Sadie's Little Christmas - Maren Smith Page 0,3

having been through what she had, attraction was the last thing she’d be feeling.

Shame burned at her, making her take an automatic step back as he came to stand on the bottom step. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she definitely wasn’t right.

He held out his hand. “Derek Hawkins,” he said with a gentle smile. “I’m the owner here.”

That tiny sizzle of inappropriate attraction shot straight through her core when she let her hand be engulfed by his. His was huge, swallowing up her fingers in his warm grip.

“Let’s see if we can get you settled in,” he said before ducking down to look at the cab driver through the front window. “Have you been paid?”

“Tip and trip,” the driver confirmed. “Taken care of by a fellow named Stark.”

“Good man. Watch out for deer and black ice on the way back.” Patting the top of the cab, Derek faced her again. “Can I help with your luggage?”

“I’ve got it, thanks.” Sadie hugged her duffel bag to her chest. By the time the cops converged on her panicking roommate’s apartment, he had disposed of almost everything she’d brought here, which hadn’t been much to start with. This duffel bag carried literally everything she had left in the world—a change of clothes, tooth and hair brushes, her waterlogged wallet they’d pulled out of the trunk of her car, which, as far as she knew, was still at the bottom of the lake they’d found it in, and Spankles, the soft white kitten she’d bought for herself at Build-A-Bear. The only reason she had this much was she’d packed the duffel to take to the dungeon with her, just in case, then accidentally left it there. A good thing, as it turned out, or she’d have nothing right now but her wallet. Her very wet, very empty wallet.

“Right this way, then,” he said and smiled. Like he meant it. Like he hadn’t even noticed her bruised face.

Like he didn’t even know that she was only here because that lawyer fellow had called in a favor, so she would have a safe place to go once the hospital released her. A place for young ladies not so very different from you, he’d said, and while she hadn’t understood exactly what that meant at the time, she’d spent pretty much the entire cab ride looking up the Ranch online. Her stomach had quivered the whole way here. Not because she was scared or unnerved by what she’d read, but because she’d been aroused.

Beat up… raped… and still aroused. She bowed her head, hugging the shoulder strap of her bag as she followed Derek up the front steps and through the resort’s wreath-decorated double doors.

“Wow,” she said, stopping just inside the lobby, her eyes wide as she gazed at the luxurious décor. Everywhere she looked said the place was a ‘working Montana ranch’ but in a very upscale way. The white walls stood in attractive contrast with the exposed wood tree-trunk-like beams that ran the length and width of the ceiling. The pictures on the walls, the knick-knacks on the tables, the rugs on the floor—all had a warm and natural wild-west theme, matching Derek himself to an absolute ‘t.’

“I’m glad you think so,” the man beside her said, grinning as he joined her in looking around. “This place has been in my family for generations, and some of these pieces are at least as old as the original house.” He tapped her shoulder when she started toward the massive check-in desk. “It’s all right. I took care of it when Uncle Jared called.”

Falling into step with him, they crossed the lobby, heading toward a wing of hotel-style residential rooms.

“I didn’t know he was your uncle.”

In retrospect, that struck her as a weird thing to say. Until he walked into her hospital room, Lawyer Jared Stark had been nothing more to her than one in a sea of people she’d been introduced to that night at the dungeon. She didn’t know Derek at all, apart from what she’d read about him on the internet.

“He’s not,” Derek said with a laugh. “He’s more like the favorite Uncle of every Little boy and girl who makes the Ranch their home. He visits upon occasion, but he also remembers us at holidays… especially Christmas. A gift can make a world of difference to a lonely Little who doesn’t feel he or she has anyone else.”

Sadie said nothing. She knew exactly how that kind of loneliness topped