Excerpt 3

“What in the hell are you trying to do in there?” she whispered.

He took a step forward, almost touching her. He thought he saw her tremble, but he wasn’t sure. He was too busy enjoying their proximity and the show that was one hundred percent Magnolia Bay belle, Miranda Hamilton. “I’m helping out. Solving problems. Doing good deeds. For Christmas.”

“Christmas my ass,” she bit out. “You’ve never been on a committee in your life. And now you want to help with this one?”

“Co-chair,” he smiled, itching to touch a wisp of perfectly coiffed hair that was hovering just above her gorgeous blue eyes.

“I could see you being on the committee to wrangle women or to chap my ass--.” His face broke into a grin. “Don’t you dare make a smart-alek comment about my--. Don’t you dare.”

He was well acquainted with her perfect ass that was pressed up against the wall. Lucky wall.

 “This is important to me, Logan.” Still hissing so that the folks in the conference room couldn’t hear. But, knowing Magnolia Bay, they probably had water glasses pressed against the door. “You’re going to ruin this.”

No, but he wanted to ruin her for all men. Scratch that. Until now, he didn’t realize just how much he wanted to keep her for himself.

It didn’t take much of an invitation. After all, he was playing with fire. And with Miranda, it could go either way, but when her gaze went to his lips, he slanted his mouth over hers.

With her hands on his chest, sandwiched between them, she pushed him away, but only for a second. He took that as permission to deepen the kiss and was rewarded with her hands snaking up his chest until her fingers were in his hair. When she moaned into his mouth, he lost his mind.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She pulled away, like the current that had brought them together had suddenly short-circuited.

“Collecting. You owed me a kiss.”

“You can’t just kiss someone at City Hall,” she said.

“People do it all the time,” he smirked, “Besides, if you don’t want to be

kissed, you really should be more careful about where you stand.”

She caught sight of the mistletoe above them. “This will never happen again.” She looked around to make sure no one had seen them and dabbed at her lips like she was trying to wipe the kiss away. Then, with one honest look, she slayed him.

“Logan. You know what this means to me.” And, for a moment he thought she was talking about more than the Holiday festival.

“Why are you doing this?” she whispered.

“Just being a good citizen,” he said, and then he did push that blond silk into place. His fingers lingered until she swatted them away. Yeah, he was doing something good for his town, donating to charity. At Christmastime, no less. But after that kiss, after that look, the game had definitely changed.