Read Online A Bad Boy for Christmas by Kelly Hunter - Free Book Online Page B

dress, and most of the others were in swimwear and bare feet. Including our hosts.”
    “It was kind of hot today.”
    “He thinks I’m the pretty one.”
    “Oh, please. Not you too.”
    “One of the women told me I had a lot to live up to. She was staring at my crotch.”
    “That would be Jessica the brunette with the teeny weeny white bikini and the blue sarong. She’s very subtle. Also one of Cutter’s old conquests, according to Zoey. But, hey, no pressure. Just because you’re hard to tell apart doesn’t mean you’re like him in every little way.”
    “I should have let him push you off the jetty.”
    “You should have. You could have bonded.” Her smile faded as she looked for signs of strain in Nash and found them. “They’re good people. They’re trying to make space for you. All three of them introduced you as their brother there tonight. No half measures, they went all in. Hell, they’re even trying to make space for me.”
    Nash smiled briefly. “You and Cutter fight like three-year-olds.”
    “We’re letting off steam.” The alternative being getting him naked and begging him to show her exactly what all the fuss was about. Because women did fuss over him, dote on him, hang off him at every opportunity. And he enjoyed it. “Maybe you and Cutter should get a ruler out and measure up, if you know what I mean. And then you can tell me all about it.”
    “I worry about your grasp on reality.”
    “Is that a no then?”
    “That’s a no.”
    “You need to indulge me more.” Mia smiled at the memory of Eli breaking out a classic rock playlist from the seventies because she’d told him that was her favorite music decade, and of Caleb keeping her topped up with food. “Like my other brothers do.”
    “They’ll realize the fresh hell they’re carving for themselves soon enough.”
    “They dote on their women though. Did you notice?”
    He nodded.
    “It’s a beautiful thing. All that brawn just waiting to serve.”
    “And yet you peeled Cutter’s prawns for him.”
    “I did and I’d do it again. I don’t meet many guys who can reveal every little insecurity and still remain utterly convinced of their own awesomeness. It’s a gift.”
    “You like him.”
    “I do,” she said wholeheartedly. “I think he’s glorious.”

Chapter Seven

    T he following Wednesday, around three in the afternoon, Cutter came to Beryl’s emporium looking for Nash. Nash wasn’t there but Mia was, diligently working her way through an afternoon of no customers at all while Beryl shopped for groceries. The boredom was overwhelming, which possibly went some way to explaining the way she fell on Cutter like a carnivore on fresh meat.
    “Wow, you wore a shirt,” she said in happy greeting.
    “I usually do when I come into town,” he told her. “Something wrong with it?”
    It was gray, it was old and it clung like a lover to his chest. Never had a gray T-shirt looked so good.
    “No. The shirt is perfect. Very pretty.”
    “Don’t start.”
    But it was so tempting . Mia glanced at the dragon she’d been drawing in the vain hope that it might distract her from snarking at the man in front of her. She’d drawn the beast—and it was definitely a he-beast—diving towards an unsuspecting goldfish. Scales featured heavily on both creatures and it would look great as a full 3D sleeve with colored accents. She just wasn’t sure of the symbolism behind a dragon eating a goldfish. A tiger doing battle with a dragon would have meant a more even fight, but tigers didn’t have scales and she’d wanted scales all the way down the sleeve to balance it. Design wise, she liked it. Symbolically it was a dud. Maybe, just maybe, she could keep the shape of the drawing and start again with two dragons sparring. Eyeing Cutter speculatively, she picked up the drawing and beckoned him closer. “Give me your arm.”
    “No,” he said.
    “I’m just testing for fit.”
    “Zoey does that too. And then I end up