All I Want For Christmas (4 page)

“You did try to play hard to get for a time, but I’m a master of negotiating. As a matter of fact, I have one last negotiation to bring to the table.” He looked at the clock and smiled. “It’s midnight, sweetheart. Merry Christmas.” He reached in the drawer of the table beside the bed and pulled out a small square box tied with a red ribbon.

Kate sat up and pulled the covers around her nervously, eyeing the box with something akin to dread. She was already shaking her head by the time he started talking.

“Just hear me out, Kate. I love you more than anything in this world. I loved you three years ago when I saw you sitting alone on a barstool, trying to think of every way possible you could make it home for Christmas. That love only grew as I made love to you the first time and got to know you better. I can’t imagine my life without you. Marry me.”

Kate’s breath caught in her chest painfully as he opened the box to reveal a marquis diamond. It was absolutely beautiful and before she could control them, she felt the tears slip down her cheeks.

“Derek, you know you can’t marry me,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes. “You’re too important of a man to saddle yourself with the sins of my father. You’ll lose business and there will be talk.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Kate. Not now. Not when I’ve just laid my heart at your feet. You know I don’t give a damn about what your father did. He’s not what’s standing between us right now. Tell me the real reason. You owe me that at least. I’ve bided my time, knowing you were skittish about marriage, hoping your love for me would outweigh your fear. But it looks like I was wrong.”

“That’s not true. I do love you. I’ve never felt this way about anyone else, and you’re the man I can see myself with forever. But marriage is so permanent. So binding. I deal with clients who are in financial positions similar to yours on a daily basis. Do you know how many of those clients are still married to their first wives?”

He shook his head no, and she tried to ignore the anger and hurt she saw in his eyes.

“One! One couple managed to beat the odds and stay together. All my other clients say I do, and then the wife turns into someone who only cares about how much of her husband’s money she can spend so she can keep up with the other trophy wives, and then her husband resents her and starts looking for someone else to spend time with. And then the wife starts bitching because she signed a prenup and is only going to get left with a few million dollars to spend in her old age.”

“Kate, I’m going to be as honest as I possibly can with you right now. You are the love of my life and I’d gladly give my life for you, but you’ve lost your mind if you think the small percentage of clients you deal with are a good picture of the whole. I want you to be my wife. Forever. I want children with you. To grow old with you. I don’t give a damn about how much money you spend or prenups. I only know that when I go to bed at night, it’s your face I want to see on the pillow beside me. Please, Kate. Marry me.”

Kate felt her heart clench at his words and she saw the desperation in his eyes. He meant every word he said to her. How could she not have seen it all this time?

“Ohmigod,” she said, gasping in a breath as her tears fell faster. “I’m so sorry. I just never thought you could want to spend the rest of your life with the daughter of a thousand felonies. I looked at you three years ago when you picked me up downstairs, and all I could think was,
this guy is way out of my league
. I thought we’d have a few laughs and make love for as long as it lasted, and I just prepared myself for getting my heart broken. I was sure it was only a matter of time before you walked away.”

“Oh, Kate,” he said, pulling her into his embrace and kissing her tears away. “It’s the real deal, baby. No one’s going to be walking away. Now, I asked you a question, and I’m still waiting for the answer. Will you marry me?”

He took her hand and held the ring over her finger, ready to slip it on if she gave the answer he wanted to hear.

“I love you, Derek. I’ve never said that to another man. And I’d be proud to be your wife. Give me that ring,” she said with a laugh as he slipped it on her finger.

He kissed her hard and rolled her beneath him, finding her wet and ready as he pushed inside of her. He rocked against her steadily, until she began to tighten and shudder around him.

A

Mackenzie

Christmas

Chapter One

Grant MacKenzie loved his family. Really, he did. It’s just that there were so damned many of them. Everywhere he turned, there was another MacKenzie in his path for him to trip over.

The entire family was crammed into the old MacKenzie farmhouse for the holidays. The house had been built by his great-grandfather—a sprawling space that was added on to with every generation, so it resembled a patchwork quilt of wood and stone, the rooms jutting out at varying angles.

Despite the disjointed construction, it was a house filled with laughter and love and memories that had endured for over a century. In fact, Grant had spent more time at the MacKenzie farmhouse growing up than he had at his own home just down the lane. His uncle had been the elder of the two MacKenzie brothers, so the house had gone to him, and then when he’d passed on the house had gone to his sons. Grant’s cousin, Thomas, currently lived there with his wife and two children, and Thomas used one part of the house for his medical practice. Considering Thomas was the only doctor in the tiny town of Surrender, Montana, the house always gave the impression that it was ready to burst at the seams.

Grant considered himself a tolerant kind of guy. But enough was enough. He hadn’t had fifteen minutes to himself in the last week since school had gotten out and his nephews and nieces had been underfoot. He’d exhausted every avenue of entertainment he could possibly think of—sledding, ice skating, taking the kids to get sundaes at Bledsoe’s Ice Cream and Sandwich Shoppe, and they’d played so many video games his eyes were starting to cross. He loved being the “favorite” uncle, but if he didn’t get out of this place soon he was going to lose his mind. It seemed like every MacKenzie in the house had something to say or argue about. And they all had to do it at top volume.

His four cousins, Dane, Thomas, Riley and Cooper, all had wives and what seemed like a new child every time he turned around. He’d lost count of his nieces and nephews. His aunt and uncle had both passed away some years ago, but that side of the MacKenzie branch was in no danger of dying out. His own side of the MacKenzie family tree was another story.

All three of his brothers cringed at the thought of marriage. Part of that was because their mother had been devastated by their father’s death, and they didn’t think the heartbreak was worth getting that close to anyone.

The other reason his brothers didn’t want to get married was that they just weren’t ready, even though Cade, who was the oldest, was a couple of years past thirty. Not to mention the professions they’d chosen didn’t exactly lend themselves to long, stable relationships. Cade was a former DEA agent and had just taken a job as a detective for the Fort Worth police department. Shane was a Navy Seal, and he was out of the country more months of the year than he was in it. And no one knew what the hell it was that Declan did. Though it was obvious he and Shane had worked on jobs together in the past, so Grant assumed he worked for some faction of the government.

And then there was his youngest sister, Darcy. Just the thought of her strong-arming some poor man into marriage gave him chills. She was wild and reckless, and she’d need someone with a firm hand and the patience of Job to keep her under control. He thanked God every day that it wouldn’t be his problem. And since she was only twenty-four he figured she still had some growing up to do before she settled down.

The crash of furniture and a war whoop echoed from the next room, and his nephews turned up the TV a little louder to compensate for the noise. His head was pounding, and he’d never needed a beer more. Grant was used to the commotion after all these years, but there was a reason he chose to live in the little house he’d built, secluded from the rest of the town—and better yet, the rest of the MacKenzies.

“I’m officially declaring myself as Mario Kart champion,” he said to his nephews. “There’s nothing more I can accomplish here, and a man needs a challenge every once in a while. It gets wearisome stomping you guys into dust.”

He was met with a chorus of snickers and scoffs from his nephews. “Whatever—In your dreams, Uncle Grant.”

“I’ll play again when you boys decide to bring your A game,” he said with a wink. “I’d be ashamed to call myself MacKenzie if I were you. I’m handing the reins over to Jack here so he can redeem the next generation.”

Grant relinquished the video game controller to his cousin Riley’s four year old son son—who was tangled around his neck like a monkey. He unbent his tall, lanky frame from the floor and stretched muscles that had cramped from sitting in one spot too long. He needed a good run, or something else to get the blood flowing and his muscles warmed.

“Do me proud, son, and kick some butt.”

“Thanks, Uncle Grant,” Jack said, his chubby fingers already working the controller.

His cousins had all settled down over the past few years. Even Cooper, the one man who Grant thought would never be able to give himself to one woman. But Coop had proven them all wrong and married a woman he would move the moon and stars for, which just went to prove that there was someone for everyone.

“Ahh, fresh meat,” his brother Cade called out as he shuffled a deck of cards with easy practice. He clamped a cigar between his teeth and gave Grant a challenging smile. “We were just about to deal a new hand. I’ve taken all the money I can from these losers.”

Declan sat next to Cade with nothing more than a few quarters on the table in front of him and a scowl on his face, and Shane and Riley sat on the opposite side, having nothing more to show for their success than peanut shells and empty beer bottles.

“It looks like Darcy’s doing well enough. Why don’t you take her money?” Grant said, glancing at the tall stacks of quarters and the small pile of dollar bills in front of her.

“Yeah, Cade. Why don’t you take my money?” She shook back a loose tangle of black hair and laughed. “I’m sure he’d be happy to bleed me dry if he could beat me,” she said, winking at Grant. “Some of us are more interested in talking a good game rather than playing a good game. Ante up, MacKenzie. Put your money where your mouth is.”

The rest of them hooted in laughter, and Cade got that competitive look in his eyes that Grant knew meant trouble. Darcy was no wilting flower, that was for sure, but she could hold her own. She’d bloodied plenty of noses as a child—mostly theirs—she’d had to with four older brothers.

Darcy and Cade started a string of trash talking that would make their mother box their ears if she heard what was being said. Grant decided to escape before Mary MacKenzie showed up and did just that. Their mom had a way of knowing when her children weren’t doing what they were supposed to.

He snagged another beer from the ice chest and weaved in and out of running children, a cat, and two dogs until he got to the kitchen. All of his cousin’s wives and his mother were gathered around the big island in the center of the room, trying to decide the best way to get a twenty pound turkey in the oven.

“Just the man we were looking for,” his mother said with a devious smile.

“I seriously doubt that,” Grant said. “I have a feeling I’m just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do you need me to unstop the toilet? Replace shingles on the roof? Do I need to replace the towel bar again in Charlie’s bathroom? It’s always something in this family.”

Charlie blushed crimson and put her hands on her hips, the glint in her eyes dangerous, while the other women started to laugh. Charlie was married to his cousin Dane, and they’d once used the towel bar in their bathroom a little too rigorously during some naked water games, and the bar had ripped out from the wall. Since Grant had his own construction company and was the handiest with tools, he was the one the family always called on to repair things. And there had been no way he was going to keep that story to himself after seeing the damage they’d done. He’d laughed himself silly at the giant holes in the wall and the two black eyes Dane had sported, since apparently the force of Charlie pulling it from the wall had whacked Dane right across the nose.

“Shut up, Grant. You promised you wouldn’t bring it up again.”

“No, I’m pretty sure I never promised that,” he said, looking completely innocent as he bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I promised I’d never tell anyone how you got that hole in the sheetrock of your laundry room.”

“Ooh, tell us! Tell us!” Cat, Thomas’s wife pleaded. “I always wandered how that happened. It was a really big hole.”

“It’s a miracle that house isn’t lying in a heap of rubble around them,” Riley’s wife, Maggie said, rubbing her very pregnant belly.

They didn’t bother to hide the laughter this time at Charlotte’s expense.

“Grant MacKenzie, look what you’ve started. You stop embarrassing Charlotte right this instant,” his mother admonished, fighting her own laughter. “Help us get this turkey in the oven and then get out of the kitchen.”

“You know, sometimes a guy gets tired of being objectified for his brawn. I need some respect around here. I’ve got brains too.”