announce his presence, then snapped it shut when Teddy bent over to rummage through the box of decorative items, which pulled her skirt taut over her ass and lifted the hem a few inches. Man, oh, man, the woman had a fine backside, not to mention a pair of long, slender legs that inspired erotic thoughts. Images flitted through his mind, of coming up behind her and skimming his hands over her slim hips and pressing his hard body to hers…of her widening her stance as he shimmed up her skirt, caressing her firm thighs…
She straightened abruptly, flashing a spool of red ribbon Jordan’s way. “What do you think about this velvet ribbon?”
Austin liked the idea of velvet ribbon, a whole lot…especially if those possibilities included mutual, pleasurable bondage and erotic explorations…
“I could make some small bows to tie around the branches,” she suggested, her face radiant and her eyes sparkling with excitement. “And here’s a piece of green velvet we can use around the base.”
Jordan withdrew a pair of scissors from the Queen Anne desk next to him and handed the shears to Teddy. “Perfect.”
Yeah, she was perfect, Austin thought. Beautiful, smart, a fabulous kisser, fun to be with…and she didn’t want anything to do with him, he sternly reminded himself.
Teddy snipped a section of red ribbon and twisted it into a pretty bow. “It’s been years since I’ve decorated a tree,” she said, a touch of melancholy in her voice.
Jordan cast her a sideways glance as he took over the job of cutting sections of ribbon for her to tie. “Your parents don’t get a tree at Christmas?” He sounded as curious as Austin was.
“Oh, they do, usually a twelve-foot blue spruce. But my mother hires a professional to decorate the tree so the trim and ornaments match with the house and look evenly distributed on the branches.” She added another bow, swaddled the green velvet around the base to cover the plastic pot, then stepped back to admire her handiwork. “When I was a child, my mother used to let me hang a few of the decorations just to appease me, but by the next day my ornaments were either gone, or rearranged on the tree.”
“That must have been tough,” Jordan commented insightfully.
Austin didn’t want to care about Teddy and her underprivileged youth, yet something near the vicinity of his heart tugged for the little girl Teddy had been, and how she’d been denied one of Christmas’s favorite rituals enjoyed by most kids. He could easily picture her as a mischievous little girl, full of energy and curiosity.
Teddy shrugged, as if having come to terms with her mother’s peculiarities long ago. “Now that I live alone, buying a tree and decorating it seems like so much work, especially when I don’t have anyone to share it with.”
For as much as she declared the importance of embracing her freedom, Austin heard the note of loneliness in her voice, and wondered how much of her need for independence was pure rebellion. Ninety percent of it, he’d bet.
Finished with the last of the bows, she rummaged through the box and withdrew an old, fond memory of Austin’s. A dazzling smile lit her face. “This papier-mâché star is great!”
A wry smile curved Jordan’s mouth. “Austin made that for our mother for Christmas when he was in the third grade. She loved it and used it every year until she died.”
Teddy touched the handmade ornament reverently. There was nothing special or fancy about the star—it was just a hodgepodge of paper, glitter and yarn an eight year old boy had glued together—but Austin imagined Teddy silently wished her own mother would have been so accepting of a gift handcrafted with youthful love and enthusiasm.
She glanced back at Jordan. “It’s the perfect decoration to top the tree, wouldn’t you agree?”
Her softly spoken question asked Jordan’s permission to adorn the Douglas fir with Austin’s star. He nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
Austin steeled himself against the rush of feeling that stirred to life within him. This scene was too cozy, a false illusion when he knew Teddy would never allow those emotional needs he’d glimpsed in the past few minutes to interfere with her personal goals.
That sobering thought prompted him to push off the doorjamb and fully enter the room, startling both Jordan and Teddy. His brother looked at him questioningly, while an anxious look flitted across Teddy’s expression. She wiped her palms down the sides of her skirt, making him wonder why she’d sought him