Tall, Dark & Rich: His Christmas Virgin / Married by Christmas / A Yuletide Seduction. Carole Mortimer

‘What do you and your family do over Christmas?’ he asked.

      Those beautiful smoky grey eyes glowed. ‘Nowadays we all converge on my parents’ house in a little village called Tulnerton in Devon. My mother’s parents, several aged aunts. All the presents are placed under the tree, and Christmas Eve we all have a family meal and then attend Midnight Mass at the local church together. When we get back Mum and I usually put the turkey in the oven so that it cooks slowly overnight and the house is full of the smells of it cooking in the morning when we sit down to open our presents. When I was younger, that sometimes happened as early as five o’clock in the morning,’ she recalled wistfully. ‘Nowadays it’s usually about nine o’clock, after we’ve checked on the turkey and everyone has a cup of tea.’

      Jonas’s mouth twisted. ‘The perfect Christmas indeed.’

      Mac eyed him ruefully. ‘To me it is, yes.’

      Jonas reached out and placed his hand over hers as it rested on the tabletop. ‘I wasn’t mocking you, Mac,’ he said gruffly.

      ‘No?’

      Strangely enough, no…It was all too easy for Jonas to envisage the Christmas Mac described so warmly. The sort of Christmas that many families strived for and never actually experienced. The sort of Christmas Jonas had never had. And never would have.

      ‘There are no arguments?’ he prompted.

      Her eyes glowed with laughter. ‘Usually only over who’s going to pull the wishbone after we’ve eaten our Christmas lunch!’

      His fingers curled about hers. ‘It sounds wonderful.’

      Mac was very aware of the air of intimacy that now surrounded the two of them. But it was a different type of intimacy from a physical one. This intimacy was warm and enveloping. Dangerous…

      She removed her hand purposefully from beneath Jonas’s to pick up her fork. ‘I’m sure there must have been arguments; you can’t put eight or ten disparate people in a house together for four or five days without there being the odd disagreement. I’ve obviously just chosen to forget them.’ She grimaced.

      Jonas looked across at her with enigmatic blue eyes. ‘You don’t have to make excuses for your own happy childhood, Mac.’

      ‘I wasn’t—’

      ‘Weren’t you?’ he rasped.

      Yes, she supposed she had been. Because Jonas’s childhood had borne absolutely no resemblance to her own. Because, although he wouldn’t thank her for it in the slightest, her heart ached for him. ‘If you haven’t made other plans yet, perhaps you would like to—’ Mac broke off abruptly, her cheeks warming as she realised how utterly ridiculous she was being.

      Jonas eyed her warily. ‘Please tell me you weren’t about to invite me to spend Christmas with you and your family in Devon.’

      That was exactly what Mac had been about to do! Impulsively. Stupidly! Of course Jonas didn’t want to spend Christmas with her, let alone the rest of her family; with half a dozen strangers there, as well as Mac herself, he would necessarily have to be polite to everyone for the duration of his stay.

      Her cheeks were now positively burning with embarrassment. ‘I think I feel that indigestion coming on!’

      Jonas studied Mac through narrowed lids, knowing by her evasiveness that she had been about to invite him to spend Christmas with her and her family. Why? Because she actually wanted to spend Christmas with him? Or because she felt sorry for him and just couldn’t bear the thought of anyone—even him—spending Christmas alone?

      His mouth thinned. ‘I don’t recall ever saying that I’m alone when I spend my Christmases sunbathing on those golden sandy beaches.’

      ‘No, you didn’t, did you?’ The colour had left Mac’s cheeks as quickly as it had warmed them, her eyes a huge and haunted grey as she gave a moue of self-disgust. ‘How naïve of me.’

      Jonas knew that he had deliberately hit out at her because pity was the last thing he wanted from her. From anyone. Damn it, he was successful and rich and could afford to do anything he wanted to do. He had never met refusal from any woman he’d shown an interest in taking to his bed. All the things he had decided he wanted out of life years ago when he left university so determined to succeed he had achieved.

      Then why did just being with Mac like this, talking with her, make him just as aware of all the things he didn’t have in his life?

      Things like having someone to come home to every night. The same someone. To share things with. To laugh with. To make love with.

      ‘Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,’ Jonas drawled. ‘In fact, why don’t you consider giving the traditional family Christmas a miss this year and come away with me instead?’ he asked as he looked at her over the top of his wine glass before lifting it and taking a deep swallow of the ruby-red liquid.

      Mac stared at Jonas, absolutely incredulous that he appeared to be asking her to go away with him for Christmas.

      CHAPTER TEN

      WAS Jonas serious about his invitation? Or was he just playing with her, already knowing from her earlier remarks exactly what her answer would be?

      One look at the unmistakable mockery on his ruggedly handsome face and Mac knew that was exactly what he was doing.

      She stood up. ‘It would serve you right if I said yes!’ she snapped as she picked up her glass of wine and moved across the room to stand beside the Christmas tree.

      ‘Try me,’ Jonas invited as he relaxed back in his chair to look across at her thoughtfully. ‘I assure you, if you said yes then I would book two first-class seats on a flight that would allow us to arrive in Barbados on Christmas Eve,’ he promised huskily.

      Mac looked at him scornfully. ‘That’s so easy to say when you knew before you even asked that I would refuse.’

      ‘Did I?’ He stood up to slowly cross the room, his piercing blue gaze easily holding hers captive as he came to a halt only inches away from her.

      Mac stared up at him, her breathing somehow feeling constricted. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘I had already told you that I couldn’t imagine spending Christmas anywhere but at home with my parents.’

      Jonas’s dark gaze was fixed on those moist and slightly parted lips. ‘I’m curious to know what your answer would have been if that family Christmas was taken out of the equation?’

      Mac gave a firm shake of her head. ‘I hate even the idea of spending Christmas on a beach.’

      Jonas had no idea why he was even pursuing this conversation. Except perhaps that he wanted to know if Mac’s invitation for him to spend Christmas with her family had been out of the pity he suspected it was, or something else…‘What if I were to suggest we went to a ski resort instead of a beach?’

      She smiled slightly. ‘I can’t ski.’

      ‘I don’t recall saying anything about the two of us actually going skiing. I seriously doubt I would have any desire to leave our bedroom once we got there,’ Jonas admitted wickedly.

      Once again her cheeks coloured with that becoming blush. ‘Wouldn’t that rather defeat the object?’

      He gave a shrug. ‘Surely that would depend on what the objective was?’

      Mac looked up at him and frowned. ‘I believe we had this conversation three days ago, Jonas. At which time, I believe you made it more than clear that you’re not at all interested in becoming my first lover.’

      He hadn’t been. He still wasn’t. Except he had realised these last three days that he didn’t like the thought of some other man being Mac’s first lover either! ‘Maybe I’ve changed my mind,’ he replied guardedly.

      ‘And maybe