Christmas Holiday Husband Read Free Page B

she murmured.
    “It’s everything about you. You’re absolutely as I remember, and utterly different, too.”
    “I should hope so, after all these years,” she said, rising and pushing her chair back under the table.
    xxx
    He continued to inspect her as she moved away. She was the lovely young girl at the hotel swimming pool.
    The temptress in the white sundress who’d danced like a dream.
    And the shy, determined virgin who’d pulled him down into her welcoming body as she lay beneath him in the moonlight that long ago evening.
    A decade later she was self-possessed, slightly distant, with an indefinable air of ‘touch-me-not’ that had him curiously rattled. He could handle huge stud-bulls, dominate boardrooms, keep a plane safely aloft, control the whole of his vast estate—but he had no idea how to force his way through the gossamer barrier she’d erected between them.
    Ellie turned and held out her hands toward his girls, and they claimed one each, pulling her through the door, chattering and squealing, vying for her attention. Tony sat on at the table, staring sightlessly after them.
    His first love was back.
    Everything in his busy predictable life had just been turned on its head.
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    “I’m stuck,” she yelled.
    The twins giggled and shrieked. They’d led her out to see the ducks, and Ellie now stood ankle-deep in gloopy mud. The innocent looking little stream that ran a hundred yards from the house had saturated the ground and turned part of it into a bog.
    “Come on, Ellie,” Antonia squealed.
    “It’s easy,” Carolyn yelled.
    Ellie sighed deeply, rolled her jeans up another couple of turns, and slid her feet from her sandals. She fished them out of the disgusting mess, hoping that might make it easier to escape. A hot blush raced up her neck and over her face—her authority was disappearing fast. She needed this job and didn’t want to jeopardise her chances of keeping it. A short-term contract with accommodation over the summer school holiday was more than she’d dared hoped for—and perfect apart from the obvious fly in the ointment called Tony. She’d somehow just have to cope with him. And hope she survived.
    She pulled first one foot out of the ooze and repositioned it, then the other. Slowly she stepped free.
    xxx
    Tony listened with half an ear to the excited chatter and laughter. There’d not been enough of that in his life lately; he strolled out from his farm office to investigate.
    The corners of his mouth twitched when he found Ellie on the gravelled driveway, mucky sandals held aloft by their straps. She hobbled along, exclaiming as the sharp stones bit into the soft soles of her feet.
    “Been led astray, have you?” he called, picking up speed, scooping her into his arms and carrying her, protesting vigorously, across to one of the other buildings.
    “Let me go, you clown!”
    “You can’t walk over this on your tender townie feet,” he said, holding her firmly across his chest.
    “This is no way for your twins to see their tutor,” she grumped.
    “Did you two do that on purpose?” he asked, looking back over his shoulder and nearly brushing Ellie’s lips with his own as he turned. Her sweet breath caressed his face. Her perfume floated on the warm air, teasing his senses.
    Keep your distance. Treat it as a joke.
    He shot her an amused glance, hoping that would work. Her blue eyes sparked with challenge only inches from his. Their bodies rubbed together as he walked...the sweetest of tortures and sharpest of provocations. One of his hands practically cupped her breast.
    “No, Daddy,” the twins chorused.
    “You weigh no more than you did at eighteen,” he murmured in Ellie’s ear as he carried her. “I can feel your bones—among other things...”
    Ellie fumed and struggled, but succeeded only in making him smile more broadly and tighten his grip on her. “Relax, Ellie. You’re safe enough now.”
    “I was safe enough a