)

And just like that, it was as if they’d never shared hot kisses. She went all professional on him, and he didn’t run his fingers through her hair and down her blouse as he wanted to, and both of them were happy now.

Maybe not happy.
Realistic,
Johnny thought, and wondered if he would ever know what color Jess’s thong had been under that cheery Christmas skirt, that lucky fabric lying between Jess’s cute buns, just barely covering parts of her he hadn’t explored—

“Damn it,” Johnny said, and she said, “What?”

“Nothing,” he told her, but it wasn’t nothing, and he wondered why it was cold enough to freeze roads outside, but not so cold he couldn’t keep from getting an impossibly stubborn erection just thinking about Jess’s sweet cheeks.

“O
H
. Y
OU DIDN’T MENTION
you were expecting company,” Jess said, when she pulled into Rancho Diablo. Spears of embarrassment and annoyance, and yes, jealousy, shot through her at the sight of the sex-starved librarian coming out of the bunkhouse to wave at Johnny. “
I
didn’t know I was expecting company,” Johnny said, giving Wendy a wave and sounding none too disappointed to Jess’s ears.

“Early Christmas present for you.” Jess hadn’t meant to let snarkiness seep into her voice, and instantly wished she’d kept her mouth closed. Wendy was why Johnny hadn’t wanted to spend any time lingering at Jess’s house.

“I… Yeah, I guess maybe Christmas did come
early. Like almost three in the morning.” Johnny got out of the truck. “Hey, hope the vet can make it out to see Raj. Be careful on the roads going back.”

“Sure,” Jess said, crestfallen. “Thanks again.”

“No problem. Merry Christmas. Hope Santa brings you everything you want.”

Johnny loped off toward Wendy. Sighing, Jess backed the truck up and headed home. It was better this way; she knew that. She’d never wanted to get tied down. She wasn’t the kind of woman men jumped for, anyway. More tomboy than anything, she wasn’t a sex kitten like Wendy, whom Johnny clearly preferred in spite of his protestations.

“He makes me sick,” she muttered. “Merry Christmas, indeed.”

Okay, so maybe she did like him—just a little.

Maybe she liked him a lot.

“I might be falling for him,” she said to herself, watching tiny chips of ice start bouncing off her windshield. “But if I am, why is my Santa getting manhandled by the town floozy instead of by me?”

She’d just pulled into her drive when her cell phone buzzed with a text.

I rescued you, now return the favor.
Jess’s brow furrowed. She didn’t recognize the number, nor the area code. Maybe it was a text that had gone astray. She tossed the phone back in her purse and parked her truck.

A moment later, she heard another buzz.

“Wish I could help you, buddy, whoever you are, but I don’t know you, and I’ve got a horse to take care
of, so, sorry, no.” Still, something made her grab up the phone as she was getting out of the truck.

If you save me, pancakes and my body are yours.

Jess laughed out loud at the text message. Some poor Romeo was having a hard night. She looked at her phone again—and a crazy thought hit her.
Johnny?
she texted back.

A second later, the phone buzzed urgently.
You were expecting Santa Claus? Hey, if you have no need for my body, that’s fine. Offer of pancakes still on.

How dare he assume she’d just come running back to save him? He should be happy to be in the arms of his lusty librarian. Annoyed, Jess went to the barn to check on Raj. The horse seemed perplexed that she was bothering him again, when he was content in his warm stall.

Her phone buzzed. Sighing, she pulled it out of her big bag to scan the message.
Never mind, have saved self. Told Wendy that you and I are engaged. Matchmaking isn’t such a bad thing, after all. Merry Christmas, Red.

Jess laughed again, then sobered when she realized Johnny might not be teasing.

He had to be yanking her chain. Johnny had explained several times that he was a committed bachelor. Yes, he was teasing her, knowing how she felt about the town’s matchmakers being in her business. The situation was more embarrassing than Johnny could imagine—it really wasn’t a matter she cared to be teased about. Fiona and her friends and even the Callahans felt time was running out for Jess.

She went inside her house to shower and change, then remembered she hadn’t opened her prize from Fiona’s party. She’d tossed the giant sack on the sofa in her haste to check on the horses. Fiona’s “prizes” were enjoyed by everyone lucky enough to get an invitation to the yearly scavenger hunt. Johnny hadn’t understood that the event was serious business, because Fiona spent a year shopping for the goodies for prizes.

Shoving Johnny and Wendy out of her mind, Jess untied the sack, excited to open her first Christmas present of the season. Others lay under her tree,
which twinkled softly with lights, but Fiona’s would be something unique and fun.

Jess undid the opening and slowly pulled out a long garment bag. “That’s weird,” she murmured. “This isn’t a sterling silver pair of lasso earrings, for sure,” which was what she’d received last year and loved.

She unzipped the bag and, gasping, pulled out the dress it held. The gown, covered with sequins and beads, twinkled in the lights from the tree. She recognized it at once.

She was the new owner of the infamous Magic Wedding Dress, which was reputed to guarantee you the man of your dreams, or marital bliss, or something. Jess couldn’t remember the fairy tale, exactly. “But I don’t need a wedding gown, magic or otherwise,” she muttered.

Still, it was breathtaking. Unable to resist, she held it against herself, wondering what it would feel like to wear something so beautiful. All the Callahan brides had worn the gown—at least when they finally made it to the altar after a false start or two.

“I should give this back to Fiona.” Jess held it up one more time, hearing the rustle of the skirt, admiring the twinkling allure of the magical garment, before wondering if she should try it on.

Of course she should try it. If it didn’t come close to fitting, she could return it. There would be other Callahan brides in the family. Jess wouldn’t be marrying into the family in any case. She wasn’t marrying at all.

“But it makes sense to try it on,” she murmured—and jumped when pounding erupted on her front door. She let out a startled squeal.

“Who is it?”

“Your fiancé!”

“Not hardly,” she called back. “Johnny, do you know it’s after three in the morning?”

“I just had to come see my little lovebird,” he insisted. “Open the door, fiancée. It’s cold as the dickens out here!”

She was trying to stuff the magic wedding dress back into its garment bag as fast as she could.

“My little peach, did I mention it’s cold? A man could freeze his ba— Oh, wow.” Johnny had poked his head around the door, and his face lit with a huge grin as he saw her trying to get the wedding gown back into the garment bag. “Oh, Jess,” he said, his tone mocking, “I should have known you were just a big faker.”

“A faker?” She straightened, glaring. “About what?”

“Not wanting to get married. About being a happy bachelorette.” He let himself in, making himself at home.
Which will teach me,
Jess thought,
to be in such a hurry I forget to lock out the riffraff.
“Here you were telling me how happy you are to be single, and all the time you already had your dress bought.” He gave her a big, smacking kiss on the lips, which she didn’t totally try to avoid—but she didn’t respond, either.

“Johnny, you lunkhead,” she said stiffly, “I was not faking.”

“It’s okay,” he said, still grinning like mad, “your secret is safe with me, my dove of intrigue.” He took the garment bag from her hands. “Let’s see what we have here.”

“No,” Jess said, pulling it back, “I’m putting it away.”

“As the fiancé, I should get to have a vote on the dress. I’m picky about things.”

She slapped his hand when he reached for the bag again. “You’re not my fiancé, and even if you were, I probably wouldn’t listen to anything that came out of your mouth. This was my scavenger prize from Fiona.” Jess smiled when his grin faded. “That’s right. So you can quit cawing.”

“Oh,” Johnny said. “All right.”

He sat so quietly on her sofa that Jess shot him a suspicious look. “What was your prize?”

He shrugged his big shoulders. “Silver spurs.”

“Ah. That’ll be useful for you.” Jess resisted teasing Johnny, knowing he was self-conscious about his riding skills.

“I guess.” He eyed the dress again. “Your prize is more useful.”

“Nope. It’s not. And did you know you still have mud on you?”

“Yep.” He brushed at his shirt. “Raj has excellent aim.”

Jess carried the dress to her room, then came back to where Johnny was checking out her Christmas tree. “I didn’t buy you a present,” he said. “That makes me a terrible fiancé.” But he swept her into his arms and gave her a big smooch.

“You’re ridiculous. We are not engaged.”

He nuzzled her cheek. “Admit it. You’re happy I told Wendy we’re engaged. And now I’m all yours.” He gave her another playful kiss on the mouth.

Jess pulled away. “Do you ever sleep?”

“If that’s an invitation to put me to bed, I’ll be more than happy to accept.” He picked her up and carried her over to the sofa, where he sat down with her in his lap, grunting a dramatic
oomph!

Jess gave him a look of mild irritation. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Tell me.” He grasped her hand and pressed her palm to his lips. “Tell me everything that’s on your mind, baby.”

“What you’ve done,” she said, trying to ignore him as he kissed his way up her hand to her shoulder, where he decided the V of her shirt deserved some attention, too, “is lit a fire under the matchmakers’ cauldron of wedding fever. Wendy’s going to tell everyone in town, and my phone will start ringing around 6:00 a.m.”

“Then we’d best catch some winks,” Johnny said. “I have to get back to Rancho Diablo around five to help with chores.”

“And where were my pancakes going to fit into this scenario?” Jess had no intention of letting Johnny spend the night—even if he made the best pancakes in town—but she wanted to needle him for empty promises.

“After chores, and after your beauty rest. I’ll help the Callahans real fast, and then be back with the griddle heating before you’re even out of your warm sheets.” He peeked down her blouse. “Now that’s interesting,” he said. “What’s all the glitter for?”

She pressed her blouse back to her chest. “That’s none of your business.”

“I beg to differ. I’m the fiancé.”

“You are not. The glitter was for my party dress, not you, and by the way, you never asked me to marry you, so we are not affianced, no matter what chicken-hearted lies you told poor Wendy.”

“Manhunting Wendy?” He held Jess’s hand down so he could snag a closer glance into her blouse. “Let’s not feel sorry for her. Word on the street is she was kissing every guy she could at Fiona’s party.”

“And that’s the kind of woman you bring with you to parties.”

“No,” he said, brushing a kiss against the warm V her blouse exposed. “I would have brought you, but you had this crazy plan about us showing up with other dates so people wouldn’t try to start making a couple out of us.”

“And that worked so well,” Jess said, trying to ignore the fact that Johnny had her pulse racing. “Big mouth.”

He laughed. “It’s too late now. If you turn me down, the gossips will just spend all their time trying to force you on me. And I’ll reluctantly, gracefully have to accept you.”

She gave him a light pop on the shoulder. “You’re not doing anything to win your case with me.”

He shifted her so she faced him, straddled across his groin. “I missed you.”

Her heart began a nervous tattoo. “When?”

“As soon as you left.”

“You had company.”

He kissed her, and gave her a slight smack on her behind.

Jess gasped, pretending outrage. “What was that for?”

“For bringing up Wendy, when she is in the past. I missed you,” he clarified, “as soon as you got up from lying with me in the cave. I thought you were going to be a super-weasel and leave me there by the fire, but then I realized you were running away from what you knew was happening.”

She raised a brow. “Which was what?”

“That you were thinking about liking me. And probably that you were falling for my worldly, stud-muffin ways.”

“I don’t even have an unladylike snort in me for your ridiculous assumption.” His hands sneaked to her bottom, massaging her fanny through her jeans. Jess tried not to notice how good his big palms felt cupping her.

“You were running like a scared little mouse,” Johnny said. “It’s okay, though. I’ve got the perfect mousetrap.”

“I don’t think I realized how much you think of yourself.”

He ran his palms up her side, brushing her nipples lightly with his thumbs. “I also think a lot of you.”

Johnny was a lot of fun and games and teasing, but he was also honest under all the talk. She knew that. Everyone liked Johnny, and the Callahans trusted him. He was, she thought, gazing into his eyes, exactly what she’d always dreamed of in a man.

So why was she holding back?

“You really have gotten me in trouble by telling Wendy you’re my fiancé.” She kissed him on the lips,
letting him know that maybe, just maybe, she was softening. “Everyone in town is going to be on my case.”

“Nah,” he said, stroking her collarbone. “I didn’t tell Wendy that. I just wanted to give you a scare.” He laughed softly. “I did, didn’t I? You were like a wet hen when I came over here, all starchy and stiff, but now I think you’re getting used to the idea. Which means you do like me, Jessica St. John.”

“Wait,” she said, avoiding him when he tried to capture her lips again, “what are you saying?”

He moved her off his lap and leaned over her on the sofa, gazing down at her. “I didn’t tell Wendy we’re engaged.”

“You didn’t?” Jess demanded, not bothering to push him away when he moved closer for a kiss.

“Do I hear disappointment in your voice?” He buried his lips against her neck.

“No,” she said. “Not at all. So what did you really tell Wendy?”

“I told her,” Johnny said, tasting her mouth and making her knees turn to jelly, “where Sam’s room was. And then I headed over here.”

“You’re terrible,” Jess said.

“I’m smart.”

And then he kissed her long and slow and deep. Jess’s head whirled with what Johnny was doing to her.

“So now what?” she asked with a gasp when he pulled back to gaze down at her, grinning as if he’d won some kind of prize or something, which made her heart beat all the faster.

“So now,” Johnny said, “I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas and head home.”

Jess blinked. He’d come all the way over here to get her hot and bothered, and now he was just going to leave with a jolly
Merry Christmas, see you later?

That wasn’t going to work.

“It’s awfully late,” Jess said.

“It’s Christmas morning,” he replied. “If I leave now, I can drink coffee in Fiona’s kitchen for an hour until the guys get up. I’ll watch the sun rise for the first time over Diablo, New Mexico, on Christmas morning.”

He sounded relentlessly cheerful about that. And he was a dunce for not catching her subtle hint.

Obviously, she’d have to feed him a little more information. “I meant, it’s awfully late for you to be driving. And I thought you said the roads were getting icy.”

“They are,” Johnny said. “But I’m from Wyoming. I’m used to inclement weather, you know.”

He really was obtuse. “Maybe you should sleep over.”

His eyes twinkled. “Oh, no, ma’am, I couldn’t do that. I wouldn’t want the matchmakers to go into over-drive. Get out their cauldron and all that.” He moved a palm over Jess’s breast and lightly kissed her lips. “Walk me to the door, Christmas angel.”

“I really think you should stay,” she said.

“Bad for my reputation,” Johnny said against her lips, his thumb stroking her peaked nipple.

“Johnny Donovan,” Jess said, “I want you to spend the night with me.”

“Hmm.” He appeared to consider her words, giving her lips a light kiss. “I do like redheads.”

She slapped his shoulder. He laughed.

“But this would be two nights in a row I’ve slept with you. People might talk,” Johnny said with a wink, and Jess said, “To hell with people.”

And she pulled his head down so she could kiss him.

He scooped her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom. “You’re sure about this? It could be habit-forming.”

“It could be, or not.” Jess wriggled down from his arms. “Let me get you out of this muddy shirt.”

“And I’ll get you out of your clean shirt.” Johnny eagerly undid her blouse. “How come I’m the only one wearing mud?”

“Because Raj has perfect aim.” She kissed Johnny, and dragged off his jeans. “Plus I’ve got a nice big shower.”

“Showers are good,” Johnny said. He dropped her blouse to the floor and studied the bow clasp of her bra. “I appreciate that you dressed up for me. I promise not to let your efforts go unrewarded.”

“I didn’t wear this for you,” Jess said.

“Yes, you did, and I swear it’s working,” he said. Then he popped the catch so that her breasts peeked around satin. “I’m a man who appreciates details.”

He caught a nipple in his mouth, and Jess thought she was going to melt. “Okay,” she said breathlessly, “I did wear this bra specifically for you.”

“I know.” He shoved down her jeans, eyeing her
with appreciation. “It’s white,” he said, “and sexy as hell. This, in my opinion, was the real treasure hunt.”

“What?” Jess asked.

Johnny gave her bottom a light smack. “That’s for fibbing,” he said, giving her other cheek a pat, “and that’s because I love your butt like no other woman’s butt I’ve ever seen.”

She shoved his black boxers down and tried not to gasp. “Wow,” she said, “I was about to say something about your butt, but actually I think your front is even better than your backside.” She dragged him toward the shower. “Come let me wash the mud off of you. Bad Raj.”